News
An opportunity to inspect even one of the gargantuan pages of Audubon's Birds of America shouldn't be missed
5+ hour, 18+ min ago (747+ words) After discovering a volume of the one-time world's most expensive book under a dust sheet, a museum in Glasgow is offering visitors the chance to view it up close. What lay beneath left her speechless. A first edition of the…...
'This event epitomised our vision for me: snow leopards and people living in harmony"
2+ week, 2+ day ago (647+ words) This Earth Day, the World Wide Fund for Nature asks its experts to remind us what it's worth fighting for. This is apparently known as eco-anxiety. It hits me when I try my best to clean up a yoghurt pot…...
The bird is the word in the Country Life Quiz of the Day, 7 April, 2026
1+ mon, 1+ day ago (150+ words) Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and…...
A world with a toad hiding in your garage is richer than one without
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (477+ words) The common toad has always enjoyed a special place in our national imagination, but its numbers have been declining alarmingly in recent decades. What can be done? Sarah Langford investigate. If you are ever confronted by a toad, you soon…...
Flying high: The birds doing brilliantly in the British Isles right now
2+ mon, 1+ day ago (320+ words) Red kites, great spotted woodpeckers and pink-footed geese "these are only a few of the success stories, writes Mark Cocker. From the Severn to the Wash, it is a default bird of our estuaries, yet in winter any southerly bias…...
Britain's most widespread bird is also the most elusive " spotting it is one of ornithology's great joys
2+ mon, 2+ week ago (134+ words) The long-eared owl breeds from Kent to northern Scotland, but is highly nocturnal. Creatures of the night: long-eared owls relish the cover of darkness. The long-eared owl likes dense tree cover in which to nest, although it does not build…...
'He allowed lion and a tiger to prowl around the castle and, if an unfortunate servant was mauled, they were paid compensation': Exotic animals in art
2+ mon, 2+ week ago (309+ words) Exotic animals " whether dreamy-eyed rhinos, improbable flocks of birds from different latitudes or muscular big cats rendered in exact detail " captured the eye of artists in Europe, but also in their native countries. Among the gold and mosaic work, the…...
The short-eared owl is a breed apart
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (331+ words) Fluid in flight and perplexingly wide-ranging, the short-eared owl is a singular figure in the family " and a figure of particular terror to the vole We invariably think of owls as creatures linked to woods and darkness, but the short-eared…...
Adders, Shetland ponies and the future of the human race: Tom Hilder on the Country Life Podcast
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (182+ words) Tom Hilder, winner of the 'Rising Star' category at the Schoffel Countryside Awards, joins James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast. Tom Hilder was born to a life in the country. Born in rural Scotland but raised in Hampshire, he…...
The tawny owl makes a compelling case as Britain's best loved bird of prey
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (625+ words) Country Life The wonderful tawny probably supplies our default image of all British owls. It is our most abundant and widespread species, with only the mountainous Scottish Highlands and the largely treeless Hebrides beyond the bird's limits. Yet we must…...