A poem of mine for today ~ Lammas ~

The Dragon Maiden（龍女）moves through Chinese mythology as guardian, guide, and daughter of the Dragon King. Her flock is no earthly herd. The “sheep” she tends are water spirits, shimmering beneath her father’s oceanic dominion, carrying the mystery of rivers, rain, and 1/2

Exciting times - a big chunk of funding committed to restoring ancient woodland smothered by plantations. Power to the people dressed as slugs! Huge congrats to the Wild Card team and everyone who wrote to politicians, chipped in, or indeed impersonated a mollusc. Go, Go, Go! 💪💚 #GoodGreenNews

Wild Card@wildcard.land · last wk.

Our #RewildTheGhostWoods campaign has secured £5.9 million funding for ancient woodland restoration! 🌳🙌 But we're not going to sit back and say 'job done'! We'll be holding Andy Burnham's new government to account. Support our work: wildcard.land/support/sign... #AncientWoodlands #CampaignWin

Super thread here of Ben's family travels around Europe by train. Looks like a far more interesting and pleasant option than the plane!

Ben@benjyhere.bsky.social · 2w ago

We're coming to the end of our #TrainsNotPlanes journey around Austria, Hungary and the former Yugoslavia so here are a few highlights and thoughts for anyone thinking of doing the same... @seatsixtyone.bsky.social 🧵 1/

If you think photographing birds in flight is difficult, you want to try moths!😅 This is a wonderful Hummingbird Hawkmoth, photographed yesterday from my bedroom window, just as it banked around to change direction!😀😍 Just look at that proboscis 🦋 (The moth looks a bit like a fish doesn't it!)😁

止まる枝を間違ってカモフラージュを失敗したシャクトリムシ。長野県小諸市鴇久保 #虫 Inchworm that messed up its camouflage by settling on a green plant stalk. Tokikubo, Komoro, Nagano #Invertebrate #Insects

I found a little T-Rex and made her a sweater 🤷🏻

🦇 #BatsInArt #PreciousBatsn #ArtNouveau #French #MullerLuneville Muller Frères VASE WITH A BAT, ca. 1910 Cameo glass

Beautiful owls from @lynda-art-write.bsky.social ! 😍

Lynda-Art-Write@lynda-art-write.bsky.social · 4w ago

Owl Power I found a small label with an interesting shape I wanted to use it somehow and these owls were the result Original owls came from photos on the internet as I don’t know any owls personally #Birds #Owl #Nature #Draw

Feast your eyes, my dear people. 😍💙🩷 #birds🦉 Thanks for this absolute treat, @iand777.bsky.social

Ian Denton@iand777.bsky.social · 3w ago

1/2 Nightjars - lovely on the Arne Peninsula yesterday evening. The birds were late appearing & there was a strong breeze at the location where we watching them. The Nightjars were hunting low to the ground, making photography difficult. They did fly very close to us however which was wonderful.

If you're in Britain, even if not a church-goer, you can call on the Church to do the right thing. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity for the General Synod to make concrete positive change - to give land back to nature, helping species survive into the future. One more day to add your message!

Synod Vote for Nature!

Join us in making history! The Church of England’s General Synod members have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to support a motion calling for the Church Commissioners to protect 30% of their land...

actionnetwork.org

Wild Card@wildcard.land · 4w ago

This Tuesday the @archbishopofcanterbury.org and the members of the @churchofengland.org’s internal parliament, The General Synod, have a massive choice to make that will affect all of us. Will they restore 30% of their land to nature by 2030? #SynodVoteForNature @chrisgpackham.bsky.social

Stow the seed packets, and let the seedbank give dividends: hugely encouraging piece here from Prof Carl Sayer, on a meadow's self-seeded journey to recovery. 'Our study shows what can be achieved by a traditional hay cutting approach combined with nature’s brilliant spontaneity.' #GoodGreenNews

George McGavin@georgemcgavin.bsky.social · 4w ago

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...

Ah, what nostalgia! I love this story, it was one of the first I just kept putting it there because I believed in it so much. And @kaleidotrope.bsky.social did, too.

Kaleidotrope@kaleidotrope.bsky.social · 4w ago

"They will not let us dig." "The History Eaters" by @marofthebooks.bsky.social

Not to mention how dangerous it is for drivers to be mindlessly obeying machine instructions rather than observing the road conditions. Finding your way around (esp on foot) or even getting lost, is a full sensory experience that builds up hafting to one's own turf, a sense of belonging.

Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 4w ago

I had replied to the below: Paper maps are great. Never run out of juice, let you see the close-up detail and the big picture at the same time (because they're three feet wide, unlike your phone), and the more you use them the more you learn your way around without them, unlike obeying a machine.

I am now going to be referring to all maps as mapemoundes because why would one not. Map from Latin mappa, napkin or cloth, because that's what they were drawn on in Roman times, and 'Detailed representation of anything' use from 17th Century, apparently. Gods I love Etymonline.

Search 'map' on etymonline

Search results for 'map' on etymonline

etymonline.com

David Stott@davstott.bsky.social · 4w ago

Nerdsniped by this at bedtime. Does a map have to be spatial, or can it be purely topological / relational? How am I going to able to fall asleep now?

Reconnecting landscapes and joining up RSPB reserve land for the first time in 60 years - new opportunities for Celtic Rainforest species, wildflower-rich meadows, tempting in Hen Harriers to breed, and working with local farmers on sustainable and regenerative farming. Very #GoodGreenNews here!

Mark Avery@markavery.bsky.social · 4w ago

RSPB acquires land in mid-Wales to help Atlantic oakwood species like Pied Flycatcher (pictured) and Wood Warbler and to protect blanket bogs. bit.ly/44hDARp

🇨🇦🦀 CANADA DAY CRAB THREAD 🦀🇨🇦 Canada encompasses 3 of the world's oceans, so let's meet crabs from each one. In the Arctic, the spiky king crab friend Neolithodes grimaldii is found offshore (300-5000m depth). Same genus, different species, as the famous baby 1/7 🦑🧪

I am now going outside to loiter around my pea plants because I thought I saw a butterfly that shoudn't be here. Coming over here, looking stunning, eating my pea plants *plants more pea plants for them* 🫛 #bringonthevagrants 🦋

Did I just see a Long-Tailed Blue butterfly? No photo, but I had binos on it, and have seen them before in Sark. Those pale bars across the buff underside were very clear - what else would look like that? Has there been an eruption into Kent this year? Peas and sweet peas growing within feet.

Evening magic here from Nicola Chester - enjoy. 💚

Nicola Chester@nicolawriting.bsky.social · last mo.

Last nights meander with my daughter, watching barn owls hunting under the moon. ‘Squeaked’ one in across the length of the field on its way back to the barn. It landed briefly on a fence post right in front of us. Magical. Like a dream every time. If this is my super-power, I’m happy with it. 1/3

Well, this is the best idea I've heard about in ages! Bat kits available to borrow at public libraries. Well done Alberta Community Bat Program and Alberta libraries! This is a lovely idea to pin to a wishlist, @batconservation.bsky.social? #GoodGreenNews #conservation 🌎 🦇

Alberta Community Bat Program/Western Bat Program 🦇@albertabats.bsky.social · last mo.

🦇 #HappyBaturday! Bat Kits are now available for library loan! Borrow a kit to listen for bats, learn about these amazing mammals, and share your observations in the guest book. We'd love your feedback! Find participating libraries: www.albertabats.ca/batkits/

This family has a history of destroying priceless natural places. Anyone who protested the destructive golfcourse in #Scotland should be wading in for #Albania. Likewise anyone who loves flamingos, pelicans, seals, turtles, and the rights of people and nature over corrupt money. #flamingorevolution

Julian Hoffman@julianhoffman.bsky.social · last mo.

Some thoughts on the unique and irreplaceable Vjosa-Narta ecosystem at the heart of the #flamingorevolution in Albania right now. Petition against the destruction of the Vjosa-Narta here: c.org/R76Q28MSZY

Wren mum to wren dad: Honey, the kids are getting so big...? Wood warbler: hides behind nest with juicy tidbits...

John Walters@johnwalterswildife.bsky.social · last mo.

A very unusual nest! A pair of Wood Warblers Phylloscopus sibilatrix feeding young Wrens Troglodytes troglodytes. I presume the warblers' nest was predated and they found this similar looking nest nearby and began to feed the young even though the adult Wrens were too! Dartmoor, Devon this morning.

Brace yourself for cuteness. One wildlife photographer's video prompts a research project, prompts outreach to local Tuareg people and hunters, prompts discovery that sand cats are present in Libya, and that their territory needs protection and more understanding. 🌍 #ecology #cats

‘No one believed it’: how a YouTube video accidentally proved Libya’s sand cat really does exist

Wildlife photographer Mohammed Almuntasir had no idea what he had found until scientists started to get in touch

theguardian.com

From the very dark days of the early 80s, when it really did seem the seas of the future would be songless, we have reached a far better trajectory. It's not plain swimming yet - other species still need better protections. But this is wonderful news. #conservation 🌏🐳🐋

Dr Kat Day (she/her) 🌖@chronicleflask.katday.com · last mo.

“Admiral, there be whales here!” www.abc.net.au/news/science...

First the drumroll, then machine-gun hail as the storm swaggered in, teasing with ice after the offer of rain; Then the hot shudder, the sky tearing open, a long ripcurl horizon to horizon and the downpour cresting in waves of shingle-seethe on sleep's cusp. The scent, this morning, ebbed, marine.

A TWINkle of miniscule beauty in the forests of Scotland in this magical piece by Amanda Thomson here. There's a flower added to my list of things I'd like to see. 🌾

Country diary: Somewhere in the vast forest is a miniature one | Amanda Thomson

Abernethy forest, Cairngorms: One of my favourite species, the tiny twinflower, does better in Scots pinewoods than most places in the UK. Now I just have to find some

theguardian.com

Anyone else getting vibes of Octavian's return to Rome after the Battle of Actium, today? Never was more fuss made about a bloke catching a train. #classics #pluscachange #AncientBluesky #news #Egyptology

So many ripe loganberries, gingerly pouched in a scoop of my shirt like an ad-hoc wallaby, stashed to add to last years', liqueur-soused, for jam. More to come, while blackbirds are distracted with the wild cherries, but it's a narrow thing, a trial peck already gouged, exit-wounds dripping, tangy.

Today is full of magics. You don’t need to read about others experiences, you don’t need to capture your own to share. Today, just bathe in it all. Harvest your own omens, revel in whatever blessings the day offers. Refuse to be part of the mediated spectacle. Find your own primal wonder. #Solstice