Be friendly to bees

Bumblebees and honeybees keep our countryside alive and beautiful, and ensure we can harvest our grain, seeds, fruit and nuts.

Without them it would be a very bleak world indeed.  Climate change, intensive farming practices and disease epidemics have made times tough for our native bee populations and they need all the help they can get [...]

Puffins to be fitted with Sat Nav to monitor decline

Scientists at Newcastle University are using sophiticated tracking technology in an effort to understand a worrying decline in the numbers of puffins.
In the last five years the numbers of the sea birds, a popular resident along the north east coast, has plummeted around Britain.
In an effort to find out the reason, scientists from Newcastle University [...]

Osprey chicks take a bow at Kielder

The Kielder Partnership has announced that the first ospreys to nest successfully in Northumberland for over two centuries have had three chicks.
The first image of the historic nest has been released, showing the female sitting proudly on the artificial nesting platform, erected on the estate by the Forestry Commission last year.
Also visible are the heads [...]

The Ospreys have landed

For the first time in at least 200 years ospreys are nesting and are believed to have had chicks in Northumberland.
A long-term project to encourage the species back to the region has struck gold with a pair of birds nesting on a platform specially erected for the purpose in Kielder Water and Forest Park.
The development [...]

Climate makes migration longer

BIRD MIGRATIONS ARE likely to get longer according to the first ever study of the potential impacts of climate change on the breeding and winter ranges of migrant birds.
A team of scientists, led by Durham University, has published findings that show that the marathon flights undertaken by birds to spring breeding grounds in Europe, are [...]

Drop in daddy long legs is devastating bird populations

WARM SUMMERS ARE dramatically reducing populations of cranefly, beter known as the daddy long legs, which in turn is having a severe impact on the bird populations which rely on them for food.
New research by a team of bird experts, including Newcastle University’s Dr Mark Whittingham, spells out for the first time how climate change [...]

Woodland birds get a lift in Newcastle

WILLOW WARBLER AND BULLFINCH are two of the north’s declining woodland birds set for a boost as a result of a £40,000 Forestry Commission grant.
The cash has been pledged for vital habitat creation work in Walker Riverside Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, which will target the species, along with garden warbler, spotted flycatcher and willow tit, [...]