When I say I'll 'try & look up' some dandelions, the word 'try' is doing a lot of heavy lifting

Tea and cakes on a tray. Behind is a view through a window of an extensive area of saltmarsh.

A large plant is Sea Kale in flower on a shingle beach. A road runs behind.

A Brown-banded Carder Bee taking nectar from a dandelion flower.

A dandelion with finely divided leaves and one open flowerhead, growing on shingle.

A nice time at Rye Harbour yesterday. Tea! Cake! Sea-kale starting to flower, Whimbrel, Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge & Reed Warblers, Golden Plover, Terns. Plus Brown-banded Carder Bee in the village. A dandelion or two to try & look up when we're home. Thanks to @sussexwildlife.bsky.social

Anyone into slugs? Struggling with this a bit - it looks closest to a young Limax cinereoniger. What do others think? #slugs

An excellent, eccentric place to visit. Three cheers - Hip, Hip ... Hippo!

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

A Cepero's Groundhopper on the fabric of an insect net's. The kink on the ridge on the top of the hind femur can be made out on the right hind leg.

Sedges and reeds on the margins of a water-filled ditch, with a sea wall behind.

A bit of sunshine, so I thought I'd go looking for Cepero's Groundhopper on the marshes near Faversham. Success - a new tetrad record for this scarce insect! Taken from the open sedgy vegetation on the ditch margin in the second picture. #KentNature #Orthoptera #UKOrthoptera

A scattering of pink-flowered Cuckooflowers on the edge of a small stream that runs in the bottom of a steep-sided, wooded valley.

Cuckooflower Cardamine pratensis in ghyll woodland (a wooded, steep-sided, stream-cut valley) in the Kent High Weald. #wildflowerhour #WoodlandPlants #KentNature #HighWeald

😀

A bleached snail shell next to a millimetre ruler for scale. Top view.

A bleached snail shell next to a millimetre ruler for scale. Bottom view, showing the very wide umbilicus.

A bleached snail shell next to a millimetre ruler for scale. Side view.

What must surely be Heath Snail Helicella itala. Found around 70cm beneath the ground in an archeological test pit in grassland behind our house. How long was it lying there? #molluscs #snails #KentNature

They vanished here completely for several years, but started reappearing a year or two ago. Not convinced they're in anything like previous numbers. But give me hard data every time.

The bug Asiraca clavicornis on a leaf.

The beetle Cassida vibex, an oval-shaped, green beetle, on a fingertip.

Orange-tailed Mining Bee Andrena haemorrhoa, with orange-brown hair on the thorax, and an orange tip to the abdomen.

The Variable Nomad Bee Nomada to Ata, photographed through a microscope (then released).

Sun's out, insect net's out. A few bits from the garden this afternoon - the bug Asiraca clavicornis, the attractive little tortoise beetle Cassida vibex (new for garden), the Orange-tailed Mining Bee, and the Variable Nomad Bee. #bugs #beetles #bees #hemiptera #coleoptera #hymenoptera #KentNature

Nice sunny session on the allotment this morning, with a Firecrest singing from this nearby tree. #KentNature #KentBirding

A green field of short-cropped grass, with woodland in the background. A Cowslip with two or three open flowers is to the left of the foreground. A few other Cowslioscan be seen (out of focus) further away to the right.

Cowslip starting to bloom in cattle pasture on the #KentDowns, on Good Friday. #wildflowerhour #CowslipChallenge #KentNature

Petition: Urge Israeli Government to stop law allowing execution of Palestinian prisoners The UK Government must act urgently to urge the Israeli Government to stop the proposed law which would permit the execution of Palestinian Prisoners, past, present and future.

Nearly at 100,000 names now.
Please sign this - let’s get it over the line.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...

Raise taxes on companies profiteering from Iran war Millions across the UK are already struggling just to get by. Bills are rising, wages aren’t keeping up, and families are being pushed to the brink. As the impacts of the Iran war ripple through the g...

The Iran war is making everything more expensive for us, but some companies are cashing in. Don't think that's right? Sign the petition now demanding they are taxed more on their record profits to help us all with the cost of living. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ra...

Fleshy, pale pink flowerheads of Toothwort, with Bluebell leaves and Dog's Mercury, and with Hazel stems behind.

A feathery leaf of Pignut amongst other woodland floor vegetation.

Two rosettes of Common Twayblade amongst Ivy, Dog's Mercury and flytipped rubbish.

A glass of Harvey's Best Bitter on a table alongside a pair of binoculars on a table inside the Ringlestone Inn.

Long Easter walk up the road to the excellent Ringlestone Inn. Toothwort in woods and hedges, Pignut starting to appear, & Common Twayblade amongst the inevitable flytipping. Plus Yellowhammer, Brown Hare, Red Kite en route. And a top-class pint of Harvey's Best! #KentNature

A view of an area of grassland and scrub, with a wooden fence in the foreground and conference trees at the back.

A closer view of the grassland, showing patches of bare ground and an incited track with steep banks.

A bare, sandy bank in the foreground, with grassland behind, and confers on the skyline.

Made a recce visit today to Forge Field at Leeds Castle, ahead of leading a @kentfieldclub.bsky.social meeting there next month. Sandy soil, open grassland, and lots of sunny banks. Looks very promising! #KentNature

For #KentNature followers, John Stevens Henslow, who kick-started Darwin' career, was originally from Rochester.

Love this - esp. as I discovered the mighty Henslow had collected specimens of Rough Mallow from my old stamping ground of Ranscombe Farm, where it still occurs. It's one of the stories in my book www.kentfieldclub.org.uk/ranscombe-st....

Sundays, 8pm to 9pm, London time. Was originally a Brit thing on the other place, but seems to have become international on Blue Sky.

White flowers of Wild Cherry, on a slender branch which also bears some reddish, young leaves. Behind is the broad, brown trunk of a neighbouring Wild Cherry tree.

Wild Cherry in flower this week in a sunny woodland on the Kent Downs. You'll just have to imagine the accompanying birdsong. #treeflowers #wildflowerhour #KentNature @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

Violence towards kids just isn’t right I’ve just signed this petition to get a full public inquiry into the violence at our border. I was shocked when I read about the horrible violence kids and even babies are living through there - and w...

I’ve just signed this petition for a public inquiry into violence at our border. I was shocked when I read about the horrible violence kids and even babies are living through there - and we’re paying for it! Please sign and share. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Thank you! That is really useful guidance.

Thanks Barry!

... and I will defiitely be revisiting the site to try and see one.

Can @lesserspotnet.bsky.social or others say whether this is definitely a Lesser Spot drumming? Heard only a in a couple of short bursts, and no bird seen. And it's a long time since I've encountered one! Sound file has been amplified. #KentBirding #KentNature

Asiraca clavicornis on a white insect net.

Snap! From Doddington Churchyard today.

Well that was a hoot - just watched @flygirlnhm.bsky.social with John Cooper Clarke and a jar of Phorids on the Harry Hill Show podscarf. #DipteranJollity

A mass of green vegetation which includes the fleshy leaves of Golden Samphire and divided leaves of Rock Samphire.

Wild Madder, with dark green leaves in whorls of four, against shingles and other vegetation.

Small Bloody-nose Beetle, a black, oval beetle with a bluish sheen.

At Samphire Hoe in the sunshine today. Fun to see both Golden Samphire & Rock Samphire growing together (first photo). Always nice to see Wild Madder, which has a very limited distribution in Kent. Small Bloody-nose Beetle was wandering across the concrete sea-wall. #KentNature #KentBotany

The spurge bug Dicranocephalus medius sunning itself on the front wall of the house this afternoon. #KentNature #bugs #truebugs #Hemiptera