NEW BLOG: Bordertown. Catching Eastern Bordered Straw in my Norwich garden. Norfolk's 6th (4 this week!). www.jameslowen.com/blog-31-may-... Plus Evergestis extimalis, Small Mottled Willow, Cypress Carpet, Phyllocnistis xenia... #mothing @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @norfolkmoths.bsky.social

New Costessey (Norwich) garden: got in on the unprecedented Eastern Bordered Straw influx (one of four so far in Norfolk) - fluffed potting it twice, but third time lucky - plus Small Mottled Willow, Evergestis extimius nfg, Cypress Carpet. @migrantmothuk.bsky.social @norfolkmoths.bsky.social

Unexpected, uninvited but not unwelcome patio dinner guest. #lesserstagbeetle

NEW BLOG: Serentickity. A remarkable hour during an enforced hide-sit, starring Gull-billed Tern, Temminck's Stint, Osprey, Red-veined Darters & apparent Lesser Emperor. www.jameslowen.com/blog-30-may-... @pterodroma.bsky.social @alanlewiswildlife.bsky.social @woodybirder.bsky.social #ukbirding

Comparing flight photos by Alan Lewis (to whom thanks) of Minsmere Gull-billed Tern (left) of 10 days ago with our Salthouse/Cley bird yesterday (right) suggests different individuals; also different cap shape apparent, esp when Norfolk bird on deck. #ukbirding

Privatised water is such an obvious scam that it's achieved the impossible: getting 82% of Brits to agree on something. The only issue to score higher was the public’s desire for Tony Blair to stick to retirement.

Also a happy customer #ukbirding

Happy customer #ukbirding

Remarkably we refound it later from the pub garden, where we were enjoying a lengthy celebration.

lus osprey and what looks like it may be a female lesser emperor since, and temminck’s stint and two red-veined darters beforehand. #ukbirding

Gull-billed Tern just called in at Babcock hide, salthouse, before flying west towards Cley. Get the **** in. (Better photo is from a Spanish birder in the hide.) Also Temminck’s for two min (new bird rather than one from 3 days ago?) and Red-veined darter.

Has anyone else ever had a male emperor moth in a trap? first i have had heard of. What was it doing flying by night? was a (normally night-active) female ‘calling’? #mothing

Fancy hearing two people natter about moths? Jack Perks has interviewed me for his Bearded Tit podcast. Check it out at beardedtit.podbean.com/e/british-mo... #moths #mothing #muchadoaboutmothing

having worked hard at the desk for half a day, I am surveying for bee-eaters overflying the garden.

Another mothy night in Norwich, but just a single diamond-back by way of nocturnal immigrants. By day, however, a Clouded Yellow (new for garden! hurrah!), two Painted Lady and a Silver Y… (pic: Eyed Hawk-moth flashing)

Is it a bit sad to be delighted to get the bird poo moth to the trap? Chinese Character always makes me smile. Here it is pooped on my moth book #moths #TeamMoth @jameslowenwild.bsky.social

adly no immigrant moths better than two Diamond-backs in the Norwich trap, but 297/74 made for a fun early morn. Highlights inc Puss Moth, Buttoned Snout m, Euro Cornborer and several happy maybugs. #mothing

After months of work my Norfolk Pseudoscorpion guide for @norfolknats.bsky.social is now on the website free to see/download. Covers 20 species recorded in Norfolk so hopefully useful for other areas of UK. norfolknaturalists.org.uk/wp/wp-conten...

New blog: #wildlifetravelling on Lesvos, Greece, at the turn of the month. Two nests of Krüper's Nuthatch, several Persian Squirrels & much more besides. @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social www.jameslowen.com/blog-10-may-...

𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗢𝗡-𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗦𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗣𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗡 𝗠𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗨 𝗜𝗡 𝗞𝗔𝗠𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗞𝗔 by 𝘓𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘰 et al. in latest BirdingASIA is amazing collaborative science giving prospects for future survival of this icon of the East Asian Australasian Flyway #ornithology jameslowenwild.bsky.social

Some of the varied highlights of our last 24h on Lesvos, with the @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social tour. Birds, moths, irises, orchids, scorpions…

Dear all, I'm running the London Marathon this Sunday dressed as a badger for Norfolk Wildlife Trust – to make our beautiful blue & green planet a tiny bit more beautifully blue & green! Any support for NWT gratefully received, thank you 🙏https://2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/backthebadger

How many swallows make summer? No idea, either. But here’s two flavours of swallow prominent from the Norwich garden moth trap. Lesser on the left; Notlesser on the right

Mid suffolk council. Majority green. Council tax increase only 2%. I've not seen that anywhere in the media (traditional or social), services improved, budget balanced, land purchased for environmental recovery

Can’t go wrong with a Chocolate-tip. An annual visitor to our Norwich garden. #teammoth #mothing

The star of this morning’s Norwich garden mothing: the annual turn by The Mullein. Uncompromisingly cool.

Outstanding wildlife journalism, this.

Yes indeed. Eurasian Jay nesting in the garden for the first time this year. Ditto Long-tailed Tit.

Common Swifts & European Turtle-doves will soon arrive in the UK; Grey Plovers are northing along coasts in Europe & N America. I have written about the threats to the trio plus the conservation measures taken by BirdLife International & Partners (e.g. RSPB) in BirdLife's exc magazine (Apr-Jun)

I’ve just watched 'My Garden of a Thousand Bees' filmed in Bristol by Martin Dohrn and available on BBC iPlayer. Absolutely mind-blowing and quite possibly the best wildlife documentary I’ve ever watched.

(COMPLEMENTARY) NEW BLOG: Cyprus moths III. www.jameslowen.com/blog-4-apr-2... A few words, and a fair few pics, of spring-flying moths in Cyprus on our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social tour last week, led by @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social

NEW BLOG: Cyprus spring 2026 with @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social, led by @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social Click www.jameslowen.com/blog-3-apr-2... to read

anyone for #MothBreakfast? and our first rain of the week just before we left the hotel brought Purple Heron, Whinchat and a Thrush Nightingale into the garden. Cyprus, we will be back... #WildlifeTravelling in #Cyprus with @jameslowenwild.bsky.social

Between checking our Cyprus-touring @travel_wildlife group in to Paphos airport yesterday, and going through security for the flight, @WildlifePrecey and I had time to march along to Timi Beach to tick Bimaculated Lark, with a side-order of Trumpeter Finch. Rubbish photos, but much excitement!

A fine farewell from the hotel gardens of our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus tour, which proffered Dyscia simplicaria (a little-known endemic), a crowdpleasing Striped Hawk-moth, an intermittently showy Thrush Nightingale and an ostentious Collared Flycatcher (among 8 Ficedula in the garden)

Spot the moth-er’s hotel bedroom…

A mesmerising walk back to our hotel with 22 species of orchid to delight our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus tour clients. Wowza.

To paraphrase @dunnjons.bsky.social, writing recently about Kotschy’s orchid, it is unconceivable for a wildlife-watcher to leave Cyprus without seeing its endemic warbler. Our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social group enjoyed several today, plus much else besides.

As the late douglas boyes once suggested, we should crowdsource vernacular names for moths. @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social suggests Blue-eyed Flatterer for the sumptuous Eutelia adulatrix. I concur. Anyone else in?

Rather splendid moth-breakfast for our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus group, with new moths (for me too!) inc Hadena adriana, Marigold Shark, Dark Mottled Willow and Peribatodes correptaria. Delightful, esp when interrupted by a showy male Collared Flycatcher… @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social

Highlight of today’s @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social moth breakfast was one of my fave Mediterranean lepidopterans: Eutelia adulatrix. Look those eyes… and that line of blood…

Although Lemon-yellow Treefrog won my personal ‘animal of the day’ on our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus explorations today, the hotel garden was bounteous, with 2 Semi-collared & 3 Collared Flycatchers, & Cyprus Wheatear - all piebald drakes - plus Wood Warbler, Redstart, Tree Pipits…

lovely piece by the lovely helen pilcher about the lovely critters that are moths. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

here is the inaturalist map of kotschy’s orchid in western Cyprus - now with a Paphos dot

When your @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus tour day starts with Semi-collared, Collared and Pied Flycatchers in the hotel garden, plus Purple Marbled, Levant Blackneck and a splendid mantid at the moth trap, you quickly have a smile on your boatrace @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social

Delighted that our @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social Cyprus group enjoyed these Kotschy’s Orchids in the unexpected location of Paphos. Thanks to @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social for his sharp eyes and to @orientbutterflies.bsky.social for finding a different plant there yesterday! (rfi any named variants?)

A great new Neotropical Birding (#38) has just arrived, a combination of dependably high quality staples with wonderful feature articles that really push the frontiers. Please read and support or join! Well done again @jameslowenwild.bsky.social @neobirdconserve.bsky.social! #ornithology

… please

New blog: Hula (w)hoop. On wintering Whooper Swans in Fenland. www.jameslowen.com/blog-15-mar-...

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... Pentagon tells lawmakers Iran war costs top $11.3bn in 6 days. For perspective, 3 days of war costs the same as a year’s effort for the UK to reach Net Zero by 2050. If the war lasts for c.48 days, at current costs, that’s the entire UK investment needed.