@meganshersby.bsky.social
Naturalist, writer and board gamer. Working at Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust, and @wildlifebcn.org. Lead author of Where to Watch Wildlife in Britain By Low-carbon Transport (January 2026). Owner of a dog/servant to a cat. She/her.
Two brown circular bumps on an Oak tree.
A Ramshorn gall on an Oak twig.
I saw a number of other galls including Cola-nut galls and Ramshorn galls (both pictured).
It turns out that the Red Valerian, Hollyhock and x2 Ground Ivy (rust fungus and lighthouse) galls were all new records for the site!
A pink gall on the leaf of Red Valerian
Lots of small yellow-red bumps on the underside of Hollyhock leaf.
A bean-shaped peach-coloured gall on a narrow willow leaf.
A leaf-rolling gall on Red Valerian caused by Trioza centranthi (a bug).
Tiny galls across Hollyhock leaves caused by Puccinia malvacearum (a rust fungus).
Willow Redgall on a narrow-leaved willow caused by Euura proxima (a sawfly).
Belated new galls in November post! Plus, new site records!
A @wildlifebcn.org Corporate Wild Work Day at Pitsford Water Nature Reserve involved working in the wildlife garden and a short walk to a bird hide.
Of course, I kept an eye out for galls! And found three that were new to me.
And today:
07.12.2025 16:25 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A hand holding a book called The Scientific Names of the British Lepidoptera
Today's secondhand book treat
07.12.2025 16:24 — 👍 14 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1Oh yes, I've got rather into them this year, and been thinking of getting some of the newer guides. But this was a bargain, so why not
06.12.2025 17:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Ooh love that!
06.12.2025 17:37 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A hand holding a Plant Galls book
Treated myself in the charity shop today, especially when I found out it was 50% off hardbacks!
06.12.2025 16:15 — 👍 21 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0Yessssss! Looking forward to this coming out!
05.12.2025 17:26 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Silly tenerals always causing confusion! 😆
05.12.2025 17:24 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Aha, that could be a good shout. I hadn't considered that as the wings don't look like they have enough colour to them, but perhaps that's just the angle - and me underestimating how mild the wing colour is on the female.
05.12.2025 14:20 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A green damselfly perched on a stem
Getting myself in a muddle with emerald damselflies, anyone able to share their ID thoughts.
I thought this was a Willow Emerald, based on the pale pterostigma (wingspots), but now I'm not sure...
Indeed, hopefully it will inspire some adventures!
04.12.2025 20:46 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
December header photo winner is Andy Gamble with this stunning shot of a Great Spotted Woodpecker taken at Farthinghoe Nature Reserve in Northants!
02.12.2025 10:06 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 2
🎅We are taking part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge every £10 you give to help ancient woodlands this week will become £20 but don’t wait, we only have a week.
Donate today here donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=71BZ...
Update - slight delay on printing means this will actually be coming out in February.
04.12.2025 11:49 — 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Congratulations to my colleague at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust Dr @hannahjsellers.bsky.social on the publication of the second paper from her PhD!
Read the #OpenAccess paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Help us unlock the Plants of the Past, by supporting volunteers to digitise decades of paper records & inform C21st science!
@biggive.bsky.social
From #GivingTuesday to 9 Dec, we have £10K in matched funds to unlock: every donation, however small, will be doubled:
donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...
A small black cat with wide open eyes in the branches of a Christmas tree.
She's too cute.
And an absolute menace to the Christmas decorations - no fragile ones have been used this year.
Author copies might be arriving just before Christmas, woohoo!!
Publication date: mid-January
Top side of a leaf, showing a small light green gall and four holes
Underside of a leaf with small orange-brown spots
Top side of a leaf, showing some small light green galls
Underside of a leaf with small orange-brown spots
Since then, I've spotted both out in the wild whilst on some @wildlifebcn.org work days, first at the Wellcome Trust's nature reserve in Cambs and then today at Pitsford Water in Northants.
Even when the Lighthouse gall falls off, it leaves a very distinctive hole (shown in first pic).
Top side of a leaf, showing a small light green gall
Underside of a leaf with small orange-brown spots
New November galls - part 2!
A Rutland Water last week included a chat with Tim Sexton about galls, and he showed me a Ground-ivy leaf with the Lighthouse Gall on it, caused by midge Rondaniola bursaria.
I flipped the leaf over and found another gall - caused by rust fungus Puccinia glechomatis.
A line-up of soup vessels with a creamy soup
Holding up half a marrow
Soup season has begun!
I forgot about my courgettes at one point and ended up with marrows. Combined with my #homegrown potatoes (and some other bits), I've made some soup!
Still some marrow left, any #recipe suggestions?
A black parasitic wasp with orange leg, within an upside down plastic gold lid
A black parasitic wasp with orange leg, within a glass jar
A black parasitic wasp with orange leg, within an upside down plastic gold lid
I didn't have much hope I'd get an identification when I found this ichneumon #wasp.
But it seems that it is one of the easier ones, and on the excellent @nhm-london.bsky.social PDF ID guide.
A female Black Slip Wasp (Pimpla rufipes), a parasite on Lepidoptera caterpillar.
I've been looking more closely at the Cola-nut pics, and the little brown patch on the leaf.
Could it be a Blister Gall caused by Neuroterus numismalis f. sexual?
Which one(s) do you have? I keep coming across new(to me) galls on oaks, there's so many different ones!
03.11.2025 19:42 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A curved brown gall attached to an Oak stem
Two brown spheres attached to an Oak twig
November brings more galls - part one!
A walk through a local woodland yesterday, and I spotted two new (to me) gall species - both produced by Andricus gall wasps, and on oak trees.
1. Ramshorn gall (Andricus aries f. agamic).
2. Cola-nut gall (Andricus lignicola).
A very milky water, with a teabag that has just been added
When you're given a cup of hot water with milk, and you have to add and brew the teabag yourself.
Just wrong.
We are very much not rushing I think. Our current status is older cat sat on fourth step of stairs*, whilst Lucy plays with a toy in the hallway.
*with treats at start of each session, then she will watch for a bit, and then head back upstairs.
He was initially very unsure, but they've settled into a rhythm of play
28.10.2025 18:53 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
