It's not just Jays, but Rooks are also agents of natural colonisation of woodland, dispersing and planting tree seeds that start off new woodlands. #rewilding

Sunday book review - The Cuckoo Calls the Year by Peter Stroh
Publisher: Merlin Unwin
Review: markavery.info/2025/05/04/s...

'a charming & lovely book based on local walks through the year'

@bsbibotany.bsky.social #Nene #CarryAkroyd @clarepinches.bsky.social #aldwincle #northants #cuckoo #positive

Natural colonisation of woodland/shrubland at 4, 10 & 29 yrs. Same spot, looking towards ancient woodland seed source 90 m away at Monks Wood Chronosequence.
Still in dynamic change, dense hawthorn & blackthorn thickets are nursery for emerging oaks. Teeming with warblers, soil carbon increasing.

Wild Tulip Tulipa sylvestris

Wild Tulip naturalised on the bank of the River Nidd, Aubert Ings

Snake’s-head Fritillary

Meadow Saffron

Some lovely flowers from an evening stroll at Aubert Ings SSSI near to Knaresborough with @clarepinches.bsky.social. Wild Tulip Tulipa sylvestris, Snake’s-head Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris and the spring leaves of Meadow Saffron Colchicum autumnale @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Temperate forest plants are associated with heterogeneous semi-open canopy conditions shaped by large herbivores - Nature Plants Temperate forest plants favour heterogeneous semi-open woodlands associated with high herbivore densities, rather than uniform closed-canopy forests. Herbivore loss is therefore a probable driver of e...

🌿 Our new study in @natplants.nature.com: Most European temperate forest plants are associated with semi-open, herbivore-shaped habitats—not closed-canopy #forests 🐎🌳🔆🌸 Highlights the need for trophic #rewilding in #conservation & need to avoid uniform dense #reforestation🌿
📄 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

A thriving natural world is the foundation of economic growth and vital for health and wellbeing. Language that pits these against each other is unhelpful and deeply concerning.

Nature is not a blocker to growth.

The UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves has claimed that 'The balance has gone too far in the direction of always protecting every bat and every newt.' But how can this statement be true when the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world?🌍

It’s always a treat to see a Dipper. They’re such beautiful but also powerful little birds. Look at the white eyelid when it blinks :)

Quick stop on way back from Upper Nidderdale to see Dipper at Wath with @clarepinches.bsky.social. First place I saw one as a kid and still putting on a good show!

Brileider, Brill Eider indeed - Spectacular!😎 #dutchbirding

Thanks! made Ecosia (not for profit) my search engine.
A tree is planted every 45 searches.

Google:
-monopoly search 92%
-profiles us
-sells our data & tracks us

Ecosia does not create personal profiles based on search history or use external tracking tools.

Results Yahoo, Google, Bing Wikipedia

A bit of news!! I took a FISC test with @bsbibotany.bsky.social back in July...

delighted to announce I have been awarded a Level 5 certificate for plant i.d skills - probably my greatest accomplishment to date!

Years and years of study, training, and borderline obsession have gone into this 🤩

Leading from the front. The Role of the Public Sector in Delivering Nature Recovery This report sets out an expert opinion on how Government should approach the issues of funding and financing nature recovery in England. The research takes as its starting point the essential importan...

🧵 Launched today! A Woodland Trust report explores how the Gvt should fund #NatureRecovery in England, focusing on the role of new nature markets, risks, & opportunities, highlighting the vital role of the public sector in driving change. @ecioxford.bsky.social
www.naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk?p=2274

Confirmed: England has second worst harvest on record with fears… Data released shows England experienced it’s second worst harvest since 1983 after record breaking wet weather last winter, with recent downpours leaving many farmers unable to drill crops again

Right, lets give this a go then shall we

I figured I’d start my time here with a quick thread on what we do on land, food & farming at @eciu.net

Our main focus this year has been on the impact of climate change on this year’s harvest

Spoiler alert - it wasn’t good

eciu.net/media/press-...

For me, the government reforms of Agricultural Property Relief (APR) miss two big opportunities

1. The political opportunity Labour had coming in to win over more farmers & ‘deep rural’ voters

2. The policy opportunity to use APR more imaginatively

A 🧵 on what I mean…

Watch UK's Natural Land Diminish in 100 Seconds | Short Film Showcase YouTube video by National Geographic

Here's the #UKin100Seconds

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUSK...

#In100Seconds

Research shows that simply looking at the fractal patterns in nature shifts our brains away from fight or flight & into rest/digest mode, alleviating anxiety & helping us recover from stress more quickly.
Zoom in to the pattern detail in my photo, it’ll help if your Friday afternoon’s angst-ridden👇🏼

A map of flight paths emanating from breeding colony of gulls, with this caption: Early on, LifeWatch noticed something odd. Most gulls were making daily trips to Mouscron, a city on the French border 65 km away. They went to investigate and found the birds bingeing on discarded snacks at the Roger & Roger potato factory.

Today in relatable science: Gulls making a mysterious daily trip that turned out to be to a potato chip factory

Hello everyone! just finding my feet with how this all works! Give me a repost to help find friends from other platforms! ☺️

More earthstars! This time the teeny, tiny Geastrum minimum from the dunes at Holkham NNR in North Norfolk - and I couldn’t resist a Dune Waxcap!

UK’s unhealthy food habits cost £268bn a year, report finds Exclusive: Food, Farming and Countryside Commission added up cost to NHS and economy of diet-linked disease

Our new report out, lead story in @guardian.extwitter.link, by @timjacksonsays.bsky.social with @dollyvantulleken.bsky.social This country really can’t afford the false economy of Big Food www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

It’s been an excellent Friday…talking structure, heterogeneity, dunes, marshes, ditches…. and strategies for making the most of them. Then I watched a Professor capture the plans by drawing them in the dirt. @pauldolman.bsky.social

Aldi and Iceland ‘lagging behind’ in efforts to cut pesticide use in supply chains, says report Pesticides toxic to bees continue to be used within the global supply chains of all of the UK’s ten largest supermarkets, according to the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK, which has ranked the count...

Pesticides toxic to bees continue to be used in the global supply chains of all of the UK’s ten largest supermarkets, according to a ranking and analysis by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK...

www.endsreport.com/article/1896...

Last year we won a major change in law mandating all public bodies to take more action for #NationalPark. This law is being ignored - so we’re off to the High Court.

Is messy the new beautiful? Why debates about what nature recovery looks like matter Current aspirations for nature recovery to address biodiversity loss and climate change involve changing what landscapes look like What is considered neat or messy impacts on action and policy changes...

Is messy the new beautiful? Why debates about what nature recovery looks like matter - new paper by Flurina Warrmann and @jlorimer.bsky.social

www.naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk/news/is-mess...

Reposting now I understand that the 🧪 emoji links this to the Bluesky science feed! What a clever idea...

"It really goes to show that if the media tells positive stories of hope about the environment, then it can inspire people and make a real difference.”

Well said @brianecambs.bsky.social. We need the media to step up and join us in our fight to save the natural world. They must do more.

Bore da from an absolutely freezing Carmarthenshire field where me and the dog are just processing the news that there are at 1700 coal, gas and oil lobbyists at COP29.

Phew, that's one less thing I've got to worry about today. What's your favourite petrochemical company, and why?