Research has found the sounds of nature could help people’s mental health.

Data was collected from more than 7,500 people as part of the BBC series Forest 404 – a podcast that depicts a world without nature.

Participants reported sounds of birdsong provided relief from stress and mental fatigue, the study found.

The University of Exeter’s leading researcher, Alex Smalley, said lockdown helped people rediscover “the natural sounds around them”.

“Our findings suggest that protecting these experiences could be beneficial for both mental health and conservation behaviour, but they also provide a stark warning that, when it comes to nature, memories matter.

“If we hope to harness nature’s health benefits in the future, we need to ensure everyone has opportunities to foster positive experiences with the natural world today,” he said.

Participants listened to a range of environments, from English coasts and woodlands to the tropical rainforests in Papa New Guinea.

Therapeutic effects were reported from listening to landscape sounds such as breaking waves or falling rain.

When no wildlife sounds were played, the positive psychological benefits reduced, with participants showing motivation to protect the world’s ecosystems.

The study was a collaboration between the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC Radio 4, Exeter University, Bristol University and the Open University.

The government has U-turned on guidance to shooters that reclassified pheasants as livestock, meaning that wild birds such as crows could be shot to protect them in certain circumstances, after a furious reaction from the public.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs changed the definition of livestock in its general shooting licences earlier this year. Under the new definition, game birds such as pheasants were considered livestock if given food, water or shelter by a keeper for their survival.

That meant that wild birds including carrion crows, jackdaws, rooks and magpies could be shot to protect them. General licences give broad permissions to shoot certain species of wild birds to protect livestock, help conservation and preserve public health and safety.

The sound was both primeval yet utterly fresh and new: a time-travelling throwback to the middle ages; yet, at the same time, a portent of a brighter future for our rural landscape.

Like a rapid burst of machine-gun fire, the bill-clapping of a white stork is – in nature’s terms – simply a signal that the bird is displaying to its mate. But for me, it also has a deep cultural resonance: as if the stork is celebrating its belated return to the British scene, after a gap of more than 600 years.

First one, then two, then a dozen of these striking black-and-white birds rose into the warm morning air on their broad wings. But this wasn’t in France, Spain or Poland, where I have watched them in the past, but in West Sussex: at the Knepp Wildland Project.

Following the bizarre American tradition that sees the president pardon a turkey each Thanksgiving, the turkeys go on to live a care-free life of luxury.

When the tradition of gifting presidents turkeys started years ago, the birds were typically sent to farms or zoos to live out their days.

In 2013, the turkeys were sent to their new home at Morven Park, the historic estate of former Virginia Governor Westmoreland Davis – where the 2014 and 2015 turkeys also went. 

Now, however, the spared turkeys are sent to an enclosure at Virginia Tech called “Gobbler’s Rest,” according to the White House – where they get to frolic with other free turkeys.

At Gobbler’s Rest, located on the school’s campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, the lucky turkeys are cared for by veterinarians and students of Virginia Tech’s Animal and Poultry Sciences Department.

At their new home, the turkeys may be visited by the public – who can also learn about the “university’s teaching, research and outreach programs in animal and poultry sciences and veterinary medicine.”

Despite one turkey winning the title of official National Thanksgiving turkey each year, the runner-up turkey is also pardoned and sent to live with its companion.

Farmers who set up reserves to help at risk turtle doves should be given government subsidies, the RSPB has said.

The birds, which were once abundant in the UK, are now hurtling towards extinction as their numbers have halved in five years. There are barely 1,000 breeding pairs left in the UK, a 98 per cent decline since 1970, making it Britain’s most endangered bird.

The decline of the turtle dove is largely due to agricultural changes including the loss of mixed farming, high production focused arable and livestock management, increased effectiveness of herbicides and weed removal from crops. 

These have all led to huge reductions in annual plants (usually called ‘weeds’) on our farmland – the seeds of which were turtle doves main food during the summer. 

One farm, backed by the RSPB,  has set up a reserve specifically for the embattled bird, and it is thought to be the biggest dedicated farmland space for turtle doves in the country.

The arable farm in Cambridgeshire is run by the G’s Fresh growers association, and farmers have planted turtle dove friendly seeds and given them space to roost.

Over the last two years, the farmers have dedicated over 10 hectares of land – roughly 10 football pitches – to helping turtle doves by providing the food, water and nesting habitat they need.

While they had not had any turtle dove pairs land in years, since they planted seeds and strew bird feed in the land dedicated for the birds, some have made the habitat their home.

Two dozen young white storks were released from Knepp in West Sussex in August, the first steps towards recovering a species believed to have been lost to the UK more than 600 years ago due to hunting and the loss of habitats caused by farming and land management.

Now the birds, eight of which carry GPS trackers, have been spotted across the south of England – including Cornwall’s Hayle Estuary more than 350km away.

An unruly crow nicknamed Russell has been ruffling feathers by dive-bombing people as they walk through a wood.

Walkers and runners in Brincliffe Edge Wood in Nether Edge, Sheffield, have complained about being attacked by the bird.

Claire Goodwin said she was “terrified” when Russell swooped on her several times while out walking her dog.

Dozens of people have taken to Facebook to discuss his antics, with one man saying Russell had cut his head.

Ms Goodwin said Russell performed his signature move when she was in the woods on Tuesday and then again when she was out walking on Wednesday.

“All of a sudden something hit me on the head and I saw a crow in front of me,” she said.

“I carried on walking and it got me again from the back of my head

“It really hurt. I know he’s drawn blood from other people so I was really lucky it didn’t happen to me.

“I’m staying out of the woods for a while.”