Your regular reminder that by throwing away nature, we throw away *everything*.

I find it hard to pick a favourite native #Fern species. It so often turns out to be the one that I'm looking at any given time. And so here's another firm favourite. Cystopteris fragilis, Brittle Bladder-fern. #WildFernHour = #Wildflowerhour @rspbengland.bsky.social #Haweswater

More Fern magic from #Haweswater in the #LakeDistrict One of the more distinctive taxa of the wider Dryopteris affinis complex. Now with full species status. It forms large, untidy clumps & the indusia can be highly variable. Narrow Male-fern, Dryopteris cambrensis #WildFernHour = #Wildflowerhour

Bell Heather, Erica cinerea #StillFlowering at @rspbengland.bsky.social Haweswater in the #LakeDistrict #Wildflowerhour #Cumbria

The Dryopteris affinis agg are a confusing bunch with taxa likely to continue to change. I'm pretty sure this is ssp paleaceolobata which will be new for hectad NY41 if confirmed. Cumbria is something of a hotspot for this taxon. #WildFernHour = #Wildflowerhour plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...

The #Winter10 for #Wildflowerhour from @rspbengland.bsky.social Haweswater & Bampton, #Cumbria. Heath Milkwort the pick of the bunch along with Yarrow, Mouse-ear Hawkeed, Herb-Robert, A Hawkweed sp, Bell Heather, Common Cat's-ear, Creeping Buttercup, European Gorse & Field Forget-me-not.

Parsley Fern is a very common species in the #LakeDistrict, even growing on roadside rocks and walls. A real upland specialist & much scarcer in some other UK areas. It has 2 distinct frond types. One of my favourite botanical names - Cryptogramma crispa. Wonderful 💚 #WildFernHour = #Wildflowerhour

Let's make this happen. Together. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/pol...

Wild Thyme, Thymus drucei. We just found this one tiny patch in flower on Newbiggin Crags, #Cumbria Could be the last of the year? We'll see. #wildflowerhour

Water Chickweed, Stellaria aquatica at Woolston Eyes Nature Reserve. Distinguished from other Stellaria spp by the presence of 5 styles (3 in other species). The habitat is right for it but origin is perhaps uncertain given the history of the site. #Wildflowerhour

Lesser Trefoil, Trifolium dubium. #StillFlowering this week for #Wildflowerhour

Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia with a view. There are still quite a few in flower on limestone grasslands up here in South #Cumbria. Newbiggin Crags. #Wildflowerhour

A selection from South Cumbria limestones from the past week - Spring Sandwort (Scarce, RPR), Harebell, Field Speedwell, Lesser Trefoil, Wild Thyme, Wood Sage, Bulbous Buttercup & Common Knapweed. Mouse-ear Hawkeeed (no 📷) appears to be the most abundant flowering species #Wildflowerhour #Phenology

The neophyte, Myosotis arvensis (Field Forget-me-not) can sometimes be found flowering in winter in urban locations. I don't recall seeing it flowering this late in a natural setting before though. Newbiggin Crags limestone grassland. #Wildflowerhour #Phenology #Cumbria

I wasn't expecting to have much for #wildflowerhour this week. But then a short visit to Newbiggin Crags produced several flowering patches of the very fine Spring Sandwort. I'm pretty certain this won't be my last record of the year for this species. #wildflowerhour #Cumbria

Extraordinary packed scenes everywhere we're taking the Green Party message. Darlington - another stop on the trip of the North East where we're making hope normal again. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Jointed Rush, Juncus articulatus. New for our driveway. Given the amount of time I spend in wetland habitats the most likely vector for this surely has to be me. Got me wondering about how much botanists, inadvertently, influence plant distributions. #wildfowerhour #biosecurity

Wild Thyme, Thymus drucei. Still flowering, always stunning. #wildflowerhour

Bulbous Buttercup, Ranunculus bulbosos really shouldn't be flowering in October but here it is again. I'm pretty sure this is a recent phenomenon but does anyone know any different? #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social South #Cumbria limestone #grassland

Wall Lettuce, Mycelis muralis on limestone pavement, one of it's main natural habitats. As it's common name suggests, it is also regularly found on walls and also on othe urban habitats. #wildflowerhour #Cumbria

A late-flowering Common Knapweed. #wildflowerhour South #Cumbia limestones

Spindle really is such a highlight of Autumn 💚 #trees #wildflowers #Arnside & #Silverdale National Landscape

I love these strange (to us at least) adaptations that some plant species have.

The British distribution of the neophyte Narrow-leaved Ragwort, Senecio inaequidens has exploded over the past 25-years or so. Here in one of it's favoured habitats, a railway platform. #wildflowerhour #Carnforth #Lancashire #InvasivePlants #Neophyte plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...

You can rely on Sea Mayweed to brighten up a coastal scene at this time of year. A near-ubiquitous species around the coastline of the British Isles . Have a look, hardly any species have distributions that are this clear - plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9... #wildflowerhour #CumbriaBotany #Arnside

A late-flowering Meadowsweet, Fillipendila ulmaria. Ashmeadow Woods, #wildflowerhour #Arnside

Sea Radish, Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. maritimus overlooking the extensive, and extensively flooded , restored #saltmarshes at @rspbengland.bsky.social Hesketh Outmarsh. #Wildflowerhour #Botany #Ribble #Saltmarsh #ManagedRealignment

What frightens me most about Halloween cobwebs isn’t how they look…..it’s that they catch the living. Enjoy the season, but keep the plastic webs indoors; or skip them altogether.

Welcome to Super Seabird Sunday where we ask you to share photos, videos & artwork of seabirds to brighten up timelines. To get us started here are thousands of Puffins on the Isle of May #SuperSeabirdSunday

Blackening #Waxcaps on the #Arnside Memorial Playing Fields. #MushroomMonday

The Greens requested an interview on the Laura Kuenssberg Show with Zack Polanski when he was elected leader, but were denied, with a promise to interview him during Green conference instead. This was then scrapped citing the Manchester synagogue attack. Polanski is both Jewish and from Manchester

While saying they want to "preserve nature" the Conservative Party have just pledged to scrap the Climate Change Act. This makes no sense. How do more floods, more droughts, and rising temperatures "preserve" nature? That's what scrapping the Act will lead to.

Suaeda maritima, Annual Sea-blite. A pioneer #saltmarsh species that plays a key role in denitrification of soils, and also provides an abundance seeds for wintering passerines and wildfowl. #wildflowerhour #MorecambeBay #Arnside #Cumbria

Lesser trefoil, Trirolium dubium. Another late-flowering species on the species-rich grasslands (some of the finest in the country) at Heathwaite, #Arnside Knott. #wildflowerhour #Cumbria

Earlier this year we published a summary of our short-term study of the apparent changing phenology of Sabulina verna, Spring Sandwort, at #Arnside Knott in @bsbibotany.bsky.social News. Had a quick visit yesterday and it was by some margin the most abundant flowering species. #wildflowerhour

Crepis capillaris is one of the most frequently encountered winter-flowering native species in our area (South Cumbria). There should be plenty about well in to November & it's usually possible to find the odd plant later than that too. #Phenology is changing #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social

It's not uncommon to find a few late-flowering Small Scabious, Scabiosa columbaria on the NW limestones in England. And that's exactly what this is. #wildflowerhour #Arnside Knott @nationaltrust.org.uk

Completely blown away today by how the Scarce Tufted-sedge (Carex cespitosa) was faring on the River Gade. It was with trepidation that I entered the river. Vegetation had grown tall this summer. 2025 was one of the worst for reintroducing a wetland plant. Summer drought followed high winter water.

Woodland scenes 🍄🌳💚 The Fly Agaric, a species steeped in northern #folklore and #mythology #Autumn #Fungi #Arnside #Cumbria

Project Officer - Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms - RSPB - environmentjob.co.uk/jobs/107624-... #entomology #ScottishBirding

Another recent paper in #BirdStudy showed autumn densities of Pheasant & Red-Legged Partridge in southern England can be an astonishing 2,500 birds per km2 on land near releases. After winter, there were still up to 700 birds/km2. That's huge numbers. Paper: doi.org/10.1080/0006... #ornithology

Late-flowering Wild Thyme, Thymus drucei & Lady's Bedstrraw, Galium verum on the species-rich limestone #grasslands at Warton Crag. #Wildflowerhour @rspbengland.bsky.social #LeightonMoss #Lancashire

Bell Heather, Erica cinera on a limestone outcrop overlooking #MorecambeBay. #wildflowerhour #Cumbria

Greater Sea-spurrey, Spergularia media. Larger flowers than the similar Lesser Sea-spurrey and always with 10 stamens (or stamenoides). #wildflowerhour #MorecambeBay #Saltmarsh #Cumbria

Perennial Sow-thistle, Sonchus arvensis and the gall, Cystiphora sonchi, a species of #Midge. Many gall-forming species a host-specific & therefore easy (easier) to ID at this stage in the life cycle, so long as you know the plant that is. @rspbengland.bsky.social #LeightonMoss #wildflowerHour

One of my favourite #wildflowers, & one of the seemingly small subset of species that appear to be benefitting from #ClimateChange on the #Cumbria Coast. A rare plant register species for now. Unlikely to survive the next review (in a positive way). Rock Samphire, Crithmum maritimum. #wildflowerhour

Common Centaury, Centaurium erythraea. #MorecambeBay #WildflowerHour #Cumbria

The @rspbengland.bsky.social #LeightonMoss #MorecambeBay Allen & Eric Morecambe pools are always a good bet for a Curlew Sanpiper at this time of year. Blackening #Waxcaps by the path through the reeds were less expected. #Waders #Birds #Fungi #Autumn

Good news 🥳 For the 3rd year in a row, since the 2023 project to lower the sea walls and create new saltmarsh, surveys at Northey Island have shown an increase in fish such as sand smelt and bass - an essential food for other fish, mammals and birds on the island and the wider Blackwater Estuary.

IMF graphs of wealth inequality 1910 - 2010. Suggests people's income became much more evenly distributed in the decades after WWII in many countries, then started to become more unequal from the 1980s onward. Countries that remained more equal are often those perceived to have good quality of life.