Dusk, bird song and a touching encounter with a rescued pony.... open.substack.com/pub/commonpl...

I don't know where the ravens near me are nesting, but just pass dawn they fly over, croaking a bass note to the treble of the song thrush.

Find out more and buy tickets here and please share: www.tickettailor.com/events/joele... @sarahsteinlubrano.bsky.social

The latest instalment of my year looking at Britain's common lands; this time a March trip across the Fens, and nature lost and found at John Clare's Swaddy Well. #commonland #JohnClare #TheFens substack.com/@commonplace...

Really loving today's glut of flower photos - all that spring life and colour!

Just opening their pale yellow loveliness on my local common too.

A whole frame full of wildflowers for #wildflowerhour: dandelions, red dead-nettle, speedwell, shepherd’s purse, common chickweed and hairy bittercress. Yesterday in a Gloucestershire field.

DucklingWatch The DucklingWatch citizen science project, led by Hannah Coburn at the University of Essex, returns for its second year. Submitting your records of Mallard ducklings will help improve understanding of duckling survival rates and drivers of population trends.

Just announced: our annual Day Out in Sussex, taking place on 2nd May. Now in its 5th year, it is a unique day of talks, music, food and beer spread across the Downland village of Kingston, a few miles from both Lewes and Brighton. Full details and tickets: www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/03/caug...

Fabulously well done Tir Natur, spreading nature far and wide 👏👏👏

Been away from social media awhile, travelling Welsh lanes the slow, old way. Sunshine and wind, kite call and raven, gorse flowers and the first white flowers of greater stitchwort in the clawdd (banks). The horses are Roger on the right and Gwen of the fine backside on the left. And breathe.

The landmark IPBES Business and Biodiversity Report found that global economic growth occurs at the expense of biodiversity, the loss of which poses a critical, systemic risk to the economy & human wellbeing. 🎥 Watch this short video to learn more. 🔗 https://www.ipbes.net/bba-report/media-release

Yesterday, I stood silently with Norwich Women in Black - part of a global movement opposing war and promoting justice. I was distracted by goldfinches singing in a city centre tree, prompting me to write about the ecological impacts of war. open.substack.com/pub/commonpl... #WomenInBlack

Good to find this on my thread....my 2 years of fatigue after a fairly mild bout of covid are easing. But still no real sense of smell or of taste, which is more distressing that it sounds! It has robbed me of much interest in food and changing gas bottles is more dangerous than ever!

My letter in the Guardian countering an article by a pro-growth lobbyist from Britain Remade attacking environmental legislation “Ecologists & conservationists would be surprised by his claim that the UK doesn’t & never will build enough to drive nature loss” 1/2 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I am interested in creating a genetically engineered mammoth - I just want us to spend our efforts on a world where the primrose and cowslip can thrive; where bats are cherished and safe, where toads call from their ancestral ponds and old woods slumber on without threat.

A great but undervalued collection of nature poems by Ted Hughes was reissued by Faber this week (illustrated by Leonard Baskin). Tim Dee thinks it contains some of the best of Hughes 🦗 www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/03/flow... Image: Leonard Baskin, Grasshopper © Leonard Baskin Art Trust, 1985

Bats play vital roles in the ecosystem we all rely on, beyond that it's worth remembering Sir David Attenborough's powerful words about the natural world: "It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/w...

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wild mums out there! 💚🙌 ~ Jack 📷 Jo Hackman Photography

#GoodNews: Slowly we are starting to get a handle on agroecological management of #biodiversity www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We are watching climate change accelerate in real time: Wars Deforestation Pollution And our leaders? They wage full-scale war on the very environment that keeps us alive — with zero remorse. The house is on fire and they’re busy arguing about the curtains.

I love posts like this, giving me a little insight into a place and its lives. Send me more! Here in the flatlands, fieldfare and redwing are still moving north, but small waves of chiffchaffs are arriving in their wake.

I had an interesting discussion in Wales last year, with someone who told me that the land there was especially sacred, as signified by all the standing stones. But, I said, was not all land sacred once, and in places without rocks (like the Fens), other signifiers were used? Feel free to discuss!

Vital story by my colleague Helena Horton – about the number of people who don't live within a 15-min walk of green space. Freely accessible, wildlife-rich green space should be a modern-day human right! And good govts should see it as a public health essential. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Lovely write up of the memorial for the wonderful Romain Roch, who died in January, aged 22..poet, anarchist, lover of the wild and one of the kindest people I have ever met. In these shattered times, love and kindest are radical and necessary.

“The report warns that multiple ecosystem collapses are now likely, not merely hypothetical. These failures, it states, will have “dire implications” for national security and will require serious strategic adaptation merely to limit the damage.” eastangliabylines.co.uk/opinion/a-su...

Gannets are fabulous. But they've had it tough lately. Marine pollution's a constant problem, and avian influenza hit them hard. The last thing they need is an annual hunt, even a small one in the name of tradition. Please consider signing to stop the hunt: petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE...

Hazel - a tree of wisdom and inspiration, that gives joy with early catkins - one of the very first pollen sources of the year and a lifeline for queen bumblebees now emerging from hibernation. #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

Yesterday we planted 2 oak trees in memory of Romain Roch (poet, anarchist, friend & more) who died a month ago aged 22. We read one of his poems, the words seeming all the more important hearing this morning news from Iran: 'Grow your heart to the size of the world.'

Looking forward to this!

Blackthorn! No it’s Cherry Plum! No it’s Blackthorn! Sort it out. Cherry Plum has green twigs, no thorns, reflexed sepals and flowers now. And is pretty gorgeous. Blackthorn equally so but in a few weeks #Wildflowerhour

Adding this to what we in my family call twitchy trees...those that clearly get up at night and move about a bit.

I first heard this as a teenager, when we lived in fear of a nuclear war. It was 20 years old then. And still rings true.

We’re telling the Government to put an end to peat sales now! 📢 The destruction of peatlands has got to stop! We've handed in a petition with 16,000 signatures, calling for the government to ban peat sales in 2026.⚠️ Read more👇 https://loom.ly/KMRiz34 & email your MP to support

Wheatfen reserve needs a new warden! Details of the job and how to apply can be found here: wheatfen.org/about-us/car...

Increasingly feel that actual ecologists are often overlooked in so much decision making. Species rich grasslands are crucial for nature, and so rare now.

In celebration of Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s centenary, our friends The Book Hive have curated 10 years of my Norfolk Magazine columns - & words from other Norfolk authors - into This Wild Dream. Details of the book and events at www.thebookhive.co.uk/product/this... ALL profits go to NWT & nature.

Years ago I wrote an action plan for this fickle fungus, nice to see it still popping up in odd spots!

As persecution of wildlife becomes increasingly culturally embedded, Contributing Editor Tallulah Brennan urges us to side with the newts and microscopic snails for a chance at a richer life 🐌 www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/02/shad...

Escaped sheep, nuclear warheads, fractured memories of road protests and this year's damp February days. Just part of the many lives of Britain's common lands open.substack.com/pub/commonpl... helenbaczkowska.com

'There's no common land left in England', someone told me once - there is and it is still being fought over. @patrickbarkham.bsky.social shows how vulnerable commons can still be. Enclosure for development this time - always about profits from land. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

FACT OF THE DAY. 21 February 1946. Aneurin Bevan announced the Labour Government’s proposals for a National Health Service. The service began on 5 July 1948. Its introduction represented one of the greatest social reforms in British History which helped every citizen.

“After the snow has melted, western winds have brought mild weather, and when the sun shines many signs of springtime appear” Writer: EL Grant Watson Artist: CF Tunnicliffe ‘What to Look for in Winter, 1959’

Like the bright orange of witch's butter, scarlet elf cups draw the eye on a dreary winter's day and give a little moment of joy.

New post/ substack on missing the snow, the Bloomsbury lot at home, a doodlebug, a rallying winter ghost of 1947 (& when the snow buried a train & 1,000 people.) It took me an age to write, & is free. Tho' if you'd like to, there is a Ko-Fi button. Love & thanks x nicolachester.com/2026/02/21/g...

Honoured to be at the private view of Poppy Matthew's exhibition of flint today. Real flints, paintings of flints, words and photos of sea flints and church walls. At St Margaret's on St Benedicts Street for next week if you are in Norwich.

Heartbreaking: Right now, thousands of Puffins are washing up along our coasts and further afield. It is devastating to see. These birds are Red-listed in the UK and already under serious pressure. Mass deaths like this, known as a “seabird wreck”, can take years for colonies to recover from...

Very much needed and welcomed.

Anti-nature policies are a dead end for Labour. You don’t secure lasting growth by risking long-term harm to the ecosystems we rely on. The public knows this. There’s no need for the Government to pick a fight with voters on nature. It’s bad policy and bad politics.

My local murmuration is back - was its two year absence due to a local bypass being built? Either way, glad to have the starlings back, dropping into the reeds in small groups, presumably to avoid air traffic collusions.