GreenChris

Yorkshire’s inglorious moors and the lies of the land Yorkshire’s uplands are ecological deserts, drained and burned by big landowners – it’s time to demand restoration over destruction

My latest Yorkshire Bylines article - about the upland deserts that the potentially beautiful moorlands of Yorkshire have become, how this has happened, and why it is in 99.99% of our interests to do something about it.

yorkshirebylines.co.uk/region/yorks...

Can never tell our barn owls apart, now I know there are still definitely two of them at least 😆
#Owls
#SuffolkWildlife

Brilliant, and no doubt a relief!

Just had word that a couple of my records to BBRC have been accepted -
Ross’s Goose Ad Howick 03/12/10
Siberian / Amur Stonechat 1 Howick 07/10/23
Both #LocalPatch records, the latter from my kitchen window!
#LowCarbonBirding #Northumberland

Guess the call. Very distinctive for this time of year, always great to hear. Oxfordshire. #ukbirding

Acorns over dried beach, a neap tide retreating to reveal seaweed and saltmarsh.

A stony beach below a wood (Gull Down Plantation, Medway estuary).

Marsh-mallow plant in flower.

Among greenery, the red brickwork of the crumbling Cockham Wood Fort (1669). Foreground, right, a line of old defensive stakes shows high tides reach the fort (covering the England Coast Path here, diverting walkers inland). The neap tide height is well illustrated by seaweed growth on the beach.

Where the oak wood hangs out with the estuary.

(Cockham wood/ Gull Down Plantation, #Medway estuary. North shore, so I only bother going here once or twice a year. Roll on 2026.)

'Millionaires will leave the country if we slow down the increase in their wealth by upping their taxes.'

'We're short of doctors but we mustn't allow their pay to increase with inflation - how do we recruit more doctors?'

'We must go for infinite growth on a finite planet.'

Welcome to Labour!

I often put my oat milk into my wife's coffee instead of her semi-skimmed cows' milk - I do it very carefully and deliberately, realising my error at the last drop. I then have to explain why I'm drinking out of her Moomin mug...
Low-level chaos is our day-to-day!

#thicktrunktuesday plane tree, Cavendish Square, London,W1

The Met having to correct a Shadow cabinet member (who, to be fair, later deleted his post)

Excellent thread debunking the Motability myths

Cathedral like hedges. Not cut for many a year. As thick as guts & heaving with pollinators & insects of all kinds enclosing a valuable meadow. Hedge management is good when you don't need to manage!

Change Everything No 22: Humans are the masters of unintended consequences Of rats and men, and how one Baptist was disastrous for the long-beaked echidna

Since lots of rat hysteria - see "Giant Rat of Normanby" - at moment, a good time to point to my Substack noting our culture "is particularly bad at both creating messes, & blaming the creatures that flourish in world we created"

nataliebennett.substack.com/p/change-eve...

The CCE2 buoy is one of many surface mooring sites in the National #OceanAcidification Observing Network. 🧪🌊🦑🛟

www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/CCE2

UK’s Royal Ballet and Opera withdraws Tosca production in Tel Aviv Show scheduled for next year pulled after 182 members of UK company sign letter criticising RBO’s stance on Gaza

Bravo, RBO. More organisations need to make decisions like this. Say it loud and often - Israel has become a pariah state.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

I’m Not panicking. I’m Outraged. Read more here.

I have been the subject of many spurious accusations and politically motivated attacks, but this one is in a class by itself. According to Tulsi Gabbard — the nation’s top intelligence official — my refusal to post on Twitter is being reviewed by the Department of Justice as evidence of wrongdoing.

When his parents approached you with this idea, what you should have done - with as much kindness and empathy as you could find - was to tell them their grief had led them to do something horrific and unethical and that you could not as a decent human being have anything to do with it.

There're no such things as giant rats. Rats are like people - if they choose to eat an unlimited food supply they just get fat and unhealthy, not 'giant'.
It's a frigging urban myth!

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

Photo of a leafy branch of a woody plant bearing white flowers with yellow coronas. Other potted plants are visible in the background. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

Passiflora includes a few trees & shrubs, which, not surprisingly, lack tendrils. This is P. emarginata, a tree found in deciduous forests of Colombia. This one was cultivated in a glasshouse at RBG Kew. #Passifloraceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

The view down a Vermont pasture hillside. The sky is an unnatural shade of grey and the sun is a red ball.

When even your early morning walk reminds you that you live now on a planet that will likely keep burning for the rest of your life. When you realize babies born in your community today likely will not know the deep blue summer sky of your own childhood.

Another bunch of morons intent on destroying life on Earth to achieve their 'bucket list'.

Palestinians are still waiting for it to begin.

Medieval illumination of St. Christopher walking through the water with Jesus on his shoulder, and an eel swimming around his ankles. Christopher is leaning on a staff, and wearing a blue and orange cloak that suggests he went to UVA. Christ is wearing a brown baby thing, and is holding a orb, which is doing two things. First, it's an globus cruciger, which is a symbol of christian authority. BUT it's also a T-O map of the world. This is a fun reflection of the part of the story where, by the time he gets to the far bank, the saint feels like he's bearing the world on his shoulders. 'Cause look! He is! Both the baby and the saint have halos. Chris looks stressed, but also somewhat unburdened. The eel -- whom we'll call Vrenaldo -- looks cool and happy. But he's not carrying anything except the secret knowledge of his spawning grounds. Source: Cambridge MS Dd.4.17 4r

It's Monday, friends. And you deserve safe passage to wherever you're bound. So enjoy this lovely illumination of St. Christopher. The patron saint of travelers, he often appears in Medieval English art surrounded by eels.

Here, you can see an happy eel gliding along near the saint's ankles!
🗃️🧪

This is what you get in a climate and extinction crisis with a 'go for growth' Labour government.

Catastrophic impact of a THIRD runway at Heathrow - Colne Valley Regional Park A THIRD runway at Heathrow will have a catastrophic impact on the Colne Valley Regional Park. It will devastate local communities and sever ecological connectivity between the Thames and the Chilterns...

Two proposals have been put forward for a THIRD runway at Heathrow. Both will devastate communities and sever ecological connectivity between the Thames and the Chilterns across the Colne river catchment @colnecan.bsky.social – an area of 1,000km2
www.colnevalleypark.org.uk/catastrophic...

A female Greenfinch is perched on a branch looking unwell. Her feathers are fluffed up, which can be a sign of trichomonosis.

Help @rspbscience.bsky.social study bird disease (trichomonosis) outbreaks

If you see a sick or dead bird in your garden, please report it here: gardenwildlifehealth.org

@bto-gbw.bsky.social
@zslscience.bsky.social
📷 Ben Andrew

Spoonbills now breeding at @wildkenhill.bsky.social Fantastic result thanks to their vision, fantastic support from NE, and the successful colony at Holkham

On this day in 2018, we were celebrating the success of head-staring Black-tailed Godwits - a project that started in 2017:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/08/03/h...
Here are links to four other blogs in which headstarting waders has been considered further👇
#ConservationScience🌍

My intentions were good, oh Lord, I've misunderstood! 😆