Winterwatch is back!

It starts on Tuesday, 16^th January 2024 at 8pm on BBC2, and Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams kick off at RSPB Arne in Dorset, and live cameras are ready to capture foxes, badgers, perhaps a white-tailed eagle!

Iolo goes to Brownsea Island to introduce us to waders flocking for the winter – and Gillian Burke is exploring the beautiful Orkney islands!

There are lots of ways to help wildlife this winter, and the programme’s website has plenty of ideas for us all – if we can do just one thing each, that will help.  The ideas cover a range of species in different locations, volunteering, taking action at home, doing wildlife surveys, and getting involved in your community.


Join in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2024
from 26th to 28th January 2024 - 
just choose an hour, watch the birds in your garden or local park,
and let the RSPB know your findings!
Find out more and sign up here.

Visit the programme’s website on BBC here.

Why not join your local Wildlife Trust – there are 46 of them around the UK, all making a difference to wildlife and you can find your local one here.  It will also have lots of information about what the Trust in your area is doing and what you can do to get involved.  

There are lots of other UK conservation charities you can also help here.

The programme is on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 8pm.

Tonight on BBC4, there’s New Forest -  A Year in The Wild Wood at 8pm. 

The programme explores the lives of people and wildlife who live in this stunning part of England.  Some of England’s rarest wildlife can be found here, such as the sand lizard.

Writer and environmentalist Peter Owen-Jones presents the programme, immersing himself into the lives of the Commoners.  They’re a group of 700 people who have retained grazing rights for their animals, dating back to Medieval times.

The New Forest National Park covers 566 square kilometres, with ancient forest, wild heathlands, and acid bog, all down to the open sea. 

The New Forest became a National Park back in 2005, and it’s one of the largest remaining tracts of pasture land that’s unenclosed, heathland and forest in the south of England.  Forestry England points out that it’s

• a Special Site of Scientific Interest (SSSI)
• a Special Protection Area (SPA) for Birds
• a Special Area of Conservation (SAC)
• a Ramsar site (listed as a Wetland of International Importance).

It’s also a chance to raise awareness of ways you can help with the conservation of this stunning area.

Find out about the history of the New Forest from the National Trust
Image ©National Trust images/John Miller

Useful resources for you:

For the programme’s website, visit the BBC

Forestry England has lots of information about the New Forest and its importance – it’s home to many rare species of plants and wildlife, and has the highest possible conservation status.  

The New Forest National Park which has information on volunteering, things to do, wildlife and conservation.  The wildlife include bats, wading birds, dragonflies and damselflies, heathland birds, deer, reptiles, spiders, moths, butterflies and beetles.  

The wonderful New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society works to preserve the New Forest Pony breed.  

The New Forest Trust which works “to preserve, sustain and enhance the unique beauty and conservation value of the New Forest for future generations”.  Are you a business?  Why not join the Love the Forest Scheme and give the Trust your support?

New Forest Area Conservation Volunteers – get stuck in and lend a hand!

Pondhead Conservation - this is a small, multi-award winning community woodland project near Lyndhurst aiming to restore the hazel coppice, woodland understorey and ride (track) network of Pondhead Inclosure, thereby improving its biodiversity and enhancing public enjoyment of the area

Walking in the New Forest - 30 Walks in the New Forest National Park
by Steve Davison
available from Foyles

Friends of the New Forest is dedicated to protecting and restoring the unique character of the New Forest.  It’s a member-based association which gives its members an effective voice on a range of New Forest issues.

The National Trust has lots of information on the New Forest, including its history

Join in the fun from 25^th December through to 5^th January with the Wildlife Trusts!

It’s time for their 12 Days Wild, when the Wildlife Trusts encourage us all to do one wild thing a day – perhaps to go stargazing, or recycle a Christmas tree, or feed the birds – something like that.

You could take small actions to help nature or do something to connect with the natural world!

You can register with the Wildlife Trusts online to get going and they’ll send you activity suggestions.

And if you’ve missed out on the 12 Days Wild dates, why not simply create your own 12 Days Wild Challenge and keep track of the actions you take?

There’s nothing like being with nature!  Find the nature reserve nearest you.  And find your nearest Wildlife Trust here.

You can find out more about the Wildlife Trusts here - there are 46 of them around the country.  

Their purpose is "to bring wildlife back, to empower people to take meaningful action for nature, and to create an inclusive society where nature matters. "

And their vision is of "a thriving natural world, with our wildlife and natural habitats playing a valued role in addressing the climate and ecological emergencies, and everyone inspired to get involved in nature’s recovery."

Go to the Wildlife Trust's website here to find out more about 12 Days Wild and to register.

"Humankind’s greatest priority is to reintegrate with the natural world."

Jonathon Porritt

The Wildlife Trust for  Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (BCN)  have a plan (and with it, an appeal, so that they can make their plan happen).

They want to bring beavers back to Northamptonshire.   It’s been over 400 years since beavers – a keystone species - were last seen there, and the Trust has been given permission to release a family group at the Delta Pit wetland, at the Nene Wetlands nature reserve. 

The Beaver Trust visited the site and did a full feasibility study and identified the site as a suitable feeding site – it’s also quite away from the public.  Furthermore, the site is a difficult one to manage, with breeding birds in summer and overwintering birds in winter, giving the Trust very limited time to do any work.  so the beavers will be able to manage the habitat work for the Trust.

The beavers will be in a safe, enclosed area surrounding a lake.  They are excellent eco-engineers, and have an excellent ability to create habitats that will benefit a whole range of animals.  

The beavers will be busy restoring the wetland habitat – beavering away – and the humans have to do some work of their own beforehand, managing trees and constructing a fence.  This fence is constructed and installed to an exact specification from Natural England – it follows a full site survey. That survey involves considering the risks, so that the Trust can  make sure the beavers are safe and don’t escape.  The stock gates are designed to an approved beaver-proof spec.

The beavers’ work should benefit wetland birds, creating more roosting and feeding habitat, and invertebrates and bats should benefit from it as well.  The beavers will be doing what humans would be doing, but they will be doing it better (and the Trust themselves said that!)

One of the exciting things will be the monitoring of the site, to see how the beavers are doing and how their introduction and work is benefiting other species.

The public visiting the shopping centre next to the reserve will also benefit as they should be able to see the beavers when they visit!

The Trust has an appeal to raise £73,982 and you can donate to their Beaver Appeal here.

Anyway, take a look at the project here, and you can find out more about the Wildlife Trust BCN here.