The article "The First Rugby Match Between Nations: Scotland vs. England, 1871" from BBC's HistoryExtra explores the events of March 27, 1871, when the very first international rugby game was played in Edinburgh. It covers the background, gameplay, and how the match marked the beginning of one of the sport’s greatest rivalries.
In the hills of Scotland, a real steam train called the Jacobite has become famous around the world because it looks like the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter. Every day, fans travel to Glenfinnan just to watch it pass and imagine they’re on their way to Hogwarts — no magical brick wall required.
But all that excitement comes with a downside. The huge number of visitors means busy roads, packed parking areas, and lots of traffic in the small nearby village. It can even make walking around more difficult and less safe, since people often have to park far away and walk along roads with cars passing by.
Now the local community is trying to find solutions, including building more parking spaces, to help manage the crowds while still letting fans enjoy the magical experience.
In The Blooming Sea: Animal Life Reacts, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes the scale of the plankton bloom. Learn about how copepods grow and thrive until predators find them. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history of the world’s oceans and the rarely seen marine life that reside there.
In The Kelp Forest in Late Autumn, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes what happens in a kelp forest in the late fall. Watch the birth of a dogfish shark. Watch a hooded sea slug find food. Watch what happens to kelp as the temperature drops. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history
Ring ring! “Hello? Outer space on the line.”
Students at Wick High School in the far north of Scotland recently had a conversation they won’t forget. They spoke directly to an astronaut on the International Space Station, which orbits about 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth.
They didn’t have to shout. As the space station passed overhead, the students used an amateur radio to make contact with Joshua Kutryk, an astronaut from Canada. Their school is thought to be the most northerly in the UK ever to reach the space station this way.
The space station travels so fast that the students had only about 10 minutes before it moved out of range. They used every second. One student asked what movies always get wrong about space. Kutryk’s answer: Everything is harder than it looks, even brushing your teeth. Another asked about space food. He said it tastes different up there, even his coffee.
That’s a lot to fit into one short phone call!
Imagine catching your lunch as it falls out of the sky. For Montagu’s harriers, that’s just how dinner works. The male hunts, flies back toward the nest, and drops his catch in midair. The female swoops up and grabs it before it hits the ground. Birdwatchers call this the “food pass,” and it’s one of the most impressive things you’ll see a bird do.
Very few people in Britain get to see it, though. Montagu’s harriers are so rare there that wildlife experts keep the locations of their nests secret. That’s to protect them from people who might disturb the birds or steal their eggs. The population is in serious trouble: for five years in a row, not a single pair of harriers raised chicks anywhere in the UK (the United Kingdom, made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
Secrecy isn’t enough, because harriers have an unusual habit for a bird of prey. They build their nests on the ground, hidden in fields of crops like wheat and barley. Climate change is making crops ripen earlier in the year, so farmers harvest sooner. That means the chicks may not be able to fly yet when the combine harvesters come through. To help, farmers are teaming up with the RSPB (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a major British wildlife charity). They put fences around the nests and leave a patch of crops standing until the young birds can fly.
Surviving the harvest is only the first challenge. Soon after, the harriers leave Britain and fly south for the winter. Scientists already know the adults travel thousands of miles to West Africa, to countries such as Senegal and Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. What they don’t know is which route the young birds take on their first trip. To find out, researchers have fitted two chicks with tiny satellite trackers. Every flap of the way, the data will help show how these young birds handle one of the toughest journeys in the animal kingdom.
Noisy, messy, and always after your snacks: that's how a lot of people think of seagulls. But Patrick Safford, Scotland's first "gull ranger," says the birds are misunderstood.
Patrick works in Eyemouth, a seaside town in Scotland, which is part of the United Kingdom. His job is to teach residents and visitors how to live alongside gulls. He admits some gulls can be a problem, swooping at people and grabbing food. But he says those birds are a small minority. He estimates only about one in four gulls is bold enough to steal food.
Gulls also need protecting. Some species are now red-listed in the UK, meaning they're among the birds of greatest conservation concern because their numbers are falling fast. Much of that decline is caused by humans.
Patrick's advice for avoiding trouble with gulls is simple: don't feed them, keep food covered, throw trash away properly, and use gull-proof bins. Local leaders have also proposed a bylaw, a rule made by a town or local council, that would make feeding gulls illegal.
Officials in other places are watching to see whether changing how people behave can reduce problems with gulls. If it works, more towns could hire gull rangers of their own.
Ever think you would celebrate the return of a dog-sized rodent?! You might, if those rodents were the beavers making their way to the wetlands in Shropshire. Until recently, the area had spent its last 400 years beaver-less, after hunters depleted the beaver population for fur, meat, and scent glands.
Now, the county is excited to welcome a pair of beavers that was transported all the way from Scotland — that’s 300 miles! But why go through all of this trouble just to bring beavers back? Beavers’ list of strengths include helping to control water, creating new habitats for other creatures, managing willow tree scrub that’s drying out the surroundings, and being pretty darn cute.
The article "The First Rugby Match Between Nations: Scotland vs. England, 1871" from BBC's HistoryExtra explores the events of March 27, 1871, when the very first international rugby game was played in Edinburgh. It covers the background, gameplay, and how the match marked the beginning of one of the sport’s greatest rivalries.
In the hills of Scotland, a real steam train called the Jacobite has become famous around the world because it looks like the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter. Every day, fans travel to Glenfinnan just to watch it pass and imagine they’re on their way to Hogwarts — no magical brick wall required.
But all that excitement comes with a downside. The huge number of visitors means busy roads, packed parking areas, and lots of traffic in the small nearby village. It can even make walking around more difficult and less safe, since people often have to park far away and walk along roads with cars passing by.
Now the local community is trying to find solutions, including building more parking spaces, to help manage the crowds while still letting fans enjoy the magical experience.
In The Blooming Sea: Animal Life Reacts, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes the scale of the plankton bloom. Learn about how copepods grow and thrive until predators find them. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history of the world’s oceans and the rarely seen marine life that reside there.
In The Kelp Forest in Late Autumn, narrator Sir David Attenborough describes what happens in a kelp forest in the late fall. Watch the birth of a dogfish shark. Watch a hooded sea slug find food. Watch what happens to kelp as the temperature drops. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Blue Planet, a definitive documentary series diving into the mysterious depths of the sea to discover the natural history
Ring ring! “Hello? Outer space on the line.”
Students at Wick High School in the far north of Scotland recently had a conversation they won’t forget. They spoke directly to an astronaut on the International Space Station, which orbits about 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth.
They didn’t have to shout. As the space station passed overhead, the students used an amateur radio to make contact with Joshua Kutryk, an astronaut from Canada. Their school is thought to be the most northerly in the UK ever to reach the space station this way.
The space station travels so fast that the students had only about 10 minutes before it moved out of range. They used every second. One student asked what movies always get wrong about space. Kutryk’s answer: Everything is harder than it looks, even brushing your teeth. Another asked about space food. He said it tastes different up there, even his coffee.
That’s a lot to fit into one short phone call!
Imagine catching your lunch as it falls out of the sky. For Montagu’s harriers, that’s just how dinner works. The male hunts, flies back toward the nest, and drops his catch in midair. The female swoops up and grabs it before it hits the ground. Birdwatchers call this the “food pass,” and it’s one of the most impressive things you’ll see a bird do.
Very few people in Britain get to see it, though. Montagu’s harriers are so rare there that wildlife experts keep the locations of their nests secret. That’s to protect them from people who might disturb the birds or steal their eggs. The population is in serious trouble: for five years in a row, not a single pair of harriers raised chicks anywhere in the UK (the United Kingdom, made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
Secrecy isn’t enough, because harriers have an unusual habit for a bird of prey. They build their nests on the ground, hidden in fields of crops like wheat and barley. Climate change is making crops ripen earlier in the year, so farmers harvest sooner. That means the chicks may not be able to fly yet when the combine harvesters come through. To help, farmers are teaming up with the RSPB (the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a major British wildlife charity). They put fences around the nests and leave a patch of crops standing until the young birds can fly.
Surviving the harvest is only the first challenge. Soon after, the harriers leave Britain and fly south for the winter. Scientists already know the adults travel thousands of miles to West Africa, to countries such as Senegal and Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. What they don’t know is which route the young birds take on their first trip. To find out, researchers have fitted two chicks with tiny satellite trackers. Every flap of the way, the data will help show how these young birds handle one of the toughest journeys in the animal kingdom.
Noisy, messy, and always after your snacks: that's how a lot of people think of seagulls. But Patrick Safford, Scotland's first "gull ranger," says the birds are misunderstood.
Patrick works in Eyemouth, a seaside town in Scotland, which is part of the United Kingdom. His job is to teach residents and visitors how to live alongside gulls. He admits some gulls can be a problem, swooping at people and grabbing food. But he says those birds are a small minority. He estimates only about one in four gulls is bold enough to steal food.
Gulls also need protecting. Some species are now red-listed in the UK, meaning they're among the birds of greatest conservation concern because their numbers are falling fast. Much of that decline is caused by humans.
Patrick's advice for avoiding trouble with gulls is simple: don't feed them, keep food covered, throw trash away properly, and use gull-proof bins. Local leaders have also proposed a bylaw, a rule made by a town or local council, that would make feeding gulls illegal.
Officials in other places are watching to see whether changing how people behave can reduce problems with gulls. If it works, more towns could hire gull rangers of their own.
Ever think you would celebrate the return of a dog-sized rodent?! You might, if those rodents were the beavers making their way to the wetlands in Shropshire. Until recently, the area had spent its last 400 years beaver-less, after hunters depleted the beaver population for fur, meat, and scent glands.
Now, the county is excited to welcome a pair of beavers that was transported all the way from Scotland — that’s 300 miles! But why go through all of this trouble just to bring beavers back? Beavers’ list of strengths include helping to control water, creating new habitats for other creatures, managing willow tree scrub that’s drying out the surroundings, and being pretty darn cute.