Ash dieback is having some odd disturbance effects in ancient woodland. The extra light under dying ash canopy is allowing these wild roses to go crazy, scrambling up the tree trunks to heights of 7 m, forming these funky columns.
“In 2012, Natural England formally declared its intention to designate between 12 and 20 sites each year for two to three years, moving to deciding 50 cases each year.
In reality, it has decided on… just 33 new SSSIs in the past 14 years and none since 2023.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“The current $29,595 price tag for the commercially available units is an obstacle.”
Bar chart of survey responses from about 1,000 UK adults in 2022 where most respondents rate a range of common farming practices for chickens, cows and pigs as "not acceptable," highlighting a gap between public concern for farm animals and current practices. Data source: Bryant Research (2022). License: CC BY.
In a world that often feels deeply polarized, it is rare to find a topic where almost everyone agrees. The treatment of farm animals is one of them.
Surveys across many countries show that a strong majority of people, regardless of their diet, oppose common practices in animal agriculture.
Just to crib Jan's great chart here a little bit - here are just a few of the headlines that came out when growth somewhat slowed in 2024
Many, many media outlets do not really know how to handle technological change like this
I’m surprised that moose (elk) 🫎 are more favoured than lynx… and that lynx score only three % points higher than wolves.
Gold on the beach! Some Cassida nobilis from Chesil Beach at Abbotsbury yesterday.
Moray eel on sandy sea bed
I think Tuesday we get to find out whether the chairman of the joint chiefs, the CENTCOM commander and others are willing to carry out illegal orders.
Really wonderful news!
The pine marten was photographed completely by chance on a camera set up to monitor reintroduced water voles.
It's been 100 years since pine martens were last seen in Cornwall.
bit.ly/4dmmIyO
Canadian scientists have developed a probiotic that may prevent 🦇 🦇 getting white nose fungus. “There have not yet been any die-offs at the sites where the probiotic has been applied…At a control site…where no probiotic was applied, 98% of the roost was killed off.”
thetyee.ca/News/2026/04...
Newspaper clip: UK is still exporting plastic waste, while EU has stopped
Recycling procedures are being standardised across English local authorities - but plastic waste can still “exported” to developing countries (where it is often dumped or burned). It could be properly recycled here, but fossil-fuel virgin plastic is cheaper.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Fruit-Bats-Sapur-Au-Kubi--2009/4731EFD54C2D3009
🦇 #BatsInArt #PreciousBats #BillyMissi #Australian #AboriginalArt #Contemporary
Billy Missi (1970 - 2012)
SAPUR AU KUBI (DARK FLOCK OF BATS), 2006
Linocut print on Arches paper
Shocking account of Orban’s election propaganda, in which he rails against an entirely fictional threat of invasion from Ukraine. Helped by Russian election strategists and bots.
Proud and grateful to have collaborated on this study! 🦇
A beaver in a body of water. Most of it is under the water but its head is just above with eyes and nose to the camera.
It's been one year since beavers were released into the wild at Studland in Dorset under the first license of its kind to be granted by Natural England. In that time they've reshaped part of the landscape – turning a previously dense area of woodland into a thriving wetland habitat.
Surprising piece of information: on average, European eel reach sexual maturity at large age than any whale species. And certainly much older than any other exploited fish species.
That's why short-term measures are not useful. Eels need a moratorium mimicking the whaling ban
(see below)
The Bujaruelo Pass, through which millions of insects migrate each year. Cause did you know that butterflies can cross the Atlantic, and moths can read the stars? See how scientists are unravelling these journeys www.theguardian.com/environment/... w/ @phoebeweston.bsky.social @prinashah.bsky.social
Scottish gamekeeper Russell Mason pleads guilty to battering a Goshawk to death on shooting estate in Perthshire raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/03/17/s...
Amazed that it is legal to dump waste sediment in a conservation zone. Chucking sediment, with or without pollutants (but most likely with), on recovering marine wildlife is the opposite of conservation.
A single course of antibiotics can have lasting effects on your gut microbiome, with changes that last well beyond 4 years. Three types of antibiotics stood out for their long term disruptive impact (3 at left, Figure)
nature.com/articles/s41...
Photo of a round, orange lichen growing flat on dark grey rock. Lichen is comprised of numerous tightly packed branches radiating outward from the middle. Middle of the lichen is covered in hundreds of small orange discs.
Rusavskia elegans #lichen. About 3cm in diameter. #Yellowknife, NWT, Canada.
#fungi #fungifriends
See also: youtu.be/nHOiB7skpfA
🦇🦇🦇💡💡💡💪💪💪
“The nine big retailers account for 94.5% of all retail food. That’s nine companies, using just 131 distribution centres. In drone war, that’s a sitting duck.”
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
“A six-year effort by the Lynx to Scotland coalition of charities does not aim simply to create a supportive majority – 61% of Scots are already in favour, according to a 2025 poll – but to build acceptance among… farmers, gamekeepers and deer stalkers.”
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
I recommend James Shapiro’s book, 1599, which points out that the first draft of Hamlet (later published in the Second Quarto) was finished by year’s end - though, at 4 hours long, it had to be revised, in early 1600, in order to be performed. Thank you, though, for a very interesting point.
