💙 Ground ivy
(used to bitter beer before hops)
💜 Red dead-nettle
(dead-nettles don't sting)
💛 Crosswort
(part of bedstraw family)
💚 Dog's mercury
(grows in ancient or broadleaf woodland)
I found all of these in woodland or roadside verges on a managed estate.
📍Dalmeny Estate, South Queensferry
Petalody is a phenomenon where floral organs, usually stamens, turn into petal-like structures, often creating 'double' flowers.
This can happen in daffodils (𝘕𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘴), roses, peonies 🌹🌸🌼
It's a common genetic mutation, but can also develop during environmental stress.
📍 where púca dog poops
Carline thistle 💛🌼
A new one to me
Coastal in Scotland; found on sand dunes, lime/alkali grasslands and dry sunny areas.
When it flowers, they look different - like dead daisy heads? Never seen that before. Will have to come back later 😎
📍 Auchmithie
King Alfred's cakes, also known as cramp balls, are an inedible fungi 🟤
They feel hard and look like lumps of coal; pinkish brown when young, darkerening as they age ⚫
Found on decaying wood, beech or ash
Some creatures make their home inside! 🐛
Good for tinder too... 🔥🔥🔥
📍Stirlingshire
⚪ Snowdrops
🔵 Squills
🟣 Crocus
🟡 Winter Aconite
The four horsemen of impending spring 😍
📍very muddy Water of Leith, Edinburgh
Takes two minutes to pledge:
www.scottishwildbeavers.org.uk/take-action/...
Please support reform of Scotland’s agricultural payments to RESTORE healthy river catchments, reduce flood risk and enable responsible coexistence with beavers.
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ADD YOUR VOICE (✨TAKES TWO MINUTES✨):
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In the first week 59 people have emailed their Holyrood candidates about restoring Scotland’s rivers and supporting coexistence with beavers — 1,412 emails in total, across all 8 electoral regions.
Can any lichenologists confirm if this is Alpine Bloodspot (𝘖𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘰𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘴𝘢) 🔴
I'm guessing quite acidic geology up there?
📍Glenshee, Scotland
⚠️ Rural payments shape 70% of Scotland’s land ⚠️
If we want healthier rivers, lower flood risk and thriving wildlife — including beavers — the ✨SYSTEM✨ must change.
Email your MSP candidates: www.scottishwildbeavers.org.uk/take-action/...
Hazel trees have teeny pink female flowers🩷 and long yellowy male catkins 💛
These flowers turn into nuts in autumn if fertilised 🤎
These come out v early spring, before other trees or leaves; these are good ID tips for trees in winter
📍Mons hill
might both be common but they're still cute 🫶
🦎
Common lizards like dryer heath in peaty moorlands
🐸
Common toads like w e t
Lizards are one of 3 native reptiles in Scotland (adder, slow worm)
Toads are one of 6 native amphibians in Scotland (frog, natterjack, smooth GCN palmate)
📍Up north
Pelican's Foot ✨
Forgot I found this cutie and put it in my pocket;
my book says it's virtually absent from the east coast.
which is interesting cause I found it on the east coast 😅
📍Portobello Beach, Edinburgh
about six years ago ended up stranded on Shetland, working on a sheep farm ? 🐑
got to explore puffins at Sumburgh Head (southern tip) to Unst (most northerly point)
📍Shetland Islands
BEADLET ANENOME❤️
Very common on our rocky shores, mid to low tide
Has a bead of blue stinging 'beads' just below its tentacles
Found all year round (but I took this video in summer)
📍Eyemouth, West Lothian
🪿Goose barnacle🪿
These dark feathery bits are very distinctive: the cirri are specialised 'legs' used to filter feed.
Often found attached to rocks, ropes and even flotsam; they often wash up on the west coast of Scotland, especially after storms.
www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-exp...
Owls found in Scotland:
Tawny
Barn
Short-eared
Long-eared
Sometimes 🏴 gets other visitors too
Seen here are TAWNY owls 🦉🦉 !
📍Fife
Turkey tail 💙
Salmon egg slime mould 🧡
Velvet shank 🤎
Porcelain 🤍
📍Roslin Glen, Midlothian
Did not know pine marten could climb trees 😵
📍 a forest in Fife
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A sea potato!!🥔
(aka heart urchins)🩷
When alive, it's covered in spiny bristles, making it look 'furry'
(this is it's empty shell)
They are echinoderms (same group as starfish, urchins & sea cucumbers)
Found around UK & Irish coasts
📍County Donegal, Ireland
A series of scallops
📍all over
sleepy vole
a field vole (greyer, smaller ears and shorter tails than the chestnut-brown bank vole) but hard to tell from a quick photo
but the vole seemed very lethargic and still...
I hope it managed to hide again
📍can't remember tbh
I wish more people were aware of this. Considering the scale of the threat, the media's near-silence is both remarkable and culpable.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Ground nesting european robins (found by my colleague Lewis, way back in May) ❤️
They grow their characteristic red feathers in late summer, around three months old.
The spring after their birth, they are considered mature, and will establish their own territories to begin breeding.
📍West Lothians
Sulphur tuft 💛🖤
Common, non-edible and can be used as a dye to provide a light lemon yellow shade.
They also glow when viewed under a UV light!
📍Fife, Scotland
Few people have enough land to restore natural processes without intervention. While rewilding is about stepping back and letting nature take over, renaturing acknowledges our role in assisting ecological processes along.
porcelain fungus 🤍
grows on beech deadwood
edible (once you wash off the slime that makes it so glossy and cute)
📍Ravelston woods, Edinburgh
good camera vs my phone (beaver)
good camera vs my phone (badger)
2025 been good so far seeing my first 🦫 and 🦡 in the flesh!!
However I do not possess the good camera😭 Credits go to Katie and Jackie ©️📸
📍Tayside and Scottish Borders, Scotland 🏴
No idea what mushroom this is
But I love it ✨🌚
📍Stanley, Perthshire
Tayside, yes!
