Hoopoe – A blog by nhbs – The NHBS Conservation Hub

Author interview with Tony Juniper: Just Earth

In this radical, eye-opening book, environmentalist Tony Juniper CBE explores the interconnectedness of the environmental crisis and inequality, and argues that ecological progress cannot be achieved without addressing these disparities. Collating a range of interviews with global experts, and drawing upon 40 years of research and campaigning, he provides long-overdue answers as to how we can achieve real, lasting change.

Tony Juniper portrait. — Tony Juniper portrait © Jason Bye

Tony Juniper CBE is an environmental advocate who has been active in defending nature for nearly 40 years, through leading major organisations, managing global campaigns, and holding high-level government advisory roles. He is a celebrated author, known for numerous award-winning titles, and was awarded a CBE in 2017 as recognition for his contributions to conservation.

We recently had the opportunity to speak to Tony about his book, where he told us about the most challenging aspects of writing Just Earth, the importance of technology in creating a sustainable future and more.

Firstly, can you tell us a little about yourself and what inspired you to write this book?

I am a long-serving environmental advocate. I have led and advised campaigns and campaigning organisations, worked as a professional ornithologist, worked with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, written some books and I now lead Natural England – the UK government’s nature agency in England.

What message are you hoping to convey with Just Earth, and what do you hope the reader may learn from its message?

Just Earth set outs why and how various kinds of social inequalities are massive environmental issues. This is seen in how the poorest and voiceless get hit first and hardest by environmental damage, including exposure to toxic pollution, lack of access to good quality green spaces and the effects of climate change. Those most affected are the groups who are least responsible for causing such damage in the first place. The injustices linked with this limit the agreement of strong global accords and blocks action in countries around the world – new environmental laws and policies are held back because of the plight of the poor, who during cost of living crises are held up as the reason not to increase costs through moves to sustainable farming and clean energy, for example. Inequality also destroys the trust needed to foster the common endeavour that is so vital for fixing complex global issues. I set out something on what might be done, but it is a big set of challenges that we are facing, and the book seeks to inform the reader about the breadth and depth of what is at hand.

What was the most challenging aspect of writing Just Earth?

It is a complex story that the book seeks to tell. Getting the facts and data woven into a readable and balanced narrative was hard work – I am pleased with the result though, and hope readers will find it interesting and informative.?

Hills of Ingleton Waterfalls by Robin Mulligan, via flickr.

Green growth explores the possibility of decoupling the expansion of gross domestic product (GDP) with environmental damage. How important do you think technology will be in a green growth scenario, and do you think technological innovation can truly pave the way for a greener, more sustainable future?

Technology is a vital component of what is needed, but we’ve had a lot of that for decades and not used it at the scale needed. Just Earth sets out why it is important to look beyond solar panels, AI, batteries and all the rest, and looks into the social and political context in which these technologies are deployed. The idea of green growth has been around for years but there are too few examples of it working in practice. One challenging aspect that runs counter to our consumerist culture is the need to use less stuff. We are already causing massive environmental damage with a minority of the world population living like Europeans, and we simply don’t have enough planet to keep growing as we have during past decades – even if it is a bit greener here and there.

Greyfield Woods by Stewart Black, via flickr.

Chapter 11 sets out a ten-point agenda for a just transition to a secure future. If any, which of these do you believe should be the primary focus in beginning this transition, and how long do you think it will take to achieve?

I think the biggest single thing, which links to the idea of green growth, is to change what we are measuring as growth. At present, gross domestic product (GDP) dominates but fails to take account of the environmental damage and inequalities that go with it. Coming up with more comprehensive measures of growth, that also include metrics linked with social wellbeing, ecological footprint, happiness, health and social cohesion would lead to different outcomes. There are ways of doing this, and in the book, I touch on the idea of a Genuine Progress Indicator, which measures far more than simply how much economic activity is taking place.?

What gives you hope for the future of our planet??

We are in revolutionary times and at a moment when the old ideas of the 20th century are facing serious tests. Environmental goals are being diluted and weakened by some governments and companies and democracies showing signs of stresses and strains that have profound implications. My hope is that during the turbulent times that we are in new ideas will begin to take hold. I propose a new frame of reference to go beyond capitalism or socialism and to instead embrace the idea of Thrivalism, a world view that would aim to create the conditions for ten billion people to thrive and enjoy long and happy lives on a living planet. At this point we need to think big.

What’s next for you? Are you writing any other books we can hear about?

I have various projects in mind, and more will be shared on those in due course. For now, promoting the ideas in Just Earth will I expect take up quite a lot of time, alongside all the other things I do.

Just Earth is available to order from our bookstore here.

This Week in Biodiversity News – 17th March

Policy

The Climate Change Committee establish its seventh Carbon Budget, the limits of which will be agreed to this year with the aim of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The latest budget allocated for 2038-2042 should be set at 535 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent – including domestic, aviation and shipping emissions – which the government hopes will save individual households £700 in energy bills due to increased energy security. This budget highlights that the government’s economic goals can be achieved whilst also taking action against climate change, benefitting the UK as a whole.

Last week, the UK Government introduced the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The Bill aims to fast-track the planning and construction process, removing hurdles to boost economic growth and energy security while delivering environmental commitments. This significant change to the planning system encompasses a number of key measures, including the implementation of a Nature Restoration Fund, the abandonment of individual site level mitigation and assessment, and the introduction of Environmental Delivery Plans. The Bill has raised serious concerns for protected species and habitats in the absence of targeted, site-specific mitigation – read CIEEM’s response to the Bill here.

Environment

Government pledges to clean up Windermere, after a study reveals it has been contaminated with over 140 million litres of pollution. This commitment has been made after water supplier United Utilities admitted to illegally discharging millions of litres of raw sewage into the lake over three years. Environmental Secretary Steve Reed did not divulge how discharge into the lake would be prevented, however a feasibility study conducted by United Utilities concluded this will require over 42 miles of new pipework to take the sewage downstream, and a further 205 miles to connect private sewage facilities. This is likely to cost hundreds of millions of pounds, which will be paid through increased customer bills.

lake windermere — Lake Windermere by Jim Leach via Flickr

The Blue Marine Foundation is challenging the government’s fishing quotas in the High Court. There is concern that Defra overlooked scientific advice when setting catch limits after Brexit, which have resulted in concern over the sustainability of fish stocks, and notable decreases in commercial species such as Pollack. Blue Marine Foundation argues that unsustainable management by Defra is irresponsible, risking both fish stocks and the livelihoods of fishing communities – they have asked the court to declare the limits unlawful to inform better practices in the future.

Discoveries

A new study suggests that ancient frogs survived the largest mass extinction due to their varied feeding ecology. This study, conducted by the University of Bristol, has revealed that while purely terrestrial predators depended on dwindling land-based prey that couldn’t adapt to the fluctuating environmental changes, these early amphibians thrived. Their adaptability to freshwater habitats provided a stable food source, which enabled them to flourish in the early Triassic period.

Wheatfield revised by zaphad1, via flickr.

The quantity of microplastic found in crops is significantly affecting their ability to photosynthesise. Marking the first attempt to understand the impact of microplastic on food production, this new assessment has revealed that between 4% and 14% of the world’s staple crops are being lost each year due to pervasive plastic particles. This report combined over 3,000 observations of the impact of microplastics on plants from 157 studies, and emphasised the profound effects of plastic pollution on global food security. Professor Denis Murphy praised the value and timely manner in reminding us of the dangers of these particles in our food supplies, but cautioned that the figures require further research.

Equipment in Focus: BirdMic Parabolic Microphone

The BirdMic is a compact, directional parabolic microphone. Intended for bird calls, BirdMic allows users to listen, record and identify species on their smartphone in real time with the help of a bird identification app, such as Merlin Bird ID. It is self-powered, easy to use, and requires no previous experience to get started.

BirdMic Kit Includes:

Parabolic dish (25cm diameter)
Omnidirectional microphone
Audio interface (to connect your smartphone, camera or field recorder)
Headphones
Hand grip
Windshield
Flash shoe adapter
Various cables and adapters for smart phone connection
Extension tube to attach field recorder
Carrying bag

Ideal for the capture of bird song, BirdMic features a high sensitivity (-24dB), low noise (S/N 80dB) omnidirectional microphone to provide crisp recordings with excellent clarity. It is most suited to sounds above 1,500Hz, making it ideal for bird song.

The parabolic dish is made from durable ABS material and amplifies sound through collecting and focussing sound waves – waves bounce from the inner face of the dish and are directed onto the microphone at the centre, isolated and amplified and transmitted to a digital recording device.

Attaching directly to the parabolic dish, the audio interface allows the connection of a smartphone which can also be mounted via the included brackets. Once connected, simply open an automatic ID app, like Merlin, to record birds in real-time. Headphones can also be connected for live monitoring.

BirdMic in the field

Tom took BirdMic along the banks of the River Dart to test the performance of the microphone and see how it compares to using just a smartphone.

We simply set up the Birdmic, plugged in a smartphone and turned on the audio interface. With an overall diameter of 25cm and a weight of 1kg, the whole set up was extremely easy to transport.

A screenshot of the Merlin app spectrogram — Spectrogram of bird song captured with BirdMic using Merlin.

Our thoughts

We were really impressed with the BirdMic! It was very simple to assemble and use, and worked well to isolate and amplify bird sound in different conditions.

At just 1kg, it is very lightweight – the overall design makes this parabolic easy to walk around with, and its handy size and weight minimises arm strain when holding the microphone. The highly sensitive microphone worked well and was able to pick up bird song from a much greater distance than a smartphone. The directional microphone makes it ideal for homing in on a particular song, and allows the user to pinpoint the birds location. This also helps to eliminate any underlying noise in the background of the recording – for instance, water flow, wind or traffic noise.

We feel the Birdmic offers great value and is very easy to use. It is an entry-level parabolic that is ideal for a keen birdwatcher, or birding and naturalist groups looking to capture, listen to or record bird sound. As a lightweight, sturdy recorder, there is also significant potential for educational purposes, and it could be utilised in outdoor education clubs and classes to encourage an interest in nature by younger generations.

Find the BirdMic available exclusively on the NHBS website here. Our full range of sound recorders can be found here.

If you have any questions about our range or would like some advice on the right product for you then please contact us via email at customer.services@nhbs.com or phone on 01803 865913.

Interview with Jan Collins: Bats and Large-Scale Housing Maintenance Projects Guidance for England

In December, the Bat Conservation Trust published Bats and Large-Scale Housing Maintenance Projects, a guidance document focusing on how to take bats into account when managing extensive housing repairs and maintenance. Designed for property owners, ecologists, architects and Natural England, the document is the product of the combined efforts of a working group who reviewed evidence in nine large-scale case studies. BCT held a webinar to outline the content of this guidance on 27th February 2025. A recording of the webinar will be available to purchase soon – email training@bats.org.uk to register your interest in the recording when it is published, or visit learn.bats.org.uk .

Portrait image of the author Jan Collins Jan Collins has over 26 years of experience working and volunteering with bats. She has been the Head of Biodiversity at the Bat Conservation Trust for eleven years, following eleven years in ecological consultancy as a bat specialist. We recently had the opportunity to speak with Jan about the origins, production and implications of the recently published guidance.

Why did BCT decide to produce this guidance?

Evidence gathered from practitioners during the production of BCT’s Bat Survey Guidelines and CIEEM’s Bat Mitigation Guidelines highlighted that standard guidance documents for bat roost surveys and mitigation are not well-suited to large-scale housing maintenance projects where A) there is relatively limited potential for roosting bats, and B) where the principal focus is retention and repair, rather than demolition.

Additionally, our Wildlife Crime Project has assisted the police with several cases involving local authority maintenance carried out without due diligence for bats. At BCT, we are keen to see pragmatic solutions to protecting and conserving bats during property maintenance – and this guidance fits that bill!

Who was involved in the production of the guidance?

This guidance represents the combined efforts of a working group of practitioners from conservation, ecological consultancy, statutory nature conservation bodies and local authorities – their names are provided in the guidance document and their contribution is very highly valued by BCT. Each member of the group brought experience from a real-life, large-scale housing maintenance project in England, Scotland or Wales.

If the working group discussed projects in Scotland and Wales, why is the guidance limited to England?

The original intention was for the guidance to be applicable across Britain and Ireland, however Natural England was the only Statutory Nature Conservation Body (SNCB) able to contribute to the working group and review the final product. Therefore, this first edition is applicable specifically to England, and only English case studies are used for illustrative purposes. The principles and approaches set out are likely to be transferable, with licensing as the main difference – but we hope that contributions will be made by NatureScot and Natural Resources Wales in the future.

Can you outline the types of projects that these guidelines apply to in more detail for our readers?

The guidance outlines a set of factors which make projects more suitable to be treated as a ‘large-scale housing maintenance project’. These are as follows:

Multiple properties of the same type, or a limited range of types, likely to have been constructed at the same time
Small groups of houses in terraces or blocks
Limited gardens attached to properties (or larger gardens but not maintained as green space)
Limited suitable bat habitat surrounding the estate; other adverse factors such as lighting
Small or cluttered roof voids (area, height and/or volume), or in such a condition or context that they are unlikely to support conditions for breeding by void-dwelling species
Majority of properties assessed as negligible or low suitability
The works concerned will allow reinstatement of roosting opportunities and, often, augmentation of these
Properties are under single ownership e.g. owned by local authority, housing association or other public body

It’s also worth saying that some higher suitability properties may be present, but these would require standard survey approaches outlined in the latest edition of BCT’s Bat Survey Guidelines.

Roosting Bat in crevice — Image Credit: Unitura

What else is covered in the guidance?

The guidance lays out some of the constraints when working on these types of projects – surveys are often constrained due to the vulnerability of residents or surveyors, or the practicality of gaining access for internal inspections. For this reason, pragmatic or creative approaches to surveys may be needed and some guidance on survey types/effort is offered. The key aims are to establish the roosting potential of properties and rule out the presence of maternity roosts.

Comment is also provided on appropriate licensing for this approach; the case studies presented were all licensed using Natural England’s Licensing Policy 4. Importantly, mitigation and compensation are covered, with an emphasis on ensuring bats are not harmed during works, any evidence of bats is recorded (see below) and access is retained for future roosting. Monitoring of outcomes is key to the approach and can allow methods to be adapted as a project progresses.

What are the two most important considerations when applying the guidance?

Early collaborative working between stakeholders is absolutely essential to establish what the project involves and what is likely to be appropriate regarding bat surveys and mitigation. Stakeholders include local authorities or other property owners, ecologists, Natural England and architects. This should be followed by close working with occupiers, contractors and other suppliers as the project progresses.

Monitoring is also essential to establish if the approach taken is suitable and how it can be iteratively adapted based on site-specific findings.

Bats in a nest box — Image Credit: Patrick Palmen

BCT are hosting a webinar discussing the guidance in February. Can you tell us more about it?

The webinar ran on?27th February 2025. Speakers included myself (Jan Collins of BCT), Phil Bowater of Natural England and Daniel Best of Cura Terrae: Land and Nature Division (formerly Ecus Ltd.). Phil and Daniel both worked on the Sheffield case study that is presented in the guidance and between us we were able to answer questions from the attendees.

Senior wildlife equipment specialist, Johnny, attended the guidance webinar. Here’s what he had to say about the session –

‘On behalf of NHBS, I attended the Bats and Large-scale Housing Maintenance Projects Guidance webinar last month. The session was insightful, well-structured and demonstrated the impressive extent of work and collaboration that has gone into the new guidance. To remain at the forefront of conservation, it is important that we attend a wide range of webinars to expand our knowledge and maintain our expertise, and this recent webinar allowed me to significantly improve my understanding of the challenges involved in ensuring positive outcomes for protected species in large-scale housing maintenance projects.’

A recording of the presentations will be available on BCT’s e-learning platform soon. Email training@bats.org.uk to register your interest or visit learn.bats.org.uk to find out more.

Any final words?

I would like to say thank you to the working group – it was a pleasure working with you all, and you brought so much valuable experience to the table. Thanks also to BCT for supporting the production of the guidance.

Finally, thank you to the sponsors of the guidance, including NHBS, Cura Terrae, I & G Ecology, Amey, Ecolybrium, DCS Ecology, Pell Frischmann, Southampton City Council and Gateshead Council.

Author interview with Merlin Hanbury-Tenison: Our Oaken Bones

Haunted by war and loss, Merlin and his wife Lizzie leave the bustle of London and relocate to his childhood farm in Cornwall, only to find new battles awaiting them; crippling debt, a fragmented ancient rainforest, and Merlin’s father struck down by COVID-19. Drawn into the rainforest’s depths, they discover a desperate fight for survival, aiming to save this magical habitat while trying to heal from their own battles.

Merlin Hanbury-Tenison is a Cornish conservationist and veteran who founded The Thousand Year Trust, Britain’s rainforest charity. The charity’s mission is to catalyse the movement to triple Britain’s rainforest cover to one million acres in the next thirty years. His work has been featured in National Geographic, the Guardian and on the BBC. Merlin lives in a rainforest in Cornwall with his wife Lizzie, an entrepreneur and business leader, and their two young daughters.

We recently had the opportunity to speak to Merlin about his first book, including how he came to write it, how important he thinks species reintroductions are in Britain, which challenges he’s faced and more.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and what inspired you to write Our Oaken Bones?

I was born and brought up on Bodmin Moor on a small upland hill farm with a slice of stunning and rare ancient Atlantic temperate rainforest at its heart. I left to join the army when I was 19 and served on three tours of Afghanistan. After returning, I began to suffer from complex PTSD and found the rainforest to be the best place to escape to and heal. At the same time my wife, Lizzie, was also suffering psychologically having gone through two traumatic miscarriages and my father had almost died from very severe Covid. All of us found the rainforest to be the best place possible to heal, restore and recover. I was inspired to write Our Oaken Bones as I want everyone to have access to the kind of healing that we experienced, and for all of us to use that knowledge to heal the rainforests of Britain in return. We used to be a rainforest island with 20% of our landmass covered by this beautiful habitat but almost 99% of it has been cut down and destroyed. I hope that Our Oaken Bones might act as a catalyst to ensure that this is the bottom of the bell curve and that we don’t destroy any more of this vital habitat. With every year that passes I hope that we will see more rainforests being restored and planted across our western uplands.

Merlin as a child high in the rainforest canopy, exploring with his father. — Merlin and his father in the rainforest as a child.

This book blends elements of biography, natural history, and scientific discussions to combine your personal journey with biodiversity and the pioneering research being undertaken at Cabilla. What motivated you to adopt this multi-faceted approach to writing?

We are all a part of nature, not apart from it – I am passionate about helping people to realise and remember this. It’s easy to say but much harder to feel. I thought that writing a book about trees would appeal to a small audience who are already interested in that subject. Writing a book about the people who live in, and are working to save these rainforests, felt like a subject that would be more engaging and would capture people’s interest. Rainforests are stunning, vital and rare. All I hope for is that people who didn’t even know that we have rainforests in the UK will read this book and finish it in love with the habitat and passionate about saving them. These are our most romantic and folkloric spaces, but many people are unaware of them or their decline. I hope that by weaving personal, historic and scientific narratives together we can shine a light on this important subject.

In Chapter 6, you detail your successful journey reintroducing beavers to Cabilla in 2020. How important do you think reintroducing native species to the UK will be in restoring our natural world, and are you hoping to introduce any other species to Cabilla?

I believe this is a vital area. We live on an island – if important native species are removed and new, non-native species are introduced the results can be catastrophic. This is well understood on islands like Australia and New Zealand, but in the UK, we seem to have a bit of a societal blind spot about it. Returning beavers to the Cabilla Valley has created the most wonderful explosion in biodiversity and habitat abundance. The change was near immediate and very evident. I believe that we can create similar improvements in the British countryside with the slow and careful return of other species, like Pine Martens and wild cats. This should never be rushed, and the most important focus area is ensuring that everyone in a catchment or a release area is on side and positive about the changes. This is all part of the effort to return to a more equilibrious state of British flora and fauna where species that evolved here are interacting in a more natural way together. It’ll be a very long process, multi-generational, but I’m positive that as long as we all remain optimistic we can restore much of what we’ve damaged and lost over the previous centuries.

There is often friction between conservationists and farmers in relation to the effects of livestock on landscapes, but I really enjoyed hearing about your work with farmers to create a blueprint for new farming methods focusing on ecological and economic benefits. How important do you think the shift from working against farmers, to working with them, in conserving our shared landscape will be?

This will all be impossible without the farming community. About 70% of the UK is farmland so we will never be able to combat climate change, restore biodiversity or bring back our rainforests if we don’t work closely and compassionately with farmers. This should never have been an issue historically and I believe it comes from a place of misunderstanding and poor communication. Conservationists and farmers should be the closest of collaborators and colleagues. We are all striving for the same goal; a Britain which provides food for all those who live in it, has an improving and resilient countryside and is full of some of the most stunning natural habitats on earth. Farmers are the key to making this happen and we can help them by ensuring that Government is providing them with the support and guidance to farm in a way that meets all these goals.

The Cabilla Cornwall Retreat offers a unique space for wellness groups, veterans, key workers and individuals to experience the wonders of nature. What are the key benefits of connecting with nature for well-being, and how does this align with the broader goals of the Thousand Year Project?

There is some simply stunning research underway which demonstrates how spending time in native rainforest environments can be beneficial for human psychological and physical health. I am a living example of this, as are many of my family. We have brought a large number of people into the Cabilla Valley as part of the retreat business here and the impacts have always been heart-warming and invigorating. We always do this work with a focus on the habitat first to ensure that we aren’t bringing people into the rainforest at the detriment of the habitat. This is very important. We are currently living through a mental health pandemic and an obesity crisis. There are many reasons for both of these issues and there are also many cures and methods to help alleviate them. The natural world, and rainforests in particular, are a key weapon in this fight. I would never claim that they might replace clinical or pharmacological healing, but we must begin to view all the options side by side and not in isolation. I have seen such marvellous healing impacts in the valley here and I believe that everyone in the UK, especially those who live in urban areas, should be encouraged and assisted in accessing nature as part of their general health and wellbeing.

Have you faced any significant challenges over the past few years that you can share with us?

So many! This would be another book in itself. Running a small business has been an adventure but I won’t pretend that it hasn’t been extremely difficult. The state of our economy and the environment for small business owners is pretty dreadful in the UK right now. When you add that Cabilla is a hospitality business set up during the Covid lockdowns and have then had to survive through all the financial conniptions that our country has been going through, it has resulted in many sleepless nights. Setting up a charity is also a very challenging undertaking and the ability to fundraise at the moment in the UK is particularly difficult. It took me over a year to convince the Charity Commission that we even have rainforests in the UK and that’s before we even entered into the treacle-like bureaucracy of the charity sector. Running a farm is also very challenging at the moment as we have departed the EU, therefore the subsidy systems are changing which has created a number of very difficult financial implications that we’re still trying to work through. This is all before I even come to the difficulty of reintroducing beavers and then keeping them in their government mandated enclosure – but there’s a whole chapter on that in the book, and I don’t want to spoil the fun here!

What do you hope other landowners can learn from the pioneering and vital work you’re doing?

My hope is that the Thousand Year Project that we have started in the Cabilla Valley will act as a blueprint for other interested farmers and landowners on the uplands who are looking to evolve and transition their farming techniques to one that works with nature rather than against it. We are a small farm and below the average farm size across the UK, so this isn’t some unachievable large-scale project that the average farmer wouldn’t be able to do. Everything that we have done here has been designed to not only repair biodiversity and the habitat but also to create a more resilient farming business model under the new subsidy and farm payments system. My hope is that others will take some of what we’ve done here and implement it on their own farms. This is how we will one day come to see rainforests across the uplands and once again view them as a bedrock of our cultural landscape.

Finally, what are your hopes for the future of Cabilla?

I would love to find a way to bring the valley into some form of public ownership so that the work that has begun here will be guaranteed and continue long after I have gone. The whole point of the Thousand Year Project was to create a multi-generational effort. This should be how all land strategy is viewed and conceived. I want my own children to feel free to do whatever they choose to with their lives in the knowledge that the rainforest restoration that we have begun at Cabilla will outlast all of us. I hope that this will become a national project that truly continues until our rainforests have returned across much of our uplands.

Our Oaken Bones is available from our online bookstore.

This Week in Biodiversity News – 3rd March

Environment

UK scientists have discovered a biological mechanism making plant roots more attractive to soil microbes. Through enhanced endosymbiosis, crops such as wheat and legumes are now able to scavenge nutrients more effectively from the environment with the help of soil microbes. This natural process reduces the reliance on synthetic fertilizers, which, when used excessively, can contribute to soil degradation, water pollution, and harmful algal blooms. This biological adaptation may result in crops requiring less artificial fertilisers, thus reducing the pressures of excess fertilizer use and opening the door for more environmentally friendly farming.

Spraying the plants in the crocus fields by International Labour Organization ILO, via flickr.

A recent study involving over 35 research teams has revealed that accelerated glacial melt presents a profound threat to global water security. The loss of 6,500 billion tonnes of ice since 2000, averaging 270 billion tonnes annually, directly impacts millions who rely on these freshwater reserves. This latest study underscores the critical role of glacier melt as a sensitive and alarming indicator of climate change, and demands immediate attention to mitigate the cascading global consequences.

Conservation

Conservation funding bias is depriving critical species of vital support, a new study has shown. A recent study investigated over 14,500 projects spanning a 25-year period, analysing almost $2bn of funding allocated across the globe. Of this, 82.9% of funding was allocated to vertebrates (with over 85% to birds and mammals), 6.6% was allocated to plants and invertebrates, and only 0.2% was designated for fungal and algal species. With a large majority of funds assigned to charismatic megafauna, this bias leaves nearly 94% of threatened species with no support, limiting the opportunities for researchers and protective measures. Researchers have called for a revision of conservation funding awards to ensure a more rigorous, scientifically driven approach in order to address this funding imbalance.

Sanglier by Philippe Rouzet, via flickr.

The reappearance of Wild Boar in Dartmoor National Park, after centuries of absence, has raised concerns about ‘guerrilla rewilding’. Despite their potential for ecological regeneration through natural foraging behaviours, the boar’s presence, following sightings and a dog walker incident, has triggered debate. Natural England and the Wildlife Trusts are now working to understand the local population dynamics and provide guidance to mitigate human-wildlife interactions, while the overall impact of their presence continues to be evaluated.

The UK government has authorized nature groups to apply for licenses to release beavers into the wild. This decision formalises existing practices, which include both licensed enclosure releases and unauthorized reintroductions. With an estimated 500 wild beavers in England already contributing to habitat creation and flood mitigation, the first of these licensed releases are anticipated this autumn, aligning with broader nature restoration goals in the UK.

Climate Crisis

The UK has released its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), outlining its commitment to meeting international biodiversity targets by 2030. This plan serves as the UK’s response to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, acknowledging the critical reliance of human wellbeing on thriving ecosystems and the urgent need to address the global biodiversity crisis. The NBSAP emphasizes a shift towards a systemic approach tackle these challenges effectively. This publication marks a crucial first step in the UK’s pledge to protect at least 30% of its land and sea, reduce pollution, and ensure sustainable practices in agriculture, forestry, and industry by the year 2030.

Researchers at the University of Leeds have modelled the potential impact of reintroducing wolves to the Scottish Highlands, revealing significant opportunity for woodland expansion and carbon storage. Using a predator-prey model across four areas of Scottish wild land, the study found that a population of approximately 167 wolves could effectively control burgeoning deer populations, which currently suppress natural woodland regeneration by grazing on saplings. A reduction in deer would allow native woodland to flourish, with the potential to sequester 1,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. This first-of-its-kind assessment provides compelling evidence for the crucial role of large carnivores in delivering nature-based solutions to the climate emergency.

Author Interview with Dan Bagur: Pine Marten

Offering new insights into how they grow, learn and live, Pine Marten delves deep into the secretive behaviour of one of our rarest and most elusive mammals. Packed with stunning candid images and a library of behaviours and vocalisations, this groundbreaking book provides insight into Pine Marten social interactions, courtship, mating, nesting and kit rearing, feeding and diet, as well as their relationships with other wildlife.

Having spent several years watching and filming Pine Martens in the forests of Austria, Bavaria and Ireland, Dan Bagur has developed an in-depth understanding of their habits and behaviour. He has written or contributed to over 26 books on nature, and his wildlife photography, artwork and articles are published all over the world.

We had the opportunity to speak to Dan about Pine Marten, including his inspiration for the book, his hopes for the future of Pine Martens in the UK and more.

Can you start by sharing how you first came to work with Pine Martens, and what was the journey that led to the publication of this book?

Before answering, I was pleased when my publisher told me that you wanted to interview me. I’m a lifelong admirer of the NHBS. I used to get your catalogues delivered as a teenager back in the early 90s when you were still a mail-order book catalogue – I’ve bought and enjoyed many books from you over the years.

Back to your question. Yes. As a nature lover, I’ve always wanted a house surrounded by wildlife. When I moved to Ireland, it finally became a reality. The first time I viewed the house, I found a Pine Marten scat in the garden! It’s a dream for someone like me to be surrounded by these endangered mammals and I’ve been watching their behaviour ever since. Being so elusive, they represent a significant challenge to the wildlife photographer/filmmaker, it occurred to me that Pine Martens would be one of the toughest land mammals to study in the wild – observing them is so rewarding precisely because it’s so difficult. You must earn every new insight.

Direct observation is the best way to learn; the animals themselves are the primary source after all. It starts with interest but quickly becomes, well, the word that comes to mind whenever I think about exactly how to define it is joy. Joy can be very addictive. It’s hard to let go of that feeling. Being plugged directly into the Pine Martens and their daily lives is exciting.

Pine marten at night — Pine Marten at night. ©Dan Bagur 2025

A long field study enables you to get a much clearer picture of what’s really happening: you get to confirm and reconfirm your initial assumptions, connect to individuals and see their interactions and behaviour over an extended timescale. I’ve been observing wild Pine Martens for over five years now – I’ve spent many thousands of hours following, watching and photographing them. I’ve encountered many individuals and seen them climbing, courting, growling, chattering, hunting, feeding, fleeing, fighting and rearing their young. Every month I learned something new and understood them a little better. It’s a great help too that Pine Martens fit nicely around a full-time job – most of the action takes place at dawn and dusk, or during the night. I got drawn into their world. I often wonder what they’re doing while I’m not with them.

As Pine Marten populations slowly begin recovering, interest in them is growing and I thought that my observations could be of interest to other naturalists. Conservation relies heavily on public sentiment and if people don’t know about Pine Martens, they will be less likely to help them. Introducing this animal to others was something I felt I could do. Hopefully, after reading this book, the reader might offer Pine Martens their much needed support. I put the focus of the book on Pine Marten behaviour. It’s aimed at amateur naturalists or anyone who is interested in learning more about these incredible animals, and contains lots of new information and photographs that will be interesting to those who already know Pine Martens well.

What was the most surprising or exciting thing you learned in the process of writing Pine Marten?

I think it’s exciting that you can still go out into the woods and make new discoveries about British mammals. Although I studied biology at university, and have always worked in conservation related roles, I don’t work with Pine Martens professionally. That’s part of the magic of direct observation – anyone can do it. There are still many new discoveries out there just waiting to be made, all that’s required is consistency and patience.

I think the most surprising things are how vocal Pine Martens can be and how exciting each sighting still is – even after many years watching them. When they show up it’s always an ‘oh wow!’ moment. I still freeze with awe when I see one.

The most fascinating thing is their intelligence. Watching them solve problems and consider their next move, getting to know many individuals and seeing how unique each animal is – their personality and behaviour are highly individual. Often, I could tell who had visited simply by the signs they had left behind. They’re exceptionally charismatic animals. As I explain in the book, they’re also deeply connected with our historic wilderness landscapes, icons from our lost ancient wildwood.

This book has an impressive selection of imagery displaying a range of behaviours, interactions and life stages. How long did these images take to compile and what are some of your most effective strategies for spotting these elusive creatures?

Thanks. Yes, capturing Pine Marten behaviour isn’t easy. For every photo there were many failed attempts, you have to be comfortable in failure with Pine Martens. Over time, patience brings results and consistency is the key. The situation is made especially testing as it’s often at night and it can be very cold. You have to be willing to spend many thousands of hours sitting quietly in the woods and waiting for the occasional glimpse! For this reason, you have to really want to do it. You need to be passionate about understanding them.

I’ve taken over 10,000 photographs of Pine Martens over the last five years. Each year I understood a bit more about when and where I might see some new behaviour. Because they’re so elusive, learning to track them is essential. It’s vital that you wait as close to the right place as possible. It’s a waiting game – many quiet hours watching the forest, followed by a few seconds of heart racing panic as they emerge from the undergrowth and then quickly disappear again. Over time, it’s possible to build up a behavioural picture from many of these fleeting encounters. The harder something is, the greater that feeling of accomplishment.

Aside from sitting and watching, I also use trail cameras and camera traps to enable me to capture as much behaviour as possible. As you say, I’ve included over 200 photographs in the book because I felt that it was important to show the reader the behaviour that was being described. No number of words beats seeing behaviour in a photograph (or series of photographs as is often the case in this book). Young Pine Marten. ©Dan Bagur 2025

Can you tell us more about your new discoveries in Pine Marten behaviour and biology?

I didn’t set out to discover anything new. Initially, I didn’t plan to write a book. I just wanted to watch them and understand as much as possible – I was curious about how they lived their lives and what they got up to. As previously mentioned, I’ve spent over five years sitting quietly and observing wild Pine Marten behaviour. It took many months before I even knew where to wait for them. I love being alone in nature, so even the downtime in the forest has its own magic. My efforts were rewarded much later when I realised that some of my findings were new discoveries, including a new understanding of the function of the famous Pine Marten wiggle, retromingency in Pine Martens, the true cause of the scat curl and the use of the marten maze. I don’t want to give too much away, but they are all described (along with many other aspects of Pine Marten behaviour) in this new book.

Chapter 5 has an extensive library of field recordings. Why did you feel this was important to include and can you tell us about the process of gathering these?

It’s important to record what you’re seeing while watching wild animals, if you don’t then you can’t share your findings with others. Over the last few years, I’ve built up a large collection of film footage, photographs and sound recordings. Few people have ever seen a wild Pine Marten, let alone heard one. Their calls are an important part of what makes them what they are. Pine Martens (like many other Mustelids) make a surprisingly diverse range of calls – they grunt, growl, purr and scream. I felt it was important to include these. They are quickly and easily accessed by scanning QR codes using your phone. I wanted the reader to get as close as possible to Pine Martens via this book.

I realised that the recordings I had built up were unique – the Pine Marten sound library in this book is the most comprehensive yet published. My recordings have been included in the British Library sound collection and have been published in the ground-breaking book Sound Identification of Terrestrial Mammals of Britain & Ireland by Pearce, Middleton, and Newson.

What does the future look like for Pine Martens in the UK? And how can we work to secure a brighter future for this species?

In short, hopeful but worrying! Sadly, much of this is our own doing. Urban sprawl and habitat loss are an obvious problem, climate change, biodiversity decline and a persecution driven genetic bottleneck add to these issues – among others. Apathy is also a big concern. We still prefer the comfort of fool’s paradise over the often-harsh difficulties of reality. We need to get our heads out of the sand – and fast! Reality will inevitably have consequences we are no longer able to hide from – not just for Pine Martens. As Tew et al stated in a 2024 paper on the future of UK woodland biodiversity, a ‘major cultural shift’ is urgently required.

Although it’s important to face our problems and act, it’s also important to remain positive. There is real cause for hope – important work is being done to help Pine Martens. A few of those making a huge difference are Johnny Birks, Jenny MacPherson, Stuart Edmunds and John Martin, but there are many others. When great people come together fantastic things can be accomplished. The UK and Ireland have plans to increase their much-depleted forest cover over the coming years, and Pine Martens are slowly coming back. There are ways we can all contribute by donating or volunteering. Even small acts, like rewilding our own gardens, can collectively have an impact. Writing in 1992, the acclaimed science writer Edward O Wilson stated that ‘The next century will, I believe, be the era of restoration in ecology’. I hope that he’s right – wouldn’t that be a fantastic thing to witness after the global habitat and biodiversity decline of recent years.

Finally, what’s next for you? Will there be more books in your future?

Yes, I hope so! I had a column on rock pool life in the local newspaper while I was at university and I’ve been writing in one form or another ever since. I’m always working on the next project. Writing forces you to read everything and really understand your subject deeply, and that brings its own reward.

I would like to do something with Puffins in the future. I’m inspired to continue spending time out in nature and see what else is waiting to be discovered. Whatever comes next, I will always be grateful for this time with the Pine Martens – so many wonderful memories and experiences. The Pine Martens will remain with me for the rest of my life. Once you get to know a family of Pine Martens there’s no going back. They’re incredible animals and we’re extremely lucky to have them living alongside us.

Pine Marten is available from the NHBS website here.

The NHBS Guide to Badger Gates

The European Badger (Meles meles) is one of the most iconic species found on the British Isles. These shy and elusive animals spend much of their time during the day hidden away within their extensive underground setts, emerging around dusk to forage on smaller mammals, earthworms, roots, bulbs and fruit.

Within their territories, badgers will follow established routes between foraging areas. When these pathways become obstructed by fencing, such as exclusion fencing for stock or deer, badgers will often dig under the obstruction to regain access to a familiar site and in doing so they may cause damage to the fence and allow in potentially unwanted species. In these circumstances, many developers will install a badger gate to allow badgers to freely access the site. These rectangular gates are constructed of either wood or metal and often feature locking mechanisms to ensure badgers can only pass through in a certain direction.

Although badgers are protected under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, there are situations where developers need to temporarily or permanently exclude badgers from areas. This may be when they, or their setts, could be at risk of harm or disturbance. In these circumstances, and under acquisition of a license, one-way badger gates can be installed in sett entrances or in fencing surrounding a development to gradually exclude badgers from the area. These badgers will then either relocate to a new territory or to a nearby artificially-created sett.

At NHBS we manufacture a range of badger gates and this article will outline how they can be installed and used in different badger mitigation projects.

Softwood Badger Gate

This softwood badger gate has been designed in accordance with the specifications outlined by Natural England (available here) and is an excellent economic choice for many projects. It is constructed from untreated FSC-certified timber, which ensures badgers will not be harmed if they ingest any chewed wood. This gate has been designed so that it will not jam following periods of rain when the wood may swell.

The softwood gate is suitable for use where badgers require access through a fence. This gate can also be used in exclusion projects; however unlike our aluminium gates they can be damaged by chewing and often have a shorter lifespan.

Frame Dimensions: 450mm (H) x 285mm (W)
Entrance Dimensions: 250mm (H) x 200mm (W)
Material: Untreated FSC timber
Weight: 2.1kg

Access Badger Gate

The access badger gate is constructed from marine grade aluminium which ensures it is strong enough for repeated use while keeping it lighter than most steel gates. It features a heavy-duty grill panel which allows badgers to view what is on the other side of the gate, which can encourage some badgers to pass through. It has pointed legs which should be driven into the ground using a wooden mallet, however a hammer can also be used with a block of wood (striking the frame directly may cause warping and damage). The gate has two locking tabs that can be adjusted using a size 10 spanner to allow either two-way or one-way access.

This gate is designed for use in long-term projects where badgers need access through stock or deer fencing. For exclusion projects we would recommend our exclusion gates.

Frame Dimensions: 595mm (H) x 295mm (W)
Entrance Dimensions: 320mm (H) x 220mm (W)
Material: Marine Grade Aluminium
Weight: 3kg

Exclusion Badger Gate

The exclusion badger gate is also constructed from marine grade aluminium and comes fitted with a solid gate flap. This solid door has been designed based on evidence that some badgers can learn to use their claws to lift grill gates open. Another feature of this gate is that it does not have legs. This allows the gate to be positioned either vertically or horizontally in awkward sett entrances where a typical vertical gate would not be suitable. By installing this gate ecologists and developers can be confident that badgers will not be able to re-enter an exclusion zone.

This gate is also available with pointed legs, for installation within exclusion fencing.

Frame Dimensions: 400mm (H) x 295mm (W)
Entrance Dimensions: 320mm (H) x 220mm (W)
Material: Marine Grade Aluminium
Weight: 2.6kg

Accessories

Badger Fencing

All of our gates can be incorporated into this high tensile wire fencing. It can be erected as a freestanding barrier or installed across a sett to prevent badgers from digging to form new entrances or to get around any installed gates.

Stainless Steel Cable Ties

These strong, corrosion resistant cable ties can be used to quickly and easily secure a badger gate frame to the surrounding fencing.

Caudon® High Tensile Steel Pegs

These steel pegs are excellent for securing fencing to the ground, particularly in areas where badgers are prone to tunnelling. These pegs can also be driven through the access and exclusion badger gates to provide a firmer placement.

Q&A with Trine Bregstein: The Riverfly Partnership

The Riverfly Partnership is a collaborative effort between anglers, conservationists, scientists, and water managers to protect the health and quality of our rivers. They use citizen science to monitor riverfly populations, which are sensitive indicators of water quality, and gather data on these fascinating insects to contribute to a better understanding of river ecosystems.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Trine Bregstein, riverfly partnership development manager, about the work of the Partnership, their citizen science initiatives, the importance of riverflies and more.

Can you give an overview of the Riverfly Partnership, its aims and the work that the group is involved in?

The Riverfly Partnership is a network of organisations supporting projects to assess river health. The aims of the partnership are to protect the water quality of our rivers, further the understanding of riverfly populations, and conserve riverfly habitats. The partnership comprises many individuals and groups, including entomologists, angling clubs, volunteer groups, wildlife charities and Rivers Trusts.

We have data on freshwater invertebrate life dating back to the early 2000s, collected by a dedicated base of citizen scientists that is continuing to grow. Volunteers get to learn about the fascinating world of tiny critters living in their waterways, which are referred to as the canaries of our rivers because they are an important indicator of water quality. The work of Riverfly monitors means pollution incidents are quickly detected and reported, changes in water quality are monitored over time and the impacts of restoration work in and around the river can be tracked.

Can you tell us about the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative?

The Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (RMI) is a citizen science scheme in which trained monitors collect data about the invertebrates living in their local river. Volunteers are trained in the identification of key groups of riverflies, which are invertebrates that spend most of their life cycle living in fresh water. The initiative mainly focuses on the orders Ephemeroptera (also known as up-wing flies or mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies) and Trichoptera (caddisflies).

Invertebrate sorting and identification. Credit: Trine Bregstein

On a monthly basis, monitors carry out kick sampling at their site and count the numbers of each group of riverflies they have collected. From these counts, an RMI score is generated. This score is compared to the ‘trigger level’ of the site, which is a number set by the local ecology contact at the statutory body. If the RMI score is below the trigger level, it may be an indication that a pollution event has taken place. Another sample is done to confirm the breach, and then the relevant authorities are informed.

What are the main challenges associated with your work?

The national scale of the project, with various regional hubs coordinating groups of monitors at a local level, means it’s important to make sure things are done consistently across the network. We at the Riverfly Partnership HQ in the Lake District facilitate and try to keep track of what’s going on in all of these separate groups, and make sure training and protocols are standardised around the country to ensure the robustness of the data set. This can prove challenging, particularly as many of our hubs are charities and trusts that may not have consistent funding for citizen science projects, whilst others are volunteer run and rely on people managing to co-ordinate their groups in their spare time.

A group of volunteers standing around the riverside edge during a training day — Ribble training day. Image credit: Trine Bregstein

How did 2024 fare for the Partnership and its work?

2024 was a great year for the Partnership. Our monitors submitted 7,832 surveys to our database over the year – this is up from 6,392 in 2023, which reflects how much the partnership is continuing to grow, with many new monitoring groups set up all over the UK. We also launched a new Riverfly data dashboard for easy viewing of all this data.

Citizen science is of increasing importance in wildlife conservation across the globe. How can we get involved and be proactive in protecting our rivers and riverfly populations?

Riverfly monitoring involves carrying out a survey at your allocated site once per month, usually taking about an hour. As a monitor, you’d be contributing to a trusted, long-term, open-access data set that can be used to track gradual changes in habitat quality, as well as quickly pick up on any major incidents that the statutory body can investigate. Anyone can become a Riverfly monitor – no prior knowledge is required; you just need to have attended a training day led by one of our accredited tutors.

Kick sampling in a river — Gwent Wildlife Trust sampling. Image by Gareth Edge

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer, e-mail info@riverflies.org and we will link you up to your local co-ordinator. Most training tends to take place in the spring and summer months, but you can register your interest at any time.

Aside from Riverfly monitoring, you can also get involved in the Rivers Trust’s Big River Watch, Earthwatch has the Great UK Water Blitz, The Angling Trust has the WQMN (Water Quality Monitoring Network), ZSL run the Outfall Safari project, and through the CABA and CaSTCo projects other organisations around the UK have been able to cascade this initiative to their volunteers. Check your local Rivers Trust or Wildlife Trust to see what volunteering opportunities they have, for example balsam bashes, riverside clean ups or restoration works like reed bed planting, tree planting and fence building.

Gwent Wildlife Trust members holding certificates following training — Gwent Wildlife Trust training. Image credit: Gareth Edge

There is so much to get involved with, and on a personal level, try look after your own patch. If you’re out walking the dog for example, try to keep them out of the water if they’ve had a recent flea treatment, take a couple of bits of rubbish to the nearest bin (safely, don’t pick up anything potentially dangerous) and know who to call if you spot something untoward – the EA/SEPA/NRW/NIEA for pollution, your local council for fly tipping and don’t forget to report sewage and water leakage problems to your local water company too, they all have helplines or online reporting options.

What projects will the Riverfly Partnership be working on next?

We have a scheme called ‘Extended Riverfly’, which is a more advanced version of Riverfly monitoring that experienced monitors can move on to. It involves identifying and counting 33 groups of invertebrates, rather than the eight in the Riverfly Monitoring Initiative. It’s a fairly new scheme, currently only operating in certain parts of the country, but we recently held an event at which many Riverfly trainers upskilled to become extended trainers, so we’re looking forward to rolling out this project to many more groups in the coming year.

Extended training at the natural history museum — Extended training at the Natural History Museum. Image Credit: Trine Bregstein

We’re also working on our ‘Targets and Triggers’ project, which has been developed with partners at the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Buglife and CaSTCo. We’re aiming to devise a standard, and relatively easy, method for trigger levels to be set, making it easier for statutory bodies to engage with Riverfly monitoring without it being too much of a drain on their limited resources. Through gathering extra data about each monitoring site and running these through a predictive model, we plan to come up with not just trigger levels, but expand the initiative so that sites also have a ‘target level’ – the maximum RMI score that we would expect to see at a site, which gives a goal for habitat improvement projects to aim for.

The Riverfly Partnership Approved Kit is a complete kit suitable for water quality monitoring. The Riverfly Partnership receives £5 from the sale of this kit to help them continue their fantastic conservation work.

Please see the Riverfly Partnership website for more information on how to get involved.

Interview with Matthew Kirkland: Founder of Chirpity – Identifying Birds by Sound

Chirpity is an easy-to-use, accessible app developed to aid the successful identification of bird calls within acoustic recordings. It is the ideal software solution for anyone interested in identifying bird vocalizations, whether you’re a dedicated Nocmig enthusiast or a professional bioacoustic researcher, and streamlines the often tedious process of reviewing audio recordings to quickly and accurately detect avian sounds. It features an array of intuitive features to assist with identification, including call review, tagging and background analysis.

We recently had the opportunity to speak to founder Matthew Kirkland about the software, including how he became interested in both nature and apps, why he developed Chirpity, its uses, capabilities and more.

Firstly, could you tell us a little about yourself and how you became interested in both the natural world, and app development?

I got the nature bug as a kid from my grandparents. I would spend the summer holidays in Northumberland with them and they were both outdoorsy types. We’d visit nature reserves where my grandad would point out the birds, and my nan would know the flowers – and often have a story about their names and medicinal uses, plants like speedwell and eyebright. Nonetheless, it was the birds that really ignited my passion. I think I thought I was better at bird ID than I really was, because looking back at my childhood field notes, I recorded some pretty outlandish sightings!

Now I’m a little bit more grown up andI would say I’ve become quite adept at identifying birds by sight, or ‘jizz’ (general impression, size and shape). However, one area that still befuddles me is bird song. My grandad was deaf – he piloted catalinas (flying boats) in WWII and the engine noise affected his hearing ever after. He couldn’t put me on to bird song or calls as a way to find the species around you, and I never learned the calls. Not deterred by this, after reading an account of a local birder’s Nocmig records (calls made by flying nocturnal migrants) on our local WhatsApp group, I decided to plug a cheap mic into my iPhone, and leave it recording out of my bedroom window overnight one April evening – just to see what it might pick up.

The next day, I downloaded the file onto my PC and opened it up in the sound software Audacity. This allows you to view a spectrogram of the audio, and with this view, you can scroll through the night’s recording to see the sounds. Bird calls show up as specific shapes in this view: they have a signature squiggle. After perhaps an hour of scrolling I came across something that looked like this:

What was it? I had no idea! So I sent a clip of the sound to the WhatsApp group. The county Bird recorder came back with the message ‘It’s a Whimbrel’. Well, that had me hooked! I live in suburban Luton, 50 miles from the sea at least, so having a Whimbrel over the house was astonishing.

What followed over the next weeks and months was a series of ‘What’s this?’ submissions to the newly created county Nocmig group on WhatsApp.

All the while, I was thinking there had to be a better way to sift through hours of audio. I had a computer background of sorts: I’d worked for BBC Online as a web developer many years ago. I had also completed a Masters’ degree in cognitive science back at uni and retained an interest in artificial intelligence ever since. In part because of this, I’d heard of BirdNET – which is AI software trained to recognise bird vocalisations. It comes from the same group at Cornell University that do the Merlin App. I got this to work on my audio files with reasonable results: I could open a terminal on my computer and type a command for BirdNET that would scan the file and spit out a list of bird detections at specified times in the audio. I could then go back to Audacity and see whether the predictions were correct. When they were, it was amazing, but all too often they weren’t.

For those unfamiliar with Chirpity, can you give an overview of its purpose, uses and capabilities, and explain what you were hoping to achieve in developing this application?

Well, to be honest, my initial experience with BirdNET for Nocmig was somewhat tedious. Chirpity is the result of an effort to make Nocmig simple and enjoyable – even for people who couldn’t tell if they heard a Moorhen or a motorbike!

The application lets you drop your audio recordings into it, you hit ‘Analyse’ and it scans for birds. Whenever it finds a call or song, you’ll see the result appear in a table and you can click on it, play the clip or edit the record.

Since AI Bird ID isn’t perfect by any means, there are dubious identifications. Chirpity manages this in three ways:

You can restrict the reported species to those likely at your location, either by using an automatically generated ‘Local Birds’ list or a ‘Custom’ list with only the species you have selected.

You can compare the predicted species with examples that have been uploaded and vetted by experts on the Xeno-Canto website.

It’s also really easy and quick to delete, correct or annotate results before you save them to your personal archive – a database of records you can revisit, view and replay.

There is an option to view charts of the species you’ve recorded, so you can see when the peak passage is in the year and when to be on the lookout for Redwings, Common Scoters, Tree Pipits –species which are regular night migrants over most of the country. Here’s an example showing my Redwing records in 2022:

I’ve been lucky enough to pick up Stone-curlew too on several occasions, with this astonishing record being the best of them:

stone curlew spectrogram — Stone curlew spectrogram, audio below.

As you can see, with Chirpity you can adapt the visualisation and export clips from your recordings.

However, Chirpity isn’t just for Nocmig – many of its users are recording in the field with remote field recorders, like Song Meters you sell. With external power, some of these recorders can be rigged to run 24/7 for periods of up to a month before their audio is retrieved from the SD card. These researchers use Chirpity to review the audio, check the results and export their findings either as a spreadsheet or in an eBird Record format.

It really stood out to me that Chirpity is incredibly accessible in comparison to its desktop counterparts. Was accessibility a key driver for you?

Absolutely! There are two key thoughts I have in mind when thinking about Chirpity’s development:

What’s the best way to make this feature easy to understand and use?
Is there a way it can be delightful?

All the settings have a help icon next to them so you can read what they do, and there are lots of keyboard shortcuts to speed things up once you get used to the application. And for non-English speakers, the interface can be displayed in any one of 11 different languages!

What challenges did you face when developing this application, and how did you overcome these?

Well, one thing I have learned is that software isn’t soft, it’s hard! There are so many challenges I’ve had to overcome, it’s difficult to know where to start. For its users, the one I am most pleased to have resolved is getting an insight into how people actually use the application, where they struggle and what doesn’t work. Most of Chirpity’s users aren’t technical people, they won’t report a bug – they just think they messed up. I now have a system that shows me, anonymously, what people do with the application, if it has errors and if so, what someone did to cause it. That means I can fix it! Another challenge has been managing updates. The application is available for Windows, Mac and Linux computers, so I was very pleased to find a solution that packages each version, tests it and alerts users to the update automatically. Finally, training a call recognition model that has good results in real world use – like the Nocmig model included with Chirpity – is really hard. It took me about a year to make it effective – I had to learn the AI platform from scratch but even so, most of the time was spent preparing the 500,000 or so examples in the training data!

Given your active presence in both bird and software forums and your engagement with users, could you share which Chirpity project has been the most personally rewarding for you?

Well, I’m really quite proud of the fact that the County bird recorder that identified that Whimbrel at the start of this journey now uses Chirpity for his own Nocmig analysis! I’m also amazed that it’s taken off so widely on the international stage. I have a map of Chirpity user’s locations, it amazes me that it’s got this much traction when it’s been less than a year since I put the first version out to the public (and I don’t do any paid advertising):

Technology is constantly being updated and improved – what future developments can we expect for Chirpity?

There isn’t what you might call a roadmap for new features – things move and change too quickly. I will keep to the vision – simple and delightful to use. The folks at Cornell (the BirdNET people) are teasing a big update for this year, and we’re in touch over ensuring that update will work with Chirpity when it lands.

I’d like to add a self-learning element to the application, so it remembers and adapts to corrections – though this is a challenge that is yet to be overcome!

I’ve recently added a “Buy Me a Coffee” link for donations. With sufficient funding, I’ll be able to pay for a digital signature, which will clear the hurdles when installing unsigned software and allow automatic updates for Mac users. That funding will also help me cover the cost of training better Nocmig models and well, drink more coffee, right?

Are you working on any other projects that we can hear about?

Honestly – this is plenty to be getting on with! Although, I’d quite like a version of Chirpity that works like ChatGPT – where you give it a file and can say “What birds are in this? How do you know? Let me listen to the Stone-curlew you found…That’s great! Send it to my socials”

Find out more and download Chirpity today here.