Four wheatears recently called in on migration to enjoy the chalk scrapes at the Dancersend Extension, just below the highest point in the Chilterns. It was great to see them perched on information boards (which tell visitors to look out for migrants!) and fences nearby. 📸 @mickdjones.bsky.social

She was granted withholding of removal from India *decades* ago, and had been living and working legally (including for the U.S. government!) ever since. But with third country removals now a real option, TSA shared her data with ICE and they arrested her at the airport on her way to a job.

“We allow at least 100,000 trawlers to scrape the ocean floor, w/out even knowing what they are catching. It is important that governments… exclude bottom trawling from large swathes of the ocean, particularly from so-called marine protected areas.” Sign: action.greenpeace.org.uk/ban-destruct...

@bbowt.bsky.social Dancersend is looking superb and will be even better for my first guided walk of the season on Sunday 26 April. For details/booking go to www.bbowt.org.uk/events. More on 'Wildlife specialities & secrets' on 24 May and 'Creating space for rare chalk species' on 28 June. Join me!!

📣 We are looking trustees to join our Board! 👉 Find out more about the role and apply here: buff.ly/GscSGbf

Wouldn't it be cool to invest trillions of dollars into a technology that would actually make society better? Maybe we can call it “HI” — Human Intelligence. Instead of “data centers”, we could fund “schools”. Instead of *stealing* art, literature, and science, we help people *create* it. Crazy!

Radical with Amol Rajan on BBC R4 this morning was superb - raising some crucial questions about the reduction in reading and the effect on intelligence and democracy - a must listen. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

ABSOLUTELY EXTRAORDINARY 4TH consecutive day >30/33C in FRANCE 22 stations >30C today APRIL RECORDS 31.5 Sabliers 30.6 Moules 30.3 Le Boulou 30.1 Montarnaud 26.5 Scilè 25.4 C. Millet Western/Central Europe has been smashing hundreds of records,excluding Italy-like all previous months

Unbelievable heat anomaly unfolding across China — vast regions up to 16°C above normal for this time of year. The climate crisis isn’t future tense — it’s now. Urgent action is needed. 2050 targets are too late. #ActOnClimate #ClimateCrisis #Heatwave via @PGDynes

Wildlife spring arrived early at @bbowt.bsky.social Dancersend and now it's racing ahead out of control! The first Bluebells were in flower on 9 March, over 2 weeks earlier than 2024 and now it is a blue haze. These Beech trees were in leaf very early in first week of April. Please slow down a bit!

In case you are looking for ideas for bee-friendly garden flowers (including native wildflowers), the link below it to a series of short YouTube videos "Best plants for bees" www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Enjoying my new (temporary) pet ambling around a petri dish on my desk - a Velvet Mite found in a chalk scrape at @bbowt.bsky.social Dancersend. A large mite, probably Trombidium holosericeum, but still only 4mm. Just gave it fresh soil from the garden and it seems happy. The joy of small things!

1992 Rio Convention on Biological Diversity identifies genetic diversity (variation within species) as one of the three core pillars of biodiversity, alongside species and ecosystems. I think a major communication problem exists as people tend to treat species as uniform, not made up of populations

Join a new citizen science project and help us to uncover the hidden lives of Europe’s ground-nesting #bees - please share with your networks: jeffollerton.co.uk/2026/04/02/h...

🦇🦋 Our equipment loan scheme now includes moth trap and bat detectors!

The latest Buckinghamshire Invertebrate Group annual Bulletin is available from the links at sites.google.com/site/bucksin... - lots of great articles and fantastic #insect photos. Many thanks to editor @neilmoths.bsky.social for putting it all together.

Two of the journalists assassinated in South Lebanon this morning by Israel were Lebanese correspondents Ali Shoeib and Fatima Ftouni. They become the 252nd and 253rd journalists killed by Israel in the last two years. Unprecedented. (📸 Cradle Media)

"In some areas, First Past the Post could mean MPs getting elected on as little as 25% or 30% of the vote. That is not sustainable for British politics, and it is time for Proportional Representation." 💯💯💯 @richardfoordld.bsky.social

NEW: This new report, from BBC, is the best takedown of the insanity of Trump you will see anywhere. Calm, coherent and repeating only Trump’s own words. Devastating. Brilliant work once again from Roz Atkins. (🎥 BBC News)

Still finding fallen trees at @bbowt.bsky.social Dancersend after recent high. This large multi-trunked Goat Willow is a great loss as it hosted a large colony of the tiny pin lichen Chaenotheca brachypoda and was also popular with Purple Emperors. Thankfully my other favourite willow was unharmed.

“Mohammed, five, Othman, seven, who was blind and had special needs, their mother Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and father Ali Bani Odeh, 37, were driving through their hometown of Tamoun late on Saturday when Israeli forces opened fire.” Shot in the head and face. Executed with their parents. No words.

Bombus pratorum (Early Bumblebee) queen, on Goat Willow. Seen @bbowt.bsky.social Dancersend Reserve today, during the conservation work-party. @mickdjones.bsky.social

So predictable. While Trump and Hegseth posture, millions around world have their lives turned upside down by their cavalier, ill-thought-through attack on Iran, whose regime clings on, and people suffer. Everyone suffers from the devastating consequences, except the immoral morons who launched it.

We are growing our team! 🌿 Join our Wildlife Trust consultancy as an Assistant Ecologist or Seasonal Ecologist and help deliver exceptional projects where every pound of profit goes straight back into protecting and restoring wildlife. Apply now: www.bbowt.org.uk/jobs

Wow, this is an important paper. We had some evidence early on from @ukbms.bsky.social sites but rarely had good data in grazing regimes. But @tombrereton.bsky.social always said that extensive cattle was the best for butterflies and this add yet more evidence

Europe is the largest single market in the world, and it was an act of self-sabotage to leave the EU. Joining the single market would facilitate easier trade between the UK and the EU, and would remove the red tape that many British businesses are struggling with now.

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

The Large Scabious Mining Bee Andrena hattorfiana needs our help...plant more scabious everywhere there is suitable soil for the bee to nest in

It’s beyond belief how we allow the abominable actions of Israel to continue - without sanction. Mass starvation, targeting of children, journalists and aid workers, openly stated ethnic cleansing and of course Genocide.

People of Gorton and Denton, please make hope normal again on 26th February and vote for Hannah Spencer. 💚 join.greenparty.org.uk

Shows pretty clearly the decline in climate change coverage by the NYT and WaPo since 2020; LA Times and USA Today hold pretty steady and the Wall Street Journal just doesn’t cover this topic, why am I not shocked.

📣 2026 Student Summer Internships are OPEN for applications! We’re recruiting SEVEN interns across our National Capability programmes at our Bangor, Lancaster & Wallingford sites. Superb opportunity for hands-on experience in environmental science & applied research. Details ⬇️ 1/

We are looking to grow our ecology team! 🌿 Join Future Nature, our Wildlife Trust consultancy, as an Ecologist or a Bat Ecologist and help deliver exceptional projects where every pound of profit goes straight back into protecting and restoring wildlife. Apply now: www.bbowt.org.uk/jobs

Did you know? 🤔 Community science makes a huge contribution to biodiversity reporting, with over 70% of records used in England being submitted by volunteers Read more 👇 naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/14/m... #communityscience #citizenscience Image credit: Martin Harvey @kitenet.bsky.social

Happy Valentine's Day from @bbowt.bsky.social Dancersend Reserve. May you find romance in the beautiful outdoors today. This Hart's-tongue fern should be miss-spelled Heart's-tongue today!

New book on rewilding! A curated collection of 27 articles published in British Wildlife over the last 5 yrs So, accessible & nicely produced for a broad readership And I’m one of the authors. Cheap at the price (£16.99)! www.britishwildlife.com/wilding/

🦋 TVERC Spring Recorders’ Conference Join us on Sat 21st March at Cholsey Great Hall for a full day of inspiring talks, practical workshops, and the chance to network with fellow wildlife recorders and nature enthusiasts from Oxfordshire and Berkshire. 👉 Book your place: tverc.org/recorders/re...

Join @bbowt.bsky.social Chilterns Group for their next wildlife themed talk next Tuesday 17 Feb in Great Missenden. Chris Williams, CEO of the Royal Forestry Society, will tell us 'The Story of Forestry in the UK'. All welcome!!

Exciting days at @bbowt.bsky.social Dancersend tackling thick scrub in a south-facing clearing lost to scrub/secondary woodland in the 1970s. The amazing RoboFlail made short work of pulverising followed by volunteers raking up. Scarification should help release special flowers from the seed bank.

Conservation works are underway at Strawberry Hill 🍓🌿 In collaboration with the Newt Conservation Partnership, new ponds are being created to support great crested newts & other wildlife, helping protect & enhance this special habitat for the future. Watch here 👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFMI...

This fantastic exhibition has been extended for a fortnight, so you can still catch it if you're quick...

Another good turnout of our volunteers at BBOWT Dancersend Reserve coppicing and clearing fallen ash trees along one of our rides to let more light in to benefit wildflowers like Stinking Hellebore, seen in the foreground here. @bbowt.bsky.social

Copy arrived this week and it is fabulous, opens up a whole new world of interest. Absolutely in awe of author Martin Drake for putting it all together. It's pricey, shame the publishers couldn't have found a way of subsidising it more, but it contains priceless expertise and years of hard work.

This is very concerning and is almost certainly being championed in the US by Trump's tech and oil backers, both of which see the UK as a battleground at the moment.

That‘s the spirit.

A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world

Look at these lovely Oxycera soldierflies and the opportunity to learn all about them..

We’re hiring! Join us as a Volunteering Engagement Manager and help nature recover by delivering dynamic recruitment campaigns and growing a more diverse and inclusive volunteer community. Apply now: www.bbowt.org.uk/jobs/volunte...