Nature's Voice

Hen harriers will begin their spectacular courtship sky dance in and around March but they remain one of the UK's most threatened birds of prey. Illegal persecution on upland intensive grouse moors is the most important threat to their survival. On this month's Nature's Voice Jane Markham meets Bea Ayling who manages the RSPB's Hen Harrier LIFE+ project about this remarkable bird and to Andre Farrar about his hopes for a new government backed hen harrier action plan.

If your image of a scientist is someone in a white coat then RSPB conservation scientists Dr Jennifer Smart and Dr Ellie Owen will dispel that image for good. Their work has them up to their knees in water or harnessed on the edge of some of the UK's highest cliffs! Jane Markham meets them both. But science isn't the only way to help the natural world and she also talks to singer and songwriter Miel de Botton about her song Birds without Borders inspired by the RSPB's campaign of the same name.

Beecroft Academy in Dunstable is centre stage on this episode of Nature's Voice. Jane Markham went on a school visit with RSPB early years education officer Rebecca Kerfoot in the run up to January's Big Schools Birdwatch. And there are lots of new things for teachers, and the children in their classes, can do to prepare for the count which takes place in the first half of next term.

In the run up to the Paris Climate Change Conference this edition of Nature's Voice looks at how climate change is affecting wildlife. The RSPB's conservation director Martin Harper talks to Jane Markham about the challenges ahead and we celebrate a success story. Bitterns, their reedbed habitats on the coast threatened by rising sea levels and reduced to a handful of breeding pairs in the mid 1990s, are now flourishing at Lakenheath Fen in reedbeds planted with the help of volunteers.

Response for Nature is a follow up to The State of Nature Report published in 2013. Two years on, and after detailed research, the RSPB and more than 20 other conservation organisations have joined forces to call for action from each of our devolved governments to stop the decline in biodiversity across the UK. On this edition of Nature's Voice Jane Markham talks to Philippa Richards the RSPB's project officer for the Response for Nature project. She'll also be visiting Fevered Sleep (the performing arts company) to find out about their response to the State of Nature Report - an online digital artwork called An Open Field.

This July, sections of the sea wall at Wallasea Island in Essex were breached as part of a project to recreate more than seven square kilometres of rare coastal habitats. These are to compensate for habitat lost for development and rising sea levels due to climate change. It's one of the RSPB's most ambitious ventures to date and has been made possible with the help of three million tons of clean soils from one of its key partners, Crossrail, who are building London's new railway. For Nature's Voice this month Jane Markham was given a guided tour of the reserve by the RSPB's project manager, Chris Tyas, to see how the new saline lagoons and mud flats are shaping up.

The puffin is on the new European Red List of birds under threat. Their main breeding colonies in Iceland and Norway have seen sharp declines in the number of chicks making it through to adulthood, and the alarm bells are ringing for this iconic and much-loved sea bird. On this episode of Nature's Voice, and with this year's breeding season in full swing, Jane Markham talks to the RSPB's Keith Clarkson about the puffins (and their pufflings) breeding at the Bempton Cliffs reserve, and to conservation scientist Dr Mark Eaton about what is going wrong and what can be done to help. Plus, we look ahead to this year's Big Wild Sleepout.

EU legislation – the Birds and Habitats Directives – which protect the most important wildlife species and habitats in the UK and Europe are being reviewed and at risk of being weakened. On this month's nature's voice, Jane Markham visits the RSPB's heathland reserve at Arne in Dorset, one of the world's rarest habitats, and a place which is protected thanks to the Birds and Habitats Directives. She also speaks to Alistair Taylor, the RSPB's Senior Policy Officer for Nature Directives, and looks at the Defend Nature campaign, which is how you can help protect the laws which protect nature.

The folk rock band Stornoway's new album includes birdsong woven into the music. On this edition of Nature's Voice Jane Markham meets their lead singer and ornithologist Brian Briggs, and fellow band member Jon Ouin, on Oxford's Port Meadow to explore their inspiration. There are also details of how you can download a free track from their album, Bonxie. Plus the Big Garden Birdwatch results are out - Molly and Frankie are back to countdown this year's top ten.