Joey Pickard

Yep they’re both visible on google - lapwing here maps.app.goo.gl/dGkPi5mX62z9... and curlew here maps.app.goo.gl/wGRqp7UJcmEo...

A curlew made from a peat bund

A lapwing made from peat bunds

Increasingly jealous of there being not one but two giant artworks in peatland restoration sites in Ireland where they’ve made first a curlew, and now a lapwing from the bunds. Time to start a crowdfund to make one in the Rhondda of that one sheep who harasses you for ice cream on top of the Bwlch

Four sheep in a foggy heath

Some absolutely stunning views for peat depth surveys today. Now that’s what I call a gorgeous Welsh summer!

Gwna wahaniaeth!
Mae hon yn swydd allweddol i gyflawni amcanion Adfer Mawndir Cymru. Byddwch yn dod â'ch sgiliau a'ch arbenigedd i gefnogi'r tîm deinamig a llwyddiannus sy’n anelu at #NaturUwchCarbonIs.
bit.ly/45ieGkI
£45K-£50K+
Cau 15/9/2025
@natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social

Make a difference!
This is a key post to achieve the aims of Wales Peatland Action. You’ll bring your skills and expertise to support the dynamic and successful NPAP team aiming for #HighNatureLowCarbon.
bit.ly/3H1UbAR
£45K-£50K+
Closing 15/9/2025
@natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social

Having recently spent time walking over a site - in the rain - while a guy with a stick magnetometer manually checks each point we needed to take a depth measurement at, I’d love it if people could develop this drone based solution at light speed so I don’t have to do it again

The web of a labyrinth spider in Juncus, the entrance to the funnel is central in the frame with a platform shaped web extending out from it

The funnel of the labyrinth spider web, the entrance is to the left of the frame and the funnel extends into the Juncus to the right

Found more labyrinth spiders on a lowland peat survey today. Didn’t manage to get the best photo but it made its funnel web through a very loose stand of Juncus and you could see the whole funnel structure, fascinating to look at

An upland peatland site in south Wales

Bog asphodel

All sorts of weather from 10 minutes of driving rain to an hour of blazing sun on site for peatland water vole surveys today. Managed to catch the last of the bog asphodel in flower as well, expecting them all to be bright orange in seed the next time I see them

Big fan also of there being two separate slime mould species named dog vomit slime mould and dog sick slime mould as their common names. Great job taxonomists of the past, way to reel in the masses with approachable and clearly differentiated names /s

A white slime mould on Sphagnum fimbriatum and subnitens

A white slime mould on Molinia

Where are the slime mould people on this app and can they please confirm if this is Didymium spongiosum (which is also mucilago crustacea reclassified?) growing on Sphagnum and Molinia in an upland peatland in the Valleys? Not one I’ve seen before in a bog and it’s thrown me

PeatECR Bio Series - a monthly spotlight on one researcher/practitioner working in and around wetlands. If you or someone you know would like to be featured, please email us at peatecr@gmail.com with attention to Rahel Bauerdick, our current coordinator of this series. Please share far and wide to help us reach more early-career folk around the world!

New Series Alert!💚Welcome to the PeatECR bio series, a monthly spotlight on one early-career researcher/practitioner working in and around wetlands (no discrimination between peatlands and non-peatlands in this case). If you or someone you know would like to be featured, please get in touch with us!

Leeza Speranskaya is a Masters graduate from the University of Waikato, now working as an environmental scientist at a consultancy. She is a self-proclaimed data cruncher but enjoys the occasional bush-bash, both of which she got to experience during her Masters! Leeza’s Masters research focussed on Kopuatai bog, a unique peatland ecosystem located near Paeroa, New Zealand. Kopuatai is dominated by a plant called Empodisma robustum, a wire rush that has allowed this peatland to form due to its high water retention abilities. Specifically, this plant conserves water through restricted transpiration and its dense standing litter. Leeza’s research had two components - (a) analysing over 10 years of evaporation data (i.e., data crunching) which was diligently collected by her supervisor Dave Campbell via the eddy covariance method, and (b) measuring interception loss by collecting rainwater from under the dense E. robustum structure (i.e., bush-bashing). The 10-year evaporation dataset was compared to that of Mer Bleue, Canada, in collaboration with key researchers Peter Lafleur and Elyn Humphreys, to determine the impact of their differing vegetation types on evaporation. This research was able to confirm that E. robustum does in fact have higher water retention capabilities than the Sphagnum mosses found at Mer Bleue during dry canopy conditions, while wet canopy conditions allowed for higher evaporation due to interception loss. An analysis of evaporation patterns with increasing vapour pressure deficit (VPD) at Kopuatai and Mer Bleue indicated that E. robustum is able to restrict evaporation at high VPD, which may allow it to be more resistant to climatic warming and drying compared to ecosystems like Mer Bleue.

PeatECR Bio Series #1 - just in time to introduce our first featured bio in for July 2025 💚
Today we introduce Leeza Speranskaya, a recent MSc graduate, focusing on evaporation dynamics in restiad peat bogs. Connect with Leeza here:
www.linkedin.com/in/leeza-spe...
#PeatECRBioSeries

The red longhorn is the first longhorn beetle I’ve seen in the Valleys uplands for a while - not that I’ve been actively looking for them - the last one was a two banded longhorn I found during afforested peat GHG surveys

Red longhorn beetle on Sitka spruce stump, south Wales

Common carpet moth on Molinia in a peatland site, south Wales

Two species added to the ongoing tally for upland peatland inverts in the Valleys for me. Red longhorn beetle and common carpet moth

Campaign to save Cwm Rhondda chapel for community A campaign to save the chapel has raised almost half the funds needed after just four days.

Excellent to see this campaign to save Capel Rhondda, #Pontypridd

Campaign to save Cwm Rhondda chapel for community www.bbc.com/news/article...

Delighted to share that I'm now represented by Past Preservers for all future TV expert appearances! Can't wait to get started when next documentary job appears!🦈

You can check out my profile with them here: pastpreservers.com/portfolio/dr...

Watch my showreel here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGrL...

A collie looking at a peatland ecologist in a drain in a molinia dominated blanket bog in south wales

It was Indy’s first field day back on peatland e-collie-gist duty after his foot injury. One very happy dog. He also spent some time supervising @mikeshewring.bsky.social to make sure Mike’s work was up to Indy’s high standards

Supporting wellbeing through heritage and nature - Hapus Explore how Coed Lleol’s nature-based wellbeing programmes and the Lost Peatlands Project in Wales restore peatlands, boost mental health, and protect heritage.

Just seen an article pop up in the wild about the amazing work done by Katie our Lost Peatlands Health and Wellbeing Officer. Hard to convey how in awe I am of colleagues on the people side of our project between the work they do with community groups and local schools

hapus.wales/news/support...

If anyone’s not seen the news about the new Gower Landscape Connections project there’s a press release from National Landscapes here. Exciting for me to be able to engage as a resident with this project and I’m hoping they’ll achieve great things!

national-landscapes.org.uk/news/gower-l...

We've started putting up signs at our #peatland restoration sites☺️ Check out these ones near Black Hut 👀 More will be installed over the next few weeks and you can click on the QR code to find out what's going on 💚

It's utterly appalling that students find themselves in this scale of debtsituation, and definitely not at all related to the continued failure of those running UKHE to lobby for a sustainable, just funding model. /s

www.studentbeans.com/blog/uk/here...

The HE sector is of course thriving though and going from strength to strength so must be worth it for so many people my age to be in this situation and people younger than me to be so much worse off already

Very exciting and not at all stressful or spiral inducing to learn that when the next balance of interest is added to my student loan account I will in fact be in over ✨£70,000✨ of debt for my BSc and MSc five and a half years after finishing despite constantly having multiple jobs

An ecologist surveying peatland drains

Jean Cors Van Damme

(Cors is Welsh for bog so this is in fact a very well thought out and excellent joke, trust me)

Thanks to @mikeshewring.bsky.social for the photo of this very normal approach to surveying peat drains

Next up: New research has discovered a paradoxical relationship between people not trusting the wizard and knowing it’s just a weird old git hiding behind a big curtain giving them pointless tasks

Why Understanding AI Doesn’t Necessarily Lead People to Embrace It New research has uncovered a paradoxical relationship between AI literacy and receptivity: Individuals with lower AI literacy are more likely to embrace AI, despite perceiving it as less capable and m...

Interesting summary read I think, although I’m not sure I would say that people understanding the limitations and issues of something making them less likely to use it is a paradox.

hbr.org/2025/07/why-...

A view of the Rhondda, south Wales. In the foreground hundreds of Sitka spruce which tragically got burned to an absolute crisp

A large sphagnum hummock in Molinia on a peatland

And some depth surveys post fire for a site at Cefn Rhondda. Not much deep peat where the trees established and then got crisped. Then much deeper in the open section which seemingly burned less and had massive hummocks of Sphagnum, but not much other mire veg, seems common for forested peat here

A drain through a potential forest to bog restoration site near Cwmaman, south Wales

A remnant peat feature surrounded by forestry near Cwmaman, south Wales

Interesting couple of sites for the new #LostPeatlands project surveyed today. Massive drains through this remnant peat feature near Cwmaman, there’s a 1m peat probe in the drain if you can spot it.

Dog vomit slime mould Fusigo septica

A gilled fungus, potentially Lichenomphalia umbellifera

A gilled fungus, potentially Lichenomphalia umbellifera

Two fungi spotted on peat depth surveys today. I know what the slime mould is, mainly because the name dog vomit slime mould is impossible to forget. As for the gilled one, not sure, my best guess is Lichenomphalia umbellifera. Happy to be corrected by someone better at mycology than me!

A view of the Rhondda, south Wales. In the foreground hundreds of trees which tragically burned a relatively short time after planting and never reached their ultimate end of being chipped and burned for biofuel after not growing very well on acidic, peaty soils

A big hummock of Sphagnum in a peatland site with some trees remaining after recent fires

And some post fire peat checks on a site at Cefn Rhondda, not much peat where the trees were established and subsequently crisped but massive remnant hummocks - among very few other mire veg species - in the peaty areas of the site, which seems common for forest to bog sites around here.