My best Sourdough loaf yet.
Retired scientist and very fond of the natural world and conservation.
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My best Sourdough loaf yet.
I have both a hedgehog box and I made a snug shelter under my shed, but twice nowI have seen it now on the concrete floor of my shed, and never in the custom places. Indeed I have never seen it at night out and s out.
An encouraging story here : youtu.be/NHMJVXiWBEA?...
A good step in the right direction. Now let's sort out the toxic particles from tyres.
Hi, There were also a number of records of all three brood in the St Osyth region this and several previous years.
I have been away for a week, but am thrilled to learn of further records.
Last year the one Brian saw was 2nd brood.
That's because it was a long time ago. I am in upper Teesdale until Sunday. Just watching one or perhaps a brood of Nuthatches taking sunflower seeds from inside a feeder and returning within 30 seconds.
The lovely River Tees
I think the warm dry summer, with the peppering of showers may set up a good 2026 for grassland species as the ward is shorter with patches of bare ground and less rankness. Hoping!
Today's Wall Browns at Great Holland pits . Small numbers have appeared now for 3 years. If I remember correctly the previous colonies finally dwindled to nothing in 2008, having been very regular.
Yes. The male was around all afternoon. I will post a few more photos later.
I am delighted that I had not 1 but 2 Wall Brown is. The female rebuffed the male as far as I can see, she was previously mated. She went on apparently laying eggs.
European hornet apparently after pollen. I sometimes wonder if the hang around Ivy for ambushing bees, butterflies or wasps but this was after pollen. Cannot take nectar I think.
The hairy armpits, (black hairs around wing bases) distinguish it from the also rare, and declining Moss Carders, which has no black hairs at all. It is more jumpy, and usually looks paler, almost lemon colour.
Hi Julian, Yes it certainly is. It was considered very rare, but has had remarkable success in the past 10 years on the Essex Coast.
'Little fluffy clouds' Today on my Martins Farm butterfly transect.
In my view Clive Lewis is one of the most appealing of Labour MPs.
Good morning good people.
@steveowen44.bsky.social Hello Steve, I came across this. It was the Fellowship trip to Ross on Wye. Andy Cotton and Rowan there. I think I have others.
Sea Aster in an unusual form I think. The flowers, which are petalled, are outside the sea wall, where they would normally have no petals, and the flowers are clustered. I saw no Sea Aster, mining bees.
A trip to Tollesbury Wick today. Lots of House Martins on the move.
My experience too. Great to have very low bills and pay a k time down from when I installed
Superb picture. Thanks for sharing
I was surprised to see a couple of Gatekeepers today.
So you have seen them in an alternative place to Colne Point. We must arrange a trip up there.
No surprise there.
So many headline writers (and others) use such glaringly bad communication.
From seed scattered by birds last year. Self sown.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Brown Banded Carders bumblebee, is doing well in Essex. This is are Wrabness
I recorded a record 6 Clouded Yellows today on my transect ay Martins Farm Country Park.
Definitely, There may yet be time to see some Grey Bush Crickets, and certainly Sea Aster mining bees and there kleptoparasite Coelyoxis bees
I was asked to do some filming a long time ago at Colne Point with my phone and had no idea that this had been compiled and put out there. Enjoy. youtu.be/5pI1a8w3CmA?...
My 3rd Clouded Yellow of the year, at Martins Farm Country Park this time. Also a Willow Emerald.
Courting Brown Argus today and Small Coppers yesterday.
Third brood Small Coppers emerging yesterday at Great Holland pits
Is it a substantial emergence and is it all at race course end?
A brilliant place. One of our Essex hot spots for Wall Brown too.
Canvey Wick nature reserve - 3,200 species on a brownfield site. Nightingales increasing too. Blog: markavery.info/2025/08/09/c... #essex #shrill #carder #bee #nightingale @rspbengland.bsky.social #buglife
I returned home to Essex from Scotland by train and at 17 years old heard all the live stuff of the landing. I was not allowed to observe the moon walk, and probably had to wait till after tea to see it. Like yesterday, so exciting to me.
Indeed, we never had Buckthorns once!
I pray for a female but maybe there's no god. 🤔
Long Winged Conehead today.
I still wonder if our small patches of dog violet are enough.
Steve phoned me yesterday teatime saying he didn't think it was SWF as he never saw the silver. This one was in a different part this morning. It is always possible to miss even these showy ones by luck and females are less obvious browner and more understated, who knows?
29th species of 2025 at Great Holland Pits. Still a chance of a Wall, please!
2025 so far is a good year for the Southern Small White (P mannii, scheefbloemwitje) on Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects. With the next generation just starting we hope numbers will peak in September.
Oak Bushcricket today at GHP. That y are thought to be declining around here.
It has arrived and not too far from home.
Does anyone know whether CY migrate south in autumn?
So near and yet so far. I am still looking this year on my patch.
A 3 hour wander around Beth Chatto Garden today. I was very surprised to come across this female Silver-washed Fritillary. I had no idea these butterflies were to be found here. @chrismothman.bsky.social @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social #savebutterflies #silverwashedfritillary
I visited Elmstead Wood this afternoon and saw another Clouded Yellow. Also lots of Gatekeepers and Common Blues. Other species lower numbers.
When the grasses a d flowers have peaked and even the Gatekeepers have had a few days of wear and tear, what joy to get a Clouded Yellow of such vibrant colour, on your own patch. Great Holland Pits. .
Lesser Stagbeetle
I thought Skippers were over, particularly the Large Skipper.
A large number of Painted Ladies have emerged. 50 today probably at Great Holland pits. & each very fresh.
I cut these nettles in May, as usual to provide fresh growth for Small Tortoiseshells, but these look like Peacocks. They ought to be yellow for ST by now I think. So second Peacock brood?
Cinnabar on garden groundsel
What a year for plums. These are old fashioned green gauges guages
Goats browsing scrub at Martins Farm Country Park where I do butterfly my transect.
Earlier today at the allotment. How many Gatekeepers? There were many more.
A heavy thunderstorm. The rain gauge may overflow!
The garden butterfly recording project has just started. Download the app, to get started.
I hoped to see Brown Hairstreaks today at Pipers Vale, but the Pantaloon Bees were enough.
Common Emerald damselfly.
At school, we were repeatedly instructed to "sit still", and this became embedded in our lives as a cardinal virtue. We now know that sitting still is highly damaging to our health. Perhaps it's time we told children to do the opposite. www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healt...
'destroy'. A bit emotive I think.
How wonderful a few vagrants would be. It was about 1996 or so I had a Camberwell Beauty in my Clacton-On-Sea urban garden.
I visited Stour Wood. Not many SW Fritillaries. 1 male and 2 females egg laying.
I took a trip to Elmstead Wood today and saw at least 2 Marbled Whites, and up to 6.
Another male down to the track today. White Admirals were doing the same.
It was particularly pleasing to see this Wall near the hut at Colne Point today. I seldom get there and the weather was not very good. Gatekeepers and Essex Skippers though.
I tend to think Willow Emerald. Pale pterostigma, though that is usually outlined. In recent years, We has mostly taken over from Common Emerald.
We occasionally get 'requests' like this. While I understand the sentiment, I am confident about our management in this matter.
On a sap run on an Elm sucker, going down with DE disease. A male and female Purple Emperor. Then a other we had no seen flew away, then a hornet dismembering possibly a fourth tumbled to the ground and took away the body, minus at least 2 of the wings.
I support Palestine Action. I hate all forms of violence. I wish no harm on anyone. I just want a kinder, fairer, greener world. Apparently this makes me a terrorist. But I am the opposite of a terrorist.
At last one or two runner beans have got their way to the top. The drought has madi it slow.
I never expected to use my heat pump for cooling, but the last couple of days and nights. ...... 28 c outdoors.
Playing around with a close-up B&W edit of the best footage I have ever captured on this Earth. Hoping compression doesn't prevent y'all from seeing the incredible rain of debris. Volcán de Fuego, Guatemala (March 2023)
A couple of years ago, there was another I believe. Also Liz Huxley had one at the Naze. GHP had one last year and 2 in 2023.
It's from the Epeolus family, a parasitic bee, possibly of leaf cutter bees.
Yes, indeed. Several males probably mostly waiting to pounce on emerging potential mates.
The banana brought him down today. Lots of them about this morning.
It brings down females sometimes, occasionally males, in Suffolk. Horrible stuff is better for males. Today I had males and females circling round the banana, and also charging me. I think they will occasionally come down when they get short of salts. Meanwhile faeces perhaps, or smelly fish?
Lots of activity from at least 2 male and 1 female Purple Emperors today. However my potion to entice them down only attracted Commas
Lots of Chimney potter wasps on this bank at Great Holland pits. The Purple Emperor put in some more appearances, just to glimpse!
There was a large emergence of Peacocks today and my first 2025 Purple Emperor at Great Holland pits.
At least 2 male Marbled Whites at Elmstead Wood today. @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social .
Purple Hairstreak came down low today at Great Holland pits.
I took a long distance day trip to see these, Bombus monticala, the Bilberry bumblebee, but I was roo early for them to have Bilberry nectar.
There are rather a lot of Brimstone caterpillars eating their way through my Alder Buckthorn in the garden.
My first Small Tortoiseshell this year at Great Holland Pits.
youtube.com/watch?v=H5ML... I have seen these great entertainers twice. This is not a trick!
This really should be the outcome. It's destructive that science really does not follow independent science.
A lovely standard Hawthorn, in fine blossom. Great Holland Pits.
At Dedham by the River Stour
