Sorry @specsaversuk.bsky.social, @cloudflare.social strikes again!

Quite a few flowering Brambles in Thetford at the weekend. I'd be very happy to have more blackberries but I fear that, while pollination might not be a problem, ripening any fruit might well be.

A pencil thick young Grass Snake in the garden this afternoon, presumably quite active given it hit 20°C in Thetford today.

Just one Willow Warbler among 25 Chiffchaffs ringed at @btobirds.bsky.social #NunneryLakes yesterday. Sadly, now an uncommon species here outside of Thetford and King’s Forests. What are we doing to our world?

This isn’t a test! The #ClimateEmergency is already impacting the lives of millions globally and unless necessary change is immediately made the situation will threaten life on Earth.

Norfolk naturalists, please look out for nymphs and adults of the non-native Southern Green Shieldbug ~ Nezara viridula. With this being the second county record it would be useful to know more about their spread. Please add records via iRecord, or DM me. www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/...

I wasn't entirely sure if these are dog toys or stress relief for their owners. Apparently, much like reality, Elon was quite unpopular.

Google plans to bulldoze a wildlife haven in Essex – home to rare species – for a data centre. Sign the petition now to help save it before it’s gone forever 🐝🦋 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa...

The good weather is back, let's celebrate with some FIT-counts! 🌞 🐝 🪲 🪰 🦋 These ten-minute counts are vital for tracking pollinators and can be done anywhere—garden, park, or on your transect Find out more ⬇️ ukpoms.org.uk/fit-counts @pomscheme.bsky.social

In West Suffolk Hospital at Bury St. Edmunds waiting for surgery to fix my disfigured left hand. Last bird seen was a confiding male Blackbird collecting food in the grounds.

Tawny Wave and a male Fox Moth were the best from my Thetford Actinic yesterday. Elephant Hawk-moths and Buff-tip are always nice to see.

@vc40orthops.bsky.social and I are pleased to announce the publication today of the “Micro ladybirds of Britain and Ireland”, in collaboration with the FSC: www.field-studies-council.org/shop/publica...

It's a real privilege to curate the data collected by the thousands of skilled volunteer surveyors that are used for these analyses. Sadly, for some common and once abundant species, the trends keep heading in the same downwards direction!

A couple of bugs from the Stansted Estate in West Sussex. The plant bug Dicyphus globulifer, second West Sussex record according to iRecord, no records on the NBN Atlas; and Spear Thistle Lacebug Tingis cardui, also not frequently recorded in the VC, but a species I often find in Norfolk.

Back in Norfolk now but nice to have found two nationally scarce beetles yesterday, on the Stansted Estate in West Sussex; the fungus weevil Platystomos albinus and the false blister beetle Oedemera femoralis. Both species being new for the 10 km square according to the NBN Atlas.

This morning was about butterflies. No Woodlark on my @btobirds.bsky.social Heathlands Bird Survey at Oxenbourne Down in @southdownsnp.bsky.social, but it was fantastic to see Duke of Burgandy for the first time as well as Dingy and Grizzled Skippers and Small Heath. @savebutterflies.bsky.social

🌿 Celebrate the magic of migration at #Migfest2025! Talks, guided walks, bird ringing demos, and more await at Spurn, East Yorkshire. Tickets are on sale now 🎟️ Don't miss it: bit.ly/3T5Q9Ks

These bee boxes were installed on Monday and already have eleven tubes blocked up. Potential occupants were investigating the options as I was lining up the boxes before drilling holes in the wall. #instantimpact for #pollinators!

Nice to be back in Hampshire for the weekend. Here's a view from Butser Hill in the @southdownsnp.bsky.social looking towards the south coast and the Isle of Wight.

Naturalised non-natives I know, but Mandarin Ducks are smart looking birds. At @btobirds.bsky.social Nunnery Lakes this evening.

Sad to find a discarded plastic bag full of water and numerous invertebrates at a popular duck-feeding spot on the Hampshire coast last month. This male Pachygnatha clercki spider and a few small Carabid beetles survived but many others didn't. What are we doing to this world!

The nationally scarce darkling beetle Helops caeruleus from Hampshire last month. A very nice insect to stumble across.

Less than a week until the Bucks Invertebrate Group conference! Sunday 27 April, Great Missenden. All welcome, please book your place beforehand. More info at sites.google.com/site/bucksin... @bucksinvertgroup.bsky.social

Thanks to everyone who has taken part in the Heathland Birds Survey so far! There are still survey spots to fill for our key species, Woodlark, Dartford Warbler and Nightjar, so please sign up to a survey square near you on our website ➡️ www.bto.org/our-science/...

Eye-opening graph. The biggest wildfire incidents in the UK don't occur when it's hottest, in high summer: they take place in April - *when landowners set fire to their grouse moors & lose control of burns.* Time to ban moorland burning. Source: www.iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org/sites/defaul...

For anyone who has ever used the @nbntrust.bsky.social Atlas, please consider taking a minute to answer a few questions that are part of some work the NBN trust team are undertaking to review and improve this already amazing data resource. If you've never used it then the take a look. nbnatlas.org

Any day now, ducklings will begin to appear, and we need your help to monitor them. We are asking for records of mallard broods anywhere in the UK this year to help us understand how many ducklings make it to adulthood. Submit your sightings here: citsci.org/projects/ducklingwatch Please share!

Weekend spiders. The Humped Orbweaver Gibbaranea gibbous and the always photogenic Gorse Orbweaver Agalenatea redii.

Well, it's Oak before Ash where I was in Norfolk on Saturday. Given we're in for another dry week, I wonder when the next rain will fall on what seems to be an already very dry landscape.

Lunchtime inverts: Green Shieldbug Palomena prasina and Bristly Millipede Polyxenus lagurus enjoying some welcome springtime warmth in Thetford.

😎 It's 1 April and that can only mean one thing... yes, insect survey season is back in earnest! 🐝🪰 Check out @pomscheme.bsky.social to help monitor #pollinator abundance with 10-minute Flower-Insect Timed Counts 🦋 And see @ukbms.bsky.social for getting involved with #butterfly transects

Mediterranean Gulls on Hayling Island Oysterbeds at the end of March in 2022, and today in 2025. Yes, just one bird, plus a few more flying around. Significantly fewer Black-headed gulls too. #solentbirds

I wasn't sure if this #Tachinid fly intentionally jumped onto the Brimstone, but it did seem to be perched, lying in wait. Species suggestions welcome #Diptera

Living in Norfolk it made a change to see Dotted Bee-fly Bombylius discolor in Hampshire this morning; the species has yet to make it across the border from Suffolk.

Covered a @btobirds.bsky.social Heathland Bird Survey square in Hampshire for Woodlark today. Included a lovely site I've not visited since a school field trip in the 1980s. No Woodlark but nice to have close views of a pair of Firecrests. Brimstone, Red Admiral, Comma, and Peacock all on the wing.

Short and slightly soggy run in the South Downs this morning and signs of spring are everywhere. Lesser Celandine, Wood Anemone, budding Bluebells, Violets, Primroses and Wild Garlic. A great start to a long weekend in Hampshire.

After living in Thetford for over 10 years and having made many rail journeys south, this morning I have finally seen a Crane from the train at @rspb.bsky.social Lakenheath (not in this photo!) #lowcarbonbirding

I hadn't been expecting to find a pair of Woodlark in this field marked on the @btobirds.bsky.social Heathland Bird Survey map as unsuitable habitat. A task made trickier with lorries thundering past on what should be a quiet B road, but actually forms part of a shortcut from the A11 to the A14.

Pleased to find a male Minotaur Beetle Typhaeus typhoeus while surveying for Woodlark on my @btobirds.bsky.social Heathland Bird Survey square this morning. Absolutely amazing insects.

Male and female Black Oil Beetles, Meloe proscarabaeus, from the King's Forest, Suffolk at the weekend; males have noticeably kinked antennae, females less so. Chiffchaffs were singing everywhere.

1/3 *Wildlife / nature media and high-carbon travel ads* Advertising does not simply inform, it also shapes demand. A transition towards sustainability requires a reduction in advertising for high-carbon products. How much space do birding / nature mags devote to high-carbon wildlife holidays?

These Hawthorn leaves were still buds on Sunday. Growth is rapid with warmer temperatures.

Hairy Shieldbugs Dolycoris baccarum taking advantage of some warm spring sunshine in Breckland today.

Recovered grasslands need more than 75 years of continuous management to regain their biodiversity because specialized pollinators are slow to return.. phys.org/news/2025-03...

Two new #beetle species for the week were the astonishingly flat Flat Clown Beetle Hololepta plana, 7 mm long and ~1 mm tall (thanks @episyrphusb.bsky.social), and the tiny 2 mm long Silvanus unidentatus.

I’m sure everyone I know will have signed this already, but just in case…

Gorse Shieldbug, Piezodorus lituratus, and Glow-worm, Lampyris noctiluca, were amongst a number of insect species active in Breckland during this unseasonably mild weather.

Some welcome warm sunshine has made the last few days feel like spring is arriving at last. Nice to see Early Bumblebee Bombus pratorum taking advantage of self-seeded crocuses growing out of the lawn.

Rainbows and birds at the @btobirds.bsky.social #NunneryLakes reserve this afternoon including a colour ringed Curlew ringed here in 2019.