Would anyone like to see my meadow barley?

My lovely friend Mary Colwell has fought for a Natural History GCSE, supported by many, including Caroline. For it to be proper natural history, we need lots of naturalists to give their opinions on the proposed framework. Please consider visiting the public consultation www.gov.uk/government/c...

If there’s one place that should definitely be very cold, it’s Antarctica in winter But the old certainties are gone now, the basic things we take for granted about our only home no longer exist They’ve been stolen and destroyed by those who believe nothing should stand in the way of making money

Good news! Ministers have finally given green light to new #NaturalHistory GCSE. We’ve campaigned so long for this! Big hats off to tireless advocate Mary Colwell 🙌 Now our young people will have a chance to get to know & love the natural world, to feel awe & wonder, & gain skills to protect it 🌷🌳🦡

Nic is a naturalist of humble, loving observation with many stories to tell ☺️

A kingfisher just blued right past my nose

Four willows in 50 yards: purple, grey, almond, crack. Seven willows grow wild along my stretch of Wensum.

Wondrous clouds above my river today

I wish social media would let me share with you this heavenly scent

Clematis tangutica against Norfolk flint and brick. It reminds me of Mongolia - in my travelling days - where it’s a very common roadside plant.

One shouldn’t have favourite children … but this is Ginger, my favourite among the ducklings Gertrude raised in my garden. They’re still all going strong but the gulls have eaten every other duckling in the village this year before three days old 😞

Puffin is a damn good inland record round here

Grasshopper warbler, reed warbler, reed bunting and two cuckoos.

Somehow this exquisite Iris versicolor has ended up by the river. (And I just got a very wet bum, crouching among reed canary grass to photograph it.)

Good morning from beside the Wensum. I’m getting a walk in before the next wave of rain hits.

This spring I let a mallard raise 13 young in my garden. They DESTROYED my sink ponds. Two weeks ago I emptied the filthy ponds and used the rich water to feed some repotted house plants. I must have imported rat-tailed maggots with the water as my house is now FULL of drone flies. Ecology 🙄

Overheard at the gym just now: ‘I’m nearly fifty. I can TikTok if I wanna f___ing TikTok.’ Hell yes you can lady.

Some real gems in Norfolk for this week’s #wildflowerhour, including clustered bellflower, meadow thistle, great sundew and yarrow broomrape

I scaled Norfolk’s highest peak. Without oxygen. Found a good weed.

I saw my first emperor dragonfly in this very spot, around 35 years ago. There’s a female egg-laying in front of me right now. Genes passing on through time and space, in a form represented in the fossil record for 350 million years.

Futuristic nestbox 🦉

0354 a swallow starts to sing outside my bedroom

Dear BBC journalists, you really do not have to 'debate' every far-right talking point that pops up on your X feed. It is not "deeply contentious" to suggest non-white people can't be English. It's racist. The word you're looking for is racist

Struggle with the concept of non-binary organisms? Go talk to a gastropod*. (*I did this morning and I got a lot more sense than I do from most people who struggle with the idea of non-binary.) 🐌

Cornflower in the morning sun

If you don’t love a goat willow, I doubt we can be chums

Greeted by geese this evening 🪿 🪿 🪿

Now THIS is an author interview I’m looking forward to.

In June I change my tune. Only he hasn’t just yet…

Same pony, same meadow, different day

Dinner for Gertrude’s family 🦆

Common blue damselfly in North Norfolk today

Wood horsetail at its solitary Norfolk site today. I have known it there for more than 35 years.

My pied pony friends are back on Night Common and have brought their foals

And that was the wonderful month of May

Another epic week of weeds, including - for this week’s #wildflowerhour - foxglove, yellow horned poppy, bird’s-nest orchid and common fiddleneck. I just love this time of year.

Gertrude and family are pleased to see you

I call this piece Boy with Sprig of Willow* for Identification *not the osier, crack, white, weeping, grey, goat or almond willows I see every day

Reed canary grass Phalaris arundinacea #wildflowerhour

For anyone who still needs a cuckoo (and blackcap) fix

Rough chervil for the soul. Good morning everyone ☺️

Also saw a grey seal carcass being recycled as shrubby seablite. More things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy…

Yes, it’s a day early for #wildflowerhour but… I went for a walk and saw some excellent weeds, including sea kale, matted sea lavender, grey hair grass and hairy buttercup. I love weeds.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,

‘The coast of Norfolk is an edgeless place of land and sea and sky all seeping into one another.’ First line of The Meaning of Geese

Painted lady in the Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe today. They’ve had a very strong start to the season this year.

Everybody seemed cross with me at Pensthorpe today 🪿 including one of your blinged up barnies @kanebrides.bsky.social

A couple of miles downstream from where I usually walk, a two cuckoo moment

This rye is being gloriously itself, in its own lane, on the edge of the winter wheat #BeMoreRye