Scientists are inviting gardeners interested in helping bees, butterflies and other pollinators to take part in a study to discover how grass mowing can be timed to maximise their impact.

Participants in the Optimow 2024 project, organised by the Brown Lab at Royal Holloway, University of London  will be asked to follow a mowing frequency plan, while submitting weekly counts of the key pollinators sighted in their gardens.

The 2024 Hertfordshire Bird Conference drew a capacity audience at Affinity Water’s headquarters in Hatfield on Sat 2nd March 2024.  The theme was wetlands and especially gravel pits with talks by Graham White on the fortunes of waterbirds on the restored gravel pits of the Colne Valley and a talk by Herts. Bird Club Chair, Rupert Evershed, on the birds of Stanborough Gravel Pits.

This report includes links to videos allowing those who missed the conference to catch-up with the main presentations.

Bringing Eurasian Beavers to an estate in Essex has delivered improvements in biodiversity while helping prevent flooding in a nearby village.

The positive consequences of reintroducing a species that became extinct in Britain in the late 18th century were described by Sarah Brockless, ecologist at the Spains Hall Estate, when she gave the Gerald Salisbury Memorial Lecture in Welwyn Civic Centre on Wednesday 28 February.

Photo: Eurasian Beaver at Spains Hall Estate © Russell Savory