Take part in Waxcap Watch 2025 - Plantlife This autumn, help us find the UK’s grassland waxcaps. Knowing where waxcaps are thriving helps us to protect ancient meadows.

Calling citizen scientists / mycologists, please consider helping ....

"This autumn, help Plantlife find Britain’s most colourful and important fungi – waxcaps."

#Fungi #Waxcaps

www.plantlife.org.uk/waxcapwatch/

#Arachtober is a good month to remind folk my book #SpidersAndHarvestmenOfYorkshire by @naturebureau.bsky.social ought to be available to purchase by the end of the month.

It’s not too late to get a pre-publication offer here: www.naturebureau.co.uk/spiders-harv...

@britishspiders.bsky.social

UK's first rice crop ripe for picking after hot summer Paddy fields are thriving in a quiet part of east England and might help feed us in the future.

UK's first rice crop ripe for picking after hot summer..

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Thanks Richard, could well be as a fair number still flying🙂

Anyone help with ID of these pupae would be appreciated, quite a few on various spp hedgerow plants #HumberheadLevels today #Lepidoptera #Butterflies

@rlewington2.bsky.social @ukbutterflies.bsky.social @brianecambs.bsky.social @bcyorkshire.bsky.social

Good news! Natural England pulls the plug on ‘reintroduction’ of Hen Harriers to southern England It’s been a long time coming, but today Natural England has announced it is finally pulling the plug on it’s project to ‘reintroduce’ Hen Harriers to southern England. It ma…

This was a massive distraction project, intended to draw attention away from the ongoing illegal killing on northern UK grouse moors.

Maybe now NE & Defra will put their (our!) money where it really needs to go - on ramped up enforcement.

#RaptorResearch

raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/09/16/g...

Thanks Sudo👍 Yes, noticed that with some larger larvae which I knew to be Sawfly spp.

Looks spot on, thanks 👍

Wow, absolutely😊 thanks all, much appreciated👍

Wonder what 'predator' removed the end of this chrysalis to feed (?) on its contents? Hymenoptera spp perhaps? #HumberheadLevels #Parasitica @ianbeavis.bsky.social @suillia.bsky.social @brianecambs.bsky.social

Suggestions for the ID of the little critter on this Alder leaf would be appreciated (zoom in to see), looks like might be a beetle larva? There are intriguing patterns created as well as just round holes in other nearby leaves. #Entomology #Coleoptera #HumberheadLevels @brianecambs.bsky.social

Prunes spinosa aka Blackthorn or Sloe. Fruits used to make Sloe gin, the wood used for walking sticks & also the Irish Shillelagh!

Signs of Autumn, after the agricultural harvest there comes nature's offering in the #HumberheadLevels
Narrow rural roads with dykes either side with vast expanses of industrialised monocultures
Should it be farmed for #Food or #Energy? #Sustainability #Peat #Soils #Solar

Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms Exclusive: Leachate is tankered to treatment works where it mixes with sewage and industrial effluent

Liquid oozing from landfill + industrial waste + sewage - treated for pathogens then split, the solid part spread on farmland, the liquid part released into rivers - what could go wrong?

Our latest article out now:

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A view out to a calm, blue sea over golden sands. There is tussocky dune grass in the foreground. Credit: Scott Leatham

Government Ministers are set to decide on whether a new golf course should be built at Coul Links, which would cause irreversible damage to its incredible wildlife.

Sign our e-action and help save this precious habitat 👇

buff.ly/zQO8qu2

#UKWildlife #BirdingScotland

Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms Exclusive: Leachate is tankered to treatment works where it mixes with sewage and industrial effluent

Toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on farms....

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

City of Doncaster Council Neighbourhood staff enjoying the benefits of the outdoor classroom at Lindholme to learn of the community conservation initiative delivering sphagnum propogation to help regenerate the local Moor.

City of Doncaster Council Neighbourhood team visit the "Mire Emergency" project at Gomde, Lindholme to see grassroots conservation delivering action.

Sphagnum doing well in the Mossery polytunnels at Lindolme. Local community initiative to help deliver recovery of damaged peatland. Key message to all was not to perpetuate destruction of peatlands by buying peat, but to go PEAT FREE.

Great to meet up with staff from @mydoncaster.bsky.social Neighbourhood Team & introduce them to the volunteer led "Mire Emergency" project at Gomde, Lindholme where sphagnum is being propagated from local material, harvested & then when grown on sufficiently 'planted' out in damaged areas.

Southern Oak Bush-cricket found in Thorne 09/09/2025

An interesting #HumberheadLevels find, a female Southern Oak Bush-cricket found by a friend on her car earlier today. #Thorne #Doncaster #Yorkshire #Orthoptera
First recorded in UK in 2001 so a recent ish addition, a predator of Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner according to the literature!

Save Coul Links! Your voice could help save this precious habitat from a new threat of development.

So please take a little time to send a message and stand up for nature, including Fonesca’s Seed Fly: action.rspb.org.uk/page/166270

🛑 Stop grouse shooting

📣 Join our walk to protest against this cruel and environmentally destructive practice.

🗓 10.30am on Sunday 10th August

📍Redmires Reservoir Car Park

🥾 Hike ~3km easygoing trail to a meeting point where we will gather for speeches and music

Thanks, feedback much appreciated🙂

Himacerus apterus aka Tree Damsel Bug. Humbergead Levels garden.

These little critters can inflict a quite painful 'bite', I can still feel it an hour after it pierced my finger 😒

Himacerus apterus aka Tree Damsel Bug in my #HumberheadLevels garden this afternoon🪳 #Nabidae

Believe these to be Nematus septentrionalis aka Hazel Sawfly. Humberhead Levels garden hedge.

Are there any #Sawfly #Symphyta experts able to confirm my thoughts that these are Nematus septentrionalis aka Hazel Sawfly in my #HumberheadLevels garden (mixed species hedge) this afternoon #Hymenoptera

Weaker laws on chemical safety, anyone? No? Can't tempt you?

The government's fetish for slashing red tape continues.

On today's menu:
1. More biocides in rivers
2. More secrecy around decision making

Off the menu:
adopting the EU's new ban on hormone disrupting chemicals in children's toys

YouTube video by The ramblings of an entomologist A nice surprise

As well as Sarah's reply offering her observation see also youtu.be/vJdj5k47-SU?...

BBC uncovers lasting toxic legacy of cargo ship disaster off Sri Lanka Scientists warn the damage to the environment after the 2021 X-Press Pearl disaster could be much more enduring.

Oil, acid, epoxy resin, heavy metals, plastics spewed from the burning wreck into the ocean, searing through local wildlife populations. Fish is a staple food + livelihood in this part of Sri Lanka: overnight, many families lost their livelihood + main source of food:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Thanks for looking & 'nominating' a possible candidate to look at the casualty🙂🤞

Anyone good with identifying fish from their underside🤔 Three quite large specimens dead this morning #Hatfield Waste Drain despite EA aerating the drain #HumberheadLevels #Fish

@fishtwitcher.bsky.social @watcherpond.bsky.social

Looking forward to this tome's arrival in September👍 Having worked with Richard, I know it will be a seriously detailed & valuable contribution to the #Arachnid 🕷 fauna record of God's own county #Spiders #Harvestmen #Yorkshire

www.naturebureau.co.uk/spiders-harv...

Wasps are back this summer in the UK – a lot of them Wasps are well-suited to Britain's warm weather so we need to learn to live alongside them, naturalists say.

Wonderful Wasps: "Take a top predator out of any system – like the lion out of Serengeti – it has knock-on effects in the prey populations that will then go unchecked by their predator....wasps are free, natural pest controllers"...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

YouTube video by Dave Goulson No More Beewashing! Why beekeeping doesn't help conserve bees.

No more Beewashing please! Why beekeeping doesn't help conserve bees. Pls RT if you agree.
youtu.be/fiBYBmlKSYU