Restoring Shropshire's Verges Project

Butterfly Conservation's Butterflies and Moths to see in February: Small Tortoiseshell, Herald, Brimstone, Pale Brindled Beauty, Peacock, Spring Usher, Red Admiral, Satellite, Comma

February flutters in with more butterflies and moths to spot this month 🦋

As the days get longer and the flowers return, here are some of the species to look out for over the next few weeks in your gardens and local green spaces.

This looks interesting …

This looks interesting …

2-3 mm Mauve-pink flowers of Field Madder amongst their whorled, pointed green leaves.

Field Madder. Most conspicuous in the size of its very tiny mauve-pink flowers. A new one for me observed along a well trodden Lincolnshire farmland footpath #WildflowerHour

A Restharrow of sorts but despite some apparent spines, which one I am still not sure. #WildflowerHour

A Selfheal flower amongst Muscari straps at the edge of a concrete path. Some viewers may be able to see a face or two amongst its purple bracts and calyces

With a hint of pareidolia, this fantastic Selfheal flower at the edge of our garden path has been watching me go to work all week and was still around this late afternoon to see me in after a working weekend #WildflowerHour

Hedgerow-Crane’s-bill against a backdrop of concrete succeeded by moss, grasses and other vegetation

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill amongst the concrete remnants of a former Lincolnshire airfield #WildflowerHour

Two fab carrots from down that way also. Bupleurum tenuissimum, mostly in fruit now and Bupleurum falcatum flowering away on its road verge. #wildflowerhour

I'm honoured to have had a positive review from Mark!

Sickle-leaved Hare’s-ear Bupleurum falcatum on its Essex road verge. Native-or-not, who cares, it’s lovely and still flowering well. The second of two edge-of-patch ticks today

A late flowering Common Vetch on a road verge at Canworthy Water in Cornwall today for #WildflowerHour

Vicia sativa subsp segetalis

Meadowsweet still has a few plants in flower amongst hundreds along a rural road verge at Canworthy Water in Cornwall today for #WildflowerHour

Filipendula ulmaria

Close up view of a bottle brush tree trunk on the verge, the bark looks as if twisted. A small lizard, a penny lizard, is on the trunk blending in with the bark. Grass surrounds the trunk. A car wheel and rim is on the right, part of a car parked on the road under the tree. A very small part of the rear of another car parked on the road is seen at the top left corner.

Penny lizard on a tree trunk

#photography #treetrunk #lizard #camouflage

Some interesting earth tongues of different shapes, and a photo with a rabbit poo for scale. All on a grassy moorland road verge growing with some waxcaps yesterday.
With @wonkyeggs.bsky.social who did all the digital recording because I (🙄)hadn't downloaded the @plantlifeuk.bsky.social waxcap app

🎭🎨 Market Drayton is bursting with creativity – from local artists & theatre to heritage & hands-on workshops.

Explore the town’s vibrant arts & culture scene 👇
🔗 zurl.co/Unh0Z

#MarketDrayton #ArtsAndCulture #MakeItMarketDrayton #ShropshireEvents #SupportLocal

🚍 North Salop Wheelers Community Bus makes it easy to explore Market Drayton! Every Wednesday, catch a ride to shop, meet friends, & enjoy the town. It's a lifeline for rural communities. 🌟
Want to join? Visit zurl.co/gHvi3
#MarketDrayton #Volunteer

Skylark

Skylark in the heather on The Long Mynd in South Shropshire, glad it spotted me so I could get this shot looking directly at the camera #birds #thegardenjungle #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #shropshire #UKwildlife #birdphotography #canon #photography

A cluster of red rowan fruit.

The red shiny fruit of the honeysuckle

A hawthorn with shiny red haws and glossy green leaves

Good morning 🌞 today features the colour red. The hedgerows and gardens are full of berries.
#gardenfeed 🌱

Oak Hook-tip

Flame

Frosted Orange

Pale Eggar

It looked like really quite traps at first this morning but it was better than it looked with 27 Species. 1 NFY with an Oak Hook-tip. Other highlights: Pale Eggar, Orange Swift, Centre-barred Sallow, Frosted Orange, Angle Shades, Ruby Tiger, Flame, Small Blood-vein #teammoth

A shiny metallic green Beetle on a Daisy-like flower of Mexican fleabane.

#Shiny beautiful. Thick-legged flower beetle on Mexican fleabane.
#BlueskyArtShow 📷 #photography

Pleased to get a Scorched Carpet (feedplant =Spindle) last night, albeit rather worn; adding to the ‘fire’ collection last night: Flame Carpet, Flame and Flame Shoulder. #teammoth

Hoary Ragwort and Fleabane providing splashes of late summer colour at @teeswildlife.bsky.social Bowesfield Marsh NR, Stockton-on-Tees.

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Poland trip report 2025 | Curlew Action The Curlew Action team revisit Poland to learn about the impacts that EU Life funding is having on conserving Curlews.

...The huge, overriding problems remain, however, and they are ones we share across Europe and the UK; how do ground-nesting birds live on farmland?"

Read Mary's report from Curlew Action's visit to Poland in May:

Poland trip report 2025 | Curlew Action The Curlew Action team revisit Poland to learn about the impacts that EU Life funding is having on conserving Curlews.

"Poland’s Curlews are in crisis, but the EU Life funding is holding out a lifeline. The team, both professional and volunteers, are doing a wonderful job and it gives us all hope for the future...

Open statement by leading environmentalists demands government action over “toxic cocktail of chemicals” spread on British farmland | Fighting Dirty In the UK, we have a dirty secret that’s recently been brought into the light. Sewage sludge, we now know, contains far more than just human waste. Not only does a wide range of synthetic chemicals po...

Here's the Open Statement on sludge spreading launched by us at Fighting Dirty, and signed by many leading figures. The water companies are using farmland as a dump for hazardous chemicals. They mislead farmers, poison the land and threaten our health. It must stop. fightingdirty.org/open-stateme...

Purple form of Elder growing with the royal purple one gold flowers of Woody nightshade in a garden hedge

A rather pleasing serendipitous combo in a local garden hedge

"With those huge utricules, it's no wonder the inflorescence droops." One of the best sentences I've ever read in a botanical post.

bsky.app/profile/paul...