The upkeep of uplands has become a contentious issue, but there’s welcome news from the Peak District’s Eastern Moors Partnership where RSPB and National Trust land has seen big increases in whinchats, curlews and skylarks.

Storms in the North Sea in early January led to a ‘wreck’ of little auks in eastern Scotland -135 of the tiny Arctic seabirds ended up at the SSPCA Wildlife Rescue Centre. “Sadly many didn’t pull through they were so weak and thin,” says centre manager Colin Seddon. The 65 survivors were rested and tube-fed fish soup. “We tested their waterproofing in our pools prior to release.”

Britain’s smallest rodent is back in Selborne – the idyllic Hampshire village where the species was first formally described by nature diarist Gilbert White in 1767. The comeback is attributed to conservation work by local farmers, led by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.

A micromoth’s arrival in the middle of the British winter is exciting entomologists and could be further evidence of climate change. Syncopacma polychromella is one of several Mediterranean moths that turned up unexpectedly on unseasonally warm wind.