A comparison of the leaves of specimen #trees - Cut-leaved varieties of Alnus glutinosa 'Laciniata' (above), and 'Imperialis' aka Fern-leaved (below), Black Alder. Growing close to each other on the bank of the River Lark in Abbey Gardens #BuryStEdmunds #Suffolk

A very fresh looking Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum, with hardly a hint of blackness, by a path in #BuryStEdmunds #Suffolk. #WildflowerHour

Flax, Linum usitatissimum, amongst other likely bird-seed relics in field at #BuryStEdmunds #Suffolk. #WildflowerHour

Treacle Mustard, Erysimum cheiranthoides, in bright sunshine at RSPB Lakenheath #Suffolk. #WildflowerHour

Ivy still just in flower on a fence in #Cambridge. #WildflowerHour

Twice over #TheWinter10 flowers from verges and on #PavementPlants in #Cambridge today for #WildflowerHour. From 🤍 White Ramping Fumitory to 💙 Oxford Ragwort. Full list in [ALT].

Thorpeness aerial view - with Sizewell in the distance. A striking stretch where fast-retreating cliffs show just how vulnerable this coast has become. Centuries of shifting shingle & today’s accelerating erosion tell the story in one frame. #Thorpeness #Sizewell #aerial #image #Suffolk #Coast

Hawthorn in blossom today. What's happening with the seasons?

Christmas lights #Cambridge style.

Insects on the engraved title-page of August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof’s ‘Der monatlich-herausgegebenen Insecten-Belustigung’ (Nuremberg, 1746-61), vol. 2. S391.c.74.1-4 @theul.bsky.social

How can you help us save and repair churches this Christmas?   Looking very wintery in this photograph, St Denis’s, East Hatley in Cambridgeshire is an exemplary Friendless Church. 📷 © Peter Mann

A misty view of the tower of St Edmundsbury Cathedral #BuryStEdmunds above its shop. #SteepleSaturday #Suffolk

🌳 Nov 28 || Volunteering with Suffolk Coast and Heaths National Landscape: Plantation Thinning and Dead Hedging. >>> coastandheaths-nl.org.uk/volunteering...

One of the springs which should be feeding a chalk stream in our region after one of the driest spring and summer periods on record. It's going to be a wet weekend - but is it enough? Blog from Water for Wildlife officer Ruth Hawksley. www.wildlifebcn.org/blog/ruth-ha...

🎄 Our Garden has gone festive! 🌿 Follow Little Robin’s trail at the Garden: pick up your map, visit the festive plants, make a rubbing at each stop and create a Christmas bauble. 📍 Free for children under 16. More info: https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/little-robins-christmas-trail-copy/

Carolina horsenettle (Solanaceae: Solanum carolinense) is a nightshade, not a nettle. The nettle name may come from the thorns that line the stems. All parts of the plant are toxic including the fruit. For that reason it's also called devil's tomato. Side Cut Metropark near Maumee Ohio, 14 Oct 2012.

Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum, taking a rest on my trouser leg in yesterday's sunshine at RSPB Lakenheath #Suffolk. Must be a very different place today with continuous rain. #Odonata #Dragonfly

Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum, in flower and with mildew on leaves - assumed to be Neoerysiphe galeopsidis - amongst long grass and in the shade of a tree Icklingham Plains #Suffolk. #Botany #FungiFriday #Mildew

By checking the antennal colours of the Hairy Shieldbugs Dolycoris baccarum I found at RSPB Rainham Marshes yesterday, I found a Vernal Shieldbug Peribalus strictus. The former has black and white banded antennae, while the latter has obvious orange on antennal segments 1 and 2.

Kestrel eats tree. Snapping photos into the sun yesterday I couldn't see what the bird was doing but cropping several of the shots it appears to have been pecking at bark. 🤔 RSPB Lakenheath #Suffok #SuffolkBirds

Female Reed Bunting where else but on a reed at RSPB Lakenheath for #BirdOfTheDay. If you've seen #Suffolk today you'll know this is yesterday's bird! #SuffolkBirds

Pointing the way to Joists Fen viewpoint at RSPB Lakenheath in yesterday’s sunshine. Looking down the path over Nigel’s bridge towards plantations of hybrid poplars. #FingerpostFriday #Suffolk

#Invasive aquatic plants increasingly cause havoc in aquatic ecosystems. Learn to identify introduced aquatics at @bsbibotany.bsky.social's free #AquaticPlantProject webinar, led by Nick Stewart & funded by @npwsireland.bsky.social. Book at www.tickettailor.com/events/botan... #waterplants

Leaf mines of fly larvae, maybe Phytomyza lappae in Burdock. Icklingham #Suffolk. #WildWebsWednesday

The Housing Secretary has tabled a motion to reject @houseoflords.parliament.uk Amendment 40 (formerly Amendment 130). It is troubling that the Government continues to reject an amendment that is based on scientific evidence and would safeguard our local nature. act.bats.org.uk/urge-your-mp...

Can ecological surgery of ant mounds help to restore grassland habitats? - www.gabrielleflinn.com/post/ecologi... @ukceh.bsky.social @rspbscotland.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk Funded by John Lewis Partnership Foundation. My own ant hill work chronicled: storvaxt.blogspot.com/2025/10/enco...

Looking for a quiet museum to visit in #Suffolk #BuryStEdmunds this week 🤔 The Suffolk Regiment Museum 🏅 is open Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 0930 - 1530 🏛 • Free Entry 💶 • Parking 🚘 • Toilets 🚻 • Shop 🛒 Everybody is welcome🌹 #museum #heritage #history #army #LestWeForget #WW1

A discerning Buff-tailed Bumblebee on Narrow-leaved Ragwort when there was Common Ragwort available. #WildWebsWednesday

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has its wonderful Pre-Raphaelites back on show

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place: and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. John McCrae, In Flanders' Field. Image: Fuch's herbal (Sel.2.81) #ArmisticeDay #RemembranceDay

Somewhere within that thicket of Gorse there's the trunk of a Walnut tree! Icklingham #Suffolk. #ThickTrunkTuesday

An autumnal lime tree with its suckers and lower branches trimmed back as far as they can reach by sheep showing its trunk. Icklingham #Suffolk. #ThickTrunkTuesday

Today is Armistice Day. The First World War did not officially end until 28 June 1919, but it was at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month #OTD 11 November 1918 that the guns fell silent. Siegfried Sassoon remembered that moment in his poem 'Everyone Sang':

Great Spotted Woodpecker exit right. It had perched perfectly for a minute before I raised the camera. 😉 At @suffolkwildlife.bsky.social Lackford Lakes. #SuffolkBirds #Suffolk #BirdOfTheDay

Neighbours in a rough sandy patch of a #Suffolk #Brecks field, Stinging & Small Nettle, Urtica dioica & urens. Latter much more stingy than the former! 🤕

Unmissable colour on an exposed tree stump on Icklingham Plains in the #Suffolk #Brecks. Could it be Golden Dust #Lichen, Chrysothrix candelaris, (but that likes shade) or Orange Rock Hair, Trentepohlia aurea, (but it's not on rock). 🤔 Any ideas please Rob? @robyaxley.bsky.social

🦋 Nov 24 || Biological Recording Company: Innovative Moth Monitoring: Farmer Citizen Science Using AI. >>> www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/innovative...

My annual Christmas Card Competition for children aged 11 and under is closing this Friday! The winning design will feature on my official Christmas card for 2025! Full details on how to enter can be found here: www.peterprinsley.org/christmas-ca...

There's a petition for the Microbiology BSc course too: Microbiology - c.org/YXLh57RZyy

All back online I'm pleased to say. Thanks to the CEH gnomes for toiling away in the bit caves all weekend.

My students have set up a petition to persuade the University of Nottingham not to close our Plant Biology BSc course c.org/VPhzVVrHPS Please consider signing

Found one Deadly Nightshade growing in the middle of a field #wildflowerhour

Snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus, with an honour guard Shaggy Soldiers, Galinsoga quadriradiata, each as a #PavementPlant in #Cambridge. #WildflowerHour.

Flowers and berries of Black Nightshade, #Solanum nigrum, in the corner of a neglected car park in central #Cambridge. #WildflowerHour

Lucerne aka Alfalfa, Medicago sativa sativa as a #PavementPlant in #Cambridge, still in flower but with >2-turn spiral seed pods. #WildflowerHour

Ten flower photos from Icklingham Plains #Suffolk. Area is seasonal Open Access so only just open since 1st Nov and fortunately its been a warm start to the month. Got carried away with colour variation in Maiden Pink, Dianthus deltoides, so strictly not eligible for #TheWinter10 😉 #WildflowerHour

Narrow-leaved Ragwort, Senecio inaequidens, in the margin of a sandy field margin at Icklingham #Suffolk. #WildflowerHour

Dozens of plants of Small #Nightshade, #Solanum triflorum, flowering still in a scarified area on Icklingham Plains #Suffolk west of the field where it normally grows. Flowers tinged mauve. 💜 #WildflowerHour

A Pied Wagtail at East Croydon station waiting for the 9.33 to Victoria.

For #JacobinDay of the Pomegranate here's on in #Cambridge Botanic Garden in August. @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social