Autumn is coming #FungiFriends #illustration #mushroomart

1 Pleased to be presenting the latest results gathered by Woodpecker-Network volunteers on Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and what we can do to conserve them better #BOUatEOU www.woodpecker-netwo...#BOUatEOU

Anyone got a video of a hare having the shit scared out of it by a curlew — ah, don’t worry, got one anyway!

Great work by @bramblebotanist.bsky.social as part of a project to begin unravelling the mystery of these enigmatic orchids in Britain

No mention of the disease risks. Or the welfare concerns of releasing birds into places that don’t suit them. This is pretend conservation, dressed up as the real thing and given a free ride by a serious environmental journalist. Hugely damaging. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Just recorded a Turtle Dove in a fenland bird survey, but no way of knowing if it’s a wild bird or one of these idiotic amateur releases. This really matters for conservation. Treating Turtle Doves like pheasants masks the decline. Maybe that’s the point... www.theguardian.com/environment/...

2025 was a record breeding season for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests monitored by our volunteers. None failed & where we were able to check the nest contents the number of chicks fledged was the highest since we started the project in 2015. Full story www.woodpecker-network.org.uk/index.php/ne...

Releasing captive bred Turtle Doves is at this stage highly inappropriate, as risks jeopardising the efforts to save the wild population due to potential disease risks from captive populations of uknown origin, as well as altering their migratory behaviour. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A great win, with national implications. At last, councils will have to take into account the cumulative effects of livestock factories on river catchments. It's all about increments of excrement. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Always nice to get the first Privet Hawk of the year! #moths

Fantastic news 19 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests found and being watched/monitored by our volunteers so far. Most have 4 chicks, well fed by the adults. Nests are so difficult to find & these are only a tiny proportion of the several thousand LSW pairs in Britain, but all very positive this year.

A fantastic 3 day birding in the south west looking for lesser spot nests happy to say I found nest number 17 this year!! A big thanks to @lesserspotnet.bsky.social and gus robin who came to image the nest showing possibly 3/4 young birds fantastic work these people are doing for the species 👏

LesserSpotNet volunteers have now found 16 active LSW nests - 2 more nests were found today. Young have now fledged at 3 nests - so get looking.

Not an overly rare moth, but Eyed Hawkmoth is one I've been waiting for since I first started trapping 5 years ago. Delighted to finally catch one in my Cambridgeshire garden! #moth #insect #lepioptera

Life update klaxon: I’ve joined the Natural Sciences department at Manchester Met as a PhD researcher! Our team will be investigating the role of interspecific competition and community composition in the decline of the willow tit, focusing our efforts on post-industrial sites in the north west.

Exciting news from Wyre Forest NNR, we looked into 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nest cavities on 2 May with our endoscope. Female incubating 7 eggs in one (not all visible in photo) & 6 tiny chicks just hatched at 2nd nest. Both early so should do well. Thanks Natural England for showing us round.

The sounds of & sights of early summer seem to have erupted over the last few days. Cuckoos calling, Swifts overhead & of course thousands of St Mark's Flies filling countryside lanes & paths. So named as their emergence coincides with St Mark's Day on the 25th April #insects #flies #pollinators

Spent a few days in the Marches, and took a trip to walk through what was once ground zero of the UK Red Kite recovery programme...

HULK ADAM SMASHES DIRE WOLVES. Man alive this vexes me, and I am a bit sweary and irritable in this. Enjoy. arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...

“De-extinction” is to biodiversity loss what “Mars colonization” is to climate change—wishful thinking that is at its core impossible but nevertheless sucks up attention and resources from actual solutions to these crises (which, ultimately, might be the whole point)

How do we save Britain's most elusive bird? It was great to help lead the first national workshop on Lesser spotted woodpecker last week, together with @lesserspotnet.bsky.social. The ultimate case of playing conservation on the "legendary" difficulty setting!

BTO decides not to return to Global Birdfair as an exhibitor. ‘BTO work has highlighted the impacts of climate change on birds, and because of our commitment to working sustainably, we no longer feel it is appropriate to take a stand at the event.’

Imagine a big industry that uses intensive farming to make non-essential garden 'leisure' products. Imagine those products had directly killed 6 million British songbirds, put some on the Red List, changed entire bird communities and polluted habitats. You'd think we might want to stop/limit that?

Willow Tits going, going, gone. This is one of those 'northern wetland' habitats that was hoped to be a refuge for Willow Tits 10 years ago. It isn't. They're vanishing from these habitats, too.

No less than eight Lesser Spots during this mornings visit to the Blean for the KOS survey, including a courting pair! Doesn’t get much better than that #kentbirding #ukbirding @lesserspotnet.bsky.social @kentishplover.bsky.social

Sunday book review: The Marsh Tit and Willow Tit by @richardkbroughton.bsky.social Review: markavery.info/2025/03/02/s... '... a very readable & clear account of what we know & don’t know'. #naturewriting #montanus #palustris #tits #mikado @chiffchat.bsky.social @hughbrazier.bsky.social

We've returned one of England’s rarest lichens to its historic home🏠 Scrambled Egg Lichen has been reintroduced to Norfolk from Cornwall via a trial translocation🍳 Thanks to Cornwall Wildlife Trust & Norfolk Wildlife Trust, with funding from Natural England Learn more 👉 bit.ly/4hWieOP

Excited to see how this goes. I helped the Plantlife team dig in the thalli…

Willow Tit declines now biting deep into northern wetland habitats/reserves, populations nosediving. Wet scrub isn't the stronghold or 'core habitat' touted in recent years. Once stranded on reserve 'islands' in an empty landscape, they can't last long. Needs restoration of less hostile landscape.

New in #BirdStudy Almost a third of UK Hawfinches visit birdfeeders/tables, with implications for disease risk. Investigating supplementary food use of UK Hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes populations using DNA metabarcoding doi.org/10.1080/0006... #ornithology #ukbirding

Supplementary feeding is a threat to UK Hawfinch populations #Ornithology #UKBirding

Birdfair - a reputational risk #climatechange #globalbirdfair #lowcarbonbirding lowcarbonbirding.net/2025/02/05/b...

We are pleased to be working with Simon Gillings at BTO on this exciting project to use acoustic monitoring to help detect the presence of elusive Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.

A little birdfeeding is fine, and valuable for some people (e.g. the immobile), but the size of the birdfood industry is so big, it's changing bird populations, spreading diseases, changing habitat chemistry, and swallowing up farmland, carbon & water to grow it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

With news of yet another county extinction for Willow Tit (this time in Warwickshire) I'm prompted to offer some personal reflections on the effort to save Britain's "Turtle Dove of the North", and what is says about woodland bird #conservation as a whole... www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do...

Going, going...

Three Christmas list entries successfully delivered by the family - look forward to getting stuck into them in 2025… #ukbirding #wildlife #conservation #ukwildlife

There is no inherent reason why house building should conflict with protecting nature. Most land in England has low biodiversity value and could be developed without negatively impacting species. Conflicts that do arise are predominantly a result of poor planning. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Was quite surprised earlier this afternoon to see a Great White Egret hunting along the road verge of the A505 between Duxford and Royston @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

The battle continues against probably the most famous invasive species in Britain (although Signal Crayfish make Grey Squirrels look easy to contain by comparison!) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great PhD opportunity at @uniofexeter.bsky.social & Natural England to help tackle one of the current big questions in UK conservation - “How does gamebird release and management affect the population stability and recovery of UK bird species?” www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin....

I had a chat with NHBS about Marsh Tits, Willow Tits, woodlands, a bit of #rewilding and my new #book in the Poyser series, coming out in 2 weeks: Author interview with Richard Broughton: The Marsh Tit and the Willow Tit www.nhbs.com/blog/author-... #ornithology #ukbirding #forestecology #nature

Good morning #FungiFriends it’s a bit chilly today 🥶 #Fungi #Mushrooms

A sad, sad day - the first bird extinction in the mainland Western Palearctic. Paper published today by @rspb.bsky.social, @naturalis.bsky.social, Natural History Museum & BirdLife International suggests there's a 99.6% chance that the Slender-billed Curlew became globally extinct around 1995. 😢

As the leaves fall, winter thrush migration enters full swing. Whilst seeing Redwing & Fieldfare isn't too difficult, getting close enough for photos is quite a challenge. This image was taken back in 2020, when widespread flooding drew birds to feed in inner city Oxford. #autumn #nature #wildlife

The final Supermoon of 2024 - Woodcock Moon - rises tonight This gorgeous painted stone is the work of Kerrie Ann Gardner @kerriedoodles.bsky.social ... whose art is an absolute delight #moon #supermoon #woodcock #birds #birdart #art

This is worrying to see: birdfeeders on nature reserves in Willow Tit strongholds. Feeders boost competitors & predators, making life harder for Willow Tits (britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti...). And dirty feeders: poor hygiene is main cause of disease currently wiping out Chaffinches & Greenfinches.