Caught my eye out on a walk this week in Newton Poppleford East Devon. Black Nightshade looking fresh and mysterious! #wildflowerhour

It's #FrohawkFriday, the day we celebrate the butterfly studies and artwork of FW Frohawk. Today's featured species is Small Heath - a small tawny brown butterfly of, aptly enough, heathland, but also rough grassland. Frohawk's artwork doesn't do their hairiness justice! #butterflies

We need more of this, ecological management of road verges. And it could save local authorities money!

When snails ruled the earth....... BL Add MS 49622, f.162v

Passionately wild by nature #wildflowerhour

That glorious moment as day breaks. Your life is golden!

Some really fun guys (sorry😂) around on my walks right now. Love the Shaggy Mane - brilliantly named! And the Fly Agaric instantly transports me back to childhood fairy stories🍄

One advantage of having the companionship of a very elderly dog is the slo-mo walking, which gives me time to observe my surroundings. Beautiful funghi in the woods this afternoon. I know it’s common, but the communities of fly agaric take me right back to childhood fairy stories! 🍄🍄‍🟫🍂

Just back from a trip to Andalusia with #mariposanaturetours What a range of exotica we experienced. I’m absolutely in love with the Two-tailed Pasha

With Richard & Dave as your experienced leaders, you're guaranteed to see the best of Cyprus's special orchids, and other wildlife too. The tour's a guaranteed departure on 2-9 March 2026, and also guarantees a donation to support the conservation & research work of @bsbibotany.bsky.social. (2/2)

Good morning and welcome to a new week! If you're craving an orchid fix next spring with a dream team of top orchid-hunter Dr Richard Bate & ace naturalist Dave Fairhurst, our tour of the week, Orchids of Cyprus, may be just the thing for you... (1/2) mariposanature.com/tours/botani...

🚨New tour alert!🚨 How better to start the weekend than with a brand new butterfly tour?! Spring Butterflies in Abruzzo is a guaranteed departure next May, and guaranteed to generate a donation to support the good work of @europebutterfly.bsky.social. (1/2) www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

Looks like a real treat for some lucky guests. Butterflies, botanical beauties and these two expert leaders - really what’s not to love? 🦋😍

Does anyone out there know where Autumn Ladies Tresses can be found near Brighton please? #hardyorchidsociety#britishorchids

Masses of these delightful little Autumn Ladies Tresses adorning Dawlish Warren in the warmth of late summer this morning. Thank you Andy Rogers for the heads up on these 😊 #wildflowerhour #britishwildflowers#orchids#autumnladiestresses#beautifulflowers

The Red Arrows. Spectacular way to start Sidmouth Regatta 🤩

#wildflowerhour Sneezewort on Fetlar, Shetland

Let’s not forget the adorable little fuzz-buzz that is the endemic Shetland Bumblebee 🐝🥰

Fetlar - the garden of Shetland. Lovely to see Ragged Robin and Sneezewort in abundance. But the icing and cherries were the rare Oysterplants (some also found yesterday on mainland Shetland) and Frog Orchids! More than excited!

Came across these rare Oysterplants on the beach at Stenness, Shetland this afternoon. What an exciting moment! 🤩I was down on my knees in a flash Shame I wasn’t here a few weeks ago for #wildflowerhour coastal plants! #coastalplants #rareplants #beautifulfinds #shetlandplants #shetlandflora

Postcard from the field, from tour leader @dunnjons.bsky.social: Our Butterflies of the Montes Universales tour concluded for another year yesterday, dropping down to the coast to see Mediterranean Skipper. It's been a brilliant week of #butterflies, laughs, and good company.

Came upon this lovely Lady waking up to the new day on Harpford Common. Beautiful!

#wildflowerhour Interesting finds along the shingle ridge at Budleigh Salterton. Dusty Miller, herbaceous Seepweed, sea Purslane and Grass-leaved Orache… I think!

The mighty Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis, in the bog at Thursley NNR. "My name is Osmunda, king of ferns." (After Percy Bysshe Shelley).

Great day out at Kenfig NNR. Fen orchids looking seedy (but I’ll know where to look next year!) Some Marsh orchids and Marsh helleborines still in flower, and Broad-leaved helleborines just coming into flower.

Is it possible to be both stunning and striking? I think so! I give you the caterpillar of the cinnabar moth, dining out on its host plant the ragwort 🦋🤩

Postcard from the field from tour leader @dunnjons.bsky.social, co-leading our Hungarian summer butterflies tour: We arrived in Hungary this afternoon, so will be getting properly underway tomorrow, with a great weather forecast ahead of us, and hopefully some outbreaks of great #butterflies!

Having read and loved Chris Thorogood’s “Pathless Forest”, I am thrilled to find myself staying in beautiful Beccles, birthplace of Joseph Arnold who found that stinky flower, Rafflesia Arnoldii #illustratingbotanist #christhorogood #rafflesiaarnoldii #stinkyflowers

After a fabulous day at RSPB Minsmere, indulging in the chaos of Sandwich, Common and Roseate Terns and being treated to close views of Marsh Harriers, we then had this unexpected encounter with Red Admirals having a blow out on tree sap! 😍

I’m off to Suffolk and Norfolk tomorrow for the week - any recommendations of places to go and find fabulous wildlife, unusual bird life, amazing plants and flowers, beautiful butterflies (swallowtails, anyone?)?All will be gratefully received and I will post photos of what I find!

#wildflowerhour A bit late for yesterday’s wildflower hour, this White-beaked sedge would surely have been a hot contender!

It’s not just about counting butterflies - we also spotted some sparkling sundews in flower, and the new-to-me White Beaked-sedge whilst out this morning doing our final Silver studded blue survey on Harpford West Common. 🦋

Jolly Jake! A tiny clematis given to me by my dear friend Joe when my son Jake died ten years ago. Flowering beautifully around Jake’s birthday, it keeps him alive in my mind 🥰

Treasure hunting in the Cotswolds, with Martin East showing me the sites. Particularly loved the subtley scented, pixie hatstands of Musk Orchids, my personal pick of the trove 🤩

Doing our annual Silver Studded Blue survey on Harpford Common, it was uplifting to count probably our best ever number on this site, after the last two years when numbers were depressingly low. These two potential parents were quite breathtaking in their perfection, and posed beautifully for me!🦋🦋

Found plenty of these Stinkhorns at various stages of development while out volunteering today. Just one whiff and you know why flies swarm to them! Isn’t Mother Nature clever?

It’s that time of the year again… Nightjars!!! So exciting 🦅🤩

Two spanking new male Silver Studded Blue butterflies, clearly taken by surprise as a warm day turned quite cool, leaving them frozen on their perches. Of course, this was perfect for Amateur Hour (me!) as they were not budging any time soon! Got to love these fragile little creatures 🦋😂😍

#wildflowerhour Orchids. Found on North Uist this afternoon and I haven’t had the chance to get them identified…

Took a diversion to Chappetts Copse, on my way home from West Sussex, and found these! Well, they’re white; they’re helliborines, and their teeny, perfect blooms were a total thrill to see. Thanks Andy and Roger (you know who you are!) for your site recommendation 😍

I’m heading to West Sussex for a few days. Does anyone out there know of sites in the Worthing/Brighton area where I may find orchids? #orchids #wildflowers #bloomingbeautiful

First Common spotted orchid (Dachtylorhiza maculata) this morning on Pebblebed Heath in East Devon. What a raspberry sorbet of a delight! 😍

The last time I saw any of these was on the Gargano Peninsula. So delightful, therefore, to see a whole two fields with beautiful Green winged orchids (Anacamptis morio) here in East Devon. Made me very happy! 🤩🤩

#wildflowerhour ‘Tis but a Germander Speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys(?). However, these brilliant scatterings of blue are like little eyes in the hedgerows

Delicious dollops of clotted cream adorning the hedgerows as May blossom takes over from the earlier frosting of Blackthorn 😋

Absolute bliss! Bluebells, beech, oak and birdsong. Blackbury Castle, East Devon

Beautiful bluebells and unfurling ferns. Just some of the Springtime delights of a nature walk on this sunny day

You may need to zoom in on this. Happy Sand Martins busy home building on River Otter. No soundtrack needed 🤩

#wildflowerhour Lady’s Smock