Matt has been a member of the RSPB since the age of five and has never looked back. He remembers writing to Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth at the age of seven, shocked at the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. His passion for the natural world has led him to work for a range of NGOs as both an employee and volunteer, as well as running his own projects. Professionally, Matt specialises in climate change policy, communications and youth engagement. He has worked and volunteered for the RSPB in a number of roles, including as a membership recruiter, an assistant warden and in the climate change policy team. He is a founding member and former Co-Director of the UK Youth Climate Coalition and attended a UN climate conference in 2011, and holds degrees from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a diploma from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. During 2013-14 Matt is working in Borneo, Indonesia, as Communications Manager for the Orangutan Tropical Peatand Project.

[Read More]

Born and raised in Birmingham, until moving to Tamworth Ed was always surrounded by a bit of a concrete jungle. This is one of the main reasons why he has always taken such an interest in the natural world. He studied a BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology at the University of Nottingham, which saw him travel to Portugal, Ireland, and (more exotically) to Bolivia. His love of watching wildlife is what led him to pick up a camera roughly 5 years ago and to start taking pictures of the various natural wonders that he experienced, and his scientific background allowed him to further understand the images that he captured. He went on to hone his knowledge and passion for wildlife photography by gaining a Distinction in the MSc course in Biological Photography & Imaging, also from the University of Nottingham.

[Read More]

After such an overwhelmingly positive start to University Birdwatch Challenge (3 months in we had 113 participants, 9 universities and 9,246 records), it was even more encouraging to hear that the project had inspired one student to take things a step further and set up an official Ornithological Society at the University of Reading. David Hunter explains a bit more about his ambitions and motivations….

[Read More]

Born and raised in Birmingham, until moving to Tamworth, Ed was always surrounded by a bit of a concrete jungle. This is one of the main reasons why he has always taken such an interest in the natural world. He studied a BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology at the University of Nottingham, which saw him travel to Portugal, Ireland, and (more exotically) to Bolivia. His love of watching wildlife is what led him to pick up a camera roughly 5 years ago and start taking pictures of the various natural wonders that he experienced, and his scientific background allowed him to further understand the images that he captured. He went on to hone his knowledge and passion for wildlife photography by gaining a Distinction in the MSc course in Biological Photography & Imaging, also from the University of Nottingham. He currently produces blog posts for the RSPB, as well as producing work for “WatersideCare”, a branch of Keep Britain Tidy.

[Read More]

I’m Findlay Wilde.  I am really interested in wildlife, especially birds. I want to do everything I can to protect nature now and in the future, as well as enjoying it of course. I have been blogging about my wildlife journey for over a year now and engage with nature in lots of different ways; I am a trainee ringer, I participate in the BTO’s Birdtrack and Garden Birdwatch surveys and I am starting to do surveys of my own on my local patch. I really hope to start volunteering with some of my local NGOs soon. You can follow my wildlife journey on my blog: wildeaboutbirds.blogspot.co.uk.

[Read More]

Happy New Year

We have put together a selection of New Year’s Resolutions penned by some of our members: they range from personal ambitions to wider aims for nature conservation, so keep reading to see what the next generation of naturalists are looking forward to in the coming year! 

[Read More]

Harry is 21 and a budding birdwatcher, conservationist, naturalist and wildlife photographer. Having just returned from a year placement at Aigas Field Centre in the Scottish Highlands, he is now in his final year studying for a Bachelors in Zoology at the University of Manchester. Any free time is spent getting out to local areas to bird and take photographs.

[Read More]

Matt Williams writes about his day out assisting award-winning wildlife photographer David Tipling with the BTO, how A Focus On Nature has helped to shape his friendships and ambition and how it’s relationships like these that will in the end secure nature’s future.

[Read More]

Originally published at http://mattadamwilliams.co.uk/2013/05/22/the-state-of-nature-1-why-its-up-to-youth/

A new report published today by a range of wildlife and conservation organisations has for the first time revealed the extent and rate of the decline of UK wildlife. The State of Nature report shows that for the 3148 species analysed, 60% of them have declined in the last ten years.

[Read More]

Young wildlife photographer, Tom Mason, was lucky enough to spend a few valuable days in Latvia with his mentor, David Lindo. Read about his trip here…

[Read More]