Pen Insole
birdsblooms.bsky.social
Pen Insole
@birdsblooms.bsky.social
350 followers 660 following 370 posts
Nature lover who dabbles in blogging about my discoveries. Always looking to learn more about the natural world and share my wonder at it. My blog is at: birdsbloomsandbumbles.com
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I love the way many crustose lichens trick the brain into losing a sense of perspective; they can appear simultaneously to be the tiny communities of fungi, algae and/or bacteria they really are as well as distant views of arid planet surfaces, dried up river systems and mud flats and all
#lichens
This male kingfisher brightened up an otherwise dull and overcast day on the saltmarsh last week at a regular wintering spot.
#birds
Reposted by Pen Insole
It’s hard to enjoy life when there is so much at stake for our wildlife 😫

Developers will soon legally destroy endangered species. Stop it before it becomes law. Email your MP today using this link action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/180301/...
Reposted by Pen Insole
Your regular reminder that by throwing away nature, we throw away *everything*.
Colours of the bog part 4:
Vibrant red and gold of alpine bearberry leaves and pale green tufts of fir clubmoss
#bogs
#bogplants
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Teach it all, the contradictions, scandals, adventures, violence, connections and complexity. And stop seeing it entirely through the prism of feeling.
On binary questions about Britain's colonial past, the median is Neither/Don't Know. (There are more constructive conversations than this which can unlock 75% common ground: teach it all, including the complexity and controversy)
Reposted by Pen Insole
The new Red List for Vascular Plants published this week by @bsbibotany.bsky.social highlights the serious decline in Britain’s freshwater plants.
Reposted by Pen Insole
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
Colours of the bog part 3: gold-tipped grasses in the morning sun and a curled up fox moth caterpillar

#bogs
The colours are just amazing, aren't they?!
Colours of the bog part 2: the wine-red buds of bog myrtle in autumn. This has to be one of my favourite plants, although its wonderful aroma is sadly not as strong at this time of year
#bogs
#bogplants
Colours of the bog part 1: the rhubarb and custard perfection of various Sphagnum mosses, offset by pale green strands of lichen
They may be on a much smaller scale scale than autumnal deciduous trees, but the colours are as stunning
#bogs
#bogcolours
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If I have to explain to you why this young fellow who dedicates his time to sharing the wonders of #astronomy to all-comers for free is exactly the type of person the U.S. needs more of, I honestly don't think anything I say in attempting to do so would make a difference.
In Mount Pleasant, a tight-knit D.C. neighborhood where immigrants are deeply embedded into the social fabric, the Trump administration’s targeting of migrants has shaken the community.

From @samdelgado.bsky.social, here's one poignant example of the impact this loss is leaving:
Mount Pleasant’s sidewalk astronomer might have to leave his home
But Gael Gomez wants people to keep looking up — at the sky and in life.
51st.news
My latest Bird of the Month post focuses on the kestrel, once the UK's commonest raptor, now displaced by the buzzard. Sadly, this lovely little falcon is no longer a familiar sight hovering over road verges and fields. Find out more over on my blog
#birds
birdsbloomsandbumbles.com/bird-of-the-...
Bird of the Month November 2025: Kestrel - Birds, Blooms and Bumbles
Bird of the Month November 2025: Kestrel, its appearance, disappearance from the countryside and family surprises
birdsbloomsandbumbles.com
Staying on South Uist last week we discovered our accommodation was on the daily commute route of at least two white-tailed eagles. Amazing to not even have to leave the house to see these flying barn doors!
#birds
#eagles
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Farage, who was paid £189,000 in January to promote gold bullion in his spare time, is currently wanging on about how out of touch the Labour frontbench is. Ok
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Pine martens are such gorgeous little animals, and as omnivores perform a great range of vital roles within the forest ecosystems that are their home, acting as predators, scavengers, seed dispersal agents, and more.

Their name in Irish is 'an cat crainn' – the tree cat.
Where the wild things are - a Pine Marten in a ravine on the west coast of Scotland.
#pinemarten
Well worth a listen:
"Sometimes a wild god comes to the table.
He is awkward and does not know the ways
Of porcelain, of fork and mustard and silver"
Tom Hirons
soundcloud.com/tomhirons/so...
Another set of fungi, these disintegrating much faster than the fly agarics I posted earlier. Shaggy inkcaps must be one our most ephemeral fungi, looking substantial and solid one day and a gloopy black mess the next. I love going back to see them over a few days.
#fungi
#inkcaps
It's been a good year in my neck of the woods (ahem) for fly agaric fungi. As well as the classic red and white fresh fruiting bodies, I also love the pale cream disintegrating older specimens
#fungi
This lovely otter lives just a few miles from where I live in Easter Ross and I was chuffed to see it last week at a spot I've seen lots of spraint at but never the animal in question before!
#otters
#mustelids
#mammals
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Under the current criminalisation of protest, even the famous campaigners that we celebrate in the UK would be at risk of arrest simply for peacefully protesting.

The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy; we cannot allow its restriction to go unchallenged.