In the garden’s #wildflower mini-meadow this afternoon: vestal cuckoo bee and (drumroll) the first gatekeeper of 2026 here! #bees #butterflies

In its eighth growing season my garden’s small #wildflower #mini-meadow continues to delight. The first confirmed six-spot burnet #moth breeding success today! #norfolkmoths #teammoth

Flower #spider on purple loosestrife in the garden

Roesel’s bush crickets and the (dark arches parasite) tachinid nowickia ferox in a beautiful wildflower area locally this afternoon @norfolknats.bsky.social

Six-spot burnets and cocoons locally this afternoon #norfolkmoths #teammoth

Small & Essex Skippers, and Painted Lady this afternoon #butterflies @norfolkbutterflies.bsky.social

I know what you’re thinking - crime scene pixellated to protect the innocent. But as it’s on the outside of a double-glazed bathroom window as I’m going to bed, and by far the commonest small geometridae in the garden, I’m going for the underside of a small dusty wave #teammoth

Six-spot burnet on knapweed during a quick review of my garden’s wildflower #mini-meadow just now. The only picture I managed, and only the third garden record. #teammoth

Hummingbird #hawk-moth in the garden this afternoon, ignoring valerian in favour of emerging lady’s bedstraw in my propagation troughs. It’s been a good spring for them here - always fascinating to see. #norfolkmoths #teammoth

91/47 in the garden overnight, including ethmia quadrillella, clancy’s rustic, batia lunaris and the first old lady of the year #teammoth #norfolkmoths

I think that this is scythris limbella. Any views, #teammoth ? @norfolkmoths.bsky.social @mothiduk.bsky.social

1/13: My mind was well & truly blown by an incredible moth-ing session (Fri pm/Sat am) with next level moth-er Mick A'Court in the #Norfolk #Broads. So many #moths, so many new-for-me species....but only one place to begin - Oecophora bractella #mothsmatter #teammoth #norfolkmoths #bugsky

Toadflax brocade in the garden today, with a covert appearance of ‘Le Pimpernel Scarlet’ 🤫 #teammoth #wildflowers

86/48 in the garden overnight, including small blood-vein, varied coronet, juniper webber and a surprising dark-bordered pearl #teammoth @norfolkmoths.bsky.social - Jim, pearl photo for info

Your annual reminder that if you only know one bramble make it Rubus armeniacus Himalayan Giant, the only truly invasive non-native bramble. Discolores (chalk white on leaf undersides), orange-green stems with contrasting red prickles. Huge in all parts. Overtops native communities. #BrambleDuJour

In the garden’s #wildflower #mini-meadow this afternoon: meadow cranesbill, cinquefoil with a side order of syrphus and solitary bee, bladder campion and goatsbeard

Nothing remarkable, but nice to see in the garden this afternoon: one of many orange-tip larvae (they’ve had a good spring here), willoughby’s leafcutter, a female caped crusader and an unfortunate meadow brown pinned upside down by surface tension - successfully liberated!

Good news! Ministers have finally given green light to new #NaturalHistory GCSE. We’ve campaigned so long for this! Big hats off to tireless advocate Mary Colwell 🙌 Now our young people will have a chance to get to know & love the natural world, to feel awe & wonder, & gain skills to protect it 🌷🌳🦡

84/35 in the garden trap overnight. Feeling in somewhat of a tortrix frame of mind, here are variegated golden, orange pine, large ivy and yellow oak #teammoth

The vixen in May, and her two cubs over the last week or so. In tearing around the greenhouse play-fighting they almost ran into my legs twice last week, jinking aside and carrying on without a pause. I was delighted - too soon they’ll be much more wary. #foxes

Vanna, you’re on Springwatch! 👏🏻 @vannabartlett.bsky.social

Speckled bush cricket nymph in the garden today

Vapourer larva in the garden this afternoon #teammoth

Wild carrot, black knapweed, yellow rattle and meligethes pollen beetles on ox-eye daisy in the garden’s #wildflower #mini-meadow this afternoon - now in its eighth season

In the garden again this evening. Endearing. #teammoth

Scarce Chaser and mating Large Red Damselflies in the garden #dragonflies @norfolknats.bsky.social

69/21 in the garden trap overnight, including Pebble Hook-tip, Pale Tussock, Iron Prominent and the subtly beautiful Clouded Silver #teammoth

Yellow-banded / -barred Longhorn in the garden. Also an Orange-Tip larva (on the garlic mustard which is everywhere here this spring) that I happened to see while chasing the longhorn #teammoth #butterflies

Broad-bodied Chaser, one of many sputnik spider egg sacs and a developing cynips quercusfolii gall, all on the nearby heath #dragonflies #spiders #gallwasps

Today’s E/SE stiff breeze seems to be blowing some good stuff in: SEVEN Painted Ladies in the garden this afternoon - unheard of here! #butterflies

Brown Silver-line and what I think is a Green Oak Tortrix pupa, both locally this afternoon #teammoth

It’s already that time of year when #teammoth tries and usually fails to get a half-way decent phone shot of hyperactive you-know-who 🙄

Brooklime, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Bladder Campion and Ox-eye Daisy all looking good in the garden now #wildflowers

Only the garden’s third Scarce Chaser record this afternoon, and the first since 2024 #dragonflies Also one of many fig skeletonisers

Also in the garden this afternoon: Painted Lady on white valerian 😍 #butterflies @norfolkbutterflies.bsky.social

Norfolk Hawker in the garden just now. Lots of Damsels about, but this is only the second (after BBChaser) #dragonfly of the year here. @norfolknats.bsky.social @britishdragonflies.bsky.social

Orange-tailed Mining #Bees in the garden this afternoon

After all that dismal weather, a satisfying 86/32 in the garden overnight, including pale prominent, grey pine carpet, NFG marbled brown and shears #teammoth

In my garden’s wildflower mini-meadow: white campion, sweet vernal grass and a green (imm*grant - don’t want to rouse the nutters) leaf weevil on my hand #wildlifegardening

Narrow-bordered Bee Hawkmoths, Hemaris tityus on Dartmoor. Having seen a male flying loops of a patch of rush he eventually landed. I crept over to find a mating pair, the female freshly emerged with her wings still scaled. They were still together 2hrs later when I left! #lepidoptera #dartmoor

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...

Brown-tail larvae locally this afternoon #teammoth @norfolkmoths.bsky.social

Again just the single flowering meadow #saxifrage in my garden’s #wildflower #mini-meadow this spring, but 🤞🏻. #wildflowerhour

In the garden wildflower mini-meadow this afternoon: common vetch, red clover, lesser trefoil and (phone struggling to focus on) hairy tare. #wildflowerhour “Me and Jenny was like ..”

29/10 in the garden trap overnight, including waved umber, r-g carpet, black cloak and the inevitable spectacle #teammoth

A few non-botanical highlights from a splendid family weekend away in the Forest of Dean - a feisty Firecrest, a perky Pied Flycatcher, a watchful Wild Boar and a duo of Mandarin drakes.

Small dusty wave, flushed this afternoon and chased until it settled here #teammoth

Home after a w/e away and much to enjoy in the garden: the splendidly-named grey-spotted sedgesitter on garlic mustard, brassica bugs, berberis sawfly and a female orange-tip #wildlifegardening

Small (8) swarm of green longhorns fluttering around each other in the garden this afternoon #teammoth

In the garden this morning: two seven-spots and one fourteen-spot #ladybird, so you could say it was a draw 🤝