BACK FROM THE BRINK … the willow tit

The future of the UK’S most threatened resident bird species suddenly looks brighter. Numbers of willow tits have declined by 94 per cent since the 1970s but a conservation project in the Dearne Valley is helping to reverse that. Found in wet woodland, where it excavates nest holes in decaying birch and willow, the tiny bird has lost 50 per cent of its breeding range. However, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB are creating new nesting opportunities – using deadwood logs strapped to living trees across the Trans Pennine Trail – to help numbers of this plucky passerine rise again. naturebftb.co.uk