Select tickets – City Nature Challenge: Bioblitz in Carnmoney Hill, Antrim – Carnmoney Hill Local Nature Reserve, Carnmoney Hill, Newtownabbey City Nature Challenge: Bioblitz in Carnmoney Hill, Antrim – Carnmoney Hill Local Nature Reserve, Carnmoney Hill, Newtownabbey, Fri 24 Apr 2026 - Do you love nature? Want a good excuse to get outside? ...

Nature-lovers across the globe will come together on 24 April for an international BioBlitz!
Botanical Skills Northern Ireland Project has an event at Carnmoney Hill, Belfast & all you need to join in is a smartphone & the free @inaturalist.bsky.social app!
www.tickettailor.com/events/botan...

Thanks to all the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Northern Ireland botanical recorders who joined us yesterday in Lough Neagh for a start of the season meet-up.

We kicked off with Prunus ID, moving onto NI's temperate rainforest, studied scurvygrass samples, and spent a lovely afternoon recording together

Cambridge offers botany course that inspired Darwin after rare archive uncovered University’s botanic garden will use study materials created by John Stevens Henslow, the naturalist’s mentor, 200 years ago

Great article by @donnalferguson.bsky.social in today's @theguardian.com about Darwin & Henslow's plant specimens & illustrations and the fab new @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social Certificate in Botany: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Links for this course & many others here:
bsbi.org/learn/traini...

Based in Northern Ireland?
Want to support @npms.bsky.social & help unlock plant survey sites across NI?
Then we have a fabulous volunteer opportunity for you!
Check it out:
bsbi.org/about/people...

An old, red book with "The Lamplighter" and an intricate design etched into the cover in black

I saw a Facebook post recently about #author Maria S. Cummins, and how her first #novel The Lamplighter outsold Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter in 1854. So I hunted down a copy. Very much looking forward to #reading this! #booksky #femaleauthor

Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland on Reels

Yesterday our Botanical Skills Northern Ireland Team practiced how to use underwater drones to collect under-recorded aquatic plant specimens!
The drone will also be used for our @bsbiireland.bsky.social #AquaticPlantProject & we hope to raise money for a 2nd drone to survey Scottish lochs.

Join this year’s #CityNatureChallenge, April 24–27 & contribute to the world’s largest #CommunityScience event 🌍

With National Museums NI, Wild Belfast, @bsbibotany.bsky.social & BugLife

All you need is the free @inaturalist.bsky.social app📲

Join the project: www.inaturalist.org/projects/cit...

Thanks, to fess up it's my second spin in total, and 1st on this wheel

First spin on my shiny new #spinningwheel - I'm terrible but enthusiastic!

Thanks to Charles Shier for giving so much time and expertise this week, we've had a great crowd of new conifer students pass through the workshops!

Whorled Caraway, Trocdaris verticillata. 15-30 threadlike leaflets, increasing in size along rachis, appears whorled. Stems striate and often purplish at base. Hairless. Mild celery smell. Distribution map taken from BSBI Plant Atlas 2020.

🌸Got a botanical study in mind?🌾🌼You can apply for a helpful @bsbibotany.bsky.social Study Grant- but do it soon: the deadline is 31 January. More info at bsbi.org/learn/grants.... @atu-ie.bsky.social @uniofgalway.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social @phoebeobrien.bsky.social @mikekally.bsky.social

Are you planning to undertake a project in 2026 which involves collecting plant-related data?
Would you like <£1,000 towards your costs?
Apply for a #BSBIPlantStudyGrant!
Here's how:
bsbi.org/learn/grants...
Read how a #BSBIGrant helped Katherine research ancient meadows:
bsbi.org/blog/2026/01...

Recruitment poster for 12 botanical or entomological field surveyors, April-September 2026. Closing date: January 30, 2026.

🦋🌿Hiring 12 x Botanists or Entomologists for 2026 field surveys in England!

4-month, full-time roles from late April to early September.

Field sites in Yorkshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Kent/Sussex, Lincolnshire/Cambridge, Essex/Suffolk.

Apply now: ceh.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CEH_Ca... 🧪

Euphorbia heliscopia

Rapistrum rugosum

Joined the @irishwildlifetrust.bsky.social #NewYearPlantHunt today in Bull Island, we found to find 26 flowering species, inc. Rapistrum rugosum. Also spotted 13 species along footpaths near the entrance to the causeway, inc. Sun Spurge @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Just been out recording my @bsbibotany.bsky.social
#NewYearPlantHunt

What plants can you spot in flower before 4th January?

#ScienceIsEverywhere #BeCurious #DrJoScience #Plants

40 species on today's #NewYearPlantHunt around the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. BBC Look North even stopped by for a while... 🎥 @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Winter blooming of hundreds of plants in UK ‘visible signal’ of climate breakdown New year plant hunt shows rising temperatures are shifting natural cycles of wildflowers such as daisies

We've been working with @metoffice.gov.uk to analyse 10 years of #NewYearPlantHunt data.
The analysis provides the clearest evidence yet of how rising temperatures are impacting the British & Irish flora, with knock-on effects for all our wildlife.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Delighted to explore Drumaness Village in Co Down today for a #NewYearPlantHunt with some of the locals. We managed to find 9 species flowering, interestingly some were not on the NI top 10! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Radio 5 Live - Listen Live - BBC Sounds Listen live to Radio 5 Live on BBC Sounds

Lovely to chat just now to Nick Eardley on BBC Radio 5 Live about #NewYearPlantHunt on back of our work with @metoffice.gov.uk
Plants are blooming out of synch with the wildlife that depend on them: how worried should we be?
Catch our chat again here, starts at 17.40: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Kicked off my #NewYearPlantHunt with a quick walk around the block and found 10 flowering wildflowers in just over 10 minutes! @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Hopeful male Hazel (Corylus avellana) catkins getting their pollen ready early, in chilly North Leitrim.
(Sharing these photos for the sheer unlikeliness of them coming out at all...trembly tree, gale force winds, flappy phone case and the wrong glasses 🤣) @bsbibotany.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

So, what do we do with the #NewYearPlantHunt data that 1000s of #BSBImembers & supporters have collected over the past decade?
1 example: we joined forces with @metoffice.gov.uk to investigate correlations between rising temperatures & your plant records.
Initial results:
bsbi.org/about/news/l...

Botanists walk through a plant-filled landscape on Midsummer's Day, beneath a setting sun

What's the perfect #ChristmasGift for the plant-lover in your life?
If they're not already #BSBImembers, how about a year's membership of @bsbibotany.bsky.social?
Choose a printed membership pack, posted to your loved one, or a digital pack pinging into their Inbox on Christmas Day.
bsbi.org/gift

Things I'm doing instead of studying.... #rigidheddleloom #weaving #LastMinuteChristmasPresents

Unlocking the Plants of the Past – Big Give Decades of botanical observations of our vital wild plants are trapped in paper records and archives - through the efforts …

Help us unlock the Plants of the Past, by supporting volunteers to digitise decades of paper records & inform C21st science!
@biggive.bsky.social
From #GivingTuesday to 9 Dec, we have £10K in matched funds to unlock: every donation, however small, will be doubled:
donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05...

Today, we learned about conifer identification in the grounds of Castlewellan Forest Park's stunning walled garden. Thanks to Charles Shier for such an educational day! @bsbiireland.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Today as part of the Botanical Skills Northern Ireland project, Mel Flexen introduced a group to the botany and ecology of lowland raised bogs in Peatlands Park, Armagh. Plenty to see, even at this tine of year!

Best time to join the growing ranks of #BSBImembers?
In October to get 15 months of benefits for price of 12: that's when 100s of people inc @markavery.bsky.social & @alunsalt.bsky.social joined!
2nd best time? In November, to enjoy 14 months of benefits: bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/10/bsbi...

Thanks to all who joined us in Oxfird Island to celebrate #NPMS10! Between talks, we practiced Wildflower ID, indicators knowledge, hedgerow surveys, and @organicbotanic.bsky.social took us through botanical photography using a camera phone!