A quick reminder that it's easy to submit records of your #dragonfly & #damselfly sightings online. We recommend irecord which has a special form for easy entry of multiple odonata sightings at the same spot. Your local dragonfly recorder will see it & if you include a photo they can help with ID.

Had a fantastic day talking all things peat at the Gower Show!

Adfer Natur CIC@adfernatur.bsky.social · 3d ago

💚 We had a wonderful day at the Gower Show today! 🌿 It was a pleasure chatting with farmers, local representatives and visitors about the work of Adfer Natur CIC, peatland restoration and our upcoming surveys on Gower.

If you’re in South Wales and fancy coming to speak to us about the peatlands of Gower at the Gower Show tomorrow, come and find Adfer!

Adfer Natur CIC@adfernatur.bsky.social · 4d ago

Adfer Natur is going to be at the Gower Show tomorrow at Penrice Castle to talk about all things peat, including our work this year on Rhossili Down. We’re over in the Gower National Landscapes tent and we’d love to see you there!

In 2023, Swansea University committed to banning fossil fuel companies from advertising jobs and careers on campus. ❌ And now they're rolling back on that promise. This is a shameful back-step in leadership. We can't let them get away with it. ✊

Swansea University backslides on commitment not to work with the fossil fuel industry

The University of Swansea has U-turned on a 2023 commitment to cut careers and recruitment ties with fossil fuel companies.

thecanary.co

Wrote a bit more about hill tracks ! - open.substack.com/pub/mikeshew...

Everybody Builds. Nobody Unbuilds

What 5,190 km of hill track tells us about who the uplands are really for — and why we should start talking about taking some of them out

open.substack.com

Definitely a survey highlight for me for the past week, this lesser bladderwort in flower on Cors Goch Trawsfynydd that I saw with my @peatlandcymru.bsky.social NPAP hat on. Fantastic site & great to see the Life funded bunds holding well. I also managed to see (& not take a great photo of) a curlew

Really nice good news story from our Welsh peatland restoration area

Adfer Natur CIC@adfernatur.bsky.social · 6d ago

Last week Mike and Joey from Adfer Natur delivered training for BSG Ecology on peatland habitat management design. As part of this training the group visited Cregan, a forest to bog peatland site that was delivered in 2023 by the Lost Peatlands project, with the restoration designed by Mike and Joey

A very rewarding day to be out not only delivering training for BSG Ecology on peat and habitat management, but to find water vole latrines on a forest to bog site that in November 2023 looked like this, a bare stump flipped landscape. An incredible change in only 2.5 years!

Bee people of Bluesky, who’s this? From my Swansea garden today. The tail looked so yellow in person I’ve confused myself on a possible ID. iRecord is telling me it’s a red tailed. What do we think? #bee #entomology

Nice record of a female notch-horned cleg from a peat restoration site this week with wonderful banding over the eyes. If the bites weren’t so painful I’d like horseflies a lot more. Most people very sensibly swat them away rather than letting them get you so you can take photos for ID

1/🛰️🧠 New open-access paper! We built a deep-learning (U-Net) model to automatically map surfaced vehicle "hill tracks" across the UK uplands from 25 cm aerial imagery — the first spatially comprehensive assessment of their extent. 🔓 doi.org/10.1002/2688...

Vehicle tracks in the <fc>UK</fc> uplands vary in occurrence with land use and overlap with peatlands and protected areas

Surfaced vehicle tracks are widespread across GB uplands, yet their extent and environmental footprint have until now been poorly quantified. Using remote sensing and a semi-automated detection model...

doi.org

I’m trying to get much more systematic in my biological recording effort, and doing at least three incidental records a week. I know it’s not much but it gets you into the habit outside of survey spreadsheet submission. Highlight (or lowlight…) so far, two Pholcus phalangioides in the pub toilet

"waaaaaaaaah, oh wah wah waahhhhhhh" - Nigel Farage, 62

Running through some greenhouse gas data for my peat sites in South Wales. There’s a special kind of feeling that comes from running an entire R script with no errors returned. I’ve never done heroin but I imagine it’s a very similar sensation

swyddi.cyfoethnaturiol.cymru/VacancyInfor... There is a new role out for the Welsh National Peatland Action Programme (NPAP) for all you peaty people who are looking for a role in GIS/Remote Sensing/Modelling. Lots of very positive peatland action in Wales and a great time to get involved!

🤩 #AdferMawndirCymru yn cefnogi gyrfaoedd! Gwyndaf - newid gyrfa i hyfforddi ar fawndir, nawr i gynorthwyo prosiectau cyffrous @YGCymru. 🤩 #WalesPeatlandAction supporting careers! Gwyndaf - a career change, NPAP peatland training, now to assist on exciting @nationaltrust.org.uk Cymru projects.

Diolch - @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social - Thanks Cyflwyniadau agoriadol / Plenary sessions of #PeatlandsUnderPressure conference now available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHSA... Emma Hinchliffe Gweinidog LlC @llyrgruffydd.bsky.social WG Minister James Cooke Mannon Lewis @natreswales.bsky.social

#PeatConf26 | Putting Peat Centre Stage in Wales

YouTube video by IUCN UK Peatland Programme

youtube.com

Amser parti’r Llysnafeddog Cyfog Ci! Dog Vomit Slime Mould party time! 🎉 Ymgasgla’r organebau un gell i ffurfio clwstwr i fwydo ac atgenhedlu. Single-celled organisms gather in a blob for food and reproduction. See: youtu.be/B79Z56vl02A?... pic @bootlegbryos.bsky.social @natreswales.bsky.social

Gwych gweld Gweinidog Llywodraeth Cymru, @llyrgruffydd.bsky.social, yn ategu ei eiriau yn #PeatConf2026 efo ymrwymiad i wireddu nod y Rhaglen Adfer Mawndir genedlaethol. www.llyw.cymru/mwy-na-10-mi... @natreswales.bsky.social @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social yn y gynhadledd youtu.be/eQX1qzqt6PM

Mwy na £10 miliwn i adfer natur ledled Cymru, wrth i'r Gweinidog nodi blaenoriaethau amgylcheddol a gwledig | LLYW.CYMRU

Heddiw , mae'r Gweinidog dros Wydnwch Gwledig a Chynaliadwyedd, Llyr Gruffydd, wedi nodi ei flaenoriaethau ar gyfer gweithredu ar yr hinsawdd, natur a chymunedau gwledig ledled Cymru.

llyw.cymru

Senedd today – great to see Welsh Government Minister, @llyrgruffydd.bsky.social, follow up his address #PeatConf26, with commitment to deliver NPAP #WalesPeatlandAction. www.gov.wales/more-10m-res... @natreswales.bsky.social At the @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social conference 9/6 youtu.be/eQX1qzqt6PM

More than £10m to restore nature across Wales as Minister sets out environmental and rural priorities | GOV.WALES

The Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability, Llyr Gruffydd, has today set out his priorities for action on climate, nature and rural communities across Wales.

gov.wales

💧 Zen… Yfwr Gwlith – the (dew) Drinker Yfed gwlith mae’r lindysyn, a dyma’r gwyfyn – natur yn ffynnu ar leithder a llonyddwch y mawndir. 💧 The caterpillar drinks dew drops, and here’s the moth – nature staying cool on wet peatlands. diolch 📷 Becca 📷 thanks #Pumlumon @natreswales.bsky.social

Nice blog post from Tom Aspinall at @rspb.bsky.social for the @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social on how we can build landscapes that are resilient to fire www.iucn-uk-peatland programme.org/blog/tom-aspinall/building-fire-resilience-natures-way

Building fire resilience, nature's way | IUCN UK Peatland Programme

In this guest blog, RSPB Senior Policy Officer Tom Aspinall presents his views on the journey from fire risk to resilience for UK peatlands.

iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org

Big week for Indy the bog E-Collie-gist, he spent his first day on site on the blanket bogs of mid wales in his new role as survey and monitoring team assistant. Duties included clearing brash (through chewing), vegetation survey (by standing in the quadrat) and peat condition survey (eating dirt)

Cracking walk today at Pant y Sais fen led by Liam, Sparrow & Carys from @gloinatur.bsky.social , even managed to see the Fen Raft Spider in full nursery mode protecting its eggs. Hopefully the first of many peatland specialist inverts for me this summer!

Lovely night to be out surveying for nightjar around the wind farm peat sites in the Rhondda (before the rain comes in)

“Within the peatland the earth remembers, Layer upon layer of life and history.” Enthusiastic start to the #PeatlandsUnderPressure #PeatConf26, with words from Mannon Lewis @natreswales.bsky.social, following opening by Minister @llyrgruffydd.bsky.social, @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social, and Welsh Govt.

“Yn y mawndir mae’r ddaear yn cofio, haen ar haen o fywyd a hanes.” Dechrau brwdfrydig i’r gynhadledd #MawndirDanBwysau, gyda geiriau Mannon Lewis @natreswales.bsky.social yn dilyn geiriau agoriadol gan y Gweinidog @llyrgruffydd.bsky.social, @iucn-uk-peat.bsky.social, a Llywodraeth Cymru.

PSA for any of my peaty friends who are at the IUCN - bring me your Sphagnum and mosses and liverworts that you find on your field trips and I’ll ID them for you if needed and you can use our set up to take some photos under the microscope that I can send you. Bring on your peat and bog finds!

Adfer Natur CIC@adfernatur.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Prynhawn Da Pawb! If anyone is at the IUCN peatland conference Adfer Natur has a stand set up and we’d love to talk to you! We’re right next to the main IUCN desk. We have microscopes set up for the duration of the conference so if you have samples from field trips, bring them to us for a look & ID

On Thursday PM the whole Adfer team, Carys, Mike & Joey are leading a workshop on peatland community engagement with a fantastic range of speakers, we’d love to see you there!

On Thursday morning Joey is co-hosting the ECR workshop with Katy Ross of the BES Peatlands and Wetlands SIG