Jim Horsfall

It is. Worth a read, or a good present. (I'm a cheapskate so got it from the library).

Radical with Amol Rajan - A New Generational Divide: Living with(out) the Bank of Mum and Dad (Dr Eliza Filby) - BBC Sounds Historian Dr Eliza Filby on how young people can thrive without leaning on family wealth.

This is an interesting listen that covers some of the questions you are pondering. Especially the move further from meritocracy to inheritocracy.

I don't necessarily agree with it all, but thought provoking

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

By the magic of technology I can see the cattle haven't explored all of their ground yet. But have found one of the water sources.

Personally I'm not sure about the use of this tech in this situation, but certainly has it's uses.

Well the little finger on the man's hand is longer than all the others. So still a finger problem. 😜

The black and yellow of a large wasp, the European Hornet. On a cork mat with pins holding its legs in place as it 'sets'.

I am aware of how strange it is to be excited to find a dead hornet, take it home and stick a pin through it.

It's doesn't mean I'll stop doing it though.

It dwarfs all the other hymenopterans I have specimens of. A giant predator of the insects.

@sorbynathissoc.bsky.social
@ynuorg.bsky.social

Highland cattle on Thompson's field before moving

Long Crag, a steep field with thin soils over limestone

We moved the cattle from the south to the north side of the river Went yesterday. And added a few new cattle to the herd (now 10 here).

They have reign over a few fields at the moment, including this steep limestone pasture. One of the best fields in Yorkshire for flora.

#BrockadaleNatureReserve

The soft magnesian limestone doesn't have as many cliffs as the harder carboniferous. But there are a couple of cliffs at Brockadale.

Looks like lower one is just used for roosting, much more poo at high one suggests nesting site.

A pair of kestrel here now and earlier (in the summer).

Golden sunset from behind a wooded hill, with suburbs below.

The weather was very heavy showers today, so just went for a wander near home. I'm lucky to have Ancient Woodlands and a very large park nearby.

The sound and sight of the city is never far away, but I can still get lost in a quiet corner (mentally, usually not physically!)

#Sheffield

How many people walk past the ridge and furrow landforms at Grave's Park in Sheffield and don't see the historic use for arable cultivation? Or the charcoal pits in nearby woods?

youtu.be/6pkWmMmv8bY?...

@billsutherland.bsky.social here explains how you can read a landscape and it's history.

November isn't the best time for trapping flying insects, but I trap for 24hrs once a month as part of the Bioscan project. I took the trap in yesterday, and despite the turn to colder weather there was enough sunshine and warmth for a few (mostly very small) things. 🔎

I understand the worry about the parasitic wasp, but I'd also be so interested to see the wasps at work and how long they take to emerge etc.

Three common galls on the same oak leaf from a lunchtime walk in the Moss Valley.

The large globular one is a Cherry Gall, on the right is a flat disc, the Spangle Gall, and the right the small doughnut shaped Silk-button Gall.

You'll almost certainly be able to find these near you if you look.

I look after another 3 meadows in South Yorkshire that were old glebe land (owned by the @churchofengland.org , and rent was extra income for the vicar). The church preserved a few meadows through their long term ownership, all the land around being pretty poor for wildlife.

Orange cap and green stem of Parrot Waxcap

Red cap and red-orange stem, and whire-ish gills of Scarlet Waxcap

Dull brown cap, and grey stem of the Slimy Waxcap (it was indeed very slimy)

I was up in Wensleydale today, so called in at a @yorkswildlife.bsky.social nature reserve I've not been to before, Leyburn Old Glebe.

It's best known for its flowers, but actually had a few waxcaps today. Enough to encourage someone to go back next year (I'm not close enough).

Maybe, I had thought about putting a camera trap up, but it's in a difficult to get to place, so I don't think I'll have time tomorrow (and it might be finished off by then).

Large fish with innards and flesh eaten. The head is as long as my size 9 shoe.

I found this enormous Pike this afternoon, looks like it may have been eaten by an Otter. I'm not sure anything else can taken in a 4'6" long Pike and would eat the insides. It didn't smell much so was fairly fresh.

Anyone seen anything to suggest something different? @sorbynathissoc.bsky.social

The blue glow of light bulbs for a moth trap, in the otherwise dark sky.

Freshly marked moth with mostly green colours in a egg box

Typical strawberry shaped leaves carpeting the ground, with a yellow petaled flower.

I put out a moth trap more in hope than expectation last night. So only one macro, a Red-green Carpet, was ok with me.

Today I found some Yellow-flowered Strawberry spreading about in a churchyard at Dronfield. New for me.

Wildlife is endlessly interesting. Always something new or surprising.

The description of the other two are here, for anyone who hasn't seen it before (they aren't in any of my books).

mycokeys.pensoft.net/article/1198/

I've not come across sciophanus, and can't find a description of it. Do you know if it's been described in English? And that is accessible online?

It's only a Matt of time until they split Parrot waxcaps into a variety of species (let's hope they can be determined morphological, as species by DNA test is so difficult for people to engage with).

This really is a striking colour

I've seen this in quite a few places this year, it must be liking the conditions.

A few fungi from a walk at Ladies Spring Wood, Sheffield today.

Wrinkled Peach, Common Funnel, Wood Blewit and Honey Fungus.

Honey Fungus seems to be taking advantage of of stressed trees from the summer drought, as it's common this autumn.

@sorbynathissoc.bsky.social

My children are thoroughly embarrassed when I call them flower (or occasionally love) in front of their friends!

I spend so long looking at flowers and admiring them, surely it's a complement that my children are held in such high esteem to be given such an epithet.

I think people are too squeamish and/or don't like the idea of things being shot (I don't know where they think their supermarket mince comes from) for it to be mass market, but surely there is enough of a market for a small scale?

Soldierfly ID Workshop (YWT Member's Exclusive Event) | Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Learn how to ID specimens of soldierflies with expert Yorkshire naturalist Derek Whiteley.

Calling all @sorbynathissoc.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social @yorkswildlife.bsky.social members, there is a great indoor workshop on soliderflies coming up soon. I'll be there, and hope to see you too!

www.ywt.org.uk/events/2025-...

Or DM me for details

@uk-soldierflies.bsky.social

Well when Lancashire gives us bits of 'east Lancashire' and back I'll speak to my countrymen in Mid Yorkshire Fungi Group about their boundaries. 😜

Although I've been well indoctrinated to call my patch, Sorbyshire. A new county, I have divided loyalties (Yorkshire/Sorbyshire) now.

Yes I quite agree, and for wetlands/new ponds it's possibly better to wait and see what turns up rather than introducing unknown things.

It would be useful to have some idea about site continuity/importance from an assemblage. Similar to grassland fungi assemblage scoring, it includes some species that indicate a good site/worth further investigation even if found on its own.

Possibly a new (to me) pinkgill, Entoloma violaceoserrulatum, found in my local cemetery. But pinkgills are tricky, and impossible to be sure without microscopy.

The photo doesn't do the indigo colour of the stem justice.

@sorbynathissoc.bsky.social

Merveille du jour moth, with green , white and black bands. Sat on an egg carton.

Red green carpet moth with it's rounded wing edges sat in the bottom of an egg carton

A quiet moth trap this morning, and Autumn species. Perhaps a little too cold for many things?

Merveille du jour is always a nice surprise.