A Robin trying not to attract attention in the Peiris shrub before flying up to the wall mounted “Pallet Hotel” bug house with a beak full of nesting material. #FirstBirdOfMyDay
White with a hint of beige fungi emerging from a Hazel stake in a laid hedge bound with Willow
Possibly Netted Crust finding its way up a coppiced Hazel stake bound into a laid hedge. #FungiFriday #FungiFriends
Bird boxes in various states of disrepair
Bird boxes in various states of repair.
One of a number of nest boxes on an urban green space that I have cleaned dried and refurbished over the past couple of weeks. Within minutes of putting this one back up this morning in its original location two Blue Tits were checking it out.
Tumbling Toads on Tuesday.
If I am correct a superior version of the fussy Imperial ones
White Cherry Plum flowers with yellow anthers on a green twig against the back drop of a remnant laid hedge with a stake and binding visible.
Over the past week one rain soaked Cherry Plum flower became one amongst many. #WildflowerHour
Sweet Violet illuminated by winter sunlight against a backdrop of trees, shrubs and just visible below the tree lined horizon a lake.
A sunlit swathe of Sweet Violet making its way through urban Lincolnshire lakeside woodland. #WildflowerHour
The importance of dead trees.
The stool of a willow that has been manually coppiced with a chainsaw situated on a bank leading down to the River Witham, Haddington, Lincolnshire. Obvious scattered remnants of litter surround it. The operatives would have had a vehicle with them. This was an ideal individual opportunity for them to clear a small amount of litter put it it in their vehicle and dispose of it. It is inaccessible to the public so despite having my own work vehicle with a litter picker I could not clear it myself. The litter remains vulnerable to ending up in the river. 27 Feb 26
A damp overcast day. The River Witham corridor passing through two flood banks. In the far distance an operator in orange protective clothing and tractor. Out of sight three Environment Agency 4x4 vehicles.
I don’t think it unreasonable to expect the Environment Agency operatives that coppiced this willow on the River Witham, Lincolnshire, to have at least have shown a personal gesture of environmental goodwill by clearing a small pile of #litter that they would have seen, kicked away and trodden on.
A species of shelf like Bracket fungus amongst the adventitious stems of Common Ivy colonising the base of a pollarded Horse Chestnut tree trunk.
A sketchy assumption that this is Artist’s Bracket #FungiFriday
Frontal view of an all white weasel. It has rounded ears, black whiskers and black eyes. There is a slight pinkish cast to the ears & toes. It is standing on dark blue/grey rocks.
#Mammal #Mustelidae #Ermine #WhiskersWednesday This very cute little assassin aka Short Tailed Weasel pauses just long enough for a look at it's whiskers.
Orange,black, silver and bronze, a Marmalade Hoverfly feeding on a bright yellow Lesser Celandine flower. Against a backdrop of Cleavers, Common Nettle and decaying vegetation.
A first Marmalade Hoverfly on a fourth fully opened Lesser Celandine seen so far this year #WildWebsWednesday
Luffia lapidella (Psychidae) on grave stone in Topsham Cemetery 23/2/2026.
A Ramshorn Bagworm grazing the plains of lichen on top of a grave stone; carrying its home/sleeping bag as it goes. Luffia lapidella (Psychidae) caterpillar.
#lepidoptera
Pink flowers of Red Dead-nettle amongst the blues of Common Field Speedwell against a backdrop of trees hedgerow and blue sky
Common Field Speedwell and Red Dead-nettle against the backdrop of an unusually blue rainless sky. #WildflowerHour
Tightly budded with one flower opening, Marsh Marigold against the background of a wet grassland scrape
Several weeks behind last years first flowering. Marsh Marigold in a Lincolnshire nature reserve scrape. #WildflowerHour
A bright yellow Lesser Celandine flower
My first find of a fully opened Lesser Celandine this year on a rural Lincolnshire verge. #WildflowerHour
Kingfisher in quite a nice pose! #bird #nature #photography #art #blueskyartshow #eastcoastkin #nikon
An olive brown toad amongst wet soil and decaying vegetation
The first Common Toad of the year found under a pile of overwintered Great Willowherb stems on a Lincolnshire Local Nature Reserve
The male Blackbird with the leucistic tail feathers turning over leaves on my overwintered lawn #FirstBirdOfMyDay #WhatsYours
A Common Toad with shiney damp olive brown skin against a backdrop of wet soil littered with decaying and emerging crimson plant stems.
A trailed line of previously cut decaying Great Willowherb stems against a backdrop of overwintered Common Teasel, Great Willowherb and Reed Sweet-grass. A well trodden path to the left leading to the open aspect of meadow.
The first Toad of the year. Very much in a winter slumber in the cosy damp decaying trail of Great Willowherb stems
Looking upwards along the dark silhouette of an English Oak trunk surrounded by the canopies of Silver Birch against a grey sky background.
Canopy shy. Twisted heavy branches of English Oak meet the airy twiggy brush of Silver Birch #ThickTrunkTuesday
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Three miles from work. A line of Oak trees reflected in a Lincolnshire parish boundary drain. The surrounding field partially inundated. Below the horizon lies the River Witham corridor against an 8.13am blue sky. It stayed cold and sunny all day 14 Feb 26
17 miles from home. The same image against a 16.42pm menacing sky. It rained all day until the sun broke through late afternoon. 15 Feb 26
A sunny start and a sunny finish to this months working weekend but of course there has been a lot of rain in between
The process of hedge laying can look a bit brutal too
A Hawthorn hedge thinned and its front sided up using a chainsaw ready for laying
Each stem pleached using a chainsaw and laid into a line of sawn wood stakes and bound with willow.
Whoops
Two Seven-spot ladybirds clustered under the twisted strand of barbed wire stapled to a farmland post. Just out of sight the orange spot of a hidden Harlequin ladybird is visible.
Creature Comfort on #InsectThursday
Thorn studded armoured bark of Ceiba specious?
If I remember correctly this one is a Ceiba speciosa in the Giardini La Mortella, Botanical Garden, Ischia. The garden dates back to the 1950s
A large Beech baring extended moss and algae covered buttress roots above a leaf littered ground. Other Beech trees and parkland in the background. Unfortunately the trunks have graffiti on them some dating back to 1963. The trees are situated in Belmount, part of the extensive parkland that overlooks and surrounds Belton House, Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Beech buttress roots. #ThickTrunkTuesday
Common Snowdrops growing amongst and around the bare winter stems of Snowberry. A shrub that is likely have been planted in the past in this Lincolnshire estate woodland as cover for gamebirds.
Common Snowdrops drifting their way through a thicket of Snowberry #WildflowerHour
