Mark Cocker Mark Cocker is an award-winning naturalist and author. You can find out more about his work at markcocker.com Spheres with tails: our enduring love affair with the thrush These round songbirds have inspired not only some of our best poets, but have also sewn the seeds of the countryside around us. 'There is no acceptable level of peat for use in horticulture' say campaigners amid call for total ban on peat sales Peat bogs sequester huge amounts of carbon — yet peat is still being cut and sold across Britain. It's time for that to stop for good, say campaigners. Britain has 763 different types of moss — and they're varied, distinctive and strikingly beautiful As special as orchids, as beautiful as bluebells and as important as oaks, our ground-hugging mosses are worth a look down, says naturalist and author Mark Cocker. Waxwings: The winter visitors which come to Britain so rarely they may never see a human again