Well it’s taken a very long time, but Indy’s finally old enough and calm enough that he’s happy to fall asleep on my feet in the pub.

It’s a wrap for now! Restoration on next Autumn’s sites need planning, whilst nature will thrive on the new bunds and pools. Soon sphagnum will spread across the surface, later forming new layers of peat to offer a sustainable habitat for the bog’s unique species. @natreswales.bsky.social

Creating green jobs! #WalesPeatlandAction upscale creates more green jobs for contractors in Wales. Here the Wales Peatland Programme specialists are providing training to local contractors diversifying to work on peatland (Lot 3 in the Framework). @natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social

Deeply disrespectful to the theatrical craft, this. The actors *also* shake.

Couple of eye catching finds out in Eryri today, Bryum alpinum and Mitrula paludosa (aka Bog Beacon which is a much cooler name than the Latin I think!). Stunning colour on the Bryum, really stands out on the boulders.

Sunny days in Swansea means being outside all the time and playing rugby for one happy border collie. Looks like rain again next week, so Indy’s going to have to suffer through being inside while I work on my greenhouse flux data

First beefly of the the year for me today in Killay. Typically it was too fast for me to get a photo while walking Indy. I also had four or five red-tailed bumble bee queens (massive!) emerge from the grass near the clyne river on my morning walk. Spring is well and truly springing!

So chuffed to have my current Valleys show in Clwb Ffoto on the front of the Apollo magazine website! I'm still here, taking photography in Wales to the biggest audiences I can! Thanks to Owen Pritchard for the great writing that accompanies the pictures. apollo-magazine.com/south-wales-...

Unbelievable scenes on University Challenge as they put up a picture of Polytrichum and Amol tells them that the correct answer is that it’s a Sphagnum moss. Who’s got the phone number for Ofcom? The country needs to know the truth, and the bryology community needs a written apology!

A national survey of breeding waders is underway in #Wales, organised by @natreswales.bsky.social. All records of Curlews and Lapwings in potential breeding habitat are valuable, so please do share your knowledge via @cofnod.org.uk. 📷 Cameron Sharp www.birdnotes.wales/blog/welsh-w...

A very enjoyable but very rainy day out on the bog today with our yearly MSc field trip to Castell Nos habitat restoration area. A really engaged group this year, which is fantastic to see, and it’s a highlight of my teaching for me to come back here every year and see how the peatland is doing

Work by contractor Greenwise has already opened up areas of grassland shaded by gorse. From April, we’ll be running volunteer work parties to tackle invasive Cotoneaster — we’d love your help! We’ll also run free guided walks from May. Keep an eye on our socials for dates. 💚 (2/2)

🦋 Our 'Save the Small Blue at Cwm Tips' crowdfund has now closed — and thanks to your amazing support we raised £2,446.83! Thank you to everyone who donated, shared and offered to volunteer. Together we can now begin restoring flower-rich grassland for the Small Blue and other wildlife. 🌼 (1/2)

Who do I have to bribe to get Sphagnum moss nominated to go on the UK bank notes as part of the nature themed re-design?

If anyone from my Wales, peatland, ecology, research, science or nature conservation communities (or anyone else) would like to support, or help spread the word about this crowdfunder for the fantastic Glo I Natur CIC, please do. They’re so close to reaching their target

🪲 Only 4 spaces left! Join Liam Olds & Carys Romney of Glo i Natur CIC for a guided woodland invertebrate walk at Coed Bach Park, Pontarddulais. Discover beetles, spiders, woodlice & more living beneath the leaves. ⚠️ 2 morning / 2 afternoon places left 🎟️ Book: www.trybooking.com/uk/FVTB

Great news about Danes Moss North, an important peatland in Cheshire. Congrats to @savedanesmoss.bsky.social who have run a brilliant campaign to marshal the local community to protect this local gem.

Saw some familiar friends (people & mosses) during my first week with @peatlandcymru.bsky.social as part of the NPAP survey team. Been a long time since I’ve been back to Cors Fochno and it was great to see the parts of the peatland I did my MSc on years ago still with Sphagnum austinii hummocks

If you have an environmental story that needs investigating, please do contact our investigative journalism team at Wild Cymru - Cymru Wyllt. www.wild.cymru/contact-wild...

Today we begin a new chapter: Cymru Wyllt / Wild Cymru. We believe Wales can be wilder — in its landscapes, its wildlife and its spirit. This isn’t just a new name. It’s our vision for nature recovery. What does a wilder Wales mean to you? #CymruWyllt #NatureRecovery

Bee-flies are go! A 1st #BeeFlyWatch record for 2026 is in, from east Surrey on 26 Feb. Look out for more during warm & sunny spells over coming weeks, & please send in sightings, via iRecord if possible. Full details on the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social website: dipterists.org.uk/bee-fly-watch

Alongside being a nature and moss nerd, I am also a comic book nerd. If anyone isn’t familiar with the 2000AD villain Bilious Barrage, please enjoy. He last appeared in the comics in 2016 in the final weeks run up to the brexit vote.

Looking back on photos from instrumenting the bog this last week, it’s become clear to me that somewhere in the four days of lone working between installing dipwell 1 and dipwell 23, i did in fact lose my mind

First frogspawn in the bog of the year for me today. Along with the first real bit of sun I’ve felt for months at this point I think. Much more enjoyable dipwell installing weather than Monday

Some VERY healthy and happy looking Sitka that were planted on deep peat on a site I work on. I’m of course devastated about it. Check out the cracking on that excavated peat dollop. Hard to even think about the carbon balance for planting on 1m+ of peat when the trees don’t even survive 18 months

Absolutely shocking weather but still managed to get some logging dipwells and stilling wells into the bog today. Two sites down, three to go before the end of the week!

Could you become BSBI's new Wales Officer, helping support the network of botanists across Wales & leading our Priority Plants in Wales Project? You'd be helping to conserve rare & beautiful wild plants, like this lovely Radnor Lily. For more details & how to apply, visit: bsbi.org/about/people...

Feel very proud of Indy because today he went to school with my partner to meet the SEND kids in the STF to help them learn about pets and dogs and be comfortable around animals and he was very well behaved and did a great job. I expect the absolute mountain of treats he was bribed with helped

I drive over this road all the time and always think there’s a nice experimental design in waiting here as a result of the road which was slapped through the dead centre of the bog. One side is heavily grazed and one isn’t. Probably one of the only places in the valleys with peat but no conifers.

Make a difference! Join the dynamic and successful NPAP team, aiming for #HighNatureLowCarbon Submit by 1/3/26 £41K to over £44K swyddi.cyfoethnaturiol.cymru/vacancyinfor.... Welsh verbal skills required to deal with our valued partners. @natreswales.bsky.social #GreenJobs #jobs #Wales #environment

#InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience Karen Wilkinson, Survey and Monitoring Team Leader for the Peatland Programme is one of the #WomenInScience contributing to future generations, aiming for #HighNatureLowCarbon through #WalesPeatlandAction. @natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social

Very emo Sphagnum on site today. Must have heard the rumours of a new my chemical romance album this year and (as I’ve been considering) dyed its hair black like it’s 2008 again. Caused by deposition of organic C and humic acids when peaty water evaporates as far as I know #MireChemicalRomance

Well, here I am, on the fringes of the peat person blob. I’m devastated and shocked beyond words that there is no moss and liverwort enthusiast megacluster. Small consolation that I’m not with the birders

Few upland peat mires remain undamaged by human activity, including afforestation and burning. The, often very small, areas that remain intact are home to some highly specialist spider species

Britain's remaining alkaline fens are small, isolated fragments that are vulnerable to desiccation from drainage of surrounding agricultural land and climate change. Together with Globally Red Listed Fen Raft Spider, many of their specialist spider species are threatened:

The fact that George Osborne and Nick Clegg, two parts of the triumvirate of absolute melts who’s efforts from over 10 years ago still make my life worse every day, have respectively had big roles in Open AI and Meta doesn’t make me have much hope that those companies will ever not be awful

3 weeks since launching our 'Save the Small Blue at Cwm Tips' #Crowdfunder and we’ve raised £915 - nearly halfway! 💙 Thank you for your support 💚 If you would like to donate, visit: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-the-s... #SaveTheSmallBlue #GloiNatur #CoaltoNature #Nature #Wales #Cymru #Wildlife

I don’t like to use social media to complain but feel compelled to share this photo of the worst cup of coffee I have had for some years, from an event I was at recently. Marked down for taste, smell and general overly oily nature. Well grim. Just look at the sheen on it!

We visited Penyrenglyn Tip today with the students of Black Mountains College (Treherbert), discussing wildlife recording techniques and how these can be used to better understand the biodiversity of coal spoil sites. Great to see the next generation getting hands-on with nature and heritage 💚

Finally updating contact details and affiliations - now "lead specialist advisor" for peatlands at Natural Resources Wales. Get in touch if you want to develop research proposals in Wales. We have sites of ongoing and future restoration, friendly people and so much data...

Lowlight from this week - after it took weeks (or months?) to get installation permission for dipwells off the landowner, i walked the whole site to our pre planned, signed off location that hadn’t been ground truthed, found this grisly scene, at a localised patch of peat too shallow for the well

Some more trial pits and dipwell installations, this time under unexploded ordnance supervision at the Cefn Morfudd Lost Peatlands site. Some great stratigraphy on show in some of them, nice to have some clear bands of soil to point to in the contract specs and PowerPoints down the line

WALES It occurred to me overnight that (more by luck than design) I've been building quite a nice set of work that's an overview of contemporary Wales. It touches on the landscape, the arts, politics and more, and has been totally organic and unplanned. Maybe I should make a plan!

Lunchtime after a morning of excellent talks at Gwent Glamorgan Recorders' Forum

Unofficially repping @adfernatur.bsky.social at the @sewbrec.org.uk recorders forum today. Some great talks so far, including one all about plants so I’m happy! Looking forward to the coal spoil talks in the afternoon

Trawling through old photos and found this of Scytodes thoracica, the spitting spider, from my old flat in Brynmill. In 2020 this was the western-most record in Wales on inaturalist, but someone found one two roads over last year. I’m further west now, I need to find another to get my pride back!

If Bilbo had Chat GPT

Liz Truss waiting patiently by her phone for Reform to ring, not realising it's actually a penguin biscuit

Based on the people I know personally, I assume the 30% brain shrinkage is caused by listening to Joe Rogan www.sciencealert.com/shrews-can-s...

A peatland practitioner will understand the thrill NPAP colleagues get when out reviewing forthcoming restoration sites. Guaduneth, Jen, Jake, Becca you’re an inspiration to us all – not forgetting Rob who captured the up-peat team! @natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social #Tywi