Another angle on the Shorelark at Great Orme yesterday. It landed for a few minutes on the cairn above the cliffs from where it had a good view of the assembled birders! #birdingWales

Amazing crabapple crop on Bryniau Clwyd this year @cofnod.org.uk Mostly unprotected trees in a heavily sheep grazed area. These two trees show how variable their fruit can be - suggesting even some isolated trees may be crosses with domestic apples. See: www.rbge.org.uk/news/media-c...

"will o' the wisp", methane from rotting vegetable matter in a marsh. Low-temperature oxidation leads to blue–violet chemiluminescence ignited by bubble electrical charge. Unveiling ignis fatuus: Microlightning between microbubbles www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Work moth of the day today probably can’t get much better! Clifden Nonpareil Catocala fraxini, found first thing this morning when I nearly trod on it. #teammoth

Beautiful wee beetle - probably Fasta fastuosa, the dead-nettle leaf beetle. Pella, n. Italy.

Great spread and hugely positive review in the Irish Examiner this weekend of THE LIE OF THE LAND.

Slopes of Mt. Mottarone, north Italy. Few flowers now and few bbees (mostly probably B. pascuorum). This one a male.

In the woods above Stresa, north Italy. I think they may all be Amanita species.

Hornet (Vespa crabro male) and Copper chaffer (Protaetia cuprea) in the hills around Stresa, north Italy.

Spent hours being spellbound by Convolvulus Hawk Moths last night as they nectared on Nicotiana plants in my highland garden!. Up to 3 feeding at a time, their entire abdomens glowing red hot in the thermal from flight muscle use!! #teammoth @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Llyn Dulyan walk, with low water showing remains of the 1944 US air crash.

Bryniau Clwyd still purple topped in places - and males of B. terrestris an B. lucorum foraging in fair numbers.

📢We’re delighted to announce that the Vice Chancellor has appointed @markjfbrown.bsky.social as Director of the University @zoologymuseum.bsky.social and Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology. Congratulations Mark! We look forward to welcoming you in Jan 2026. Read more: bit.ly/3UVHmey

Good walk round Grassholm Reservoir, Co. Durham.

New gyne of Bombus lucorum (probably sensu stricto) perched sunning.

Queen of Garden Bumblebee at Watermill Cove, St Mary's, Scilly

@cofnod.org.uk Being used by swallows as we inadvertently flush insects on Ynys Enlli off the Llŷn Peninsula - after several days of near gale force winds that make foraging a challenge.

@bsbibotany.bsky.social Has anyone else come across an almost complete lack of Bilberry flowers and fruit set this summer? A whole day walking the Tal y Fan Ridge in Eryri and no flowers - or Bilberry bumblebees - up here (the odd one on Marsh thistle lower down). Maybe the very dry May?

Green Hairstreak on the slopes below Moel Famau yesterday - my first sighting in the local area & always lovely to see. @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Male #Redstart in full voice this morning - good numbers singing in woodlands around the Clwydian Hills just now. Fabulous. #birdingWales @birdsinwales.bsky.social

Wild garlic looking splendid at Y Graig @cofnod.org.uk

"Industrial bottom trawling tears the seabed with such force the trails of destruction can be seen from space” "Sharks and turtles that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, Attenborough says, may not survive industrial trawling" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

15 brimstone butterflies counted in half an hour today along Wendover canal near Wilstone reservoir. In this courtship flight the female has a slightly damaged forewing @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Nice Ashy Mining bee (Andrena cineraria) female.

One of the joys of rearing 🐝 🫅 @rhulbiology.bsky.social

Crab apple in blossom. Its scientific name, Malus sylvestris, means 'forest apple'. When I arrived 16 years ago, there were only four wild apple trees in the whole rainforest. This is one of at least a dozen that have sprung up since grazing pressure was radically reduced. #Rewilding 🌏

Protecting old crabapple trees from sheep grazing on the Clwydian hills @cofnod.org.uk @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Bombus pascuorum gyne foraging for nectar on Three cornered leek (Allium triquetrum)

Our new paper is out. We point out that large brained (and often smart) mammals and birds have evolved very different distribution of neurons numbers in the brain. This means that similar cognitive abilities have evolved in very different brains. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Purple toothwort! Such a colourful parasite. This is on black poplar in Sheffield Botanic Gardens.

@cmhmaliani.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social There seems to be a widespread misconception that gorse, Ulex europeas (probably other Ulex species too), produces nectar. At least I have never found any during years of casual observations. Does anyone know of any actual evidence that it ever does?

Interesting blog: botsoc.scot/2025/03/23/p...

B. lucorum agg gyne (crytarum or possibly magnus) sunning on what is a sensational day on the Causeway Coastal Path, Northern Ireland.

Purple Toothwort, Lathraea clandestina, coming into its own beneath several willows on Sheep's Green #Cambridge #WildFlowerHour

#Wildflowerhour Pleased to see Purple Toothwort(Lathraea clandestina) seen in Cheshire.

How about this for #flowersonFriday, Purple Toothwort or Lathraea clandestina. I found large patches at Wisley yesterday. It was the first time I had seen the paler colours. 🌱 Back to Wisley today.

La Lathrée clandestine (Lathraea clandestina) est une espèce holoparasite qui vit aux dépens de nombreux arbres feuillus. Elle fleurit en ce moment (ici en Mayenne, France).

I dropped by to see the patch of Lathraea clandestina Purple Toothwort introduced 17 years ago to Crack Willows in a pit near Norwich. It’s doing well there but I didn’t expect to find it growing directly from the bark a meter above ground! The weirdest epiphyte? #wildflowerhour

3 #March #WorldWildlifeDay 👇🧵 Pl. 468. ‘Psithyris Rupestris. The black-winged Humble-bee.’ #JohnCurtis (1791-1862), *British Entomology: Being Illustrations & Descriptions of the Genera of Insects Found in Great Britain & Ireland: Containing Coloured Figures from Nature of ➡️

Bad video of a Bombus dahlbomii worker feeding as she evolved to, and then taking advantage of the nectar robbing holes made by the invasive Bombus terrestris

Frost last night and this recently emerged Bombus terrestris was grabbing some rays..

Endangered frog dads travel 7,000 miles to 'give birth' www.bbc.com/news/article...

Perhaps the oldest known human portrait, made from mammoth ivory, about 27,000 years old. Dolni Vestonice, Czechia.

Remarkably,this little mammoth carved from mammoth ivory about 40,000 years ago was recovered from the excavation spoil at Vogelherd Cave, some 70 years after the original excavations (Tübingen Museum)

Interesting finds on Traeth Llanddwyn, Anglesey yesterday: a new species of mollusc for me - the weirdly named 'Woody canoe bubble' (Scaphander lignarius), along with the Hungarian cap shell (Capulus angaricus) - both quite deep water species - and remains of a very big tuna (? blue finned).

Water Rail showing well yesterday morning at Lodmoor RSPB

Neolithic burial past revealed across 250 sites www.bbc.com/news/article...

Great cloud inversion in Dyffryn Clwyd yesterday, with a fog bow at the boundary with the sunny uplands..