@wmcollinsbooks.bsky.social @chiffchat.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social @pelagic.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @sidneysussex.bsky.social @bristolbirding.bsky.social @flamboroughbird.bsky.social @tcddublin.bsky.social @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social

Hugh Brazier, 1953-2026.

Friend, birder, ringer, librarian, author, sailor & skilled editor of ornithology/ecology books.
markavery.info/2026/04/19/h...

Sunday book review: Fungi and Human Life by Nicholas Money
Review: markavery.info/2026/04/19/s...
Publisher: @princetonupress.bsky.social

"a very good popular science book"

#fungi #funbook @britmycolsoc.org.uk @newyorkmyc.org

Sunday book review: One Day A Thousand Songs by John Miller
Review: markavery.info/2026/04/19/s...
Publisher: @merlinunwinbooks.bsky.social

#wiltshire #garden #birdsong

A black and white photo of Einstein’s desk, blackboard, and bookshelves after he passed away. Journals, magazine, and papers are strewn over the desk and shelves. A few of the shelves are organized, but mostly they contain haphazard, listing stacks that seem like they could fall over at any moment. The desk is a beautiful disaster, with papers and journals covering every inch. A pot for tobacco, a small glass jar, and Einstein’s pipe sit near the middle. The dark leather chair is pushed back slightly from the desk. The blackboard is sectioned off into several different regions, each of which contains one or more boxed formulas from whatever Einstein was working on when he fell ill.

Albert Einstein passed away #OTD in 1955 due to complications from a ruptured abdominal aneurysm.

Doctors recommended surgical intervention but Einstein declined, saying “I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."

Here is his office as he left it. 🧪 ⚛️

Image: R. Morse/LIFE

De arte venandi cum avibus

Some bird species are obvious, Crane, White & Black Stork, Little Bustard. Probably Greylag and Barnacle Goose, perhaps Great Bustard. Ornithology in 1240s by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.

An observation test for your inner 8-year-old.
Can you spot 12 deliberate mistakes?

From Treasure magazine, 1965
Official answers coming soon

The plans for a windfarm on deep peat in a protected wildlife area on Walshaw Moor are in considerable trouble. Nick MacKinnon paints a picture of low competence in the planning markavery.info/2026/04/17/g...

Surely this scheme is doomed? But they just keep ploughing on...

#wind #peat #Haworth

Cuckoo takes one look at Suffolk after migration and flees Ashok the cuckoo returns to Suffolk after his migration, but he quickly flees after a few hours.

This is hilarious. A bit sad for Suffolk, but funny.

Been seeing some really interesting egg-laying behaviour from female Rannoch Brindled Beauties away from the usual fenceposts in the last few days. So far seen eggs laid in cracks in crustose lichen, other lichens, sphagnum and Cross-leaved Heath! #teammoth

A sense of perspective - first came the finch & then came the falcon....
#goldfinch #kestrel #raptors #birds
@alan678.bsky.social @markavery.bsky.social

After the long, grey months of winter the brightness of the first returning Yellow Wagtails almost hurts, as Rhys shows so well in this lovely image 😎
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🙏🙏🙏

For Keir Starmer to talk of national resilience and ignore nature is absurd | Letters Letters: Responding to an article by the PM, Caroline Lucas says he must be clearer about climate risks, Molly Scott Cato says we must reverse Brexit and Dr Victor Ajuwon applauds Labour’s directness....

Extraordinary that nowhere in an article on resilience did PM find space to include the growing threat posed to UK security by the dramatic decline in the health of nature around the world - especially since his own intelligence chiefs have recently spelt it out for him in no uncertain terms 👇

We do have sunshine in the UK too. Why aren’t we doing this?

More shocking results on UK Butterfly decline. an amazing dataset covering 50 years gives us a unique insight to the fate of these invaluable indicators

Northern Brown Argus butterfly on a thistle and headline 50 years of butterfly monitoring data reveal specialist species disappearing across UK

Pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly on bluebells

Extraordinary dataset of 44 million+ records of UK #butterflies collected by 782,000 volunteers in the past 50 years shows many species are in long-term decline eg Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

@ukbms.bsky.social is run by @savebutterflies.bsky.social, UKCEH, @btobirds.bsky.social, and JNCC.

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Fab to see this classic mural of Camberwell Beauty in Burgess Park while doing @ukbms.bsky.social media interviews this morning

A close-up of the white plastic cap of a specimen tube, held between a finger and thumb. On the cap is a tiny bug nymph, with striking black-and-white stripes.

Grubby thumb-nail and tiny planthopper. A nymph of Eurybregma nigrolineata swept from saltmarsh on the Swale (North Kent) yesterday. Nice to find a Homopteran that's so easy to look up, on account of its wearing a Newcastle United shirt. #KentNature #bugs #Hemiptera #Homoptera

Huge fuckoff bumblebee, cuddly dense foxy orange thorax, black abdomen, white bum, sat on wooden bench.

I've never seen one before, but presume this monster is Queen of the Tree Bumblebee people. Found on our kitchen floor.

Today I saw St Marks Flies -Bibio marci (also known as Hawthorn Fly) out! St Marks day isn’t until 25th April so a little bit early 😬 @stevenwright58.bsky.social @ruthnewby.bsky.social 😀

The smallest ladybird has the largest number of spots and the longest name: 24-spot Ladybird (Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpuntata), 3-4mm so its name is about 10 x longer than it! Hill Hook LNR, Sutton Coldfield. @ecorecord.bsky.social @vc40ladybirds.bsky.social

Green-winged Orchid this morning. @ukorchids.bsky.social #orchids

Pine Cone Tortrix Gravitarmata margarotana, a small moth with silvery-grey winges patterened with black and rust-red.

Still low numbers of moths, but today was about quality rather than quantity, with the first ever Pine Cone Tortrix Gravitarmata margarotana in our Peterborough (VC32) garden trap. A recent arrival to the UK (2011) with no obvious records nearby

#mothsmatter #teammoth @markhammond1966.bsky.social

A tiny Baccha elongata hoverfly on Ivy-leaved speedwell.

A tiny Baccha elongata hoverfly on Ivy-leaved speedwell in Ely. Hadn’t seen one before until the other day and now have seen two in a week. 💚 #WildWebsWednesday

150426 OM1ii #York There are several of these little birds, usually foraging in the long grass near the playground. Until I got these shots I thought they were Goldfinch, definitely not! Does anyone know what they are? VERY distant shots, apologies. #yorkbirding #ukbirding #birds

In London for a couple of days so walked back from @royalsociety.org via St James’s and Hyde Parks. Surprised to hear singing Cetti’s Warblers at both sites - so cool that these colonise these urban green spaces

Photo of a bog that’s chock full of fluffy white cotton grass flowers. Some trees and rock can be seen in the distance. The bog looks green (other than the white from the cotton grass)…from grasses, sedges and other bog flora.

A bog full of cotton grass. #Newfoundland, Canada.
#flowers #wildflowers #botany #plants #bog

My very happy happy place! Griffon, Egyptian, European Black Vultures, Black Stork, Golden Oriole, Azure Wings, oh & Sp Imperial Eagle, Alpine Swift & White rumped Swift. Plus no other humans for miles. Love it. #birds
@markavery.bsky.social
@drtonygillie.bsky.social @alexanderlees.bsky.social

Over a wall a spectacularly well maintained and huge garden is displayed in all its springtime glory. There are fruit trees, daffodils, a rockery, beautifully tended lawn, veg patch etc etc

Other work by the Ladybird artists.
‘April’ 1958
The neighbours’ garden
Artist: Ronald Lampitt