Well a visit to the beach for some Sandwich Tern ring reading turned up the goods with seemingly Britain's fourth Verge Cricket! It was flushed off the shingle and after a quick jump on top of it before it buried itself, it was swiftly in a pot! Four Sandwich Tern rings were read also...

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Really? Is that it? If this is all that’s come from COBR, it’s pitifully inadequate. As crisis deepens, it beggars belief that there aren’t eg plans to increase resources for the fire service, support for farmers, max workplace temperature, funded community cool spaces & obvs ban on new fossil fuels

Andy Burnham warns of summer ban on disposable barbecues

Andy Burnham said he would consider if a restriction on purchasing the products during the summer months could be justified

independent.co.uk

A Verge Cricket heard at Lydd-on-sea for a few hours on Saturday night (and into early hours of Sunday) couldn't be relocated last night. Seemingly a second for Britain? The more regular orthoptera put on a good show over the weekend with Tree Cricket, Large Conehead, Sickle-bearing all seen.

Ever wondered why so many unmarked vans make parcel deliveries for them? I have still *never* ordered anything on Amazon. Don't think that's about to change.

Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani@mayor.nyc.gov · last wk.

If it looks like an Amazon delivery and drives like an Amazon delivery, then it's an Amazon delivery, right? Not according to Amazon. Big companies like Amazon have built a vast network of subcontractors who deliver their packages while shielding them from accountability.

Nice one! However it is unfortunately the third! We heard an individual at Lydd-on-Sea on Saturday night, but was waiting till we could see the cricket before we put news out.

For anyone and everyone with an interest in biodiversity in and around Kent - tinyurl.com/WildConf2026. We love our social media chums, but it's great to get together IRL. Book your place today!

There now follows a party election broadcast by the Count Binface Party, And if I do say so myself, it's a banger. #VoteBinface #Clacton

More tetrad bashing for common Orthoptera today, in an under-recorded area nr Aylesham which happily includes Goodnestone Park & Gardens with its excellent café. Pics of Field and Meadow Grasshoppers, Goodnestone Park, & a stark warning in Nonington churchyard! #KentNature #orthoptera

Nice trip to #HerneBay yesterday to see the Cartoon Festival exhibition at Beach Creative - some laugh-out-loud moments (& more pieces at the Bandstand, as in pic). Also lots of Prickly Saltwort & Sea-Holly on the beach inside the harbour arm. Plus ice cream, chips - seaside doesn't get much better.

Last autumn, we popped a Sallow cutting into compost. Yesterday, we stood the now rooted cutting on the edge of our garden pond. Today, two pairs of Willow Emerald Damselflies are egg-laying into it. They clearly don't hang about. #KentNature #Odonata

Tetrad-bashing for Orthoptera at @kentfieldclub.bsky.social's meeting last weekend, as it was in an under-recorded part of the county. So even finding common species was a great result - such as this Common Green Grasshopper and Lesser Marsh Grasshopper. #KentNature #orthoptera

Thar she glows!!!

A bit of bathroom wildlife - what appears to be the large Owl Midge (or Moth Fly) Clogmia albipunctata. Large for an Owl Midge, that is. And very smart too, under the microscope. #KentNature #Diptera

Three of the six Blue-winged Grasshoppers found at Reculver (North Kent coast) on 25th July.

++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...

Here's the full story of what we believe to be the start of the colonisation of yet another new orthopteran to the British Isles.

Team cricket - how we found a cricket new to the British Isles

This following italicised sections were written by Matt Phelps, who first heard this unusual cricket...  I strolled over to Sussex Wildlif...

analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com

Yesterday's @kentfieldclub.bsky.social meeting overlapped with a monad targeted for revisiting for Orthoptera by BRC: connect-apps.ceh.ac.uk/targeting_re.... And with a bit of effort, we were able to record a pretty good 8 species. #KentNature #orthoptera

Further to this, I visited the location today and saw min. 4 and probably 5 Blue-winged Grasshoppers, including individuals of both sexes. Gob-smacking, so thank you @quercus632511.bsky.social ! #KentNature #orthoptera

"Quercus"@quercus632511.bsky.social · 4w ago

Earlier at #Reculver we came across an odd looking , large very mottled #Grasshopper I grabbed two quick shots, my son then found another "Dad this grasshoppers got Blue wings" which we saw displayed twice .When I got home and checking my two earlier shots..Bingo ! Blue-winged Grasshopper. #insects

Earlier at #Reculver we came across an odd looking , large very mottled #Grasshopper I grabbed two quick shots, my son then found another "Dad this grasshoppers got Blue wings" which we saw displayed twice .When I got home and checking my two earlier shots..Bingo ! Blue-winged Grasshopper. #insects

I know of just 44 records for Lesser Earwig in Kent - fewer than for any other earwig species. That's where living in compost and dung heaps gets you. These, from compost on our allotment, make it 45. Female and male. #KentNature #dermaptera #earwigs

Very pleased to have @graemelyons.bsky.social as a speaker at the Kent Wildlife Conference this October, talking on "Pan-species listing – how to become a super-naturalist". Open to all: go to tinyurl.com/WildConf2026 for details & booking. #pansspecies #panspecieslisting #biologicalrecording

A different pseudoscorpion from a different compost heap (this time my own allotment) but also looks to be a Lamprochernes. Tried to get a shot of the fourth tarsus as close to side-on as I can, but can't decide whether or not it's central. Can @vannabartlett.bsky.social help?

#StillFlowering this week on the Downs at Wye in East Kent - Harebell and Common Rock-rose. #wildflowerhour

I'm new to the pseudoscorpion game, but I think this is Lamprochernes savignyi - no obvious eyes and a trichobothrium centrally placed on the 4th tarsus (& just visible in second photo). From a compost heap in Faversham today. #KentNature

No reason for this, except I like the way the photo turned out. Woodland Grasshopper Omocestus rufipes from Denge Woods yesterday. If you catch a grasshopper in a tube, but let it climb out onto your hand, it will often sit calmly for a photo (at least for a while!). #KentNature #orthoptera

Lesser Marsh Grasshopper Chorthippus albomarginatus, high up on the Wye Downs, Kent, today. The English name looking a little inappropriate ... #KentNature #orthoptera

Things that fall out of the laurel hedge when you're trimming it back: Southern Oak Bush-cricket Meconema meridionale. Male, and I think probably final instar nymph, as lacking adult eye colour & markings on the pronotum. #KentNature #orthoptera

The fully-winged form of Meadow Grasshopper Pseudochorthippus parallelus, seen today. Not something I come across very often. #KentNature #orthoptera

“Our study shows that resisting seeding and allowing nature to lead may be worth trying a lot more in wildflower meadow restoration. Natural plant recovery better safeguards genetic diversity than seeding and ensures that local species thrive, making meadows less generic."

George McGavin@georgemcgavin.bsky.social · last mo.

It's great to know how quickly nature can restore itself when we stop damaging it. It's high time we put nature first, for without it, we are nothing. www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/ju...