Once a thriving and common feature of our woodlands, the willow tit is now the UK's fastest declining resident bird.

According to Severn Trent Water, numbers have fallen by about 96% from 1967 to 2023, with only around 3,400 breeding pairs left across the whole country.

Approximately 10 of those are believed to nest in the grounds of Tittesworth Reservoir, near Leek in Staffordshire.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is celebrating very encouraging results from its seagrass restoration work after more than 430 shoots were recorded growing across 50 distinct patches in the Fowey Estuary this summer

The findings mark a significant step forward for Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s efforts to restore this vital underwater habitat, which supports marine wildlife, stores carbon, and improves water quality.

The results follow months of uncertainty after seeds planted in the estuary last November initially showed little sign of germination. Just six seedlings had emerged by the end of April, raising concerns that the trial might have failed. However, continued monitoring revealed further growth, with more than 430 shoots eventually recorded.

Kent Wildlife Trust has expressed deep disappointment following the Secretary of State’s decision to approve National Grid’s Sea Link electricity infrastructure project between Kent and Suffolk. The project involves a high-voltage subsea cable that would come ashore at Pegwell Bay, part of the internationally important Sandwich and Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve.

The Trust, which owns and manages areas of the reserve, is concerned about the potential impacts on protected wildlife and sensitive coastal habitats, including disturbance to internationally important bird populations and damage to irreplaceable saltmarsh. It fears the project could add to the pressures already facing this important wildlife site and make the recovery of vulnerable habitats even more challenging.

These concerns are heightened by the legacy of the previous Nemo Link interconnector cable project, which left a lasting scar on the Bay’s saltmarsh following installation works. Subsequent monitoring indicated that the area has still not recovered, raising questions about whether the long-term ecological consequences of major infrastructure developments are being adequately understood, monitored and addressed.

Starling murmurations are described as some of the "most amazing spectacles" to witness and they happen just before the birds go down to roost - but the reason why they do it is still uncertain.

A decade on from a study into the behaviour, researchers at University of Gloucestershire are repeating the research and inviting the public to take part in a new, nationwide study.

Lead researcher Prof Anne Goodenough said they were interested in seeing what had "changed in the past decade, particularly because starlings are a declining species".

The UK government's ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 could be undermined by its new deal on AI data centres, according to BBC research.

During Wednesday's Budget speech, Chancellor John Healey said data centres would be allowed to build onsite power generation while they wait for a grid connection.

BBC File on 4 Investigates has discovered that four planned "hyperscale" data centres - including three in the south of England - are already considering using gas-fired power to meet their electricity needs, creating more CO2 than the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Southampton combined.

Charity bosses said they needed to take a "deep breath" before deciding what to do with land which has been returned to them after more than 30 years.

The National Trust of Guernsey said it had secured land at Crève Coeur on the island's north coast.

A five-year lease started in September 1995 to allow the States of Guernsey to use fields owned by the trust as an emergency landfill, but despite this not being extended, talks to return the area to the charity came up against several issues.

A nest belonging to England's rarest ant species has been stolen, a conservation charity believes.

Devon Wildlife Trust said the narrow-headed ants' nest was taken from its Chudleigh Knighton Heath reserve in Devon - the last stronghold for the species in England.

It claimed the surrounding ground showed "clear signs of digging with a spade" and it has reported the matter to Devon and Cornwall Police, which is urging anyone with information to come forward.

A conservationist has welcomed new laws banning the sale of lead ammunition as she warns people are not aware of the scale of the problem affecting wildlife.

Sacha Dench, who lives in Chagford, Devon, is a member of the Lead Ammunition Collective, which campaigned to end the sale of the toxic substance earning the group the RSPB Medal - the charity's highest accolade.

Also known as "The Human Swan", she is best known for flying a paramotor 4,300 miles (7000km) from Arctic Russia to the UK tracking the migration of Bewick's swans.

An endangered damselfly has been spotted in wetlands created by an "ambitious" project that restored a stretch of a rare chalk river.

The scare blue-tailed damselfly, one of the world's earliest flying insect species, was recorded alongside the River Ash near Hertford.

The 4.3-mile (7km) stretch at the Easneye Estate was restored to its original course last year.

A rare species of beetle has been found in Pembrokeshire after being missing from Wales for 60 years.

The Short-Necked Oil Beetle are dependent on solitary bees for its lifecycle and need a particular habitat to survive, with thick vegetation for shelter and dense flower coverage both essential.

They were not reported in the UK for almost 60 years after 1948 as habitat loss brought the species to the brink of extinction.

Farmer Alastair Leake is standing in a field of sprouting winter wheat, pointing at his experiment. One side was ploughed before planting, with green shoots breaking through neat rows of upturned soil. On the other, the crop was drilled directly into the earth, emerging through a messy carpet of “trash” – stems, stubble and crop residue from previous harvests.

“When we’re watching to see where the birds are landing to feed, none of them are going on to the ploughed side,” says Leake, the director of the Allerton Project farm, standing on the trashy side. “They’re all coming and feeding down here.

A licence for the historic reintroduction of beavers to the Loch Ness area has today (30 October) been granted to charities Trees for Life and Beaver Trust by Scottish government agency NatureScot – in the 500th year since beavers were last recorded at the world-famous loch.

The Ness Beaver Project will reintroduce at least 15 beaver family groups around Loch Ness over the next three years, with the first reintroductions potentially happening as early as next month.

Establishing a healthy population in the catchment through licensed releases will secure the species’ reintroduction to the Highlands and benefit communities, wildlife and biodiversity, say the two charities.