Ben

Who needs a hospital when you get that *view*!

Our #LondonBlueChain team has completed day two of pond restoration at Lesnes Abbey Woods Allotments — the project’s final official restoration!

While backfilling the liner trench, we paused for an exciting find: two pairs of toads mating.

A brilliant sign the pond is already thriving.

The Robin flew directly over my shoulder, I could feel the wing beats. We're old friends but I mustn't look directly at them when entering the hedge, them's the rules. @rspb.bsky.social #spring

Such lovely birds

Oh nice. We have them in our local park here in SW London, feasting on the alders by the lake. Never come into the garden though, sadly.

There were over a thousand Brent geese at Bosham a week ago.

The robins did have a look in the ivy on the shed but I think they prob thought too easy for cats. I had wrens nest once, years ago and that was in a tit box.

Yes, basic rspb job. They are very funny, my garden is small so they have to put up with me being about and walking really quite close to the hedge. But I'm not allowed to look directly at them just before they enter the box. Them's the rules.

Robins have started nest- building in the box in the hedge. Happy days. #spring @rspb.bsky.social

Like the flight path coming into Heathrow.

20+ clutches of frog spawn now, somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 of the eventual amount based on previous years.

#CommonFrog #Spring
@froglife.bsky.social

Terrible headline (this is NOT what the new research - link below - shows!), terrible AI image! Argh!
Here’s the actual research:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Where do I start?! 1/4

Such great news!

The Green victory in Denton is the result which will have the biggest effect on Labour, far more so than a Reform win.

The blithe assumption progressives have nowhere else to go has been proved catastrophically wrong.

Can’t help thinking of this quote from a Labour minister, a year ago…

London could be a bloodbath in the local elections in May. A pivot to full rejoin eu, more properly nature/ environmentally- friendly policies (inc active travel) and a celebration of immigration might help but it's difficult to see him having the ambition...

I agree with you. They may well have lost both (not in and of itself a bad thing) but as a party decision, the right one.

Excellent, thank you so much for doing this.

That looks fab. Do you think Steven might join Bluesky to celebrate?

This, from a couple of years ago... love how the 3rd male styles out his disappointment with a quick feed.

Ha, they're lucky that they don't really overlap! But I don't think plumipes can be matched for personality and sheer pollination power...

There was a second shortly after...

The best bees evah.

First female casualty of the frog breeding season in my pond. 4 males had been clinging on for the chance to mate, a chance they had killed off a fair while earlier... @froglife.bsky.social @arc-trust.bsky.social #Spring

More pond magic overnight - 2 new clutches of frog spawn. #Spring

Haha, I thought that was just when it was a pair. Think this might be known in scientific circles as an orgy....

Best time of the year

First grass snake of the year! Warming up under a sheet of corrugated iron in our garden...

You are properly spoiling us now! First a hedgehog, now a grass snake... the young snake that spent the summers of 2023&4 in our garden didn't return last year so keeping everything crossed for this year.

I remember years ago getting the train from Faro to Vila Real, then a boat across the river, then a coach to Huelva, then a train to Sevilla. Happy days, soon to be trampled upon...🤞

Very nice! After the first male here in SW London yesterday, the first female turned up today and her food of choice was crocus.

Could dewdrops explain why plants are flowering earlier? Water droplets set off a chemical cascade that tells a plant it’s time to blossom, new study finds

Around the world, plants are flowering earlier than they used to. Temperature alone doesn't explain it. Could crazy chemistry triggered by dewdrops be the real reason?

@science.org www.science.org/content/arti...