David Bentley

Looking down over around six four-petalled pinky/purple flowers, with others about to open.

Cuckoo cuckoo! Cuckooflower is out.
aka Milkmaids
aka Lady's Smock
aka Pink Folly
aka Meadowcress
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
#WildflowerHour
#UKwildlife

I understand and concur. And if I didn't already, I might well be swayed by such an eloquent piece of writing.🙏🏼

A bit of early evening musing…

northdownsandbeyond.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-...

A view from a Rye Harbour bird hide of saltmarsh and saline pool habitats just after high tide today. The skies are cloudy.

Gooders Hide, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, perhaps best just after high-tide, is a good place to compare Rock Pipits and 'Scandinavian' Rock Pipits in summer plumage right now. It was good to show both to 'Guide in the Hide' visitors today.
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@sussexornitholo.bsky.social

A view over reedbeds and a waterbody, under bright blue skies.

80 bird species in warm sun at Rye Harbour NR today including 22+ Sandwich Tern, c100 Avocet, Spotted Redshank, c450 Golden Plover, Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Red Kite, lots of singing Chiffchaff and loads more.
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@sussexornitholo.bsky.social
#UKwildlife
#UKbirds

I like BBC South East News anchor Ian Palmer. He's a wonderful, calm antithesis to many other posturing, gurning newsreaders. He looks and sounds like he's ready for bed when he reads the late news.
#bbc
#news

I have no doubt that a Blackbird's song is the best song.
I can take or leave a Song Thrush's song.
I know other people who would argue the exact opposite.
I find that fascinating and wonderful.
Even though the other people are wrong.
#UKbirds
#UKwildlife
#birdsong

'We need to fill in the potholes.'
Clap clap clap.
'We need to freeze the Council Tax.'
Clap clap clap.
#bbcqt
#QuestionTime

A brown, grey and black House Sparrow with its chunky body and beak. Photograph by Alan Martin.

Rye News article about House Sparrows, accompanied by excellent photography.
www.ryenews.org.uk/nature-and-e...

#UKwildlife
#UKbirds
#Sussexbirds
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@sussexornitholo.bsky.social

Two large white and yellow star-shaped flowers and green lobed leaves.

The Wood Anemones down the lane are flowering a fortnight earlier than last year. Feels too soon and too fast. Still, better enjoy it 🤍.
#UKwildlife
#Sussexwildlife
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social

I saw a knights templar flag (black, white, red cross) drooping over a house in a village near here. Chilling. It's used by the far-right as an anti-Muslim and racist emblem. We're one step away from seeing nazi flags flying in the UK.
Reject this crap, peacefully ✊🏼
#UKpolitics

Two black, yellow and brown bees on the yellowish flowers of Alexanders.

Arrived back in East Sussex to find that Spring had beaten me. Brimstones & Peacocks, bumble bees etc... all-comer insects whetting the appetite for months to come. Field guides say these Yellow-legged Mining Bees emerge from 'late March.'
#Sussexwildlife
#insects
#bees
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social

A 'rosette' of very large, shiny green leaves

The leaves of this Lizard Orchid near Rye, East Sussex, already hold blemishes. They'll be tatty, discoloured and almost withered away by the time it flowers in June.
#UKorchids
#UKwildlife
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social

A flat, arable landscape with pylons under a gloomy cloudy sky.

Hard work, but fun, between Scots Float & Newington Bridge on edge of the marsh: 130 Teal, 7 Wigeon, 8 Gadwall, Woodcock, Great White Egret, 12 Yellowhammer, 5 Stonechat, 70 Redwing, 120 Fieldfare, Red Kite, Marsh Harrier. NO Corn Buntings here this winter.
#UKwildlife
#Sussexwildlife
#Kentwildlife

Male Blackbirds squaring up in the garden.
Buttercup beaks and sharp yellow eyerings.
Set against licorice bodies.
I'm ringside 🖤
#UKbirds
#UKwildlife

A pool backed by attractive, skeletal trees, with a bright blue sky above.

Biked to Camber.
Saw Mediterranean Gulls back 'mewing' in the fields.
Didn't see Little Grebes back 'whinneying' in the reeds.
Two Spoonbills said nothing at all.
#UKwildlife
#UKbirds
#Sussexwildlife

Rosettes of tapered, hairy leaves with the tiny white flowers of Common Whitlowgrass along with moss species growing on Camber Castle in East Sussex.

Common Whitlowgrass is flowering on Camber Castle, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve.💚
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social
#UKwildlife
#wildflowerhour
#Sussexwildlife
#flowers

A very full waterbody, with just little bits of emergent vegetation, under a partially blue sky, with dead reeds piled up in the foreground.

So good to be back counting birds at Castle Water, Rye Harbour NR! 8 Cattle Egret, 1 Great White Egret, 134 Shoveler, 165 Gadwall, 55 Teal, 62 Tufted Duck, 12 Pochard, 800 Lapwing, 2 Marsh Harrier, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Raven, 54 species.
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
#UKbirds
#UKwildlife
#Sussexwildlife

In early Winter, as usual, Redwings fed on Hawthorn berries in local hedgerows. Then, as expected, they moved on to the Ivy berries. Now they're back on the horse paddocks by our house and nature's calendar points us towards Spring.
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@sussexornitholo.bsky.social
#UKbirds

Racist words from Jim Rat saying the country has been colonised by immigrants. It was on Sky News.

This sort of rubbish is subtly - or overtly - supported by the UK press every single day. We must SHOUT about it or we are complicit.

We must SHOUT about it or we are complicit!

This rat's tax residency is Monaco. He thinks he is a 'True patriot'.

He offers nothing to this country.

✊🏻 Sending a big message of support, hoping it helps a little bit. Nothing lasts forever. When I'd more or less given up, I somehow pulled through, more or less. ✊🏻

The UK press response to the Epstein files has become a political sideshow targeted at a single nasty rat-of-a-man.
They're ignoring that this is about disgusting sex crimes by super-powerful men against girls.
How is that possible?

I've not heard back from iRecord as to whether this is Hedychrum rutilans, seen at Camber on 5/8/25. Where else might a beginner go to pass on the info and hopefully determine ID? Any help much appreciated.
#bugsky
#insects
#CuckooWasps
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@graemelyons.bsky.social
#wasps

There are upwards of 200 Redwing along the lane, feeding exclusively on berries on the Ivy that some people want removing for the benefit of wildlife.
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@sussexornitholo.bsky.social
#UKwildlife
#UKbirds

A view through Oak and Field Maple trees to the rising sun behind distant trees, with a burnt-orange glow in the sky.

Morning, lovely morning.
#sunrise
#Sussex

A mock-up of a road sign, pointing left towards 'Yeah Yeah Industrial Estate'

Yeah Yeah
Industrial Estate
#FallFriday

Violet flowers and 'heart'- shaped leaves, all growing out of the same, central point.

Sweet Violet flowers are out at Castle Water. Cut through the rain and gloom and there are bright things. 💜
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social
#UKwildlife
#Sussexwildlife

Bright yellow flowers, like closed-up buttercups, and whorls of shiny green leaves, covered in raindrops. There are dead, brown tree leaves covering the ground beneath.

It never got light.
It never stopped raining.
Yet, somehow, the bright yellow flowers and shiny green 'ruffs' of Winter Aconite shone bright and cut through the gloom.
@sussexwildlife.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
#WildflowerHour
#UKwildlife
#flowers

A flooded valley, with public footpath under water, stretching out into the middle distance, with higher ground beyond. The skies are grey with heavy cloud-cover.

Rother/Wet Levels on E. Sussex/Kent border is flooded and very good: 30 Pintail, 8 Goosander, 500 Wigeon, 100 Teal, 35 Shoveler, 40 Gadwall, 4 Great White Egret, 1,400 Lapwing, 6 Raven, 4 Red Kite (+8 more towards Small Hythe).
#UKwildlife
@sussexornitholo.bsky.social
@kentishplover.bsky.social

The River Rother in the foreground, with flooded, low-lying land beyond and an industrial estate in the background.

Two Spoonbill today at the new intertidal habitat - that will develop into saltmarsh - by the River Rother in Rye. It's so far held Great White Egret, Greenshank, Curlew, Avocet, Redshank, Dunlin, Lapwing, Shelduck, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal & more.
#UKwildlife
#UKbirds
@sussexornitholo.bsky.social