Our programme of winter talks & webinars is live! From evolutionary adaptations of plants to forensic botany' from Mistletoe to Water Sedge; from queer botany to urban botany. Talks every Wednesday evening from 28 Oct through to spring. Love plants? Book for our winter talks bsbi.org/take-part/ev...

Webinars and talks

The BSBI is for everyone who cares about the wild plants of Britain and Ireland.

bsbi.org

So pleased to finally catch up with Magpie Incap at Fyne Court @nationaltrust.org.uk Under canopy of beech. #fungi #Somerset

A v late entry to #wildflowerhour this week; Field Scabious, Knautia advensis from Long run Meadow, Taunton. Rather shocked to find it in flower 🌼 @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

So we have just received a small grant to develop an educational escape room, in partnership with Cardiff University, Swansea University, Public Health Wales and several secondary schools across South Wales. Watch this space!! 🦠🧫🔬🧩💷

Bugs Bunny Counting His Money

ALT: Bugs Bunny Counting His Money

static.klipy.com

In case you missed it, you can now stream the superb lecture by @lucyvandorp.bsky.social on Bentham and Beyond: Genomes, Collections and Collaboration where she explores the extraction of DNA from historical objects and people. Watch it now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwYt...

Bentham and Beyond: Genomes, Collections and Collaboration

YouTube video by UCL Lunch Hour Lectures

youtube.com

"EVERY SINGLE English water body is polluted with toxic chemicals" I knew things were bad, but this beggars belief @andyburnham.bsky.social you must take swift and immediate action to tackle this latest assault on English nature www.theguardian.com/environment/...

All bodies of water in England polluted with toxic chemicals, official data shows

Environment Agency assessments find just 14.3% of country’s surface waters in good ecological status

theguardian.com

1st outing of pen LED moth trap from #falconmothtraps here at Slapton ley. Modest 2hr trap produced nice mix of migrants amongst 19spp. Can anyone ID the grass moth please? @mothiduk.bsky.social #teammoth

For GOD'S SAKE. Massive landowners call for ban on disposable BBQs, but at the same time call for "a lifting of the ban on controlled burning" 'You oiks shouldn't burn moorland - that's OUR job' Entitled double standards. Ban both. @georgemonbiot.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Calls to ban disposable barbecues in England and Wales over wildfire risk

Lib Dems and many Labour MPs join farmers, landowners and firefighters in urging temporary prohibition

theguardian.com

BirdLife International has received a £7.5m grant from the Ecological Restoration Fund to support conservation along the African–Eurasian Flyway, one of the world’s most important migration routes. Read more: britishbirds.co.uk/.../article/... 📸Christian Gelpke

1/ Kemi Badenoch says she isn't a climate denier. Let's take her at her word. Here are five findings she wrote around this week as though they don't exist. 🧵

Channel 4 News also has this... “On this episode of The Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by environmentalist @georgemonbiot.bsky.social, @proflizbentley.bsky.social from the Royal Meteorological Society and Fiona Macklin, Head of Climate at Apolitical.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQat...

Europe is BURNING - why are politicians not acting?

YouTube video by Channel 4 News

youtube.com

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands

Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.

bbc.co.uk

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 4mo ago

“What will the Lovell Telescope discover/enable 20 yrs from now? I can’t tell you, and that’s the point. It will either be something extraordinary that none of us can yet predict, or we will defund it and leave Cheshire with a rusting monument to unfulfilled potential and discoveries never made.” 🔭🧪

I'm sure you'll have heard the sad news by now, of the passing of Britain's Most Famous Birder - the absolute Legend #BillOddie. For kids of my generation, watching Bill on TV was the reason that we became birders.

Quite sad about this - someone with so much talent and the author of surely the funniest ever book about birding, including this classic account of seawatch dialogue, surely recognisable to anyone www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio... Bill Oddie, naturalist and broadcaster, dies aged 85

Liopleurodon was a fearsome marine predator that lived during the Jurassic Period. 🌊 It was famously portrayed in the 1999 BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs as reaching lengths of up to 25 metres, but recent estimates suggest it was more likely around 6 metres long.

"We were never told that taking back control of our borders would involve controls at our borders."

Matthias Eberl@eberlmat.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A reminder that this is not European airport chaos, it's Brexit chaos. The Brexit that the Daily Mail told you to vote for.

BREAKING: the climate. "July is on course to be the driest on record in Wales for nearly 200 years." But please, let's expand oil drilling in the North Sea 🤪 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Drought declared in parts of Wales as July on course to be driest in nearly 200 years

Government agency confirms status in north Wales and Upper Severn after series of heatwaves and lack of rainfall

theguardian.com

Afternoon dog walk generally kept to the shade round #Longrunmeadow Taunton, but stumbled into Small-leaved Lime #tree with fruit held above leaves & tufts of orange hair in vein axils. Thankyou Jon Stokes & @princetonupress.bsky.social @thetreecouncil.bsky.social

The dog-owning birders' club For the birding dog-owner, the challenge of ensuring that a pet doesn't cause disturbance to wildlife is one that David Campbell has experienced in recent years:

David Campbell: the dog-owning birders' club

For the birding dog-owner, the challenge of ensuring that a pet doesn't cause disturbance to wildlife is one our that columnist has experienced in recent years.

f.mtr.cool

POND GHOSTS & ZOMBIES. A film on our #pond #restoration #Ghostponds work in @uclgeography.bsky.social by RAZOR Science featuring Norfolk Ponds Project, Helen Greaves, myself & many. Pond restoration achieves nature recovery so quickly: youtu.be/SYkbDdaUMBY?...

Bringing 'ghost' and 'zombie' ponds back from the dead

YouTube video by RAZOR Science Show

youtu.be

🦇 If you're looking for a fun activity to in summer evenings why not take part in our Sunset Survey? It's the perfect bat survey for beginners and you can do it from your garden, window or local park! More info: www.bats.org.uk/our-work/nat...

I have waited 40+ yrs for an encounter with this butterfly & it was so worth it. Brown Hairstreak in Taunton; a living jewel & what a boster? @savebutterflies.bsky.social @ukbutterflies.bsky.social @mariposanature.bsky.social @britishnatureguide.bsky.social #butterflies #Somerset

New Zealand, one of the global conservation superpowers, will vaccinate its endangered birds to protect them against deadly foreign disease www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

I Love Patrick's prose. A well balanced article & clear evidence rewilding can work for the benefit of nature, people & places. @theguardian.com

Jon Moses@jon-moses.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Intriguing piece from @patrickbarkham.bsky.social tracking the four year progress of a new Rewilding project in Lincolnshire. WeedGate, beaver enthusiasm, 1000 years of agricultural heritage vs 10,000 year of natural heritage. Common ground over nightingales. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ju...

Dog walk to Fyne court early am @nationaltrust.org.uk just outside Taunton. 10+spp of butterfly as we kept out of the sun. Purple Hairstreak & Ringlet notable, as was old 'Hairy knees' Holcus mollis, a grass I see less often than distribution suggests @bsbibotany.bsky.social

#Longrunmeadow has produced 20 butterfly spp in last 4weeks, but encounter with this Fritillary today was somthing special @savebutterflies.bsky.social #butterflies

Anyone know if this is Bhutan Pine, Pinus wallichiana. Needles v long & in GPS of 5, but cones are v impressive. @bsbibotany.bsky.social #conifers @thetreecouncil.bsky.social #trees

It’s impossible to take this government seriously over online harm whilst it remains on X.