Good week for

Spotting a mouse house

Some 200 harvest mice released into a Northumberland nature reserve this August seem to be faring well; 12 circular grass nests, which they build on tall plants 3ft above ground, have been spotted

Slow progress

The amount of plastic waste on UK beaches is gradually decreasing, finds the Marine Conservation Society. However, 75% of beach litter is still plastic or polystyrene

Hunting hounds

The National Trust has announced it will stop issuing licences for legal trail hunting on its land in England and Wales

Welsh curlews

Gylfinir Cymru is leading a new recovery plan to halt the ‘chronic decline’ of the species, which could otherwise be extinct as a breeding bird by 2033

Buried treasure

A 13-year-old girl has unearthed a hoard of Bronze Age axes in a field near Royston, Hertfordshire; it was her third time using a metal-detector

Unexpected details

A new book reveals how Einstein hid from the Nazis in a remote Norfolk cabin in 1933— where he was guarded by armed men, sculpted by Jacob Epstein and waited on by a butler, with a herd of goats for milk and a gramophone, piano and violin for entertainment

Bad week for

A quiet game of golf

Two Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs rollicked through a golf course in West Yorkshire last week, knocking over golf bags and flags and digging holes; two people were injured before police caught up Protecting wildlife

Crimes against badgers rose 36% in 2020 and 93% for birds of prey, finds a new report; in Cornwall alone, marine mammal incidents including disturbing dolphins, porpoises or seals rose by 90%