Andrew Beaven

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Stunning, aren't they?
Not seen one, yet, this year, but still hoping.
They seem to like a local council depot, with a hedge of hawthorn & (young) oak.

Super little local museum at Valence House. Found out that Barking used to be a major fishing port!

Would @londonmulberries.bsky.social know?

Old mechanical typewriter. Dusty, black metal. Round keys in QWERTY format, with additional set of 5 GB currency (sterling - £sd) keys above.

5 Round keys on old typewriter, labeled successively: £1/1d; £19/10d; £100/.; £1000/1s; £10,000/10s. Looking rather like an old-style cash register.

Are there any #typewriter #skystorians on here?
Saw this beauty yesterday, and wondered who needed the special keys at the top of the keyboard — £1/1d; £19/10d; £100/.; £1000/1s; £10,000/10s.

Google Picture search suggests it is a Royal, but has not helped with the currency keys.

Tree plaque, Valentines Park, Ilford Sir Frederic Wise DL MP 1920-28 1937

Tree plaque, Barkingside Recreation Ground, Ilford James Deneson (?) [1937 - from another photo]

Belatedly got around to collating some photos of the Barkingside trees.
Just one plaque visible (plus another subsumed into a still-expanding tree).
Compare Sir Frederic Wise, from Valentines - looks like the same crest (a tree within a shield outline).

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Visit to #EssexWildlife #FingringhoeWick.
Highlight was nightingale, cuckoo, and turtle dove all calling at the same time.

Shame we can’t post audio files, yet. 🎶

Naivety? Or honesty?
Should Lineker simply toe the line? Ingratiate himself with he new boss?
Lazy headline, by the way.

Is this the wrong way around? Not that atheists believe that religious faith is positive, but that religious faith (the positive, morally foundation of religion) is a construct of basic human morality?

YouTube video by Altitude Films OCEAN WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH | BOTTOM TRAWLING OFFICIAL CLIP | IN CINEMAS NOW | Altitude Films

Watched #OceanWithDavidAttenborough this afternoon.
Scenes of bottom trawling were devastating.
But there is hope.
🐋🐬🐟🐠🌊
#DavidAttenborough #OceanFilm
youtu.be/IzG9AwlypaY

Saw 2 in a nest this week. On an island in a local park lake.
2 clutches last year, in separate nests at either end of the island, 5 (giant) chicks in all.

Next time I am in the Rec, I shall.

There are (or were) lots of fine old trees (alternating horse chestnuts & red horse chestnuts, I think - white & red flowers) in Barkingside Rec, all with brass plaques dated in the late 1930s.
One for Ronnie Grice, if I remember correctly.
Could that have been the work of the Men of the Trees?

Green hair streak butterfly, Callophrys rubi, sat on a blade of grass. A small (less than 1”) butterfly, with wings held upright, iridescent green coloration on underwing, paler towards the ragged outer edges.

A slightly ragged winged green hairstreak, Callophrys rubi — looked like a walking leaf when I first spotted it —demonstrating how that green underwing coloration is produced by diffraction of light falling onto the intricate wing scales.

Canada goose yesterday.✅
Standing next to a lake with 50+ Canada geese…✅
But a yellowhammer? Now that’s a Bird of the Day!

Tiny green spider hanging from a thread off thenlearnof a flowering cherry (?) tree.

Photobombing spider for #TreeFlowers

Flowers on oak tree - male catkins, bright yellow.

Hawthorn flowers and buds in a cluster. 5 White petals.

Horse chestnut flowers & buds in a vertical spike.

And more #TreeFlowers for #WildflowerHour - Fairlop Waters, again, Bedfords Park

Willow catkin. Spiky pale green cone.

Flowers on willow tree - pale green flowes in a spike. white willow, Salix alba (?)

Willow flowers, or catkins. Male (?); goat willow, Salix caprea(?)

Willows at Fairlop Waters Country Park - I think one goat/pussy willow, one white/weeping…or something else?
#TreeFlowers #WildflowerHour

5 tiny lower jaw bones, each less than 1cm long, possibly bank vole (?), now in a sample box but recovered from owl pellets collected at Hainault Forest Country Park, spring 2025.

Page from Field Studies Council guide to owl pellets & their content, showing a selection of lower jaw bones from small rodents.

A small selection from the owl pellet “haul” in March.
We thought vole (teeth), possibly bank vole given the absence of a “chin”?
Thanks to Beth from #HainaultForestCountryPark for cleaning the finds & to
@fieldstudiesc.bsky.social for the handy guide to pellet finds!

Such an important initiative to create a more nature-literate nation.
And a simple mantra: Notice, Name, Nurture.
Spent a few hours yesterday at #HainaultForestCountryPark doing the first two.
Lots of bee flies over blackthorn hedges.

Engineering hope: how I made it my mission to help rebuild Ukraine’s critical infrastructure Bridges are not just engineering projects, they are lifelines.

Re-building bridges; re-building a nation.
“Engineering hope: how I made it my mission to help rebuild Ukraine’s critical infrastructure”
From @uk.theconversation.com

Stand up @paulpowlesland.bsky.social (I know you already do!)

Extraordinary “ordinary” moss — green spore capsules on red-brown stems sprouting from a mass of light green stems with finely toothed edges.

In a forest at the weekend…#HainaultForest, #WoodlandTrust, that is.

Brilliant white blackthorn flowers & buds, in front of a wall of white blooms.

Creamy white blackthorn flowers & buds in spring sunshine.

Tiny blue speedwell (?) flower - 4 petals, pale blue with darker veins, prominent stamen (pair) - set against a green leafy background.

Visit to #EssexWildlifeTrust Thameside Nature Discovery Park yesterday.
Teal, redshank & moorhens in the inlets (before the tide came in); little egret landing on the mudflats beyond; kestrel hanging over the picnic area.
But we probably spent as long looking at the early spring flowers!

1984 - watching my boss “go online” via an international telephone call (from London to Berne or Palo Alto) using an acoustic coupler (pure science fiction at the time…we still published on IBM punchcards; not sure we had even heard the phrase “go online”!)

Owls and owl pellets guide The FSC Owls and owl pellets identification guide is both a field guide to adult owls and shows you how to investigate owl pellets.

Fascinating morning investigating owl pellets with Beth from #VisionRedbridge at #HainaultForest.
Who’d have known that @fieldstudiesc.bsky.social had a guide to the contents!

Blackthorn flowers in spring sunshine. 5 White petals, with long stamen, tipped with yellow.

First blackthorn in bloom (that I have noticed) of the year!
#WildFlowerHour
#NotYellowFlowers

2/2
More — Newgate jailer; even bank notes in Birmingham (from the comment added to the original blog post about the Bank of England).

Do you think there are others?
@thegentleauthor.bsky.social