Elena Wuest (German, b.1977)
"Blooming Air," 2025
Oil on canvas
135 x 80 cm
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt

Ubiquitous presence of pesticides in feathers of common UK birds - Environmental Science and Pollution Research Pesticides continue to be widely used despite the concerns about their negative impacts on non-target organisms. Birds are at risk from exposure to several classes of pesticides regardless of the habi...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Primula x digenea

Primula elatior

Primula x digenea, the hybrid between Oxlip and Primrose is a magnificent plant i met for the first time this weekend. Growing with a large population of the equally stunning Oxlip (Primula elatior), a plant I'd only met once before.
@bsbibotany.bsky.social

Grey-patched Mining Bee Andrena nitida

Grey-patched Mining Bee Andrena nitida

Ashy Mining Bee Andrena cineraria

Ashy Mining Bee Andrena cineraria

These mining bees emerge from our grassy areas at home:
1+2 Grey-patched Mining Bee Andrena nitida
and,
3 + 4 Ashy Mining Bee Andrena cineraria
These are very welcome in our garden every year.

BREAKING: A Closer Look at the King of Planets. 🪐🛰️

NASA has just released a new perspective of Jupiter so sharp it’s almost impossible to comprehend. Those intricate, marble-like swirls aren't just clouds—they are colossal storms, many of which could swallow Earth whole. 🌍🌪️

Nine previously shown images on the womensart account, imcluiding paintings, embroidery, ceramics and sculpture

Have a great day :) xx

Today's leaf spot is Ramulaspera holci-lanati, on Yorkshire Fog. Tricky to find nice conidiophores of this one! New to Ireland and only a few British records but I think it is probably quite common.
#FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

Do you lead recording or field events?
Would you like to hear practical tips and guidance from BSBI event leaders on how to organise and manage botanical field meetings?
We're running a FREE webinar next Monday, 27 April, 7-8.30pm.
Details & bookings here: lnkd.in/eM3-q_9x

I'm having a rant.. Yester I spent a few hrs on Exmoor watching Cuckoos. I tucked into gorse, under camo. Saw & heard 5 males in 2 spots. A man with long lens camera, walked down 2wds me, pulled out phone & started playing Cuckoo bait calls. NOT fieldcraft! They need to feed & breed!! 😠 #UKBirding

We have a similar problem in NI: not only are new SSSIs not designated, the agency responsible does not have the resources or staff to effectively monitor existing ones and enforce management conditions. Our most important sites are allowed to disappear, particularly vulnerable grasslands.

In a nutshell. 😊

A purple orchid blooms near the shore at Barleycove in the west of Ireland

Our friend @milneorchid.bsky.social needs your help!
He's working on an orchid book for the Collins New Naturalist series, and needs more orchid images.
Find out how you could help Richard & maybe get one of your orchid photos (with credit) into this prestigious new book:
bsbi.org/blog/2026/04...

A striking looking #Dandelion in my garden #wildflowerhour

Holy. Shit. This is Reid Wiseman's video he took with his iPhone while at the moon 🌙

At dawn this morning - the Greenfinch and the Blackcap.
Look at the power in the wings of the warbler - showering water everywhere as it bathes. A small bird built for migratory flight.
#Birds #Nature
@bto-gbw.bsky.social

Side by side view comparing Bo'ness on historic Ordnance Survey maps from 1855 and 1895

This #MapMonday explore historic Linlithgowshire in great detail 🔎

You can now view a georeferenced layer of Ordnance Survey 25-inch mapping from the 1850s on our maps website.

Explore the maps > maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/...

Two Emperor Moths on a bramble with wings open: one larger and grey (female) and the other smaller and orange (male)

Did you know that a male Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia) can smell a female more than 7 miles away? 👃

These winged wonders can be seen across the UK in open countryside such as heathland and moorland between April and May.

📷: Julian Dowding
#MothMonday #MothsMatter #TeamMoth

Vacancy: Assistant Development Officer (fixed-term, part-time) INTRODUCTION:Established in 1936 and one of Scotland’s leading wildlife bodies, the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC) is a registered Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) with some 3...

#ukbirding #birdingscotland #NatureCommunity
www.the-soc.org.uk/blogs/news/v...

Today is the 2 year anniversary of when I met the Ravens. They just checked me out from a distance then! Here is some of my fav footage: them courting, feeding each other, barrel rolling and some of their vocalisations. They are the most amazing birds and I am so lucky to have them!

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
~ Anaïs Nin

The Blue Door (1927)
🎨 Raymond Wintz

🚨: One of the most clearest images of Jupiter ever captured!

Quality over quantity on Day 2 of @bsbibotany.bsky.social #DandiFest’26 The rare Taraxacum retzii was seen several times on coastal banks, a new habitat for it. A larger Erythrosperma with pinkish petioles, grey reflexed bracts and long buds #DandelionOfTheDay

Day 2 of @bsbibotany.bsky.social #DandiFest’26 Taraxacum chloroticum, found at Tiptree Heath. Section Taraxacum, Group Stenacra. It is characteristically green and colourless with trilobate end lobes and narrow twisted bracts #DandelionOfTheDay

Meadow Saxifrage, a five-petalled white flower on a long stem.

Underside of a Meadow Saxifrage leaf showing small brown powdery areas on reddish spots, which are the rust Puccinia saxifragae.

Underside of a Meadow Saxifrage leaf held between finger and thumb, showing a large area of small brown powdery rust spots, which are the rust Puccinia saxifragae.

Before heading home I went to Earlham Cemetery to see a species of rust fungus that I'd not seen before. This is Puccinia saxifragae on Meadow Saxifrage, seen there previously by @vannabartlett.bsky.social & @jeremybartlett.bsky.social .

Thanks, it is mesmerising watching the minute life in such unassuming places.
From the brief glimpse and given how frequently I see them, I think it was a woodlouse or slater. I think they're called roly-poly or pillbugs in the USA.

Fantastic to see that 2025s Carlin Thistles at Murlough NT NNR were fabulously floriferous!
This magnificent specimen was one of many multi-headed specimens.

In a tiny, busy kingdom between paving slabs a Ground Crab Spider Xysticus sp., possibly X. cristatus, waits patiently for suitably yummy prey to walk into it's embracing arms.

This...

A vital system of Atlantic Ocean currents is weakening and closer to collapse than thought, new studies find | CNN New research provides alarming evidence this ocean circulation is slowing and could be heading toward a shutdown, which would have catastrophic impacts on the planet’s weather and climate.

New study: most climate models underestimate the decline of the Atlantic overturning circulation #AMOC. The AMOC is on course to slow by more than 50% by the end of the century. 🌊
Very likely the AMOC will then be past the tipping point for full shutdown. 😨
us.cnn.com/2026/04/16/c...

Witness breathtaking drone footage capturing the fiery heart of a volcanic eruption. A new era of vulcanology is here, revealing nature's power like never before.