🚨 BREAKING: The former leader of Reform UK in Wales, Nathan Gill, has pleaded guilty to #bribery, admitting he received corrupt payments as a Brexit Party MEP in exchange for making statements in the European Parliament to promote Russia’s interests in #Ukraine.

I am glad to be part of the largest paper on bryophyte genomics. Spearheaded by Shanshan Dong and Yang Liu ( Fairy Lake Botanical Garden) presents: "A comprehensive super-pangenome analysis, incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte nuclear genomes......" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

YFORY! | TOMORROW! Ymunwch â Heneb a Buglife ar-lein am noson o Natur a Threftadaeth. Darlith AM DDIM. Archebwch le yma: heneb.org.uk/cy/event/dar... Join Heneb and Buglife online for an evening of Nature and Heritage. FREE lecture. Book here: heneb.org.uk/event/henebs...

There’s an interesting series of 5 free online paleobotany lectures via the Oxford University Botanic Garden this autumn. You can book all 5 lectures here (scroll down webpage to ‘Get your tickets now’ button) www.obga.ox.ac.uk/event/dr-san... #paleobotany

As I approach old age (30) it’s pretty rare I find myself out for late nights. Zero chance of missing Matt Stewart’s stand up show this week though, he made it all the way from Melbourne to Swansea! Great time, still laughing and a nice distraction from *gestures at the bin fire we call the UK*

🚨📸 About 2 weeks left to send in your best #wildlife in a #peatland shot and publish in the 2026 edition of #PeatCalendar Email to: [email protected] Deadline: 30 September

Only photo I got

The only photo I managed to take today, if you look closely you can even see the rain! Despite the very changeable weather it was nice to be on Castell Nos peatland site again after a year to see how it’s doing. Also nice to be with other bog nerds from the @peatlandcymru.bsky.social NPAP team

Annual report of the small but mighty Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru (INCC) @inccymru.bsky.social - and yes, as a trustee I am biased ;)

Some very nosey company for NVC surveys today. Personal space doesn’t translate into farm horse apparently

Alongside the hammering rain that seems to have made itself at home over the past couple of weeks, the other challenge I’ve noticed is finding time to post work updates alongside the annual August fieldwork rush. NVC surveys have been enjoyable despite the weather though!

Very atmospheric (c.f. rainy) day out in the Rhondda doing water vole surveys for Lost Peatlands sites at Mynyndd Ton and then Cwmparc. Great to have @inccymru.bsky.social with us as well for the day. Been a while since I’ve been in the Cwm and it’s fantastic, despite the razor sharp tussock sedge

Stunning place for a puncture! I know the Skoda Yeti has its fans and it’s served me pretty well on my peaty and ecology adventures but file this one under ‘how to ruin a car by giving it stupid sized wheels’. I miss my Land Rover every day.

Interested in #wetlands and #peatlands? Want to be part of a growing network to help promote these ecosystems? We are looking for new ECR committee members Email for more information (in link below): www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/peat... @britishecologicalsociety.org

Some interesting bog employment opportunities coming out for those on the peatlands and wetlands feed!

No tickets needed! Just turn up on the night!

I have two weddings of good friends to go to next summer, both of which now pale into insignificance compared to my excitement at getting tickets to see My Chemical Romance in July

Cycling through the Swedish agricultural landscape today. Found a ditch. It illustrates nicely how ditches can be refuges for biodiversity, including wetland species, when wetlands and wildness have vanished from the surrounding fields.

SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR MEMORIES, THEY'RE KILLING THE EARTH, ALSO WE'RE BUILDING NEW AI CENTERS feels absurdly farcical and dystopian while perfectly illustrating Stage 4 End-Stage Capitalism in all its dipshit horror.

Increasingly jealous of there being not one but two giant artworks in peatland restoration sites in Ireland where they’ve made first a curlew, and now a lapwing from the bunds. Time to start a crowdfund to make one in the Rhondda of that one sheep who harasses you for ice cream on top of the Bwlch

Some absolutely stunning views for peat depth surveys today. Now that’s what I call a gorgeous Welsh summer!

Gwna wahaniaeth! Mae hon yn swydd allweddol i gyflawni amcanion Adfer Mawndir Cymru. Byddwch yn dod â'ch sgiliau a'ch arbenigedd i gefnogi'r tîm deinamig a llwyddiannus sy’n anelu at #NaturUwchCarbonIs. bit.ly/45ieGkI £45K-£50K+ Cau 15/9/2025 @natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social

Make a difference! This is a key post to achieve the aims of Wales Peatland Action. You’ll bring your skills and expertise to support the dynamic and successful NPAP team aiming for #HighNatureLowCarbon. bit.ly/3H1UbAR £45K-£50K+ Closing 15/9/2025 @natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social

Having recently spent time walking over a site - in the rain - while a guy with a stick magnetometer manually checks each point we needed to take a depth measurement at, I’d love it if people could develop this drone based solution at light speed so I don’t have to do it again

Found more labyrinth spiders on a lowland peat survey today. Didn’t manage to get the best photo but it made its funnel web through a very loose stand of Juncus and you could see the whole funnel structure, fascinating to look at

All sorts of weather from 10 minutes of driving rain to an hour of blazing sun on site for peatland water vole surveys today. Managed to catch the last of the bog asphodel in flower as well, expecting them all to be bright orange in seed the next time I see them

Big fan also of there being two separate slime mould species named dog vomit slime mould and dog sick slime mould as their common names. Great job taxonomists of the past, way to reel in the masses with approachable and clearly differentiated names /s

Where are the slime mould people on this app and can they please confirm if this is Didymium spongiosum (which is also mucilago crustacea reclassified?) growing on Sphagnum and Molinia in an upland peatland in the Valleys? Not one I’ve seen before in a bog and it’s thrown me

New Series Alert!💚Welcome to the PeatECR bio series, a monthly spotlight on one early-career researcher/practitioner working in and around wetlands (no discrimination between peatlands and non-peatlands in this case). If you or someone you know would like to be featured, please get in touch with us!

PeatECR Bio Series #1 - just in time to introduce our first featured bio in for July 2025 💚 Today we introduce Leeza Speranskaya, a recent MSc graduate, focusing on evaporation dynamics in restiad peat bogs. Connect with Leeza here: www.linkedin.com/in/leeza-spe... #PeatECRBioSeries

The red longhorn is the first longhorn beetle I’ve seen in the Valleys uplands for a while - not that I’ve been actively looking for them - the last one was a two banded longhorn I found during afforested peat GHG surveys

Two species added to the ongoing tally for upland peatland inverts in the Valleys for me. Red longhorn beetle and common carpet moth

Excellent to see this campaign to save Capel Rhondda, #Pontypridd Campaign to save Cwm Rhondda chapel for community www.bbc.com/news/article...

Delighted to share that I'm now represented by Past Preservers for all future TV expert appearances! Can't wait to get started when next documentary job appears!🦈 You can check out my profile with them here: pastpreservers.com/portfolio/dr... Watch my showreel here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGrL...

It was Indy’s first field day back on peatland e-collie-gist duty after his foot injury. One very happy dog. He also spent some time supervising @mikeshewring.bsky.social to make sure Mike’s work was up to Indy’s high standards

Just seen an article pop up in the wild about the amazing work done by Katie our Lost Peatlands Health and Wellbeing Officer. Hard to convey how in awe I am of colleagues on the people side of our project between the work they do with community groups and local schools hapus.wales/news/support...

If anyone’s not seen the news about the new Gower Landscape Connections project there’s a press release from National Landscapes here. Exciting for me to be able to engage as a resident with this project and I’m hoping they’ll achieve great things! national-landscapes.org.uk/news/gower-l...

We've started putting up signs at our #peatland restoration sites☺️ Check out these ones near Black Hut 👀 More will be installed over the next few weeks and you can click on the QR code to find out what's going on 💚

It's utterly appalling that students find themselves in this scale of debtsituation, and definitely not at all related to the continued failure of those running UKHE to lobby for a sustainable, just funding model. /s www.studentbeans.com/blog/uk/here...

Very exciting and not at all stressful or spiral inducing to learn that when the next balance of interest is added to my student loan account I will in fact be in over ✨£70,000✨ of debt for my BSc and MSc five and a half years after finishing despite constantly having multiple jobs

Jean Cors Van Damme (Cors is Welsh for bog so this is in fact a very well thought out and excellent joke, trust me) Thanks to @mikeshewring.bsky.social for the photo of this very normal approach to surveying peat drains

Interesting summary read I think, although I’m not sure I would say that people understanding the limitations and issues of something making them less likely to use it is a paradox. hbr.org/2025/07/why-...

Interesting couple of sites for the new #LostPeatlands project surveyed today. Massive drains through this remnant peat feature near Cwmaman, there’s a 1m peat probe in the drain if you can spot it.

Two fungi spotted on peat depth surveys today. I know what the slime mould is, mainly because the name dog vomit slime mould is impossible to forget. As for the gilled one, not sure, my best guess is Lichenomphalia umbellifera. Happy to be corrected by someone better at mycology than me!

Absolutely roasting day to be out on the Blorenge mapping peat and erosion around footpaths with Adfer Natur CIC. Incredibly dense heath with more cowberry than I’ve seen in one place before

Overlooking Cwmparc and Treorchy from the Bwlch mountain last night The road over the mountain celebrates its centenary round about now

Normally I try to remain enthusiastic about all wildlife, but after peat depth surveys at Mynydd Pwllyrhebog this week I’ve counted 44 horsefly bites just on my hands and arms, and it’s absolute torture. As far as I’m concerned if I never see another horsefly, that’s fine with me

Proud of my grad student Rachel Kendall for this #peatland #plant #traits paper! Contrasting responses to climate & geography among shrub, sedge & #moss species. A fun project that connected across provinces & labs @wetland-ghg.bsky.social @wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com @smuscience.bsky.social

After a foot injury and not being allowed walks while it healed, Indy is happy to announce his new shoes have arrived

Here we see the peatland e-collie-gist at work identifying Sphagnum under the microscope. Indy’s usual technique is to eat it, so this all form part of his CPD