Herald of spring: the call of the cuckoo

B ecause it’s the school summer holidays, it’s ...

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?

back in may, after winter and the slow creep of early spring, I took myself along a disused railway line near Lewes, Sussex, to be consumed by the month’s riot. This barely used path was somewhat over

Unhurried in flight and with a sideline in stolen goods, the handsome red kite is the gentleman thief of the raptor world

In the British countryside, it’s common to hear gruff caw-caw-cawing and see large black birds flapping overhead. That’ll be a corvid – but which have you spotted, asks Clare Hunt

From a heroic long-distance swimmer to a producer of spectacularly eerie sound effects, the seabirds seen swooping and diving over British waters have all manner of singular skills, says John Lewis-Stempel