Carla Jack
@pocketwildingie.bsky.social
Wildlife & horticulture enthusiast in the Irish Midlands. Working on restoring Ireland's biodiversity pocket by pocket with whatever resources are at hand. Focusing on knowledge sharing and often distracted by handi-crafting. Spelling errors included free.
Pinned
On Friday, Brock Bergseth gave us a powerful talk, debunking some of the most common myths around changing (environmental) behaviour, and discussing how our inherent social wiring can be leveraged to create meaningful, scalable change.
Catch it on our YouTube channel now! @biology.ox.ac.uk
Catch it on our YouTube channel now! @biology.ox.ac.uk
Leveraging human behavioural science for conservation. Brock Bergseth
YouTube video by Oxford Biodiversity Network
youtu.be
If you are into any form of practical ecology then this talk brings a lot of important behavioural primers into place. #CommunityOrganising #ScienceCommunication
"Between 2017 and 2023, all additional wind energy generation in Ireland was absorbed by data centres. As data centre demand has expanded at the same rate as renewables generation, renewables are not delivering net reductions in fossil fuel use in power generation." #ResearchIreland #AIBubble
December 8, 2025 at 6:10 PM
"Between 2017 and 2023, all additional wind energy generation in Ireland was absorbed by data centres. As data centre demand has expanded at the same rate as renewables generation, renewables are not delivering net reductions in fossil fuel use in power generation." #ResearchIreland #AIBubble
Reposted by Carla Jack
How does global warming cause colder winter storms? whowhatwhy.org/2019/11/23/t...
The Paradox of Global Warming and Colder Winters - WhoWhatWhy
If the cold weather makes it harder for you to argue with climate change deniers about the existence of global warming, this story is for you.
whowhatwhy.org
December 5, 2025 at 5:47 PM
How does global warming cause colder winter storms? whowhatwhy.org/2019/11/23/t...
Reposted by Carla Jack
1. Some good news at last. This week’s column is about the amazing thing a couple of us stumbled into three years ago, which we’ve now developed into a global research programme. It doesn’t change everything, of course, but it could help change quite a lot. + 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Over a pint in Oxford, we may have stumbled upon the holy grail of agriculture | George Monbiot
I knew that a revolution in our understanding of soil could change the world. Then came a eureka moment – and the birth of the Earth Rover Program, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:55 AM
1. Some good news at last. This week’s column is about the amazing thing a couple of us stumbled into three years ago, which we’ve now developed into a global research programme. It doesn’t change everything, of course, but it could help change quite a lot. + 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Plants with the context of associated species? Yes please!
Hope you deliver to Ireland!
Hope you deliver to Ireland!
December 5, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Plants with the context of associated species? Yes please!
Hope you deliver to Ireland!
Hope you deliver to Ireland!
Reposted by Carla Jack
Winter is THE best time for spotting evergreen ferns, clubmosses etc. Don't stop botanising just because plants are no longer in flower. Unless there is snow-cover you can still collect useful records even in a place previously well-recorded by excellent botanists!!
Saw this patch of interrupted clubmoss from a track at Potarch, South Aberdeenshire, I've walked along many times before. I normally visit in summer, so will blame the leaves on the trees then for not having spotted it previously. An interesting setting, in birch woodland at just ca 95 m altitude.
December 2, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Winter is THE best time for spotting evergreen ferns, clubmosses etc. Don't stop botanising just because plants are no longer in flower. Unless there is snow-cover you can still collect useful records even in a place previously well-recorded by excellent botanists!!
Mobile Omelet chicken hutch ordered! They'll spend the summer clearing grass and thinning dock for the next year's new wildlife hedges before setting up shop next to the house for a chicken composting area.
5 big fat hens is something well worth looking forward to in 2026.
5 big fat hens is something well worth looking forward to in 2026.
December 3, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Mobile Omelet chicken hutch ordered! They'll spend the summer clearing grass and thinning dock for the next year's new wildlife hedges before setting up shop next to the house for a chicken composting area.
5 big fat hens is something well worth looking forward to in 2026.
5 big fat hens is something well worth looking forward to in 2026.
I thought this post was a once off witty caption until I dug deeper.
Each little critter posted by @mothfluencer.bsky.social lives a rich and vastly more interesting life than mine 😂
#TimelineCleanse
Each little critter posted by @mothfluencer.bsky.social lives a rich and vastly more interesting life than mine 😂
#TimelineCleanse
Elegant Grass-Veneer, at your service. I do hope I have dressed properly for the occasion? (Having moustaches back in fashion has been a plus with my fuzzy palps.) I am available for balls, garden parties and backyard festivities. Call my agent
#NonHumanNeighbours #Moths #Insects #Nature #Wildlife
#NonHumanNeighbours #Moths #Insects #Nature #Wildlife
December 1, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I thought this post was a once off witty caption until I dug deeper.
Each little critter posted by @mothfluencer.bsky.social lives a rich and vastly more interesting life than mine 😂
#TimelineCleanse
Each little critter posted by @mothfluencer.bsky.social lives a rich and vastly more interesting life than mine 😂
#TimelineCleanse
Great photos and fascinating info on this thread 🧵
Yet more end-of-summer #galls. These are 'robin's pincushions': galls on rose induced by cynipid #wasp Dipolepsis rosae. Tangly, spiky ball serves as edible home for wasp's larvae, which develop in separate chambers within, safe from predators and never lacking food. Ingenious! Mersea Island, Essex.
November 30, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Great photos and fascinating info on this thread 🧵
Air to air heat pumps, mechanical ventilation units and new boiler arrived today.
Installation starts next week and I feel like all the Christmases came early! Finally happening 😊
#HeatPump
Installation starts next week and I feel like all the Christmases came early! Finally happening 😊
#HeatPump
November 28, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Air to air heat pumps, mechanical ventilation units and new boiler arrived today.
Installation starts next week and I feel like all the Christmases came early! Finally happening 😊
#HeatPump
Installation starts next week and I feel like all the Christmases came early! Finally happening 😊
#HeatPump
Reposted by Carla Jack
To keep momentum going and to stop our botanical brains from seizing up over the winter, I shall be posting a series of vegetative ID posts through December and January.
The posts will start on Monday 1st December. I hope you will find them useful
The posts will start on Monday 1st December. I hope you will find them useful
November 27, 2025 at 5:31 PM
To keep momentum going and to stop our botanical brains from seizing up over the winter, I shall be posting a series of vegetative ID posts through December and January.
The posts will start on Monday 1st December. I hope you will find them useful
The posts will start on Monday 1st December. I hope you will find them useful
Reposted by Carla Jack
Did u know? We might not like cold winters,but small souls like overwintering caterpillars/insect eggs/pupae need cold, dry'ish weather to successfully complete their metamorphic lifecycle. Their great enemy is warm, wet weather that can lead to deadly fungal infections. White is wonderful. 🌱🌿🇬🇧🌱🌍🪲🐙🤍
November 27, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Did u know? We might not like cold winters,but small souls like overwintering caterpillars/insect eggs/pupae need cold, dry'ish weather to successfully complete their metamorphic lifecycle. Their great enemy is warm, wet weather that can lead to deadly fungal infections. White is wonderful. 🌱🌿🇬🇧🌱🌍🪲🐙🤍
Reposted by Carla Jack
“This time of chaos can also be an opportunity, a chance to emulate the older cultures that replaced them: those who planted trees in the ruins of empire, who remade the Commons on abandoned plantations, and quietly continued to tend their small forest garden as their ancestors had before them.”
The Lost Forest Gardens of Europe
The indigenous Mesolithic societies of Europe never disappeared: they adapted, and survived in new ways. Their cultures, values, spiritual beliefs, and relationships with the land are encoded in the f...
www.shelterwoodforestfarm.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:21 AM
“This time of chaos can also be an opportunity, a chance to emulate the older cultures that replaced them: those who planted trees in the ruins of empire, who remade the Commons on abandoned plantations, and quietly continued to tend their small forest garden as their ancestors had before them.”
"What counts as ‘waste’ comes to be decided by reference to wealth creation and preservation. This is what Locke was doing when he justified the European annexation of Indigenous territories on the grounds that they were not being used ‘productively’: the land was, in other words, being wasted."
‘Around a quarter of all clothing manufactured is never sold, and the rates of return within the refund window can be as high as 50 per cent. Most of this unwanted stock is buried or burned.’
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on why we can’t get rid of our waste.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on why we can’t get rid of our waste.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Brett Christophers · Assume the worst: Where our waste goes
Just as Big Oil has repeatedly failed to deliver on pledges to begin decarbonising, so too the promises of plastics...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 9:26 AM
"What counts as ‘waste’ comes to be decided by reference to wealth creation and preservation. This is what Locke was doing when he justified the European annexation of Indigenous territories on the grounds that they were not being used ‘productively’: the land was, in other words, being wasted."
Huge fan of cover crops protecting the skin of the land. Love to see a bit of height for invertebrate shelter and bird food! Not just beautiful.
🌻Not all things are about the bottom line, sometimes you do things for beauty or nature
🌻 sunflower in a cover crop, there are plenty of out cheaper cover crop seeds around but this was worth it!
#covercrops #sunflower #baseireland #farmingfornature
@base.ireland @farmingfornature
🌻 sunflower in a cover crop, there are plenty of out cheaper cover crop seeds around but this was worth it!
#covercrops #sunflower #baseireland #farmingfornature
@base.ireland @farmingfornature
November 22, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Huge fan of cover crops protecting the skin of the land. Love to see a bit of height for invertebrate shelter and bird food! Not just beautiful.
Reposted by Carla Jack
Importantly, birds that remained with the same partner tended to lay eggs earlier, which is strongly tied to how many chicks they rear 🐣.
See our news story: ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...
Read the full paper: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#seabirds #ClimateChange 🧪
See our news story: ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...
Read the full paper: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#seabirds #ClimateChange 🧪
Seabirds are more likely to ‘divorce’ in bad weather
Wild seabirds are more likely to split up in windy weather, according to a new study involving the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
ceh.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Importantly, birds that remained with the same partner tended to lay eggs earlier, which is strongly tied to how many chicks they rear 🐣.
See our news story: ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...
Read the full paper: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#seabirds #ClimateChange 🧪
See our news story: ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...
Read the full paper: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#seabirds #ClimateChange 🧪
Reposted by Carla Jack
Long, frass-packed leaf mine on Carpinus betulus, doesn’t readily key out via bladmineerders.nl - any guidance out there?
November 10, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Long, frass-packed leaf mine on Carpinus betulus, doesn’t readily key out via bladmineerders.nl - any guidance out there?
Reposted by Carla Jack
NEW: I wrote about British churches installing heat pumps, in some cases in 1,000-year-old buildings! Decarbonisation may not be easy, but many view it as an act of faith.
This is a special feature to mark The Reengineer’s first anniversary! Spread the word! 🥳
www.thereengineer.pro/p/let-there-...
This is a special feature to mark The Reengineer’s first anniversary! Spread the word! 🥳
www.thereengineer.pro/p/let-there-...
Let there be warmth! The British churches putting their faith in heat pumps
Ancient buildings and old bones aren’t getting in the way of decarbonisation
www.thereengineer.pro
November 13, 2025 at 12:06 PM
NEW: I wrote about British churches installing heat pumps, in some cases in 1,000-year-old buildings! Decarbonisation may not be easy, but many view it as an act of faith.
This is a special feature to mark The Reengineer’s first anniversary! Spread the word! 🥳
www.thereengineer.pro/p/let-there-...
This is a special feature to mark The Reengineer’s first anniversary! Spread the word! 🥳
www.thereengineer.pro/p/let-there-...
First learnt about these little predators in The Good Slug Guide by Jo Kirby last year. Amazing to see them in action. Great pics!
Devil's Coach Horse Ocypus olens feeding on a slug on the Life on the Edge @southdevonnl walk last night at Start Point, Devon.
November 11, 2025 at 6:18 PM
First learnt about these little predators in The Good Slug Guide by Jo Kirby last year. Amazing to see them in action. Great pics!
Pulmonaria is my favourite starter perennial if you are new to dividing plants. It's incredibly forgiving and an early source of nectar for bees (UK/Ireland).
November 10, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Pulmonaria is my favourite starter perennial if you are new to dividing plants. It's incredibly forgiving and an early source of nectar for bees (UK/Ireland).
Reposted by Carla Jack
Looking for unique archaeology, history and geology gifts?
Check our my Etsy page for handmade hyper-niche wares!
tephraarts.etsy.com
Check our my Etsy page for handmade hyper-niche wares!
tephraarts.etsy.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Looking for unique archaeology, history and geology gifts?
Check our my Etsy page for handmade hyper-niche wares!
tephraarts.etsy.com
Check our my Etsy page for handmade hyper-niche wares!
tephraarts.etsy.com
"All the scans, reconstructions, and 3D models will be made freely available in open repositories. That means anyone, from entomologists to curious hobbyists, could explore these ancient insects in digital space."
Fantastic!
#OpenResearch #Entomology
Fantastic!
#OpenResearch #Entomology
Imagine a drop of ancient resin. Inside is an insect, trapped for 53 million years, so well preserved it looks like it might twitch back into life. These amber fossils offer us a breath-taking glimpse into long vanished ecosystems.
But there’s a catch
But there’s a catch
November 8, 2025 at 10:07 AM
"All the scans, reconstructions, and 3D models will be made freely available in open repositories. That means anyone, from entomologists to curious hobbyists, could explore these ancient insects in digital space."
Fantastic!
#OpenResearch #Entomology
Fantastic!
#OpenResearch #Entomology
I think I finally understand what true blasphemy feels like.
My favourite wholesome follow - Ian Denton's Weedy pond cam - invaded by hounds chasing a fox. Feeling sick but happy the fox seems to have gotten away today.
My favourite wholesome follow - Ian Denton's Weedy pond cam - invaded by hounds chasing a fox. Feeling sick but happy the fox seems to have gotten away today.
Hounds update.
Here caught on camera - you can hear them in full cry, when they pick-up the trail of the fox.
I heard on the grapevine that the fox was chased to a busy main road a few miles away, where it escaped the hounds.
By 1.30 last night, a rather scared looking fox appeared in the thicket.
Here caught on camera - you can hear them in full cry, when they pick-up the trail of the fox.
I heard on the grapevine that the fox was chased to a busy main road a few miles away, where it escaped the hounds.
By 1.30 last night, a rather scared looking fox appeared in the thicket.
November 5, 2025 at 3:39 PM
I think I finally understand what true blasphemy feels like.
My favourite wholesome follow - Ian Denton's Weedy pond cam - invaded by hounds chasing a fox. Feeling sick but happy the fox seems to have gotten away today.
My favourite wholesome follow - Ian Denton's Weedy pond cam - invaded by hounds chasing a fox. Feeling sick but happy the fox seems to have gotten away today.
Conservation thread with interesting implications for protecting ground nesting birds in falling temperatures 🧵
Temperature drives inter-annual variation in badger Meles meles predation of lapwing Vanellus vanellus on Scottish hill-edge farmland.
Study funded by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Badgers search out eggs in cold weather when worms
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Study funded by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Badgers search out eggs in cold weather when worms
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Temperature drives inter‐annual variation in badger Meles meles predation of lapwing Vanellus vanellus on Scottish hill‐edge farmland
Wading birds have declined globally, with particularly pronounced declines in western Europe. Multiple species are now on the IUCN Red List, with northern lapwing Vanellus vanellus near-threatened an....
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 2, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Conservation thread with interesting implications for protecting ground nesting birds in falling temperatures 🧵
I made a dried flower wreath for a friend coping with loss.
I didn't know when I picked them that this would be their purpose but I'm glad my garden provided a way for me to express heartache for someone I care for.
#WildflowerArt #DriedFlowers
I didn't know when I picked them that this would be their purpose but I'm glad my garden provided a way for me to express heartache for someone I care for.
#WildflowerArt #DriedFlowers
November 2, 2025 at 9:58 AM
I made a dried flower wreath for a friend coping with loss.
I didn't know when I picked them that this would be their purpose but I'm glad my garden provided a way for me to express heartache for someone I care for.
#WildflowerArt #DriedFlowers
I didn't know when I picked them that this would be their purpose but I'm glad my garden provided a way for me to express heartache for someone I care for.
#WildflowerArt #DriedFlowers