Enid Barrie

3 beetles with bluish/purple sheen on a sandy path.

Walking through the great wood at Blickling I counted at least 40 of these dor beetles on a 10 metre section of the main path, many more in the grass either side.
@norfolknats.bsky.social
#invertebrates

Red and black striped adult Striped Shieldbug alongside browner nymph with beige stripes on raggedy dock leaf.

Found a Striped Shieldbug (Graphosoma italicum) nymph at Abbey Gardens, Waltham Abbey, Essex alongside seven adults today. The second local location with confirmed breeding this year. #EssexWildlife #UKBugs

A large metallic green chafer beetle with several thin white markings is on a spiky burdock flowerhead.

I had a successful walk at Catton Park this afternoon, seeing a Clouded Yellow - my first one in the Norwich area (two had been seen there yesterday per Peter Walton) and a new beetle for me, Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata).

Pleased to see flowers on Veratrum nigrum when watering yesterday afternoon.

Another plant we hope to get seed from, get it germinated, and grown big enough to sell. Then you get to wait 8 to 10 years for flowers....

#gardening

A frog on an eggbox in my moth trap. #TeamMoth

The same Common Frog on an eggbox in my trap. This one is taken from a low angle so shows its throat and chest. #Frog

Not the moth I was hoping for in my trap last night.

I often find frogs on the ground round my trap and occasionally they jump up on top of the trap, but I think this is the first time I've found one actually in the trap. I wonder how many moths I lose to them?

We all like a good lacebug, so here’s a couple of common ones: Kalama tricornis and Acalypta parvula.

I had the same and explained they were grown on purpose:))

@norfolknats.bsky.social Speckled bush cricket in the garden yesterday.

Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady, 2 of each, Ingoldisthorpe today @norfolknats.bsky.social @norfolkbutterflies.bsky.social

Moth trap first last night - Strictoleptura rubra- longhorn beetle

Chickweed Wintergreen Lysimachia europaea. Very locally common in the woods here on Deeside, Aberdeenshire. Long past flowering, but the fruiting heads are as attractive. @bsbibotany.bsky.social

8x Lime Flame (Chrysoclista lineella) found yesterday on gravestones under lime tree in Old Calton Burial Ground, #Edinburgh. #moths #teammoth #Chrysoclistalineella
#CemeteryWildlifeWatch recording activity on #iRecord.

Good morning from the boys and me.

They’re very glad we live by a pond where there’s still some fresh food for breakfast.

“If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true.”

This principle should run through journalism like the words in a stick of rock. Yet somehow, day after day, it seems to evade the BBC's finest minds.

Marsh Pea Lathyrus palustris

Early Marsh-orchid Dactylorhiza incarnata

White Water-lily Nymphaea alba

Arrowhead Sagittaria sagittifolia

Reed festooned with purple-flowered Marsh Pea, sedge-rich swards with fresh-looking Early Marsh-orchids and crystal-clear spring-fed lodes with a rich aquatic flora including native White Water-lily and Arrowhead - Wicken Fen at its finest!

#wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Sign the petition: Michelle Mone should be removed from the House of Lords 18 months ago, Michelle Mone admitted she lied to the media about her links to a PPE firm that profited during the pandemic. Enough is enough. Sign the petition to demand she’s expelled from the House...

Michelle Mone has admitted that she lied to the media over her links to a PPE firm. Enough is enough, it's time those in power put an end to this sordid affair. Sign the petition now and demand Mone is expelled from the House of Lords: act.38degrees.org.uk/act/expel-Mo...

Dangerous pesticides and pet flea treatment detected in English rivers for first time Exclusive: Wensum and Tone found to have high concentrations of chemicals that are toxic to aquatic life

🚨Research finds pesticides used in agriculture & pet flea treatment in English rivers

🧪Toxic neonics can be lethal to insects & fish even in very small quantities

⛔Where safer alternatives exist, chemicals that harm wildlife should be removed from the market

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A montage of eight photographs of different species of pseudoscorpion on a pale green background. The species are: 1st row Chthonius ischnocheles and Chthonius tetrachelatus, 2nd row Neobisium carcinoides and Pselaphochernes scorpioides, 3rd row Lamprochernes nodosus (tritonymph) and Lamprochernes savignyi and 4th row Chernes cimicoides and Dendrochernes cyrneus.

A little montage of the eight species of pseudoscorpion I have managed to find in Norfolk this year. IDs in ALT text. I have turned over a lot of stones and sieved rather a lot of leaf litter not to mention muck heaps...

Common Spotted, Southern Marsh - praetermissa, a budding Lizard, White Helleborine; Fly, Burnt, Military, Common Twayblade; Early Marsh - incarnata, a budding Chalk Fragrant, Frog; Man, a pale Green-winged, Early Spider & Early Purple 🙂

For the #WildflowerHour challenge this week - #WildFlowerShow, here is a selection of this season's #orchids, mainly from Cambs. and neighbouring counties.
Still more to come... 🙂
Names in ALT text.
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
@ukorchids.bsky.social

'Solid Gold' is putting on a big, bright show this year.
#iris 🌱

A pretty epic day in Upper Teesdale! Ferns on the agenda with 16 species found during a five hour slog but difficult not to get distracted by just about everything else...

📸 Bird's-eye Primrose, Mountain Everlasting, Mountain Pansy

Many, many more photos to come... #botany

Military Orchid

Purple Milk-vetch

Breckland Birthwort

Rare Spring Sedge

A great few day pointing at special Breckland plants with Wilts Bot Soc: Military Orchid Orchis militaris, Purple Milk-Vetch Astragalus danicus, Breckland Birthwort Aristolochia hirta and Rare Spring Sedge Carex ericetorum #wildflowerhour

Toby Carvery admits felling ancient Whitewebbs oak tree The owner of the pub chain falsely claimed the tree was dead as justification for the felling which has shocked local people and prompted outrage from conservationists across the country

A 450-yo oak is felled without permission by a Toby Carvery (don’t eat there), who falsely claimed it was "dead".
A tree alive when The Gunpowder Plot was hatched, which supports a web of 2000+ species, is in pieces.
Legal protection for heritage trees needed.
enfielddispatch.co.uk/toby-carvery...

One or our loveliest spring butterflies: the Map (A levana, landkaartje). After their large 3rd gen in Sept last year, we now have good numbers this spring, today four in our 15min count in the Wageningen floodplains.

A plant with green stem and pale pink flowers growing in rough ground with woodland behind.

A plant with pink flowers and green stem growing at the edge of a pond.

These pretty Cuckooflowers have rapidly become a favourite. A good companion on a long walk, they follow you from the woods along the field ditches and back to the paths and common near home.

#WildflowerHour #WoodlandPlants

Black Francolin

Kotschy's Bee Orchid

#Cyprusbirding - Day 4 - 21st March 2025 blueeyedbirding.blogspot.com/2025/04/cypr...
A day around Akrotiri with Francolins, warblers and waders but where Kotschy's Bee Orchid was the accidental find of the day. With @dbradnum.bsky.social & @birdingtothemax.bsky.social #birds

This is really important for everyone to be aware when out & about in the British countryside. 15 years ago I rarely had ticks on me during fieldwork. Nowadays I have several every time I'm in the same woods. Ticks can & do cause life-changing health problems.

Ho ho ho.......

#Kitileaks Inspiration behind Trump's economic "strategy" revealed: