@featherbrainsue.bsky.social

Sir David Attenborough champions landmark Rothbury Appeal to raise £30m for nature and the nation | The Wildlife Trusts Ambitious UK wildlife project will pioneer nature recovery alongside farming, recreation, education, tourism

Sir David Attenborough champions landmark Rothbury Appeal to raise £30m for nature and the nation www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/sir-dav...

I wouldn't expect anything less😅

Clouded Yellow - how cool is that!

A blurry photo of a female Whinchat perched up on a Gorse twig. A broad white supercilium stretches from above the bill to the ear coverts, it's chest has a rusty red tinge and its round pale belly loos a bit like the photographer's

Whinchat, Wheatear and Woodlark were among the highlights of today's walk on Greenham Common with the Newbury District Ornithological Club.
It is a huge site so we only covered a small fraction of it.
A few of the group also saw Redstart but I didn't manage to get onto one.

#berksbirds #whinchat

Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count identification guide for England with photos of each species

Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count identification guide in Welsh with photos of each species

Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count identification guide for Scotland with photos of each species

Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count identification guide in Irish with photos of each species

You don't need to be a butterfly expert to get involved in the #BigButterflyCount 🦋🔎

Use our free identification guides for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to help you.

Download them and take part here 👉 bigbutterflycount.org

Your annual reminder of how to tell Field Scabious, Knautia arvensis, and Small Scabious, Scabiosa columbaria, apart with a quick glance. Have a look under the flower heads. Field Scabious has a double row of leaf-like bracts, and Small Scabious has a single row of narrow, bristle-tipped bracts.

Colonising the seemingly most inhospitable crevices, thriving in the pavement cracks, wildflowers can pop up in the most surprising places! Explore the built up environment and let’s celebrate our wild urban flowers for this week’s challenge! Share your finds for #Wildflowerhour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #UrbanPlants. Happy flower hunting! 🌿

Last week our good friend @trevorthebotanist.bsky.social launched his new book #UrbanPlants so we thought it would be a great theme for #WildflowerHour! Let’s celebrate our wild urban flowers for this week’s challenge! Share your finds this Sunday 8-9pm!

Pictured is the Crown Vetch, Securigera varia, a beautiful but poisonous member of the Pea Family. Introduced as a fodder crop it subsequently escaped and can be found naturalised in places.

Can you find a wild or naturalised (like the Crown Vetch pictured) member of the Pea Family? That’s the challenge this week from #WildflowerHour. Share your finds for the magic hour this Sunday 8-9pm. Hap(pea) flower hunting! 🫛😀

A beautiful botanical illustration of orchids by William Keble Martin from The Concise British Flora in Colour.

It’s that time of year when social media just seems to be full of gorgeous orchid pics! The challenge this week is to see if you can find one! Share your orchidaceous finds for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #OrchidChallenge. 📸 William Keble Martin

Red Campion one of the members of the Caryophyllaceae or Pink Family, the focus for this week’s challenge.

Campion, Chickweed, Ragged Robin, Sandwort, Stitchwort and Mouse-ear are just some of the lovely members of the Pink Family or Caryophyllaceae! Find one blooming for this week’s challenge & share for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #PinkFamily 🌸

The Blade, Reading has installed a webcam on their Peregrine nest box. The pair are currently incubating 4 eggs. www.thebladereading.com/bird-camera

#peregrine #rdguk #ukbirding #berksbirds

High up on a castle wall Ivy-leaved Toadflax thrives in a seemingly inhospitable environment. Can you find wild and naturalised plants in flower high up - that’s the challenge this week from Wildflowerhour. Don’t worry mountain climbing is not required, scope out high walls and other tall structures for those intrepid wildflowers!

A little fun for this week’s #Wildflowerhour challenge #HighUpPlants! This could be those intrepid wildflowers living it up where you wouldn’t expect to see them or species especially adapted to living at altitude. 🧗‍♀️ Share your finds this Sunday 8-9pm. Happy flower hunting!

Herb Paris! Which county do you live in - Berkshire perchance?

Close-up photograph of Herb Paris against a blurred green background.

Herb Paris at Bradfield Woods, the flower I most wanted to see! #WildflowerHour @suffolkwildlife.bsky.social

A few #tinyplant sightings around the vineyard today - none more than a few mm across! Field madder; changing forget-me-not; spotted medick and wall speedwell #wildflowerhour

Thanks Sarah😅

Ivy-leaved Speedwell Veronica hederifolia

Wall Speedwell Veronica arvensis

Thyme-leaved Speedwell Veronica serpyllifolia

Germander Speedwell Veronica chamaedrys

Loving the #wildflowerhour #tinyplants theme - so many of them in close-grazed limestone grassland locally. Here's a set of tiny speedwells - from the minute-flowered Ivy-leaved and Wall, to slightly larger Thyme-leaved and a petite, intensely-blue Germander Speedwell.

@bsbibotany.bsky.social

Early Forget-me-nots love my garden - what does that say about my garden Sarah🤣

Early Forget-me-not Myosotis ramosissima

A host of Early Forget-me-not Myosotis ramosissima on an anthill

Lots of Early Forget-me-not flowering now - one of the most perfect of #tinyplants, happy in very short limestone grassland, brownfield sites and wherever there's open, dry, infertile ground...

@bsbibotany.bsky.social

Bert the bluebell

We can’t photograph every English Bluebell in our woodland as it would take years, but we will share some every day

Bluebell #11

This is Bert 🫠

The stem is still extending & over half the flowers are yet to open. Already an impressive sight

Some of our wildflowers are incredibly tiny but when you take the time to look more closely, they are fascinating and beautiful, like this teeny Cornsalad pictured in the photo.

Some of our #wildflowers are so incredibly minuscule they are very easy to miss! This week’s challenge is to get your specs 🤓 on & see if you find any #tinyplants in bloom. Share your finds for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm! Happy teeny flower spotting! 🧐🌸🌿

Roadside verge with a mass of dandelions.

This is what roadside verges should look like in April. These are not weeds - they are wildflowers essential to the survival of early Spring bees.

Love the Water crowfoot👍😊

Small-flowered Buttercup - this is interesting👍
Car parks are places for great finds...

A close-up photo of a tiny yellow flower and the green leaves of Small-flowered Buttercup.

Small-flowered Buttercup, Ranunculus parviflorus, in its usual corner of a #Cambridge P&R car park. #WildflowerHour

I never really think about oak trees having flowers but of course they do!
Male oak flowers, male sycamore & cherry plum. Lovely opportunity to look up for this week's #wildflowerhour #treeflowers

A collage of photographs of wildflowers including Woodruff, Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Bluebell, Ground-ivy, Cowslip and Colt’s-foot.

A few of my finds from various walks this week for #WildFlowerHour, Woodruff, Ivy-leaved Speedwell, Bluebell, Ground-ivy, Cowslip and Colt’s-foot.

Oops missed tonight's 8 o'clock deadline, but for @wildflowerhour.bsky.social, here's my offering: alkanet and water crowfoot with beautiful maple and wild cherry flowers today in Over Cambridgeshire @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Sometimes when we are botanising we can forget to look up! Which would be a shame as #treeflowers are both fascinating & beautiful! This week’s challenge is to go looking for wild & naturalised trees that are blooming. Share your finds for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm!

I shall look forward to seeing this😊