What the scientists are saying… Falling puffin numbers ...

Jolly frock-coated robins, majestic geese and arboreal partridges make for both literal and symbolic centrepieces at Christmas, says Matthew Dennison, as he revels in the cultural history of the season’s feathered fowl and game

Nadia Shaikh seeks good company for a search-and-gorge to get her through the ruthless darkness of the winter months

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through-lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel

THIS MONTH Barn owls

Susan Taylor celebrates New Year in Cornwall with bracing walks and fancy dress I could feel it in the air – almost reach out and touch it. Not the wind and rain; even that was strangely quiet, mirror