Still seeing these beauties in the garden every day, after a late start (presumably due to poor overwintering) they've had a good year again.

Had a lovely surprise this afternoon, found the rather rare Deptford Pink growing by a roadside on Romney Marsh.

A late Wall appeared briefly in the garden this morning.

The unusual 'white' wilding Apple tree in the village is fruiting well this year. Rather thick skin & somewhat bland flavour so it might originate from a discarded Golden Delicious or Granny Smith core. Interesting enough for me to try top working a piece onto one of my own trees this Winter.

A very pretty farmland bird mix down by the river this year, let's hope it works!

Finally caught up with some stunning Wasp Spiders in the village this evening. By all accounts they're having a much better season locally after a good few years where numbers have been fairly low.

Southern Water, I hate you, & I hate the parasitic international 'investment' funds who own you & profit from the disgusting mess you've made of this tiny little river which I love. Pic shows a filthy East Stour River, Kent, several miles downstream of sewage release. Discharging 4 hrs & counting.

Just rescued this Large Tortoishell from my garage window, surrounded by spiderwebs! VC15 @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Four of the spectacular moth lifers that I saw among 160+ species in a Kent wood on Friday night with @mammalmark.bsky.social @dartfordtrapper.bsky.social @ruckingemoths.bsky.social & co. Light Crimson Underwing, Rose Plume, Olive Crescent & Bisigna procerella (Beautiful Silver-mark) #teammoth

A Sussex Emerald was a very nice surprise in the garden moth trap last night. High overnight temperatures encouraging dispersal maybe? Probably 7 or 8 miles from the nearest colony I know of, overnight minimum was a bonkers 20.8C here.

It's an exceptional year for Apricots here with fruit set bordering on the ridiculous, and to have them ready to eat before June is out is incredible.

After an exceptionally dry year these Sticklebacks are hanging on in the last bit of water in this dried up woodland stream in Orlestone Forest. With more very high temperatures forecast and no rain on the horizon their days are numbered.

Looks like the Orchids are having a poor year on this nice patch of grassland along the railway in the village, I assume the dry Spring meant many shrivelled, but Marbled White and Small Skipper are having a good year. Also v pleased to find Fairy Flax here for the first time.

A particularly lovely patch of Columbine in Eggringe Wood, Kent today.

Arable land has been flattened by history of ploughing. In restoring such sites it is important to introduce variation. Here I look at butterfly banks and enthuse over the experimental testing. youtu.be/5kgAXVFo610?...

My first Emperor Dragonfly of the year last week at Waterbrook, Ashford.

Every parish has an Ivy dickhead.

Weird parasitic Dodder plants snaking their way through a Kentish meadow.

Peacock on a field boundary Chequertree at Bridgefield, Ashford today. A reminder that this site was ancient woodland until at least the 1940s before being flattened for agriculture by 1960. Now being repurposed again as a new build housing estate.

Dead wood is known to be important in forests. The RSPB are carrying out experiments as part of the Cairngorm Connect project to creat deadwood at scale with remarkable consequences. youtu.be/4VFhv3RUrys

A nice looking Lackey caterpillar in Woodchurch yesterday evening.

First Poplar Hawkmoth I've seen this Spring, lovely! Also I've never noticed before how much the tufts on Frosted Green moths look like little cat ears :-)

What hope have our rivers got? Huge pile of stinking poultry litter/manure, 25m long, 4m wide and 2m high, just 3 or 4 metres from the water's edge along the East Stour River, Kent and another even larger pile set further back. The field is usually underwater for several months of the year.

Pleased to find a new monad for the lovely White Sedge (Carex canescens), a very rare plant in Kent. As is usual in these parts it's growing in a peaty woodland pool.

Extraordinary markings on this Purple Thorn make me think of of intricate inlays on fancy furniture.

The Blackthorn flowers are incredible this year, what an absolute joy!

And much more diverse than expensive, dreary rows of plastic tubes favoured by politicians and organisations who make money from planting dreary rows of plastic tubes.

Scrub bashing at Dungeness earlier ,before starting had a quick look along the power station wire fence and found a superb male Black Redstart ,joined after a while by a female.On the way home I had an hour in the local wood and was very pleased to find 2 Large Tortoiseshell ,my 5th and 6th of 25'

Curious framing of council tax increases for 2nd home owners by Dan Whitehead on Sky News site. The quote 'naked cash grab' from the "Taxpayers' Alliance", a Tufton St junk tank, is placed front & centre, getting mentioned 3 times. I don't think that this is an accident. news.sky.com/story/second...

After a bit of scrub bashing at Dungeness earlier thought i,d have a quick stop on the way home to try for a Large Tortoiseshell .......a few having been noted recently locally, ,fairly busy again ,tried a quieter section and was rewarded with one sighting.

The BBC and our political leaders are simply incapable of understanding, or reporting, what is happening right now. The BBC continues to deal with Trumps' infantile outbursts as if they were carefully crafted position statements produced by civil servants, speech writers & SPADs; needing analysis.

Arable farmland. The new normal in the new climate. It’s been like this for most of the last few years, purely due to more frequent & heavier rainfall.

Some signs of Spring are beginning to appear in the garden now including these Winter Aconites which opened in the sunshine today, one complete with a tiny pollinator. They're running perhaps a little behind compared to recent Winters.

A Marmalade Hoverfly enjoying the lovely sunshine at Warehorne this afternoon despite the frozen ground.

This Box Bug (Gonocerus marginatus) which turned up in the house might be my last invertebrate of 2024. Thanks to @jamesrowland23.bsky.social for ID confirmation :-)

Flowering Hawthorn in urban Ashford for the #NewYearPlantHunt as well as numerous Trachycarpus fortunei seedlings under a mature tree which is producing lots of fruit. Thanks to @squinancywort.bsky.social for organising, lots of fun despite gloomy weather! Total of 33 species found in flower.

Local site ,Grizzled Skippers (small colony),Green Hairstreak (a few),Sickle -Bearing Bush Cricket (For at least 2 seasons ) ,Orange Conch(moth),3 Orchid species (HUGE colony Comm;Spots )Nightingale (1 or 2 pr),Turtle Dove +Cuckoo +Lesser Whitethroat often about, 3 Reptile species !....nuff said !

Some of my favourite moth finds of 24' ,and one from a couple of years back .An Arched Marble (now re-named Hedge Beauty ) from Orlestone ,a Mint Moth also from Orlestone and a very fresh Orange Conch Moth (also re-named I believe.....Orange Beauty ??......if not it should be !)

If you need a regular supplement of indescribably beautiful wildflowers - and who doesn't - then follow Sajad! #botany 🌿🌱 #wildflowers

Struggled to find Grizzled Skippers locally in 24' they are slowly disappearing block by block in the local forest .Some excellent work was done recently on a couple of sites where they still hang on...just !...so fingers crossed ! heres a few that I did manage to find.

I'm tired of Twitter but it'll probably take me a bit of time to get going on here. In the meantime have a couple of photos of this lovely Purple Emperor in Orlestone Forest, taken from different angles.