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2026 Nature Watch Festival on the Tibetan Plateau
I am now back in Beijing from the 2026 “Nature Watch” in Nangqen, Yushu Prefecture, and my batteries are fully recharged. ⚡ There’s nothing quite like watching people celebrate nature in a place this special. Over three days, 16 teams of young people from across China partnered with local herding families for a “bioblitz” –…
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Introducing the new Interactive Status of the Birds of Beijing
For anyone who watches birds in Beijing, particularly visitors to the city, one question comes up again and again: is this a good record? Is this species a regular visitor, a scarce migrant, or something genuinely unusual? Until now, answering that has meant piecing together scattered sources — old provincial avifaunas, China Bird Reports, personal…
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Nocturnal bioacoustic survey in the mountains of Beijing, spring 2026
Every spring in Beijing, the hills are alive with the sound of music! This year I set up a sound recorder on a forested hillside in Mentougou District at an elevation of c1,700m asl. The idea was to capture the sounds of spring, including nocturnal spring migrants and summer breeders. It was also a chance…
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A Conversation on Nature
Yesterday I had the honour of moderating a discussion between the visiting Rt. Hon. Emma Reynolds MP, UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Ruth Davis OBE, UK Special Representative for Nature, with young Chinese conservationists and academics. The fact that the conversation took place at NanHaizi, the home…
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A Toad Chorus
Spring is when nature puts its foot on the gas. Plants and insects emerge, migratory birds race to their breeding grounds, and mammals take advantage of the bounty to raise the next generation. Amphibians are no different — and this spring I put some effort into learning more about Beijing’s eight species of frog and…
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A Blueprint for Migratory Birds in Beijing
Last Friday I had the great honour of delivering a 15-minute keynote speech at the Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing. The Zhongguancun (ZGC) Forum is one of Beijing’s most significant annual international events and a platform for global technological innovation exchange and cooperation. It is named after Zhongguancun, Beijing’s “Silicon Valley” — a district in Haidian that…
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The International School of Beijing hosts Beijing Swift workshop for local schools
The incredible story of the Beijing Swift has inspired many people to do incredible things. From the student ‘swift ambassadors’ who wrote to a real estate CEO to persuade him to incorporate the needs of the Beijing Swift into building designs, to the Belgian Ambassador who set up an international cooperation project involving China, Belgium,…
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Tso-hsin Cheng: The Father of Chinese Ornithology
This article is the fourth in a series about “The Pioneers“, the naturalists in 19th and early 20th century China who shone a light on China’s natural heritage. ===== For decades, the study of China’s natural wonders was a story written by outsiders – European missionaries, consuls, and customs officers who ventured into the country’s…
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The China-born Naturalist: Arthur de Carle Sowerby and the Scientific Bridge of the Early 20th Century
This article is the third in a series about “The Pioneers“, the 19th and early 20th century naturalists who uncovered many of China’s natural history secrets for Western science. === If the 19th century in China belonged to pioneering foreign explorers like Swinhoe and David, the early 20th century demanded a new kind of naturalist:…
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Père Armand David: The French Priest Who Unveiled China’s Natural Treasures
This article is the second in a series dedicated to the “Pioneers” , some of the early naturalists who documented China’s flora and fauna for Western science in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. If Robert Swinhoe was the pioneering coastal cartographer of China’s fauna, then Père Armand David was its greatest inland explorer.…
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Robert Swinhoe: The Victorian Diplomat Who Helped Document China’s Natural Heritage for Western Science
This article is the first in a planned series about the 19th and early 20th Century ‘Pioneers’ who laid the foundation for modern Chinese natural sciences, particularly ornithology. Others will appear on this page shortly. ===== Anyone familiar with birding in the Far East will certainly have come across the name “Swinhoe”. Several frequently encountered…
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Beijing Nocturnal Flight Call Library
Following the nocturnal bird migration study conducted in partnership with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Peking University and the Beijing Municipal Government, we have built up a store of tens of thousands of calls. To help support anyone wanting to study nocturnal migration in Beijing or indeed anywhere in north and east China, we have…
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Visit to UWC (United World College) Changshu
Whenever I receive an invitation to speak at a school, it’s almost impossible for me to refuse. It’s so important to engage with students on the nature agenda. Not only because they are the decision-makers of the future but also because they often have incredible ideas and a fresh perspective. . …
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Crackdown continues on illegal hunting with nets
This year has seen a significant campaign, involving many governmental organisations, to crack down on illegal hunting, especially with nets. An article published this week (in Chinese) detailed several cases where the authorities have uncovered large-scale illegal hunting activities and apprehended criminals. The first example given in this article is startling. The English translation of…
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East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership 12th Meeting of the Parties (MoP12) in Cebu, Philippines
I am feeling energised! I have just returned from representing The Paulson Institute at the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership’s 12th Meeting of the Parties in Cebu, Philippines. This informal process, spawned from the UN Wetlands Convention (Ramsar Convention) is remarkable. Is there any other forum – on any issue – where you can find representatives…
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Autumn Yellow-breasted Buntings in Beijing
This autumn I was fortunate to document a decent passage of the critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting (Emberiza aureola 黄胸鹀 Huáng xiōng wú) on a small patch of wild land close to my apartment in Beijing. This species breeds in Russia, Mongolia, N Japan and NE China, wintering in S China and SE Asia. In Beijing…
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Belgian Embassy Tackles Bird Collision Risk
It is estimated that collisions with glass kill around a billion birds in the US alone (see here and here). The issue is particularly acute where major migratory routes overlap with urban centres. Light pollution causes migratory birds to become disoriented and, often exhausted, they drop down into urban green spaces. It is here that…
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China and New Zealand Sign Cooperation Agreement on Migratory Birds
On Monday 29 September 2025 I was honoured to be invited to witness the signature of a bilateral cooperation agreement between China (Li Yunqing, Vice Administrator of the National Forest and Grassland Administration) and New Zealand (Ambassador Jonathan Austin) on migratory birds. Specifically, the agreement covers cooperation between Yalu Jiang in Liaoning Province and Pukorokoro…
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Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Beijing
Beijing is blessed with a surprising amount of biodiversity. More than 500 species of bird have been recorded, around 70 species of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and more than 1,500 native plants. This also holds true for reptiles and amphibians, with 25 reptiles (including 17 snake species) and eight species of amphibian. These totals compare…
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French Embassy Launches Biodiversity Garden
Some great news from Beijing! The French Embassy in China has officially opened its Biodiversity Garden, a 3,600m² urban green space created to enhance ecological resilience and environmental awareness within the city. Launched under France’s Green Embassy initiative — a program driven by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to reduce the environmental footprint…