House bunting

SOUTH WEST Highlights In association with The rarest ...

30-minute birder Amanda Tuke investigates the impact of feeding wild birds, and whether it’s a factor behind the decline of a woodland specialist

With a ‘butterfly emergency’ in the UK, conservationists are gearing up for this year’s Big Butterfly Count. But what has happened to these insects? And can they – on a wing and a prayer – ever bounce back?

DAVID LINDO THE URBAN BIRDER

Mike has been pondering the identification of individual birds, before drifting into insect-watching for the summer

For the time-strapped birder, the ‘mini-twitch’ is key to boosting your year list, explains Marc Abbott