A lot of peacock butterflies seem to have suddenly appeared around Coton today. Stunning sight @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social Anyone else notice?

A huge thank you to everyone who made this morning’s Coton BioBlitz a great day, especially the wonderful survey leaders who gave their time and expertise so generously. Part of the @cambridgeppf.bsky.social #NatureFestival 🔍🐝 @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social

Lots of fresh butterflies on my evening walk today, bodes well for the Coton Bioblitz this weekend 🔍 🐝 @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social

Day out with Coton Loves Pollinators to the Oakington #PollinationFestival 🐝

The meadow belongs to the Marbled Whites today, the Painted Ladies having largely given way. Encouraging to see such healthy numbers across so many butterfly species this season 🦋

Last year we carved out the Black Poplar Pond. Yesterday, rain channels were dug for the new Perry orchard planted earlier this year, shaping a pond & butterfly habitats seeded with food plants for some of our rarest pollinators. Thanks to everyone who helped bring this project to life💧🐝

A parliament of hawk moths: Elephant, Poplar, two Limes, plus a Buff-tip turned up in Ben’s impromptu moth trap 🔍

Out with CLP yesterday and amazed by the number of Painted lady butterflies. They were everywhere: the orchard, the village and in huge numbers at @cambridgeppf.bsky.social Coton reserve. It seems to be a bumper year for them. Stunning @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Encountered a rather obliging and pristine Yellow Shell moth on a walk around the orchard this evening.

Pleased to see the wildflower meadow, created just last year by Coton Loves Pollinators and On The Verge Cambridge, is buzzing with life 🦋 🐝

April showers… in May💧🐝 Lacy phacelia, also known as bee’s friend, in @cambridgeppf.bsky.social fields. Much needed food for pollinators and a fleeting wash of late spring colour, while we wait to hear whether the County will be granted the powers to throw this green corridor under a busway 🚌

Huge thanks to @greenwingstours.bsky.social and our brilliant guide Babis for such an inspiring trip. Turtle doves purring from olive groves, swallowtails over wildflower meadows, bee eaters stitching colour through the air. We came home full of ideas for helping nature recover in Coton 📷🐝

On a #CLPFieldTrip tracking @saveturtledoves.bsky.social

We’re not sure what this is…

Southern white admiral 🦋

Last year Coton Loves Pollinators created a drought tolerant pollinator patch to help feed pollinators in our increasingly dry county. It quickly hummed with bumblebees. This year the flowers are blooming, but the bees seem worryingly fewer. Anyone noticing the same❓🐝 @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social

Coton Loves Pollinators have a handful of small exclosures dotted around the village, where they’re nurturing plants for specific pollinators, heritage fruit trees and rare wildflowers. They act as seed banks, feeding and stocking the wider pollinator patches 🐝 @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social

Happy Birthday to @barbrastreisand.bsky.social. At Coton Orchard today we planted an Avalon plum selected by Ms Streisand and a Barbra Streisand rose to celebrate. Thank you for your support of Nature and our little corner of England’s Eden 🐝 #SaveCotonOrchard

Developments should be planned in a way that considers the delicate network of life, before we damage it forever. Translocation and replacing destroyed habitat with a poor substitute for the original should be a last resort. www.bbowt.org.uk/blog/matthew...

Defra’s Wild Again campaign is welcome, but recovery works best by protecting what we have first. In Coton, habitats are being stitched back together by volunteers & Trusts. Four months on, we’re still waiting to see if this work will be thrown under a bonkers busway cotonbuzz.uk/cambsnatureh...

Two males and a female Emperor moth spotted at Coton Orchard today @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

New sighting for us, Pheasant's-eye. @bsbibotany.bsky.social #CotonNatureHunt #WildFlower

🌿 Coton Nature Hunt is live (via CLP + On The Verge) 👉 cotonbuzz.uk/cambsnatureh... No chocolate eggs — think pasqueflowers, bees, birds… maybe a grass snake. Starter list only — the aim is to get people looking. If we don’t know what we have, we can’t protect it. Photo only, look, don’t disturb 📷🐝

A walk with CLP 🐝 #Pollinators #PulsatillaVulgaris #Wildflowers

A minute watching Coton’s hedgerows this afternoon. Literally buzzing… #Pollinators #Hedgerows #Wildlife #NatureUK #Biodiversity #Bees #Butterflies #CotonLovesPollinators 🐝

@rspbengland.bsky.social @bumblebeetrust.bsky.social @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @batconservation.bsky.social 📝

🐣 Easter egg hunt with a twist. Instead of chocolate eggs we’re hunting for things like pasqueflowers (apparently Cambs’ county flower) & other wildlife in our area. Not just woods — farmland, scrub, grassland, hedges, ponds... Help us build the Nature Hunt list @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social👇🏻

Raised hide built today, opening views across the scrub, orchard and turtle dove feeding areas. A new owl box has gone up in a nearby tree too. Both part of this year’s collaborations to improve habitat and strengthen our recording🦉

Seen plenty of brimstone but this was the first peacock of the year for us. Needed a rescue from the pond but dried out okay and went on its merry way @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social

January we wassailed the orchard. February we added to it. Planting new fruit trees for Tu B’Shevat with On the Verge Cambridge, Coton Loves Pollinators and members of the Jewish community in Cambridge 🍎🍻🌳🌱🪏🐝 #SaveCotonOrchard #EverGreen

Location, location, location: Coton Orchard one side, country reserve the other. No surprise our @rspb.bsky.social #BigGardenBirdWatch did rather well, despite the dreary weather 🐦

Planting trees is easy. Replacing ecosystems isn’t. With all the talk of National Forests & Forest Cities, it’s worth remembering that felling is quick, creation takes decades, and species already in decline can’t wait for new habitats to establish. Protect what we have first 🌳

Scrub gets written off far too easily. A walk through Coton’s scrub today, it was alive with fieldfares, redwings, starlings and house sparrows, all feasting on winter berries. Proof that these scruffy edges quietly keep a lot of our declining birds going. #SaveCotonOrchard

𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲❓ 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘧 𝘙𝘩𝘺𝘴 𝘑𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦 — fb.watch/DGFEi-E7ZP/?

To mark National Tree Week & the close of the Inquiry, the Coton Tree of Hope was planted by Sir Partha Dasgupta, economist & President of Wildlife Trust BCN, a leading voice on the value of nature & supporter of the campaign to #saveCotonOrchard. @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Sustainable’ Cambridge busway will cause irreversible ecological harm, inquiry told

𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝟐𝐂 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧. The C2C public inquiry has lurched into its final week and the finishing tape is, at long last, wobbling into sight at the Belfry in Cambourne… 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 www.facebook.com/share/p/1Pq4...

When is an orchard not an orchard 🍎🌳❓Apparently, when it stands in the path of a GCP busway 🚍💰 www.facebook.com/share/p/16tb...

Dusk to Dawn, Moths. Volunteers data gathering to help #SaveCotonOrchard

After a week of being pilloried by County barristers, we’re feeling a bit sensitive about the claims that Coton Orchard has no worth, no amenity and that the bonkers busway would somehow improve it. It’s not perfect and neither are we, but we care deeply and do our best 📺 youtu.be/iSy0z2pkvi8?...

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 £𝟐𝟎𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 🔐 C2C Inquiry Coton villagers take the stand 🌳🚌❌ #SaveCotonOrchard 🔗 www.facebook.com/share/p/17B9...

C2C Inquiry: When you can’t defend the scheme, attack the objectors 🥊 Appalling tactics by Council KC 🔗 m.facebook.com/story.php?st...

The Herefordshire @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @tobywildlife.bsky.social on BBC Countryfile explaining about the importance of Traditional Orchards youtu.be/mx7EvZP2Fos?...

Biodiversity loss for County Wildlife Site, net gain for the Council 🌳🪚🟰💰🗞️ www.facebook.com/share/p/1WLu... @chrisgpackham.bsky.social @markavery.bsky.social @privateeyenews.bsky.social

𝐂𝟐𝐂 𝐈𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟖: 𝐆𝐂𝐏’𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐋𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐞 🌳🚌❌ At the C2C Inquiry this week, Miranda Fyfe showed the GCP’s busway for what it is: costly, pointless, and indefensible 🔗 m.facebook.com/story.php?st...

Report by @itvnews.bsky.social on the public inquiry into the £200m Cambourne to Cambridge (terminating in Grange Rd) busway 🌳🚌 ❌ #SaveCotonOrchard ✏️ www.change.org/p/save-the-g...

BBC News reporting on Cambourne to Cambridge Busway Public Inquiry #SaveCotonOrchard ✏️ www.change.org/p/save-the-g...

🚍🔗 www.change.org/p/save-the-g...

While plotting a new wildflower meadow in Coton Orchard today, OTV Ben found a Rosy Knot-horn moth (Oncocera semirubella). Nationally Scarce B and of conservation concern. Luckily its larval food plants – bird’s-foot trefoil & clover – are thriving here 🔍🐝 Reason 263 to #SaveCotonOrchard 🌳🚌❌

Please Pay Attention, Else Next Spring Falls Silent fb.watch/BZgdwzvzj3/?