Reflections is a book on what wildlife needs, and how to provide it. Marc Avery reflects on our relationship with wildlife and conservation, from cats that pass through his garden to decline of farmland wildlife and pasqueflowers he visits each spring. Everything is connected and considered. It’s time to role out conservation on a bigger scale. Also read how to help your local wildlife rescue.
A timely brutally honest yet inspiring account on what has gone wrong with wildlife conservation, and how we can put it right. Stephen Moss
If I were ‘king for a day’, Avery would be instantly installed as the benign dictator of conservation. If you love wildlife – read this, think about this, and act upon this. Chris Packham
Mark Avery is a scientist and naturalist who was the conservation director for RSPB for almost 13 years. He is now a trustee of the World Land Trust and lives in rural Northamptonshire.
A Book on How to Watch Native Wildlife
Watching Wildlife shows that when you watch wildlife, you not only learn an animal’s ways, but also look inward. The experience depends on your stillness, silence and full attention. Watching and listening with minimal movement and if possible, staying downwind, so that your present is not sensed.
In this book, he draws us into his magical world, showing how we can learn to watch wildlife well. And what doing so can make for our ability to care for it, and ourselves. Jim Crumley is a Scottish nature writer, whose books often make the case for rewilding. He is the author of several species-specific books, and a lovely quartet of books by season too.
Watching Wildlife (over the course of a year)
Wonderland: A Year of Britain’s Wildlife is a highly-reviewed book by two esteemed nature writers. Designed to inspire a love of all creatures, it shows the wildlife that share our planet in every corner of the British Isles – from blackbirds, beavers and beetles to tawny owls, natterjack toads and lemon slugs!
Don’t encourage birds if you live with cats (keep them inside at dawn and dusk, when birds are likely feeding). Avoid tin or coloured birdhouses (these overheat and attract predators. Don’t play birdsong near birds (makes them vulnerable to predators). Avoid facing indoor foliage to outdoor gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
From encounters with the curious black redstart (which winters on rocky coasts) to the tiny green snowdrop shoots that show spring is just around the corner, this book covers everything from the blossom and dawn chorus of April and May to the noisy summer days that start with hawker dragonflies and drowsy bumblebees, and end with glow-worms and ghost moths.
And in autumn, meet male red deer who lock horns in the early mist of London’s Richmond Park, in competition for a mate.
The richest farmland for wildlife includes wetlands, old hedgerows, meadows and woodland. The open fields themselves are home to skylarks and brown hares. Birds such as yellowhammers, tree sparrows, corn buntings, lapwings and grey partridges are always good to find.
In winter, find a weedy field and you may see twittering flocks of finches and buntings. In some agricultural landscapes, wintering lapwings and golden plovers find a home. And gaggles of pink-footed geese fly in from Iceland, to grub for beet and potatoes under wide open skies.
Brett Westwood is an award-winning producer and naturalist, who has presented on Tweet of the Day and also consults for BBC Springwatch and Autumnwatch. Stephen Moss is one of England’s top nature writers, and teaches nature writing at Bath University.
A beautifully written love letter to the astonishing variety of Britain’s wildlife. A nice one to keep by your bedside, suggesting what to look out for tomorrow. Sunday Times
The perfect guides for a seasonal tour. Inspired, friendly and blessed with apparently limitless knowledge. Peter Marran
RSPB Everyday Guide to British Wildlife is an informative engaging guide to common mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects in the British Isles.
- Know the difference between a hare and rabbit?
- Or could you tell a grasshopper from a cricket
- Or the difference from a porpoise and a dolphin?
In this engaging book, information and photos help you to identify 100 of our most common species, from back garden and town centre, to countryside and coast. Friendly text and fun facts about in an easy layout, plus there is information on wildlife ponds, gardening for pollinators and rockpool residents.
Charlie Elder is a journalist and writer of wildlife books. He has travelled across the UK, to study our most endangered birds, and writes articles on nature for newspapers and magazines.
Understanding native wildlife is crucial for preserving our planet’s rich biodiversity. Books and photography offer a unique glimpse into the lives of animals, plants, and the delicate ecosystems they inhabit. They spark curiosity and deepen our appreciation for the natural world. With countless titles available, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of information.
A Book to Save Endangered British Wildlife
We have many endangered species both in England (hedgehogs, dormice and water voles are a few) along with many others worldwide. The IUCN Red List is the place to find current statistics, and learn how to help. The shocking news is that there are 44,000 threatened species (almost a third of all of them). The list ranges from slightly concerned to extinct.
Save Our Species is unique in that it includes information on British endangered wildlife, then offers tips like how to build a bird box (never use tin or decorated ones, they attract predators and overheat), dig a hedgehog tunnel or implement changes in your community to help red squirrels to skylarks, puffins to barn owls, bottle-nose dolphins to skylarks.
Britain’s nature is in serious trouble. Thanks for being part of the solution. You care about nature, and that is incredibly important. Our wildlife needs you on board desperately. All manner of wildlife habitats have been lost to development. Chalk downlands, heaths, bogs, freshwater marshes, seacoasts, estuaries, Caledonian pine forests and meadows. We have lost 97% of our flower-rich meadows since the 1930s.
Governments of the day kick environmental concerns into the long grass. Decision makers are in thrall to the lobbyists for big business, and economics seems to be entranced by models like ‘growth’ which mean very little, and pay no attention to the quality of life. Big infrastructure projects make politicians’ eyes light up. We are caught in a cultural insanity that holds tidiness in high esteem in the garden, yet leaves the countryside littered.
Dominic Couzens is a leading nature writer and lecturer. He has written around 45 books, writes three magazine columns and has published over 700 articles. A bird expert, he is passionate about nature, and writing on what we can do to help the planet.
