I won’t bombard with more pics now. Tonight I’m going to watch the newts’ courtship dance in the pond with a torch!! 😍☺️. I guess I better eat! ..

Bird-wise, today siskins, golden plovers, woodpeckers, mistle thrush, song thrush, goldcrest, blackcap, blue, long tailed, great, coal tits, jackdaws, ravens, buzzards, chaffinch, goldfinch, robins, bullfinch, greenfinch, wren, blackbird, wood pigeons 🙏

Missing sector orb weaver? 🤔. When I got close it raised its leg at me menacingly, then scurried away.

Thuidium tamariscinum ? (Common tamarisk moss), with beautiful tiny fern like fronds, growing on an old wooden step in the garden ☺️

Lesser celandines and all kinds of wildflower leaves growing along the lane about to flower. Just two in flower I noticed today. Pops of gorgeous yellow in the drizzle.

Golden wax cap mushrooms? 🤔. Really vivid against the blackened leaves.

I saw 2 red eyes watching me on my walk, along the lane, realised it was scarlet elf cups! 🫶. Also, I’m guessing an orange coloured variation, next to them?

It’s proving yet another day of non-stop, overwhelming wonder! 🥹. The nature here amazes me, I’m totally enthralled and feel very taken aback! I am sooo grateful!! 🙏 🙏🙏

Sudden and magnificent, the sun’s broad golden disc showed itself over the horizon facing them; The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame Annie Soudain #WyrdWednesday

So to summarise, the very way in which these linear habitats are even considered, let alone discussed at policy level, should be readdressed. As it stands, it’s quite clear that truly this is not hedgerow management, it’s environmental vandalism, and should carry hefty fines. End.

Hedgerows & Willow Tits ~ A thread Carmarthenshire holds more Willow Tits than any other county in Wales (Wotton, S. 2022). Looking at satellite maps of the county, it’s clear to see the potential for these birds, with areas of suitable wooded habitats, interconnected with unmanaged hedgerows.

Last night’s reading: Mozart’s pet starling he kept for 3 years. The opening theme of the 3rd movement from the piano concerto number 17 in G major, is the one he taught it to sing a modified version of (it sang a g sharp instead of a g). youtu.be/AsdfPVM0stI

I remember The Waterboys using this in the song Stolen Child: youtu.be/Jg-oJKYIinQ?...

W.B. Yeats with words that one can still hear (if one listens very carefully) on the wet and heavy Irish spring air...

Just had a walk down the lane. It’s very healthy and peaceful for me being removed from all those people and the circuses down there 🙏. #humanity

Noticing this Curlew on the River Tyne #NorthShields #Birds #Nature

Just thinking, haven’t heard the curlew here yet 🤔

Well that was a surprise, this day 26th February 2017. The first coin to fall to my new XP Deus 🥰 A Gold Quarter Stater of uncertain attribution. Early Uninscribed British series H, dating c. 50-1 BC

Quite faint sounding in the clip, but I could even hear the mistle thrush most of today through this closed window inside, sometimes 2 of them. Apparently they nest from February. I didn’t know it’s named after its love of mistletoe berries. In fact its Latin name means ‘devourer of mistletoe’.

Rainy day daffodil and snowdrop 🌧️🌼

Stumpy the lizard update! The tale is beginning to grow back. It’s very small, but it’s there and I couldn’t be more pleased for him

Well it's done. So many hours gone. It's been the bane of my life for the last two weeks. So many broken branches! Hand carved from boxwood (bird and leaves) walnut (branches) and oak (scrolls). #carving #woodcarving #miniature #birdart #miniaturecarving #tinyart #art #sculpture #wood #woodart

Go on then some Ravens for #Thursjay 😆

Rainy day so I made some chocolate fudge crinkle cookies #WhatsCooking

Have you heard a Little Owl recently? 👂 At this time of year, males can be especially vocal as they establish territories ahead of the breeding season 🦉 In the UK, territories are at their largest just before breeding, sometimes covering nearly 40 hectares... (1/2)

Just had to chase a cat away from the birds 😬. I read of the estimated 160-270 million (conservative figure) creatures they kill annually in the uk, a quarter of them are birds. I’ll always prefer a pooch pal 🐶🐦.

The weather may have taken a turn for the worse but the birding didn't! 2 NFY: 2 Oystercatchers and 2 Pochards (never had a female on patch before) Other highlights the Little Owl was back in it's regular spot, Wigeons, Kestrels, Sparrowhawk, Treecreeper, Goldcrests, Siskins etc! #ukbirding

Finally! I captured the little menace (albeit dreadfully, in the white circle! 🤭), in the stream, hopping about the stones!!

The Mistle thrush is singing its heart out today in the garden!! Lovely, deep, flutey notes. 🪈

Grey wagtail, ‘bird of the day’, in the garden.

Jump scared by a loud wren in the undergrowth behind me singing soo loudly! Sure he did it on purpose! 😆. They really do have such powerful voices!!

Skylark in the garden!! 😀

Alas no snakes underneath my corrugated iron, just a nice collection of snails. I will keep looking! 👀 🐍

Surprised to see both Ravens today. It was lovely early as Chips came, tumbled & called above me to say hello & flew off back to the nest area. He then came down for his egg breakfast & Gravy joined him for 2 mins & he fed her. Apparently the female does leave the nest to drink & stretch her wings

Last Monday was Cornwall Butterfly Conservation's final work party of the winter. We were clearing Buddleia and scrub at Cook's Kitchen (South Crofty Mine) to restore habitat for Dingy Skipper. This active mine is currently the only confirmed site for Dingy Skipper within the Camborne-Redruth area.

You are absolutely right. Also a wildflower meadow with paths clearly cut through it shows clearly that you “meant it’s to be this way”, satisfies people’s need to ‘garden’ but also is lower maintenance and better for wildlife than a manicured lawn.

Willow Tits prefer to fully excavate their own cavities in soft (ish) deadwood, although now and again they will finish small naturally formed cavities by digging further (like in image). They will use specialist nest boxes filled with sawdust, occupied only when installed in their spring territory.

#LookAndSee 338 #MusicChallenge #MusicSky And She Was, Talking Heads youtu.be/cl3B_FTDKD0?...

Highlight of the day for me at WWT Slimbridge was the Spoonbill who for a change was quite animated than the usual tucked under wing for hours character we usually see!

Wonderful to see over twenty Great Bustards in a flyover on Salisbury Plain today

A ribbon of riparian magic between two hillsides of conifers. Steep valley bottoms often become interconnected refuges for Willow Tits, in an otherwise barren landscape. Boggy streams are too difficult to access for machinery, and Alder, Willow, Birch, Hazel, Guelder Rose, Elder and Bramble thrive.

Platyrhinus resinosus - Cramp-ball Fungus Weevils!!! They’re so beautiful, with eyes like tiny galaxies. Best weevils ever. Examine every Daldinia concentrica you come across & eventually you’ll find one. Took me years. #FungiFriends #Platyrhinusresinosus

I saw a total of 7 Queen bees today! Not a hairy footed flower bee in sight yet, here, however.

The flock this morning. Many were willing to stand for pictures today.

Saw a 7 spotted ladybird awake today near this hibernation zone I sealed off in the garden 😊🐞. I’d noticed there was lots of them on the grass here, last year, under the thistle. They even crawled in the bamboo sticks I’d cut, bless them! Any small garden could do this! #Spring #WildlifeFriendly

Grey Shoulder-knot, Lithophane ornitopus. Well camouflaged on a lichen-covered grave at Hackford Church, Norfolk. Seen on yesterday's bike ride. www.norfolkmoths.co.uk/index.php?bf... #Moths #TeamMoth

Found another new site for Sandy Stiltball, Battarrea phalloides, on yesterday's bike ride. Usually @vannabartlett.bsky.social finds them but this time I spotted the single fruitbody lurking under a hedge as I cycled slowly uphill. www.jeremybartlett.co.uk/2013/10/13/s... #Fungi #FungiFriends

I wonder when the frogs will enter the pond 🤔. I’m expecting a bumper year, after hundreds of froglets in the long grass, I hadn’t mowed, and extra logs around the place. Last year, it was 8th March. The frogs were even in my veg patch across the lane eating slugs. Excellent for my veggies! 😁🐸

The solitary bee season started in Tunbridge Wells today. Good numbers of Hairy-footed Flower Bee males in Calverley Grounds, along with several Yellow-legged Mining Bee males

Chrysolina americana, Rosemary Leaf Beetle, on lavender in North Yorkshire, this afternoon