What is Riverkin? Who are our riverkin? Why do they matter?Read my blog here orlo.uk/vB4jh by clicking on the empty space below (defeated by tech, there is no picture) about why this idea out of @universityofleeds.bsky.social matters to me and the river I live and work with.

"Love at first sight"

The economic sense is so extremely in favour of renewables now, Pakistan is even paying Qatar penalties to rather NOT deliver the fossil gas that Pakistan already placed orders for, because their Solar PV and batteries make much more sense. It saves them money to cancel their gas imports and pay!

@riverflies.bsky.social What a great day - even on line I am still buzzing at the end of the Conference. Excellent speakers/topics and tons to think about. The lakefly sampling is going to be a great thing for farm ponds, very soon. I have no doubt. I'd love to trial it in the valley here.

#applenerd. I forgot Court Plat Pendu what with the immense quantities of other apples in the garden this year. They are always a disappointment anyway…. But not this year!! Remembered just in time and picked the last few still on the tree. Rich and delicious😍

A grumpy leafy Hallowe'en to you all!

I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian. Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kunesberg during their conference. Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine - I had nothing to say? Let's keep growing: join.greenparty.org.uk

Please help combat BBC news blackout of Green Party! @zackpolanski.bsky.social was the only party leader not interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg during their party conference. So please RT his cracking conference speech..

"They want to turn us into the British Isles. A huge meadow with only magpies and a few other birds" I am shocked, most of all at how true it is about my country. @bioeaf.bsky.social cuts to the quick and speaks of our lack of care for our world, what we eat and the water we drink.

BBC interviewer this morning on synagogue raid was a chance to foster understanding but - conflated Palestine solidarity march w anti semitism, Missed completely the reference to Palestininian generosity letting kids play with Kibbutz kids despite the terror their parents had inflicted.

Despicable.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... My son Will Hawkes is on BBC R4 tomorrow talking about insect migration! 😍 So proud!

Following a post by @norwichbirder.bsky.social I checked some duckweed in Upshire, Essex today and found numerous Water Lily Aphids (Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae) and a couple of 7-spot Ladybirds feasting on them. #UKAphids #EssexWildlife

Last year 100,000 people marched across London in support of nature and BBC News didn’t cover it, leading to complaints to Ofcom about political bias. Today BBC News covered a similar size march on front pages and every channel demonstrating fully its political bias. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Find time to read this and talk about it if you can. www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

To carry 50,000 people per hour in each direction, a city needs a 175m wide road for cars. Even if those cars are electric. And then there’s all the parking. OR a city can move A LOT MORE people in a lot less space, with A LOT LESS public money, emissions, pollution, noise etc. Choices. Simple.

When will the global community of states (incl Canada) stand up to the State of Israel & fulfil their obligations under Article I of the Genocide Convention. That obligation is a duty "to PREVENT and to punish" the crime of genocide. Let's focus on PREVENTION for now. @anitaoakvilleeast.bsky.social

“for barack, who dared the sky” you wore your Black like a morning suit— creased with hope, stitched in fire, made the mic a pulpit and the White House a choir. they called it impossible. you called it tuesday. made yes we can sound like truth on a school day. your walk? pure South Side sermon.👇🏾

Taking part in the #BigButterflyCount? 🦋 Wales has only 1 colony of the High Brown Fritillary, found at Old Castle Down, Vale of Glamorgan📍 Right now, females are laying eggs near violet leaves & bracken🍃 Learn how #NaturamByth is protecting them: www.naturambyth.cymru/en/our-work/...

Jo Grady of UCU has spoken out in support of Gaza students with offers at UK universities who are being blocked by the Home Office www.timeshighereducation.com/news/visa-ru...

Seemingly unremarkable human interventions on rivers can be immensely destructive to wildlife & pass unseen for years. Asking questions about rivers is vital. Not all answers cost millions & restoration has benefits for the whole ecosystem on land, in river and our oceans.

Thanks for sharing this, it is so important. There are ways to clean plastic from the ocean, there needs to be a 'flying squad' to do the best we can (as we do for oils spills that affect us more directly).

A fabulous bee mimic from a wild bee orchid I found on sands and gravels in Wrexham county yesterday @ukorchids.bsky.social

Do you know a young person with an interest in insects? 🦋 The Douglas Boyes Fund aims to provide people aged 14-18 with access to entomology equipment, fostering their passion for insects and inspiring them to engage and share their interest with other young individuals 🔽

Lovely.

www.pan-uk.org/period-produ... That something so basic and normal to half of us functioning in our society has caused so much harm is shocking. We need to know this stuff and have the power to make good choices. I wish I had known.

(No) Stonefly Diary: A walk in the woods, dry, dusty where bikes have ripped up new paths since Storm Darragh tore up and threw down trees on the fences. And here is magic, a much loved hat of gossamer threads spun by the finest spinner and hung with care in the morning shafts of sunlight.

Stonefly Diaries: The endgame is upon the Scarce Yellow Sally, most eggs are laid. It's the turn of the Mayflies: Ephemera danica are dancing over the riverbank, 'Pale Watery' Baetis fuscatus hanging off the grasses. Too many hot dry days for a Welsh May. @naturambyth.bsky.social #buglife

Imogen (Chester Zoo) & I (Buglife) set off for an evening Isogenus search w/ little hope yesterday and an uninspiring forecast, but found 24 in the trees. Knowing almost nothing about their adult behaviour means the most naive questions are as valid as any other🙃 @naturambyth.bsky.social #buglife

Stonefly diaries 2025: No Scarce Yellow Sally (Isogenus) stoneflies yesterday on the Ceiriog,but found a beautiful Violet Oil Beetle. last week I got 2 hours recording of 'Sally' drumming to meet mates + more great observations with Chester Zoo volunteers @naturambyth.bsky.social

WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, sounds the alarm on Israel’s ongoing genocide operation in Gaza. Netanyahu has turned the strip into an open air concentration camp and is deliberately starving civilians.

Join this survey if you can, it has provided some immensely useful data that's much needed when we talk about this vital issue that has been an anecdotal 'fact' amongst car drivers for many years.

Our first Isogenus nubecula stonefly of 2025 found on the banks of the Welsh Dee yesterday and the recording studio set up to record their 'drumming' call. (It worked really well btw) #Naturambyth #buglife

Wrexham's rarest animal, Isogenus nubecula, has emerged from the river waters for a brief 3-4 weeks as an adult stone fly. I've been tracking the emergence. Counting exuvia on bridges & searching for sightings along the banks of the Welsh River Dee @buglife @naturambyth.bsky.social

Naturalist Clare Boyes @pickeletto.bsky.social‬ and I went on a stonefly exuvia tour of bridges over the Severn S of Welshpool: result 2x Perlodes + an adult B.risi with an expected 0 sign of Isogenus nubecula! but lovely hours of chat as we waded and clambered the banks. #Buglife #NaturAmByth

Can you help us find out more about Scarce Yellow Sally - Isogenus nebucula? If you walk along riverbanks in the UK, (also Northern Europe and Siberia!) please keep an eye out for stoneflies! www.buglife.org.uk/get-involved...

theconversation.com/flies-are-ma... A brand new Fly review paper from Will Hawkes and the Genetics of Migration team at Exeter University has been published. So exciting to read how much influence flies have on our planet and wellbeing!

youtu.be/yMlvBnsyZQc?... Good teaching!

This is Macrocillix maia & he's a moth who mimics bird poo. But he's taken it to the next level, he's also mimicking flies feeding on the bird poo, right down to the shimmer of their wings! I have wanted to see one for so long, but never thought I would! In Trus Madi entomology camp in Borneo. 1/2

Dismaying to read so much warmongering here. The damage to the planet from the wars in Gaza and Ukraine have caused immense ecosystem damage. War magnified will hasten biodiversity and climate catastrophe in short order. That = us, who are part of biodiversity. We need radical peace

As @willleohawkes.bsky.social says, what an incredible trip it was. I have spent lovely long hours identifying all my pictures. And, thanks to Will, reminders of just how special the old growth forests of the world are to us are detailed with humour and passion in the podcast below.

This is so ridiculous. Taxonomists are perhaps the most important people in entomological studies, as without knowing what the animals are, how can you do the research? Taxonomists are endangered enough as it is.

🧵"So this is how liberty dies..." Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up. I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9

A lovely job in North East Wales - and a beautiful place to work for someone. Take a look and share.

Why are we doing this? What is GB afraid of?

A useful micro summary of the latest insect migration paper. I like the way this opens up the work to all of us, scientists and non scientists alike.

Another gem from the small (but growing) oeuvre that is Insect Migration Rock 😍

Much needed work, hoping our valley adopts this plan soon.

It's been a good afternoon for staying inside dissecting out stonefly maxillae of exuviae and finishing this years Xmas Card design - Meanwhile outside climate change is hitting our valley with landslides, the river bursting it's banks and closing the main route in and out.