Joey Pickard

YouTube video by TEDx Talks Bogs are real superheroes, cast as villains | Dr. Merritt Turetsky | TEDxBoulder

Please share. Calling all bog lovers and peat aficionados - please drop a thumbs up or comment on this talk, and show TEDx why bogs are the best. My great hope is that we can drum up more bog champions in this world. With love and appreciation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWt9...

Question for the worldwide peat feed - are people aware of studies for Caesium 137 contamination for your work patch and is that something that anyone feels they need to consider for restoration works? Either as a driver for management or a constraint for what you could do? Thanks!

Visited the Lewis Merthyr coal tip above Trehafod last weekend. Once industrial spoil, it’s now heather, whinberry, lichens & warm bare ground supporting specialist wildlife. Conifers are creeping in, so management is key. Even in winter it’s beautiful 💚

#GloiNatur #CoaltoNature #CoalSpoil

Castlefield viaduct

A selection of embroidered ‘moss stitch’ artworks on a glass window overlooking a section of the Castlefield Viaduct

My moss stitch of a Sphagnum moss

An incredibly proud moment seeing my Sphagnum moss stitch amongst the other fantastic displays from the moss worlds project at the Castlefield Viaduct visitors centre. Huge congrats to the moss worlds team on a fantastic project and great exhibition. If you’re around Manchester - go and see it!

@britishlichensociety.org.uk

Concentric ring patterns formed (we think) by a lichen, at Shining Cliff Wood, Alderwasley, Derbyshire, image Derbyshire HER

Concentric ring patterns formed (we think) by a lichen, at Shining Cliff Wood, Alderwasley, Derbyshire, image Derbyshire HER

Concentric ring patterns formed (we think) by a lichen, at Shining Cliff Wood, Alderwasley, Derbyshire, image Derbyshire HER

I'm lichen it ...

I'm lichen it a lot!

These petroglyphs from Shining Cliff Woods are rather beautiful but sadly we don't think they're archaeology

'Concentric boulder lichen' (porpidia/actomelia) might be the answer, but none of the online pix are this spectacular - any lichenologists out there?

Bog-rosemary (Andromeda polifolia), a dwarf-shrub of lowland raised bog. The photo shows two erect, reddish stems with mid to dark green alternate leaves, the leaf margins curled downwards to hide a distinctive whitish underside. akin to culinary Rosemary leaves but broader. At the top of the first stem is a cluster of three beautiful pink flowers, each one a nodding bell with fused petals, and inflated base and a narrow tip where the bell pinches together, ending in small lobes. On the second stem, the flowers are still in bud and undeveloped. The plant stands out from a background sward of Heather (Calluna vulgaris) in the upper half of the photo and Common Haircap (Polytrichum commune) in the lower half of the photo, a mix of greens and browns giving an appropriate autumnal hue to proceedings. The narrow leaves of Hare's-tail Cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum) spike through the sward in random directions.

Day 4 is Bog-rosemary. With nodding pink bells and bicoloured, Rosemary-esque leaves, it brightens up autumnal raised bogs a treat!
It reaches the north of its range in central Scotland, where I spent several Sep days refinding old records of this local rarity from the 1980s and 90s #wildflowerhour

Pteridology (FERNS) with Dr. Fay-Wei Li — alie ward Fronds. Forest dwellers. Spores. Houseplants. Queer icons. We’ve got ferns. The charming and hilarious professor and author of “Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants,” Dr. Fay-...

WE GOT FERNS, folks.

I hope you like ferns. If you don’t, just listen and you will like ferns. 🌿🌿🌿

Dr. Li is hilarious and charming and you will love him. And ferns.

In conclusion: ferns.

www.alieward.com/ologies/pter...

First field day in a while this week at probably my favourite peat site of the year at Cwmparc. We managed to find some incredible macrofossils preserved close to the boundary with the underlying clay and bedrock strata. Almost intact Sphagnum plants with entire stem and branch sections! Great fun

Some amazing #peat macro fossils today at Cwmparc when augering with @bootlegbryos.bsky.social . Plenty of sphagnum, occasional bilberry and sedge I think!

Great to welcome Alys Fowler to #BIBConf25 today.
She picked up the BSBI/ Wildflower Society Presidents' Award for her book Peatlands, judged the most useful contribution this year to our understanding of British and Irish Botany. Congrats Alys, very welll-deserved!

Voilá! 🎉
#PeatECR (peatecr.com) is excited to announce that the #2026PeatECRCalendar is officially ready!
This year’s calendar showcases 12 stunning peatland wild life photographs contributed by peatland researchers.

Want to restore your peatland as an asset for future generations?
£10K-£250K grant to develop a plan and/or to action its restoration.
Recorded guidance webinar now online youtu.be/eTIOtUStmPY
Deadline 14/1/2026.
More here: bit.ly/4qbX6bT
@natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social
#farming

Checked out our shiny new website yet?
bsbi.org
New to @bsbibotany.bsky.social or #WildFlowerID?
We think you'll find it easier than ever to access resources, hear about events & learn more about wild plants in your area.
Seasoned botanist?
All your fave pages are still there + lots of new stuff!

A Marsh Fritillary - a brown and orange chequered butterfly.

Join us for our AGM on Thursday 20th November! 🦋

Come along to hear about what we've achieved over the last year and what exciting projects we've got coming up.

Find out more: champ.ly/EP-UFEs6

📸 Vaughn Matthews

What a day to be on the hill😍 Slightly chilly if you're not in a heated #digger cab though 🥶❄️

Hi, just found the starter pack after I saw a post on the British ecologists Facebook group, can’t get DMs to work, can I be added? Thanks 🙂

The recommendation from NRW national peat programme in Wales is Solinst levelogger and barologger 5. We’ve used trolls for some sites but have had the feedback that they’re not quite as good as solinst from our friendly neighbourhood ecohydrologist

An image of Dr. Rob Thomas holding a mug smiling at the camera with a stone wall in the background features in a circular frame over a background of white, green and pale pink colouring. Wording top left reads: Winner The Marsh Award for Ornithology Dr. Rob Thomas. The BTO logo and Marsh Charitable Trust logo are top right of the image.

The Marsh Award for Ornithology goes to Dr. Rob Thomas! @robthomasbirds.bsky.social has made a huge contribution to ornithology through academic research, teaching & mentorship that’s inspired generations of students. He’s also published a monograph on the Storm-petrels. @marshawards.bsky.social

Looking for a PhD in environmental science? I will soon have an advert out for a project at @liverpooluni.bsky.social with @ukceh.bsky.social & @nationaltrust.org.uk.

"Peatland drainage + rewetting across the UK uplands + lowlands"

All about GHG emissions and aquatic carbon. Watch this space!

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

‘Other investors’ means Trumps son in law, so I look forward to the next Star Wars Jedi game telling me that the empire is great and actually always was. I assume also now you can only build walls in the Sims

Apple Review #4: Knobbed Russet Holy fucking shit, look at this Shrek-Ass Apple. Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we begin, a note on how (and why) I’m reviewing these. The why, first. Once upon a time, ther…

Sure, let's eat and review this Shrek Ass of an apple --

Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges Gill admits to eight charges while an elected member of the European parliament

🚨 BREAKING: The former leader of Reform UK in Wales, Nathan Gill, has pleaded guilty to #bribery, admitting he received corrupt payments as a Brexit Party MEP in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament to promote Russia’s interests in #Ukraine.

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

I am glad to be part of the largest paper on bryophyte genomics. Spearheaded by Shanshan Dong and Yang Liu ( Fairy Lake Botanical Garden) presents: "A comprehensive super-pangenome analysis, incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte nuclear genomes......"
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

YFORY! | TOMORROW!

Ymunwch â Heneb a Buglife ar-lein am noson o Natur a Threftadaeth. Darlith AM DDIM. Archebwch le yma: heneb.org.uk/cy/event/dar...

Join Heneb and Buglife online for an evening of Nature and Heritage. FREE lecture. Book here: heneb.org.uk/event/henebs...

There’s an interesting series of 5 free online paleobotany lectures via the Oxford University Botanic Garden this autumn. You can book all 5 lectures here (scroll down webpage to ‘Get your tickets now’ button) www.obga.ox.ac.uk/event/dr-san... #paleobotany

A crowd in front of empty chairs with a background from the Australian comedian Matt Stewart’s show, Bad Boy, before the show starts

As I approach old age (30) it’s pretty rare I find myself out for late nights. Zero chance of missing Matt Stewart’s stand up show this week though, he made it all the way from Melbourne to Swansea! Great time, still laughing and a nice distraction from *gestures at the bin fire we call the UK*

Promotional poster for the “2026 PEAT Calendar” by the Peatland ECR Action Team. The calendar theme is “Wildlife.” The poster announces that photo submissions are open until September 30, 2025. The background features a scenic photo of a wooden boardwalk leading through a peatland toward snow-capped mountains under a colorful sunset sky. Photo credit: Justinas Sakas.

🚨📸 About 2 weeks left to send in your best #wildlife in a #peatland shot and publish in the 2026 edition of #PeatCalendar

Email to: PeatECR@gmail.com

Deadline: 30 September

I will be! It’s on my list of things to do for my desk week I’ve booked in next week so keep your eyes on the inbox