We can’t contain our excitement 🎉🎉   It’s the first day of #12DaysWild so why not kick things off with a Christmas Day walk? 🌿    Stepping into the frosty outdoors is a great way to build up an appetite—or burn off that feast! ✨ https://f.mtr.cool/woleumnnub

Last minute Christmas shopping? Do you know what we would LOVE... Sign the petition and help us #BinTheBeads🚫 📢https://f.mtr.cool/bkjhvpekvl

🌲 It’s Christmas Eve!! That means one thing... just ONE more sleep until #12DaysWild!     There’s still time to sign up and give yourself the amazing gift of nature! With so much lined up you’ll think it’s Christmas every day! wildlifetrusts.org/12dayswild

"With any luck, by next year..." 📢Sign the petition today and help us #BinTheBeads https://f.mtr.cool/hrglwzlptd

No Baby Cheeses jokes please. We went along to the Pevensey Cheese Company to meet Martin & Hazel Tkalez, inventers of the delicious & multi-award winning Pevensey Blue, made from organic milk from cows that graze on the Pevensey Levels

A Grey Plover showing its characteristic "black armpits". This is a very difficult species to get close to as they like the wide open spaces of mud flats and are easily disturbed. This one was flying to roost on the island in front of the Denny hide at Rye Harbour @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

From Nikki in the Kelp team: "Our wildlife highlight - we visited a site where kelp has survived the traumas of its past. We were mesmerised by the billowing golden kelp fronds, loved catching sight of Stingrays slinking around the seabed & shoals of young fish taking refuge within the kelp forest."

Glorious photos of a Male Sparrowhawk spotted outside the Discovery Centre at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve recently by Ollie Owen & posted on our Nature Table

Sit back & enjoy the latest episode of The Wandering Ecologist podcast, where host Penny Green talks to Sussex Wildlife Trust's Henri Brocklebank about the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project. Listen on your usual podcast provider now!  https://f.mtr.cool/joodistbob 📸 Paul Naylor

This year the Wilder Horsham District team mentored local community group, Nuthurst Carbon Busters, to help improve Mannings Heath Golf Club grounds for nature by ripping out invasive Rhododendron along its woodland streams. An amazing 30 people turned up to help!

This Christmas we're asking you to: 📢Sign the petition to end the use of biobeads in wastewater treatment to protect nature - https://f.mtr.cool/xwcrqykhyk 🎄Convince your family and friends that Die Hard is a Christmas film #BinTheBeads #DieHard #Christmas

Marine Conservation Officer Sarah's wildlife highlight of 2025 was recording a new fish species to Sussex - the bright orange Variable Blenny, "We will be exploring whether this species is migrating and encouraging divers to keep an eye out for it!" 📸Lindsey Scott

In America a 'Snipe hunt' is a fool's errand where a newbie is duped into trying to catch an elusive animal.  Paul McDonald spotted this one in his garden near Lewes recently - but wasn't hunting it, obviously!

A silhouette to spice up any winter's walk. For more of @mallalieum.bsky.social's tips on Hawfinches in Sussex, read our recent blog. sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/crackin...

Recently Barry of the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership took out the Reliable Sprinklers (!) group who reduced dense Willow & Alder in the flood attenuation, allowing light to the ground. They also liked hugging trees!

Fundraising & Partnerships Officer Louise's wildlife highlights this year was  "A beautiful Grass Snake on a walk in the Ashdown Forest."  📸 Ross Lawford

Hi friends, hope you’re well ☺️ It’s Benji and Nish here👋 Benji’s been baking and working on his shop 🥰 He's raising money for charity by selling cards and prints of his artwork ✨ And today is the last chance to order in time for Christmas!🎄✨every card really helps🙏 thank you❤️benjaminfallow.etsy.com

Several shipping containers have washed up on Sussex shores, polluting our coastline - this week our staff and volunteers took to the beach to help with the clean up.  Read more in our blog: sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/beach-clean-at-littlehampton-west-beach-a-community-effort 📷© Archie Taplin

Not mad keen on sprouts? Kingfishers hear you. They are keen to get rid of bones or scales from fish they've eaten. Here's one, coughing up a pellet. Great photo by Dominic Ellett, posted on the Nature Table

Someone's been busily burrowing in this woodland floor - and the entrance is decorated with candles. Candlesnuff fungus, anyway. Chailey Common, Sussex #fungifriends @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

The Coot is one of the more difficult birds to photograph! The challenge is the contrast between the white and the black, but in this image, it has just about managed to keep some detail in both and the red eye stands out. #coot From Denny hide at Rye Harbour @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

The fab Adur & Worthing Hit Squad together with Worthing Conservation Volunteers cleared bramble at Northbrook Pond, Durrington in autumn, to enable wildflowers to develop. If YOU'RE free one Sat morning a month, we'd love you to get involved! https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/.../opportunities/437

Collaboration is key at the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership & this pic shows the whole team: staff, management, Gatwick staff, vols, ecologists, wildlife recorders, SWT trainees & Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre staff coming together for an epic day organised for the local community this year.

Just add nature to your New Year - January's highlights include a 'nature's colours' workshop with artist Danny McBride, a winter bird safari with James Duncan, and a campaign workshop in Lewes with @hellojaytee.bsky.social  https://f.mtr.cool/ljrjbozqdo

A Skylark feeding on the seeds of shingle plants at Rye Harbour from the Denny hide @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @sussexornitholo.bsky.social #sklylark

How churr-lish! Head of Comms Richard's wildlife highlight from 2025 was "Watching a wonderfully mysterious Nightjar performing aerobatics while I was on a sultry dusk walk in August, followed by some of the loudest 'churring' I've ever heard" 📷 Simon Linington

Digital Lead Charlie's wildlife highlight of 2025 was the Woods Mill Water Rail. "What sass!" 📸 Kai Hilton

Happy Kelpmas from Sussex Kelp Recovery Project 🌿    From Blue Mussel beds spreading across the seabed, to an increase in Black Sea Bream, there are exciting signs of recovery for our Sussex underwater world > https://f.mtr.cool/lqyccuhffn 👏 to Coolbox Films for this advent treat.

This Tawny Owl video is slowed down 50% and is from a few nights ago on a trail camera in my garden. @sussexornitholo.bsky.social

A Common Gull worming at Pett Level. Video at half speed. @sussexornitholo.bsky.social

Wilder Community Campaigners programme FREE workshop Sat 24 Jan in Lewes https://f.mtr.cool/mqakksdjvz

Walking on water!

Bob Foreman from Sussex Biodiversity Record Office loves moths & his wildlife highlight of 2025 was the rare Clifden Nonpareil in the Woods Mill moth trap.

Two Peacock butterflies seen in the glorious Sussex sunshine today #SouthDowns. A proper winter treat! @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @southdownsnp.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Large flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover put on a good display in yesterday's sunshine at Rye Harbour In this photo #goldenplover are higher than the #lapwing @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @sussexornitholo.bsky.social

We asked staff what wildlife they hope to see in 2026. Green Finance Officer Atticus Kidd said: "Still to see Rye's Little Terns, so I look forward to making the pilgrimage to see them next year." Amazing photo by Simon Watkins

2025 wildlife highlight from David Bentley:  "I saw this rare & spectacular Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn Beetle at Castle Water, Rye Harbour Nature Reserve in June. With antennae longer than its body, the whole creature is longer than its name - a full 2 inches in total! Longhorn indeed...!"

Wherever we've roamed this week there's been a rainbow - office car park included! 🌈 📷Iping Common ©Natasha Sharma | The Keep ©Emma Chaplin | Rye Harbour Nature Reserve ©Matt Rich

Would you like to see something both cute and Christmassy? My friend Claire Tomlinson has made a short film about the local Wagtail roost: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnfP... @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @sussexornitholo.bsky.social

🎶 All I want for Christmas is...     YOU to go wild this winter!    Explore nature’s magic this festive season and join in with #12dayswild!    We’ll send you daily inspiration and activities to help you make the most of a truly wild winter! wildlifetrusts.org/12dayswild

Glynn Rubidge's wildlife highlight of 2025 was seeing this young, male Kestrel back in spring. "Beautiful birds". Indeed.

Dale Baldwin spotted this female Kingfisher in a reed bed. Stunning photo.

🚨 SIGN THE PETITION 🚨 We're backing MP Helena Dollimore's petition to end the use of bio-beads across the UK. Modern, safer alternatives exist – water companies must use them. 👉 Sign now: https://f.mtr.cool/ktkpksyvix Every signature counts. Together we can protect our coastline.

One of the yellow flowers lingering into winter is the Perennial Sow-thistle. Here is some detail in a couple of lovely photos from Barry Yates. The flowers offer a late supply of pollen and nectar for flies, including a few hoverflies.

CEO Chris' favourite wildlife programme this year was Hamza Yassin's wonderful BBC series Hidden Wild Isles (some was filmed on one of our nature reserves, & he worked with Trustee, filmmaker David Plummer too). Catch it on iPlayer 📷 Nigel Kingston

My favourite photo of the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House at Rye Harbour 5th October 2021

Meet Martin Hole, Pevensey farmer & founding Chair of the Pevensey Farm Cluster, which seeks to find a way forward to promote a pan-Sussex vision of nature-friendly farming https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/news/meet-the-farmers-martin-hole

Individual Giving Officer Ros Moss's wildlife highlight of the year was finding a Purse Web spider at our Old Lodge Nature Reserve - the first to be recorded there. "Nice to find it with my children too!"

Great to see these three oystercatchers on the beach in West Worthing. @sussexwildlife.bsky.social #shorebirds #worthing

We asked members of our Nature Table for their wildlife highlight of the year, and Kat Burton sent us this bathing beauty taken with  a Lumix G7 mirrorless camera.. A very mellow looking young Common Seal she spotted in November off the undercliff path by Brighton Marina wall.