For the price of a pair of binoculars, a whole new world www.flickr.com/photos/clado...
@brianecambs
Wildlife enthusiast, photographer, elms/lichens/beetles/molluscs/protozoa and much else. CEO of Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, occasional leader for Wildlife Travel, visiting prof., Cranfield Uni. Views my own. He/him
For the price of a pair of binoculars, a whole new world www.flickr.com/photos/clado...
Pro growth rhetoric claiming to care about our suffering natural world π¦ Britain Remade is a Tufton Street adjacent think tank that promotes building unfettered by environmental legislation
Huge congratulations James! So few urban Floras have been published this will be momentous. Canβt wait to get a copy and devour every page #UrbanFlora #UrbanPlants
I could try and say something relevant, topical, profound even on the general state of everything. However what I feel I need is a small, purple, Sea Lavender Weevil. So here it is. #Nature
World Book Day feels like the one day Iβm allowed to say this without shame:
Buy my book. ππ
Natureβs Acre β Irish garden memoir, wildlife-friendly, heart-first.
gardeningwell.ie/natures-acre
I see my job as conserving the raw material of evolution, so within-species genetics and patterns of former hybridisation (key to understanding elms?) matter. Now seeking funds for research into elms and insects, potential co-evolution of phytophages on trees which have themselves changed rapidly.
Oh squeak! Itβs official publication day!
Tomato leaves with late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans
Hello friends of science! Iβm migrating over here from X. There, I had 3,000 followers enjoying plant pathology content! Please help me rebuild. Iβll post plant disease photos, management info, science & nature content. Kicking off with some tomato late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans.
Data
I've suggested to my BBC colleagues we should tell the story of Lysenko, because the parallels are so strong - the career revenge inflicted on disfavoured scientists, the long-term harm to a core discipline. I've been surprised even among researchers, the story is only vaguely known.
Technocapitalistsβ great trick is to make people who hate all this bullshit feel like theyβre suffering from the same fogeys-not-coping-with-a-changing-world syndrome every generation succumbs to, rather than, say, just rejecting a rampant evil that seeks to rob us of our individuality and soul.
We are laying out The Fenland Flora by Owen Mountford & Jon Graham - this landmark 1600-page 2-volume set is due for publication this Autumn. Pre-publication offer will start late Spring @bsbibotany.bsky.social @plantlifeuk.bsky.social
Watch this space for updates on progress
Fragaria vesca, Wild Strawberry, Invert Associates
Native of woods, scrub & hedgerow, embankments & road verges, an important element of the ground flora. It supports 51 species of invert as a larval host, of which 14 are Coleoptera, 30 Lepidoptera.
π· CAM Lindman, Bilder ur Nordens Flora
π±
Did you know that the bees that need saving are NOT honeybees?
Honeybees are the dairy cows of bees. People brought them over from Europe to make us honey.
The problem with honeybees, esp in resource-limited ecosystems (like hey! cities!) is that they compete with our native bees for food.
βI love midges because I know what their hearts look likeβ: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out?
And I should have said, if you like it, buy the book! bsky.app/profile/grae...
What is Pan-Species Listing (PSL)?
A challenge to record every UK species youβve seen in your lifetime β across ALL wildlife groups. Itβs holistic, flexible & grows with your skills.
Join our FREE entoLIVE with Graeme Lyons on 13 May to learn more.
Sign up: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1977266072...
Very similar to British elms too www.flickr.com/photos/clado... (still need to identify the parent tree!)
The Church of England is still treating gay people as second-class citizens, and at what point do we call this discrimination, writes Alan Rusbridger
This is such an excellent book full of great tips. Should be used widely.
"Science describes accurately from outside, poetry describes accurately from inside. Science explicates, poetry implicates. Both celebrate what they describe. We need the languages of both science and poetry to save us from merely stockpiling endless βinformationβ that fails to inform our ignorance or our irresponsibility." from "Deep in Admiration" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Deep in Admiration" was a talk given at the conference Anthropocene: Arts of Living on a Dangerous Planet at UC Santa Cruz in May 2014. The text appears as the foreword to the collection Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014 (published by PM Press).
Screenshot of my (Steve Dudley) Bluesky profile with the 'search posts' window open
I've just discovered you can search a user's posts on Bluesky! How long has this been a thing I haven't known about? In case you've missed it too, click on the three dot icon in a user's profile and select 'search posts'. Works a treat as long as you can remember which user you want to search!
Delayers keep saying that decarbonisation will hamper economic growth
Yet the data keep showing that the net zero economy is the engine of UK economc growth
π’ Job Alert: Monitoring officer
I am looking for an experienced ornithological fieldworker to join the team this spring to lead on the monitoring of Black tailed godwits at WWT Welney.
Closing date: 6 March 2026
Apply β‘οΈ
vacancies.wwt.org.uk/vacancies/77...
I'm doing a talk on my book at Exeter Street Hall (opposite the Chimney House) in Brighton next Wednesday night. It's only Β£2 entry and I am selling the book at a discount. Hope to see some of my Brighton friends there!
What a wonderful place to spend your working days!
Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.
Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.