'A clear step change': European EV sales jump by over 50 per cent in March Over 224,000 battery EVs registered last month, as businesses and consumers respond to soaring oil prices

It's already destroyed a lot of fossil fuel supply, but the Iran War is shaping up to deliver the biggest destruction of fossil fuel demand in history. www.businessgreen.com/news/4528540...

There are a few more in my posting history :)

I’ve often seen churches and public buildings in France and Spain decorated with House Martin nests. More abundant - but also a history of public tolerance?

Oak-tree Pug - fairly regular in our Cardiff garden.

Eupithecia dodoneata

Eupithecia - a goodly dwarf

dodoneata - from an ancient Grecian town whose oracle spoke when the wind blew through a grove of sacred oak trees - hence belonging to the oaks.

V poetic.

#mothsmatter

Improving water quality to bend the curve of freshwater biodiversity loss.

Our new review offers 14 steps in 4 themes:

Improved monitoring and understanding
Regulation & enforcement
Pollutant remediation at source and in catchments
Addressing systemic drivers

cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10....

A walk through the vineyards of Champagne today. Organic viticulture on the left, more conventional practice on the right - literally on the same slope and in the next parcel. Which would you support?

Entry-level birding taxonomy : basics; round ones: crappers; swimmers; birds with funny legs; killers.

#ornithology #birding #birds #birdwatching #birdidentification

(From a book by Matt Kracht)

The first Nut-tree Tussock of the year - and the earliest here in 14 years of trapping. More typical for April.

Colocasia coryli: one of the instances where an animal accidentally has the same genus name as a group of plants.

“coryli” refers to Hazel - one of the larval food plants

#mothsmatter

Forget birdwatching, I’m into moth-watching: they’re fascinating and misunderstood insects | Helen Pilcher According to new research, distinguishing between the UK’s 2,500 species could halt cognitive decline – so my brain could not be happier, or healthier, says science writer Helen Pilcher

Moths are definitely getting cool, now they can even help your brain function! Yet more reasons to start recording them @savebutterflies.bsky.social @richardfoxbc.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

First Brindled Beauty of the year in Cardiff.

Lycia hirtaria: both genus and species names imply shaggy, hairy, wolf-like appearance.

#mothsmatter

Yes: other notes have Hawthorn, Guelder-rose and Flax - apparently on the theme of hedgerows and likely ornamental gardens. Another requirement for our panel is to have species with particular movements that can be depicted as an anti-counterfeit measure. I suppose you could use trembling Harebells…

👇

They are stunning, but the public consultation means we have to focus on animals as they subjects. Non-animals could figure as parts of the habitat, however. So who depends on orchids like this…?

A bit busier than usual in the garden pond this morning…

Welsh wader survey gets underway A survey of breeding waders began this week across Wales, with hundreds of sites to be visited in the coming weeks, organised by Natural Resources Wales. Surveyors will be looking and listening...

A national survey of breeding waders is underway in #Wales, organised by @natreswales.bsky.social. All records of Curlews and Lapwings in potential breeding habitat are valuable, so please do share your knowledge via @cofnod.org.uk.

📷 Cameron Sharp

www.birdnotes.wales/blog/welsh-w...

Good question. They’re designed to be toxic to insects at v low levels by affecting neuro-transmission - but big animals like dogs or people are less at risk at the doses involved. But still, I’d rather not try using spot-ons on my own skin…

Chairing my last meeting of NRW’s Water Forum today in Shrewsbury…

I couldn’t possibly comment… :)

Catch me on BBC Wales (March 11) - radio, news and website - covering our recent paper on pet-flea treatments, sheep-dip chemicals and some surprising revelations about how they reach streams and rivers

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Little Egret at Fforest Farm, Cardiff, today: first I’ve seen here in years of walks

I can see the importance of the ‘wow’ factor that can inspire young ecologists - and I lived it in my early career. But equally there is much to enthuse about close to home - and a different kind of ethical responsibility to pass on.

Interesting in that Universities use long-haul, exotic, field trips as marketing attractions for students.

My last field courses were urban ecology in Cardiff, river ecology in the Bannau Brycheiniog, and before that central France by train.

Mottled Grey from last night’s trap: only the 2nd in our Cardiff garden, the previous in March 2021.

Colostygia multistrigaria: multiple stripes with black ‘Styx-like’ rivulets among the wing marks. Pertaining to the mythological river.

Early entomologists certainly had imagination.

#MothsMatter

Stenophylax permistus - one of the ‘Cinnamon Sedge’ species, and typically the earliest caddis in the trap in Cardiff.

(Though not this year.)

This caddis was in yesterday morning’s moth trap: confusingly early by about a month for what I think is one of the Glossosoma spp.

This Early Grey was among the most numerous catch of the year so far last night in suburban Cardiff, and the first of the year.

Xylocampa areola: the genus refers to the twig-like caterpillars, and ‘areola’ to the distinct marks on the forewing.

#mothsmatter

An exciting initiative for woodlands and their wildlife in the Mawddach catchment.

👏 @rspbcymru.bsky.social, @nationaltrust.org.uk, @plantlifeuk.bsky.social, @cofnod.org.uk, @natreswales.bsky.social et al.

Several larger-than-Pipistrelle bats over the house just now. I think Noctule - with that very tell-tale dive slowed down in the second half of the video

Look forward to seeing them!

One of the earliest pugs: Double-striped in the trap this morning

#mothsmatter