Shameless plug for possibly my favourite day of the year! The Staffordshire Invertebrate Science Fair. A brilliant event with just loads of interesting stands and people. At a new site this year so should be more space 😊😊😊😊

My first moths of 2026 - 3 Pale Brindled Beauties and 1 Spring Usher. Felt good to be running a trap again. Am inspired to give it another go tonight. VC39 #TeamMoth

It's very wet out there, but very mild and I have just heard the whisper of the moth for the first time this year...

On a day with so much awfulness just taking a moment to note with admiration a dignified leader

Please join me in pretending you were at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony yesterday, cathartically booing J.D. Vance. BOOOOOO! YOU SUCK, VANCE! BOOOOOO! YOUR WIFE SUCKS BY ASSOCIATION, MAN...BOOOOOO!YOU GIVE BEARDS A BAD NAME, DUDE...BOOOOOO!.. Let it all out, now.

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Crazy Chair Chase in MINNESOTA! I downloaded it because as usual I'm having hell of a time transferring any post from Instagram to Blue sky. ENJOY something silly instead of people getting beat up or shot.

"In order to build tyranny, you have to open zones where the law doesn't apply... one zone like that is the border. The logic of what they've been doing with ICE is to take the border everywhere." www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuNB...

Well sung, Bruce. @ruthnewby.bsky.social Bruce Springsteen Rallies Against Trump and ICE in New Protest Song “Streets of Minneapolis” | Pitchfork share.google/Y6fTChLO4OEo...

"The Trump administration is making a tactical retreat in the hopes of salvaging its larger strategic goals."

"There should be a pause in ICE and Border Patrol street operations anywhere in the country 'until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.'" Today's Morning Shots from @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social and @eggerdc.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3Z1B53d

Out along the valley this morning. A single Russian White-fronted Goose with a Canada Goose flock on the flood water south of Dun Wood (appalling record shot below). Plus: 12 Snipe, c130 Lapwing, 30 Wigeon, 50+ Teal, Goosander. 🪶 @staffsbirdnews.bsky.social

Tell the EU to protect our biometric data from Trump action.eko.org/a/don-t-hand...

Siberian Chiffchaff at Seamer Sewage Farm this morning. Gave a nice "peep" call. Found by @sj84turner.bsky.social two days ago but remained silent at the time. #Scarborough ##YorkshireBirding @nybirdnews.bsky.social

Have just been lent this - a book I've long wanted to get my hands on. Have selected a couple of its gazetteer entries on sites I've sought out over the years. And yes - that's #JulianCope of 'World Shut Your Mouth' fame (& more recently, but less famously - the compilation 'Trip Advizer').

BBC News - Rare mushroom find sparks push to record wildlife www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

For fans of the late #DavidLynch - especially 'Twin Peaks: The Return'. Reminded me of the mysterious machineries Lynch loved to install in his parallel universes. And of Phillip Jeffries (originally David Bowie), who has become something that - I read - is not actually a giant metallic teapot.

Very sad to read this morning that 3 of the WTE have had their tags removed and hidden. The birds whereabouts is unknown……… sadly one was a uk bred bird too 😔😔😔 Just deplorable actions!

For lovers of beautific electronic dance music. And it adds a little indefinable something if you like moths. #TeamMoth youtu.be/TJ_7-n02nEg?...

They just don't want anyone traveling to the US for any reason at all

"Tincher [a US citizen] has marks on her neck and wrist from where agents restrained her. Agents cut off her wedding ring and held her in leg shackles at Whipple Federal Building for about five hours, where she saw about seven other detainees." www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...

I see this so often that I think it might qualify as a law: The time people take to notice demographic trends is equal to the time required for the results to materialise. In other words, however obvious the maths might be, we cannot or will not see it coming.

Nice slimy specimen of what I'm 97.6% certain is Velvet Shank - Flammulina velutipes - found sprouting from a Birch stump during a recent walk. Really strikingly orange especially amidst the general grey murk of the morning. #fungi #mycology

Ran the anglepoise actinic last night in a half-hearted attempt to lure a Winter Moth to our window. No WM, but did find this Mottled Umber tucked in against the window frame. #TeamMoth @vc39moths.bsky.social

Out along the valley this a.m: Jack Snipe, 50 Snipe, 3 Wigeon, c40 Lapwing, 35 Teal, 22 Siskin, Green Woodpecker, Chiffchaff. Ashes Pool: fell into some gorse & flushed a Woodcock, 3 Wigeon, drake Goosander, 2 Snipe, 7 Teal. In lieu of a picture here's some footage of me expertly herding sheep.🪶 🐑

Russian propaganda in full force for the Witkoff visit: Putin is claiming to have captured Ukrainian cities that he doesn't control, and having himself photographed in military uniform kyivindependent.com/putin-claims...

He’s gesturing to a sleeping man as he says “He’s the only leader in the world who can help end [the war in Ukraine].”

Out along the valley this lovely, low-lit afternoon. Notable mainly for the increase in Snipe (63 - recent counts have been consistently in the mid 30s). Plus: Jack Snipe, 16 Lapwing, 28 Teal, 2 Stonechats, Green Woodpecker, Water Rail, 5 Siskin, Raven, Kestrel, 40 Redwing and 17 Fieldfare.🪶

From the Wall of Sound to the Cathedral of Sound. I hear they were handing out earplugs to the attendees. My Bloody Valentine - 'Soon', Wembley OVO Arena, 25/11/2025 Take a look at this video, 'my bloody valentine live 2025' share.google/EiC2LBYJmlxe...

Alright there people. Am excited to announce the launch on this my Bluesky channel of "My Song of the Week", each filtered through the battered box of my sensibility and having taken up residence in my mind's ear, for good reasons only, during the previous 7-day period. No <likes> necessary.

NFG Macros from the first 6 months of trapping in 2025, SE Hants. A combination of the most wanted, best looking and most surprising. A welcome distraction from sorting photos, 800 deleted today, still another 9000ish to go 🫣😬 #teammoth

NFG Micros from the first 6 months of trapping in 2025, SE Hants. A combination of the most wanted, best looking and most surprising. I’ve also redone yesterday’s macro collage with the correct moth in the top right. Technically there’s also a micro in it, but it’s an ‘honorary’ macro 🤔 #teammoth

Not as pretty as the macros, but some significant micro records from the garden this year. Cadra figulilella (Raisin Moth) and Phycitodes saxicola (Lesser Clouded Knot-horn) both new for VC39, with at least four specimens of the latter recorded & confirmed by gen det. #TeamMoth

And a few more of the macro NFGs from the garden this year, here in North Staffordshire. A few details in ALT text. #TeamMoth

It’s freezing cold & I’m bored. So here’s a selection of the 34 macro NFGs from this year’s efforts in the garden. A few details in ALT text. Micros to follow in a separate post! A total of 95 NFGs pushed the garden total up to 603. A pretty crazy year all round. #TeamMoth

Oh dear. Nice irony though. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Fifteen of the sixteen* December Moths lured to my trap last night by a combination of UV light and female pheromones. Certainly a record for me. In addition: 1 Mottled Umber, 1 Feathered Thorn and 2 LBAMs. *I'm afraid the 16th was taken by a spider and crudely taxidermied. #TeamMoth

Floodwater along the valley bottom early this p.m. A bitter westerly blew up and blunderbussed me with hail. Pretty quiet bird-wise: 35 Snipe, 10 Lapwing, 22 Teal, 24 Fieldfare, 11 Redwing plus 6 Snipe & the long-staying Cormorant (a rarity) at the Ashes Pool. Song & Mistle Thrushes singing too. 🪶

Steve Witkoff isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin and prolonging the war www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

The war will end when Russia stops fighting. Therefore, pressure has to be put on Russia, so that they stop believing that they will win. Why is that so hard to understand?

"a Russian military victory in Ukraine is not inevitable, and a rapid Russian seizure of the rest of Donetsk Oblast is not imminent" and the US officials who keep saying so are repeating Russian propaganda

Well worth an hour of your time if you want to understand the latest travesty of a Ukrainian "peace process" and what happens when Trump's son-in-law (no other qualification) and a strip-mall developer (Steve Witkoff) decide to do "diplomacy" with the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund.

Definitely follow this important reporting. And listen to the long, funny, revealing conversation Michael and I had on Thinking Live: snyder.substack.com/p/oligarchs-...

I'd all but retired from mothing for the year. My traps were decomissioned. Then an hour ago I remembered that last night, on a whim, I'd flicked on the anglepoise actinic sometime after 1 a.m. And there, stickered on the outside of the glass above the still-lit lamp was this moth. #TeamMoth

"We’re only at the end of the beginning of the Trump administration’s Epstein drama. And we’re only at the end of the beginning of a broader reckoning of the meaning of Epstein: 'Are you on the side of the forgotten Americans or on the side of the Epstein class?'” www.thebulwark.com/p/the-epstei...

“'Are you on the side of the forgotten Americans or on the side of the Epstein class?' That seems to me a powerful challenge and a fair question. What comes after Trump? A party, a movement, and a candidate with a compelling answer to this challenge and question." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-epstei...

"Donald Trump is an uncomplicated person. His crayon-drawn world is peopled by great friends and terrible enemies. He instinctively sides with the bloody autocrat who flatters him over the American journalist who holds him politely to account..." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-epstei...