Friends of Lye Valley

The first. If you'd clicked on the picture the Alt text would have told you... 😀

😎

A Common Frog (Rana temporaria) sitting on a log. There's some dead reed floating in the water in front of the log, and some dead reed behind the log to the left. In the bottom right corner, there's some light green pond weed. The frog's partial reflection is visible bottom centre.

Forget about an elf on the shelf, look at what we've got! 😀

#UKWildlife #amphibians #frog #nature #photography 📷🐸🐍

Great news Tim!

And here's the two-handed scrape-seeding dance being expertly performed by a volunteer at Rock Edge! The Wild Marjoram was the last seed to go out.....Followed by a light rake to settle the seed in.

We start March with an hedge-laying task, at North Hinksey Nature Reserve, off Botley Road in West Oxford. Some site maintenance and scrub clearing also available.. see what takes your fancy! Sunday, 1st 🍄‍🟫 No experience needed 🪿http://ocv.org.uk
#Oxford

Three pairs of mating frogs are sitting amongst a mass of frogspawn. They're surrounded by green aquatic plants and a few brown dead stems.

🐸 We have frogspawn at last! 🐸
And what looks like a frog free-for-all!
#SignsOfSpring #SpawnWatch #ClassOf2026
@arc-trust.bsky.social @judywebb.bsky.social

The photo shows a number of small white flowers clustered on dark twigs. There are out of focus flowers and twigs in the background.

Remarkably we've got a young Blackthorn that is already in full flower, along with our Cherry Plum! (And yes, this one is Blackthorn.) #WildFlowerHour @judywebb.bsky.social

We only use (local) seeds of native limestone grassland plants. It’s quite likely that this won’t look much like what some people may expect who are more used to seeing the ornamental style plantings common in municipal parks. It is however much better for our pollinators and other insects!

@headingtonnews.bsky.social @judywebb.bsky.social

A small red digger is standing behind a long thin area of bare earth. To the right of the photo the truck and trailer that transports the digger can be seen. The rest of the foreground is grassland with tractor tracks running over it. In the background are some trees. The sky is a mixture of dark and light grey.

Delighted that ODS on behalf of @oxfordcitycouncil.bsky.social are creating a couple of new "scrapes" at Rock Edge. Turf and topsoil removed down to original limestone. We'll spread native wildflower seeds and transform this rather dull amenity grassland into a riot of colour. #OX3 #Headington 🌍

A leaf shaped greenish yellow butterfly with two orange spots on its wings is perched on a nettle leaf. It's surrounded by lush green leaves and some thin dead twigs.

We spotted our fist butterfly of the year this morning, this splendid male Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni). Unusually, it came to rest just long enough to take this photo. 😊
#inverts #FirstOfTheYear #UKButterflies #iRecorded @upperthames.bsky.social @tverc1.bsky.social @judywebb.bsky.social

A frog in water staring at the camera. It's surrounded by small clumps of pond plants, and framed by an arched reed stem starting at bottom right and curving over the frog. There are some dead stumps of thicker vegetation bottom left.

No indeed, but it's funny I choose that one, and not this rather grumpy looking one instead! 🤣 🐸

A closeup photo of a frog staring directly at the camera. It has light brown back and sides, a wide mouth, and a whitish chin. Its eyes are dark but rimmed with gold. Its front legs are submerged in water, and there are some green pond plants in front of it.

Our frogs (Rana temporaria) are back! 😍
#SignsOfSpring #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography 🐸
@arc-trust.bsky.social @freshwaterhabitats.bsky.social @tverc1.bsky.social @judywebb.bsky.social

Well, I don't know about several weeks behind. Our first only started to open this week!

A small partially open yellow flower is surrounded by mostly green vegetation with some dead straw coloured stalks on the left.

A single white flower on the end of a thin twig with yellow tipped anthers. There are three unopened buds at the tip of the twig.

Here in the Lye Valley we not only have sunshine today, but real #SignsOfSpring with our first Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) in flower, and our Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) blossom just opening. 😍
#WildFlowerHour #OxfordshireFens

Firecrest, Oxford

💥 patch mega 💥
An urban Firecrest in the Lye Valley, Oxford this morning, only the second here in over 7 years!
ebird.org/checklist/S3...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#patchgold
#ukbirding

We have the same problem, and we don’t understand the mindset either.

A close up photo of the head, shoulders and long beak of a grey bird. Its yellow eye is just above centre of the photo, and it has a small fish caught between the tips of its beak.

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #CollectingFood, birds with food in their beaks, the Alt theme is #Grey. This Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) with an unlucky fish fits both themes. 😃 [may need a click]
#birds #UKWildlife #EastCoastKin #nature #photography
@robcrank68.bsky.social

Redpoll in a spray of silver birch seeds

How it started...

... how it ended.

6 Redpoll, including this bird demolishing a silver birch seed pod, and some nice Sparrowhawk vs Magpie interactions, in the Lye Valley, Oxford, this morning.

My eBird checklist is here:
ebird.org/checklist/S3...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#UKbirding

Education Group - ANHSO Education Group We started our identification courses with a pilot basic course in 2002. Following on that success we have expanded our programme and hope to expand it more. We have found that there is a great demand for our special offering, a rigorous, scientific approach to species identification...

Want to improve your botanical identification skills and confidence? Try one of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire #Plant #Identification courses this year:

Volunteer work rejuvenating blackthorn scrub at tiny Barracks La Meadow in Oxford to favour egg-laying of the rare Brown Hairstreak butterfly. Site is a hot spot for this sp. but also need to stop blackthorn shoots colonising rich old meadow flora adjacent by digging & tree -popper in good use.

A small bird with a white chest and tummy, and a mix of light, dark and buff patterned back is clinging to the side of an ivy covered tree trunk on the left of the photo. It has a down-curved thin beak, and a long tail pressed against the tree trunk. The background is a jumble of thin twigs.

For @javajanegallery.co.uk's #SmallBirdSaturday, I have a Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) taking a short break from hunting insects in the Lye Valley in Oxford.
#birds #UKWildlife #nature #photography

Well, it’s not noted as toxic, but generally considered to be inedible due to its texture…

🤣 Rather you than me! Feels like handling raw liver apparently!

Well, it's one of the "jelly fungus" for certain, but this is thicker and flatter than Auricularia auricula-judae. We stick with our original opinion. (Not least because it was identified by the ex Oxfordshire Fungus Recorder!)

A dead log supported by a jumble of sticks is covered with thick gelatinous looking brown disks.

We found a fine crop of Witches' Butter (Exidia glandulosa) on a dead log this week. It's normally darker than this, but perhaps this batch is new? #FungiFriday #FungiFriends @fungiflowers.bsky.social @judywebb.bsky.social

In the centre of the photo two small cup shaped fungi one above the other. The insides are a rich deep red colour, while the outsides are a paler orange colour. They're growing among leaf litter with chips of old decaying wood and a few blades of green grass.

Delighted to spot our first Scarlet Elf cup (Sarcoscypha austriaca) fungi of the season in the fen this morning. Here's two of around a dozen we found.
#FungiFriends #OxfordshireFens #OX3 @judywebb.bsky.social

eBird Checklist - 9 Feb 2026 - Lye Valley & Warneford Meadow - 37 species Submitted by Tom Bedford.

Inner city #patchgold this morning, with the first Woodcock since Nov 24 in Boundary Brook woods. My 7th Woodcock record in over 7 years, but the first outside of November/December. Perhaps an elusive wintering bird? 🤯

ebird.org/checklist/S2...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#ukbirding

A view down a shallow valley. There is short vegetation in the foreground, and a boardwalk runs from bottom right and winds its way along the valley. There's a row of bare trees starting top right, and a few trees on the left. Upper centre there's the sun captured as a star burst. There are a few fluffy white clouds in an otherwise blue sky.

A #landscape view of winter #sunlight over Oxford's Lye Valley fen for today's #BlueSkyArtShow theme.
(Or if anybody's lost a star, I've got it! 😀)
@friendlyevalley.bsky.social