Uncropped and unaltered image of the pair of Golden Eagles that soared over me this afternoon. Living on Skye is simply FABULOUS!

Species 8,543: Dense-flowered Orchid (Neotinea maculata) on the Antrim coast today. Mostly found further south in Ireland so pleasing to see this far north.

The Logjammer Hoverfly Chalcosyrphus eunotus is a rare beast. Lays its eggs in partially submerged timber in log jams on small dingle-like streams. Looked for and found it today - chuffed as it is a lifer too!

We've reached 100,000 registered users on BirdTrack! Thank you to everyone who has taken part. Data submitted to this partnership project allows us to look at migration, movements and distributions of birds throughout Britain and Ireland. Sign up to take part at www.birdtrack.net

Live in/near London with no plans this weekend? I have great news! It’s Generation Hope at @nhm-london.bsky.social and we’ve got loads of free events about the planetary crisis! Friday from 6.30pm…Tours! Storytelling! Art! Science! Amazing activists! www.nhm.ac.uk/events/a-nig... 1/3

Just a cheeky nudge for this request to help me get some Lloydia (Gagea) love next month, thanks in advance!

Two of Ingleborough’s finest flowers from today: Bird’s-eye Primrose Primula farinosa just coming into flower and a very early flowering Yorkshire Sandwort Arenaria norvegica subsp. anglica. Both on Sulber Pasture with Ingleborough brooding in the background.

For any @panspecieslisting.bsky.social folk using the M25 to the north of London, these are an easy and fun addition for your lists

Counted 34 Striped Shieldbugs (Graphosoma italicum) on stream side vegetation at Ninefields, Waltham Abbey today, 17th April 2026. TL 3978 0050. Dull and cloudy but warm enough to entice them out, great to see they have overwintered in good numbers. #EssexWildlife #UKBugs

Perhaps the very finest of British bees is the Orange-tailed Mining Bee, Andrena haemorrhoa, which combines an elegant fox-red thorax trimmed with white with a shining orange-tipped thorax. I was lucky enough to find a calm individual at RSPB The Lodge yesterday who posed for some photos.

This thread also rings very true for anyone who's been involved in the world of UK biodiversity data.

1/ The latest 2024/25 Waterbirds in the UK report has just been published and can be viewed online www.bto.org/wituk 🎉 Physical copies will be reaching your doorsteps very soon! 🗞️ To view the updated numbers and trends, visit www.bto.org/webs-reporting #Ornithology #CitSci

Thanks to Sander Bot for sharing a new (and very well-illustrated) key to Cheilosia hoverflies in Europe - looking forward to trying it out www.researchgate.net/publication/... #flies #diptera @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

This is really excellent, I've been using it for a few weeks now. Great job, everyone involved

An interesting find on my walk into work today in Norwich, one of the moth-flies (Psychodidae) - based on appearance only it looks like its Lepiseodina latipennis, although there is some dispute about whether it can be definitively identified without gen. det. It's associated with tree rot holes.

The life history is incredible. Besides all the mind bending trickery they employ to fool ant hosts, eat ant larvae and intercept worker ants for food, they move to different host genera from summer to winter. They are described as "psychoparasites"!

Looking forward to going for the first time in a few years. Should be a good catch-up.

Snap - a new one for me and a real cracker. Found near Ipswich this week.

White Stork by A5 at Shotatton this morning, thanks to Reevesy for the refind. It moved just S of the village to fields being ploughed. No sign of rings and not the recent bird in Staffs? as primaries all present and correct. All suspect but as good as we could get these days. #shropshirebirding 🪶

Many thanks for the tip-off from @timstrudwick.bsky.social, was great to see my first White-faced Mason Bees (Osmia cornuta) today at Ranworth church. Pretty sure I spotted one elsewhere in the village too. Willow Warbler and Common Tern were also yearlies for me.

I need a bryozoan cyphonautes expert! I’m stuck on a regularly appearing cyphonautes and comparative photos on the internet are lacking. If I can ID it, I can get some photos out there! #marineplankton

A couple of Canary Islands endemic insects from our trip to La Palma on our way up to Roques de los Muchachos on 2 Mar. The splendid hoverfly Chrysotoxum triarcuatum and the 'slender long-horned bee' Eucera graciliceps. with @janettem34.bsky.social #diptera #lapalma

Don’t forget to send reform leaflets back. It costs them £2.50 a pop.

White-marked (Cerastis leucographa) The only Norfolk recorded in Norfolk was formerly at Hethersett in 2019 (S. Youngs, 02/05/19) Record just in at Hempstead-by-Holt (A. Wallis, 08/04/2026). #norfolkmoths #teammoth norfolkmoths.co.uk?bf=21400

Hey, have you booked yet? The 40th anniversary of NFBR. Get in there! Some great speakers (er, and me)…

1/ The 2025 BBS Report is out now! It was a record year for volunteers taking part, with 2,800+ visiting 4,058 survey squares across the UK, Channel Islands & Isle of Man. A huge thank you to our volunteers! @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social #Ornithology

Orange-tip, Green-veined White and Holly Blue all reporting for duty in the garden today

Handy tip, thanks @kitenet.bsky.social. Was needing some inspiration...

I built a thing for me and thought it might be useful for others. It's a set of guides, 20 at the moment, to help with my rubbish memory when doing ids in the field. Everything is cached on your device so works in low signal areas. naturesfieldbook.com

What better way is there to spend the Easter 🐣 🐣🐣 weekend than birdwatching, and hopefully finding and recording rare breeding birds to help their conservation? There’s lots to look for in April, so here’s some ideas from RBBP Secretary @markaeaton.bsky.social #ornithology #UKbirding

Last few days to apply - applications close on 7th April!

Look what arrived today from @summerfieldbooks.com - another exquisitely illustrated book by Geoffrey Kibby. #MycoBookClub #Fungi #Mycology #Ascomycetes

URGENT! ⏰ BTO is looking for one or more part-time bird surveyors able to work in east Fermanagh (Northern Ireland) between mid-April and mid-July. Time and mileage costs will be paid. If you are interested, please contact [email protected] by Thursday 9 April for further details.

I have updated the @norfolknats.bsky.social species guide to Norfolk Psyllids, which is available to download from the NNNS website here: norfolknaturalists.org.uk/wp/wp-conten... It now covers 60 species (about 3/5 of the British list) so is hopefully of use even for those outside of Norfolk.

An insect body part, recovered from an 80cm deep peat core in a mid-Norfolk fen. It seems quite a distinctive shape, so somebody may even know what species it is from. Let me know if you do! 1.3mm.

Developing some new skills with new ento-kit. Bit of string, plastic plate, tent peg and a bottle of cheap cider! Thanks to Mark Telfer for guidance, and various YouTube folk for the "how to tie knots" videos! Testing in the garden, let's see if it actually catches anything...

I've still never seen a Goat Moth. However, I reckon I know where one lives. Will be keeping an eye on this tree in Suffolk this summer, as these sap runs (caused by the caterpillars) are very important habitats for a range of other invertebrates.

Ridiculously early Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum) on the wing in Essex today. Generally not expected until May!

Came across this massive Asian Hornet sunning itself at Grand Pre, Guernsey this afternoon. It's been taken in for questioning...

Species 8,529: Tachina lurida, along a field margin near Ipswich this morning. My first self-found new species of the year, and a welcome return to fieldwork after a winter at the microscope/computer.

Fantastic news, should be incredibly useful

Every day is a good day for sharing one of the most useful papers about research data ever written. PLEASE get your people to understand and follow this advice. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

An outrageous total of 225 moths of 11 species trapped last night in my E Norfolk garden. I usually treat this first weekend in March as the first trap outing of the year, and it usually produces just a handful of moths. Highlight was 3 Small Brindled Beauties, my first since 2001 and new for garden

Chiffchaff in the garden here in E Norfolk, my earliest returning bird by 5 days

Btw, this info is all down to the @btobirds.bsky.social Atlas projects and the volunteers who collected the data. The new Atlas is starting next year, 2027-2031, and it's well worth taking part to give us updates on the incredible level of information we have in the maps below. #ukbirding

📢 Job Alert: Monitoring officer I am looking for an experienced ornithological fieldworker to join the team this spring to lead on the monitoring of Black tailed godwits at WWT Welney. Closing date: 6 March 2026 Apply ➡️ vacancies.wwt.org.uk/vacancies/77...

Wheatfen reserve needs a new warden! Details of the job and how to apply can be found here: wheatfen.org/about-us/car...

2026 Sawfly season started for me today with 2 Sooty Grievers (Dolerus anthracinus) at Millington Pastures VC61. Associated with quality chalk grassland here and flies (very) early, so is it really as uncommon as 2 records in last 50 years suggests? @ynuorg.bsky.social #yorkshiresawflies #symphyta

It's ask the audience time. My current binoculars strap/harness is a nuisance - too springy and when I adjust it, it slips and needs readjusting each time I put them on. There are far too many options online though, so does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks in advance.