A few nice finds from Woodwalton Fen, Cambs this week: the King Diving Beetle Dytiscus dimidiatus, the ant-mimic jumping spider Synageles venator, and (reintroduced) Fen Violet! #Pan-speciesListing

I have been trying to identify some roadside cereals today but am a bit confused about Barley taxonomy! (IDs in ALT text) 1/2

Yellow-juiced Poppy, Papaver lecoqii, at RSPB Hope Farm this week.

Bird's-foot Sedge was a satisfying chance find in Cressbrook, Derbyshire recently!

Nesting season is well under way at RSPB Hope Farm, many of these eggs have hatched (or been predated) by now - Linnet, Starling, Jackdaw, and Blackcap #NestRecordScheme @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

Judging by this small patch at RSPB Hope Farm, you can appreciate how Shepherd's-needle was once a serious arable weed! #WildflowerHour

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...

Oxyloma sarsii is supposed to be a rare species of broadland and fen but it turns out to be abundant at this dual carriageway mitigation pit in Cambs! Always worth double checking these things #Pan-speciesListing

Will be buzzing if anyone can confirm if this is a Blue-headed Wagtail (2nd year female?). Private site in Huntingdon this evening 😃 @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #UKBirding

Adder's-tongue was a surprising first record for RSPB Hope Farm this week! 73 plants near a pond in old permanent pasture. The grazing regime has been relaxed in the last couple of years which could explain why it has not been found before.

It's not often you see two new fish in a day, let alone two new new non-native invasive fish. Following on the from the Sunbleak netted earlier, I also saw Topmouth Gudgeon, Pseudorasbora parva, a species in the process of being eradicated from Britain.

This Ring Ouzel dropped vertically out of the sky into the tallest elm on this ridge at RSPB Hope Farm today. A nice one for #PWC2026! @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

It was nice to spend some time watching the Black-tailed Godwits near Over today. I counted 973 and managed to read a few colour-rings @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

Last weekend, @bsbicountries.bsky.social and I made the "pan-species listing pilgrimage" to southeast Wales to meet Christian Owen and see all the amazing soil creatures there! @panspecieslisting.bsky.social

Great winter bird count with the team at @rspb.bsky.social Hope Farm this morning - impressive numbers of farmland birds - grey partridge, corn bunting, reed bunting, yellowhammer, linnet, skylark, fieldfare, snipe, kestrel & a merlin flyby 🐦 @rspbscience.bsky.social

Successful day reading Whooper rings in the Fens today. @birdergirl.bsky.social's Tundra Bean Geese still at RSPB Ouse Fen were a good bonus! @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

Ferruginous Duck at Diddington Pits. Just as pleased to get this colour-ringed Wigeon on the ice! @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

For clarity, at Diddington this morning: drake Ring-necked Duck, female Scaup, redhead Smew, 2 Pintail, 2 R-c Pochard, 380+ Tufted Duck, c.500 Pochard, 168 Teal, 10 Goldeneye, 350 Wigeon. Great birding! @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

Dake Ring-necked Duck at Diddington Pits. Hundreds of Athyas to scan through still, 500+ Pochard easy @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

Sunday book review: Pan-species Listing by @graemelyons.bsky.social Publisher: @pelagic.bsky.social Review: markavery.info/2026/01/04/s... "Hardly anyone has the knowledge to write this book & even fewer could write it so well!"

The 3 Bewick's Swans, Red-breasted Merganser, and Common Scoter were great to see at Grafham today. Best of the rest were a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull and a German-ringed Caspian Gull X2F1 @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

On a wild goose chase today, checking the local Greylags flocks. Best so far is a Pink-footed Goose at Cow Lane Gravel Pits, Godmanchester. Eight Goosander here too @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

c.900 Wigeon, 1500 Teal, and 35 Pintail at Purton this morning. Also 2 Rock Pipit and a Yellowhammer which I don't think I have seen in the Severn Vale before #GlosBirds

Finally managed to get within "colour-ring readable" distance of some Whooper Swans in the Fens today. 8 rings read which was about 1 per 100 birds! @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

Male and female Goosander at Diddington Pits this morning. Also 2 Green Sandpiper, and c.400 each Wigeon and Coot @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

The Caspian Gull #UKBirding

A (the?) female Ferruginous Duck is on this pit at Diddington. Also a 2nd winter Caspian Gull @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #UKBirding

Red-necked Grebe and two Great Northern Divers from Mander car park, Grafham Water @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

First winter Scaup at Diddington Pits this afternoon. A different individual to the Brampton bird last week @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #UKBirding

Female type Ferruginous Duck and a juvenile Scaup at Brampton @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social

Sminthurinus elegans and Sminthurides signatus hiding in a mossy corner of the garden at RSPB Hope Farm today! #Springtails #Collembola

A day out in Manea with the Cambs BSBI group today. Pictured are Foliage Beet growing as a weed of a Beet crop and Pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) persisting in a cereal crop. A Whinchat, a Stonechat, and 7 Ruff among Lapwings were the best of the birds @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #Pan-speciesListing

There were so many flea beetles on the bramble at Clopton, Cambs, today that is sounded like rain when you walked past and disturbed them! There must have been several thousand. I have keyed them to Batophila aerata

A passage Spotted Flycatcher at RSPB Hope Farm, Cambs, earlier this week @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social #UKBirding

They have turned up at RSPB Hope Farm this year too 😁

Hi @britishspiders.bsky.social @graemelyons.bsky.social, I found this Xysticus at Dungeness last weekend in the short turf near the bird obs. It looks like an ok match for X. acerbus to me but I can't see any other records for Kent. What do you think?

I learnt a lot today on a great course on willows run by Brian Eversham at the local Wildlife Trust reserve in Cambourne. Some highlights below:

Hi @bramblebotanist.bsky.social, this bramble looks different to the usual R. ulmifolius to me. I don't suppose it is something recognisable? In Cambourne, Cambs, today.

It’s the big day! After four years of research, writing and editing (and procrastination, terror and imposter syndrome), Endemic has now been released to the world.

Excellent start to the ringing season at Clopton, South Cambridgeshire- 500 warblers from 6 visits with record numbers of Sedge & Reed Warblers. Willow, Grasshopper, Garden and Lesser Whitethroat increasing and first passage Redstart yesterday. @CambsBirdClub

This feels like the perfect post to reply to and announce this - but my book, Endemic: Exploring the wildlife unique to Britain, which includes a chapter on the No Parking Whitebeam, comes out a week today. share.google/Rgyzzyr777Hi...

Our June issue is out! Topics this time include the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, twenty-five years of RSPB Hope Farm, fifty years of legal protection for bats in Britain, a history of Munsary Peatlands, and Pine Martens in the New Forest. For more, see www.britishwildlife.com/back-issues/...

Nice day in the Brecks yesterday! #Pan-speciesListing

A visit to the RSPB's Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire courtesy of @duerden.bsky.social to check out some Verbascums led to an opportunity to get photos of Broad-leaved Spurge (Euphorbia platyphyllos) for my website. Now a rare and declining species in East Anglia and a new species for me.

Another day, another fish. This time a Bleak that I managed to catch from the Ouse in Huntingdon before my pond net broke! #Pan-speciesListing #YearofFish

Fringed Water-lily and Gudgeon were both new to me on a short walk along the River Ouse in Huntingdon after work today #Pan-speciesListing #YearofFish

Tree surgeon or Green Woodpecker!?

Two Ring Ouzels were grounded by the drizzle at RSPB Hope Farm today! @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

I was pleased to find Shepherd's-needle during a breeding bird survey at RSPB Hope Farm this morning. New for me and the farm!

Premier Inn didn't even charge me extra to get a room that came with springtails! This Willowsia buski was in the sink, a new species for me #Collembola #Pan-speciesListing