Southern England has been treated to a record-breaking arrival of Queen of Spain Fritillary butterflies in recent weeks, sparking hopes that the species could become established in Britain.

Today’s article is about Phoebe Hessel who lived a remarkable life, in part as a man. According to her grave, she was born in 1713, so right at the end of the reign of Queen Anne and lived long enough to see George IV become king in 1821. If her  age was correctly noted in the parish burial register, then she died at the incredible  age of 108, in Brighton, Sussex. Phoebe was one of the most prominent Brighton characters in the 18th and early 19th centuries, as this inscription on her tombstone in the parish church yard attests to and was known to almost everyone in the town and surrounding villages.

Trillions of insects embark, largely unnoticed, on epic journeys every year across mountain ranges, deserts and seas, and it is only now, as their numbers suffer huge declines, that scientists are tra...

To help create a flourishing community farm in Lancaster. The land has been purchased. We now need to start work!

Early spring sightings show colourful insect is a resident species for first time in decades, says conservation charity

Hospice UK's campaign for fair hospice funding

Natural England began switching to cattle grazing at its Ingleborough site in the Dales in 2004.

To help create a flourishing community farm in Lancaster. The land has been purchased. We now need to start work!

To help create a flourishing community farm in Lancaster. The land has been purchased. We now need to start work!

Best Practice for Using iNaturalist in the UK A practical, optional guide to help your observations integrate smoothly with the UK biological recording system This guidance is entirely optional. You...

Donate to the Cerne Abbas Appeal so together, we can help restore the land, habitats and species that live there.

A new report from the RHS gives me hope that the role of gardens in the climate and biodiversity crisis might finally be realised.

Bridestones Moor, the dramatic 114-acre expanse above Todmorden, has been officially brought under community ownership.

At first glance, the scene is an ordinary roadside wall – a strip of stone edging the tarmac footpath, with a fence and pasture beyond. Yet the top of this wall tells a richer, more hopeful story. …

The Guardian’s former north of England editor returned to Morecambe after 25 years to discover the place where she grew up has even fewer amenities for young people – and the feeling of being ‘left behind’ is stronger than ever