Rounding off my #wildflowerhour contribution this week with my final 7 flowers for #thewinter10 are: Wall Barley, Cocksfoot, and Annual Meadow Grass. Plus, Scarlet Pimpernel, Herb Robert, Red Dead-nettle and what I think is Nettle-leaved Goosefoot. And a bonus picture of fantastic Teasel heads.

My second set for #thewinter10 comprise white (and a blue) flowers! Daisy, Bindweed, White Clover, White Dead-nettle, Yarrow, Hogweed, Black Nightshade, Common Mouse-ear, Shepherd's Purse and Common Field Speedwell are my line-up for #wildflowerhour.

Incredibly, on my local walk this week for #wildflowerhour, I notched up 27 species of plant in flower! It's still so mild here, there's plenty of floral delights to enjoy. This collage shows my yellow flowers for #thewinter10 - I particularly loved this glorious Sun Spurge.

What a gorgeous morning on Stoborough Heath, Dorset - made even better by the surprise appearance of a (slightly tatty) Clouded Yellow. A couple of Red Admiral on the wing too. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Such a privilege to see a gorgeous Yellow-browed Warbler and fabulous Firecrest at close quarters. Thank you, @ianweymouth.bsky.social - what a great way to start the day.

Some weird and wonderful Red Cage, or Lattice #Fungi (Clathrus ruber) to share on this #FungiFriday.

Always a treat to see everyone's pictures for #wildflowerhour - very uplifting. My contribution is from Chesil Beach today. Still some gorgeous Thrift in flower there. Even when the pretty pink petals have dropped, the remaining flower is rather beautiful, with a little yellow star in each "cup".

RSPB Ham Wall this week, in torrential rain, provided 11 for #thewinter10. Bush Vetch, White & Red Dead-nettle, Common Chickweed, Bindweed, Nipplewort, Herb Robert, Common Field Speedwell, Hogweed, Comfrey and Shepherd's Purse. A range of colours, but mostly white flowers this walk. #wildflowerhour

Happy Halloween! 🎃🍄 Bit of a cheat for this #fungifriday

My #fungi highlight from Garston Wood today was my first Dog Stinkhorn. What a brilliantly bizarre fungi! Erupting from an eggsack (volva), the long narrow stalk thrusts up presenting an orange tip. This is covered in dark smelly slime (gleba) containing the spores. #wildflowerhour #wildfungihour

Some #fungi from Garston Wood incl Glistening Inkcap, Crested Coral, Clustered Bonnet, Stump Puffball, Yellow Stagshorn, Blushing Bracket, Purple Jellydisc, Hairy Curtain Crust, Yellow Disco, Turkeytail and Candlesnuff. Not grassland fungi for #wildfungihour but lovely nonetheless. #wildflowerhour

I had a fabulous walk around RSPB Garston Wood today, such a lovely tranquil place full of natural beauty. For #wildflowerhour this week, some plants - a gorgeous, rather perky Male Fern frond, plus in flower Common Ragwort, Bush Vetch, Self-heal and Herb Robert (with a fungi friend) #wildfungihour

Welcome to the Neon Womb! Something glowy for #fungifriday - biofluorescence. Here, wavelengths of UV light from my torch are absorbed by the #fungi and re-emitted at a lower visible wavelength, creating this fascinating, otherworldly beauty.

LITTLE BUNTING trapped this morning at East Fleet, nr Weymouth, Dorset. With thanks to Sarah F. for a couple of the photos. Also trapped: 2 Cetti's, 1 Reed Warbler and 1 Dartford.

What an absolutely gorgeous day for a walk along The Fleet, Weymouth today. Really warm and sunny, lovely views, the bubbling calls of Brent Geese and plenty of Speckled Wood butterflies active along the hedgerows, as well as a couple of Red Admiral. Perfect. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Magical! A Dandelion clock illuminated by UV torchlight. #wildflowerhour

An early Halloween #fungi treat! I came across some fabulous Devil's Fingers erupting out of the ground in Purbeck, Dorset yesterday. Less of a treat was my misguided decision to give it a good sniff. An experience not to be repeated! It's alternative name, Octopus Stinkhorn, is very apt.

So many plants to enjoy at the Nothe, Weymouth - seaweed in rockpools and trees in the park, but stand still too long and the squirrels will take advantage! 😂 For #wildflowerhour, flowers of Chicory, Tamarisk and Mayweed add colour. But the Ivy flowers are the stars - abuzz with honeybees and wasps.

As well as being rich in fungi, Higher Hyde Heath offers beautiful flora for #wildflowerhour. Lavish clumps of Heather (Ling), with the deeper-coloured larger flowers of Bell Heather dotted between, and a lovely blue Heath(?) Milkwort. Back in the woods were Tormentil and Wild Strawberry flowers.

It seems to be a great autumn for Fly Algaric - lots of these beauties at DWT Higher Hyde Heath. 🍄 Plenty of other #fungi too, incl Woolly Milkcap, Crested Coral, Bulbous Honey Fungus & Candlesnuff. Speckled Wood on the wing and Red Kite overhead - what a fab morning! @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social

A mid-week walk in Affpuddle Forest was rewarded with lots of fabulous #fungi. An abundance of Fly Algaric, as well as various Brittlegills and Boletes, and some really impressive Turkeytail.

This Sea Aster is still putting on an incredible display at RSPB Lodmoor Reserve. Absolutely gorgeous. Combined with seeing the Glossy Ibis going off to roost with the Great White Egrets, and a Marsh Harrier floating over the reed beds....it doesn't get much better than this!! #wildflowerhour

So happy to have 3 super-smart Black Rustic in the moth trap this morning (Weymouth) - an autumn favourite. 😍 Overall 11 species (23 individuals), included Barred Sallow, Lunar Underwing, Beaded Chestnut and Feathered Ranunculus. #teammoth @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

For #UKFungusDay a few fungi from the splendid DWT Reserve, Kingcombe Meadows - including Lilac Fibrecap and Crested (or White) Coral. @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social #mycology #fungifriends

A plethora of fabulous fungi from Puddletown Forest to bring some colour on a grey day. Lots of gorgeous Bolettes and Russula, but particularly pleased to find tiny Green Elf Cup - often find the green-stained wood but rarely the fruiting bodies. 🍄 #fungifriends #fungifriday #fungusfriday #mycology

Harvesting tomatoes has become a lot more time consuming! I suddenly have loads of gorgeous Garden Spiders (Araneus diadematus) making webs everywhere at my allotment. I'm keen to try not to disturb their webs, but I think getting through the laser field in the Oceans 12 film would be easier!! 😅

For #wildflowerhour a throwback to August and a music festival in Portsmouth. The parched ground and heavy footfall left little opportunity for plants to thrive, but this one bank somehow remained a green oasis, dotted with the pretty candy-striped flowers of Field Bindweed. A very welcome sight.

Lovely weather for my butterfly transect at Lorton Meadows, Weymouth. 16 Speckled Wood, plus Comma and Large White recorded. Delighted to end my butterfly season on a high, with two Small Copper - my favourite butterfly! @ukbms.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social

An exciting visitor to my allotment - the incredible Hummingbird Hawkmoth! Mesmerising watching it flit between flowers, pausing to probe each with a long proboscis, the wings (allegedly beating 80 times per second) just a blur. #teammoth @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

Plenty of tiny, beautiful, Eyebright flowers in the wild quarries on Portland. Not sure of species - my Wildflower ID book quickly made me realise these were going to be tricky, and that feeling was compounded by one of the Eyebright having the scientific name of Euphrasia confusa!! #wildflowerhour

What a fabulously fluffy caterpillar - Fox Moth at Tout Quarry, Portland this morning. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

My #FavouritePlant absolutely had to be the Marsh Gentian. There were around 40 in flower at this site - I crouched down to inspect and enjoy every single one! Stunning. #wildflowerhour

In 2nd place, for my #FavouritePlant is Lady Orchid, seen for the first time in Kent in May with @mariposanature.bsky.social. It was such a wonderful day, with fellow guests and leaders proving to be great company. And the orchids were fabulous, but the Lady Orchid stole my heart. #wildflowerhour

Have enjoyed remembering the wonderful flowers, people and places encountered this year in selecting my #FavouritePlant. In 3rd place for me - the Snowdrop, a simple, beautiful, sign of spring. And this year, it provided added joy as I discovered those hidden green stripes. #Wildflowerhour

#LunarEclipse from North #Oxfordshire. I missed totality but the #Moon popped out from behind the cloud bank so I got some photos of most of the second half :) #Eclipse #LunarEclipse2025

My final #seedheads for this week's #wildflowerhour challenge...Bird's-foot Trefoil, named after the shape and arrangement of the seedpods.

I revisited the roadside embankment in Weymouth which hosts an epic annual display of Pyramidal Orchids. It's spectacular at it's peak. Whilst not nearly so showy at this time of year, there is still a fantastic display thanks to all the #seedheads. #wildflowerhour @ukorchids.bsky.social

Oooh, great #wildflowerhour challenge this week, have really enjoyed looking more closely at #seedheads. Thrift seedheads blowing in the wind at Durlston Country Park, Dorset.

Glossy Ibis at Tidmoor.

This morning's moth trap (Weymouth) supplied a surprise Water Boatman! Of the 70 moths, half were Large Yellow Underwings! 16 other sp included a gorgeous Dusky Thorn and a new-for-me micro - possibly Neocochylis Molliculana? #TeamMoth @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

A stroll around Affpuddle Woods, Dorset was rewarded by the very first promises of Autumn - tiny #fungi pushing up through the leaf litter. Still seems very dry and warm on the south coast, so pleased to see these starting to appear - just love fungi season.

First time I've had a good look at a caterpillar's mouth! This Eyed Hawkmoth larva was obligingly positioned for an interesting view of the black mouthparts and it's six true legs. Feeding on apple at my Weymouth allotment. #TeamMoth @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

It seems like a good year for hedgerow #fruits round here with Bramble, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Dog Rose and Apple in abundance. But what really caught my eye were extraordinary long "garlands" of red berries belonging to Black Bryony - decorating everything - even barbed wire! #wildflowerhour

Cheating slightly for this week's #Fruits challenge... I attended a brilliant walk with @dorsetflora.bsky.social which tuned me in to looking more closely at Clovers. Well, my new favourite is Strawberry Clover so thought I'd share, as I just love these little spiky orbs. #wildflowerhour

Very happy to have joined the Autumn Ladies Tresses party. I love the "frosting" that glimmers in the sun. Such a lovely, delicate orchid - these ones were particularly tiny in a dry, exposed position at Durlston Country Park, Dorset. #wildflowerhour @ukorchids.bsky.social

Managed to be both a week early and a week late for the #gentianfamily challenge! This week a different location on the Purbeck Heaths revealed more gorgeous Marsh Gentian, plus Dorset Heath and Oblong-leaved Sundew, as well as plenty of Heather & Gorse with some fab Wasp Spiders. #wildflowerhour

Excited to discover my small, potted apple tree is now also home to jazzy Grey Dagger moth caterpillars! So cool to see how they change appearance as they moult and grow. This one, a 4cm final instar, is looking quite spectacular. #TeamMoth @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

I'm currently reading a lovely book "Swifts and Us - The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky" by Sarah Gibson @windsweptsarah.bsky.social Looking forward to hearing the author's talk on Saturday at the Swifts Over Sherborne event, and hopefully getting my book signed! swiftsoversherborne.co.uk

Very excited to find 2 awesome Eyed Hawkmoth caterpillars at my allotment, Weymouth, feeding on a small apple tree. Loving the blue horn, the rusty coloured true legs with white spots, and the lateral stripes mimicking leaf veins. #TeamMoth @dorsetmoths.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

WOW - totally blown away this week by the undeniably gorgeous flowers of Marsh Gentian. The colours, the shape, the detail.....look at those spots! So beautiful. Flower of the week for me.....absolutely, and surely contender for flower of the year. #wildflowerhour