Joey Pickard
@bootlegbryos.bsky.social
Your friendly neighbourhood peat and moss person
I mostly work on habitat restoration and upland research in south Wales for @havenecology.bsky.social Adfer Natur CIC, Swansea Uni & Lost Peatlands, views my own etc
I mostly work on habitat restoration and upland research in south Wales for @havenecology.bsky.social Adfer Natur CIC, Swansea Uni & Lost Peatlands, views my own etc
As I approach old age (30) it’s pretty rare I find myself out for late nights. Zero chance of missing Matt Stewart’s stand up show this week though, he made it all the way from Melbourne to Swansea! Great time, still laughing and a nice distraction from *gestures at the bin fire we call the UK*
September 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
As I approach old age (30) it’s pretty rare I find myself out for late nights. Zero chance of missing Matt Stewart’s stand up show this week though, he made it all the way from Melbourne to Swansea! Great time, still laughing and a nice distraction from *gestures at the bin fire we call the UK*
The only photo I managed to take today, if you look closely you can even see the rain! Despite the very changeable weather it was nice to be on Castell Nos peatland site again after a year to see how it’s doing. Also nice to be with other bog nerds from the @peatlandcymru.bsky.social NPAP team
September 11, 2025 at 7:52 PM
The only photo I managed to take today, if you look closely you can even see the rain! Despite the very changeable weather it was nice to be on Castell Nos peatland site again after a year to see how it’s doing. Also nice to be with other bog nerds from the @peatlandcymru.bsky.social NPAP team
For those who have never had the joys of wading through a stream or crawling through dense vegetation looking for water voles to inform your peat restoration constraints, here’s a close up of the target from the second photo showing the droppings, and also a burrow in the bank
September 2, 2025 at 6:26 PM
For those who have never had the joys of wading through a stream or crawling through dense vegetation looking for water voles to inform your peat restoration constraints, here’s a close up of the target from the second photo showing the droppings, and also a burrow in the bank
Very atmospheric (c.f. rainy) day out in the Rhondda doing water vole surveys for Lost Peatlands sites at Mynyndd Ton and then Cwmparc. Great to have @inccymru.bsky.social with us as well for the day. Been a while since I’ve been in the Cwm and it’s fantastic, despite the razor sharp tussock sedge
September 2, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Very atmospheric (c.f. rainy) day out in the Rhondda doing water vole surveys for Lost Peatlands sites at Mynyndd Ton and then Cwmparc. Great to have @inccymru.bsky.social with us as well for the day. Been a while since I’ve been in the Cwm and it’s fantastic, despite the razor sharp tussock sedge
Stunning place for a puncture! I know the Skoda Yeti has its fans and it’s served me pretty well on my peaty and ecology adventures but file this one under ‘how to ruin a car by giving it stupid sized wheels’. I miss my Land Rover every day.
August 22, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Stunning place for a puncture! I know the Skoda Yeti has its fans and it’s served me pretty well on my peaty and ecology adventures but file this one under ‘how to ruin a car by giving it stupid sized wheels’. I miss my Land Rover every day.
Increasingly jealous of there being not one but two giant artworks in peatland restoration sites in Ireland where they’ve made first a curlew, and now a lapwing from the bunds. Time to start a crowdfund to make one in the Rhondda of that one sheep who harasses you for ice cream on top of the Bwlch
August 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Increasingly jealous of there being not one but two giant artworks in peatland restoration sites in Ireland where they’ve made first a curlew, and now a lapwing from the bunds. Time to start a crowdfund to make one in the Rhondda of that one sheep who harasses you for ice cream on top of the Bwlch
Found more labyrinth spiders on a lowland peat survey today. Didn’t manage to get the best photo but it made its funnel web through a very loose stand of Juncus and you could see the whole funnel structure, fascinating to look at
August 1, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Found more labyrinth spiders on a lowland peat survey today. Didn’t manage to get the best photo but it made its funnel web through a very loose stand of Juncus and you could see the whole funnel structure, fascinating to look at
Where are the slime mould people on this app and can they please confirm if this is Didymium spongiosum (which is also mucilago crustacea reclassified?) growing on Sphagnum and Molinia in an upland peatland in the Valleys? Not one I’ve seen before in a bog and it’s thrown me
July 31, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Where are the slime mould people on this app and can they please confirm if this is Didymium spongiosum (which is also mucilago crustacea reclassified?) growing on Sphagnum and Molinia in an upland peatland in the Valleys? Not one I’ve seen before in a bog and it’s thrown me
The red longhorn is the first longhorn beetle I’ve seen in the Valleys uplands for a while - not that I’ve been actively looking for them - the last one was a two banded longhorn I found during afforested peat GHG surveys
July 26, 2025 at 4:13 PM
The red longhorn is the first longhorn beetle I’ve seen in the Valleys uplands for a while - not that I’ve been actively looking for them - the last one was a two banded longhorn I found during afforested peat GHG surveys
Two species added to the ongoing tally for upland peatland inverts in the Valleys for me. Red longhorn beetle and common carpet moth
July 26, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Two species added to the ongoing tally for upland peatland inverts in the Valleys for me. Red longhorn beetle and common carpet moth
It was Indy’s first field day back on peatland e-collie-gist duty after his foot injury. One very happy dog. He also spent some time supervising @mikeshewring.bsky.social to make sure Mike’s work was up to Indy’s high standards
July 21, 2025 at 3:04 PM
It was Indy’s first field day back on peatland e-collie-gist duty after his foot injury. One very happy dog. He also spent some time supervising @mikeshewring.bsky.social to make sure Mike’s work was up to Indy’s high standards
Jean Cors Van Damme
(Cors is Welsh for bog so this is in fact a very well thought out and excellent joke, trust me)
Thanks to @mikeshewring.bsky.social for the photo of this very normal approach to surveying peat drains
(Cors is Welsh for bog so this is in fact a very well thought out and excellent joke, trust me)
Thanks to @mikeshewring.bsky.social for the photo of this very normal approach to surveying peat drains
July 16, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Jean Cors Van Damme
(Cors is Welsh for bog so this is in fact a very well thought out and excellent joke, trust me)
Thanks to @mikeshewring.bsky.social for the photo of this very normal approach to surveying peat drains
(Cors is Welsh for bog so this is in fact a very well thought out and excellent joke, trust me)
Thanks to @mikeshewring.bsky.social for the photo of this very normal approach to surveying peat drains
And some depth surveys post fire for a site at Cefn Rhondda. Not much deep peat where the trees established and then got crisped. Then much deeper in the open section which seemingly burned less and had massive hummocks of Sphagnum, but not much other mire veg, seems common for forested peat here
July 14, 2025 at 7:07 PM
And some depth surveys post fire for a site at Cefn Rhondda. Not much deep peat where the trees established and then got crisped. Then much deeper in the open section which seemingly burned less and had massive hummocks of Sphagnum, but not much other mire veg, seems common for forested peat here
Interesting couple of sites for the new #LostPeatlands project surveyed today. Massive drains through this remnant peat feature near Cwmaman, there’s a 1m peat probe in the drain if you can spot it.
July 14, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Interesting couple of sites for the new #LostPeatlands project surveyed today. Massive drains through this remnant peat feature near Cwmaman, there’s a 1m peat probe in the drain if you can spot it.
Two fungi spotted on peat depth surveys today. I know what the slime mould is, mainly because the name dog vomit slime mould is impossible to forget. As for the gilled one, not sure, my best guess is Lichenomphalia umbellifera. Happy to be corrected by someone better at mycology than me!
July 14, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Two fungi spotted on peat depth surveys today. I know what the slime mould is, mainly because the name dog vomit slime mould is impossible to forget. As for the gilled one, not sure, my best guess is Lichenomphalia umbellifera. Happy to be corrected by someone better at mycology than me!
And some post fire peat checks on a site at Cefn Rhondda, not much peat where the trees were established and subsequently crisped but massive remnant hummocks - among very few other mire veg species - in the peaty areas of the site, which seems common for forest to bog sites around here.
July 14, 2025 at 6:51 PM
And some post fire peat checks on a site at Cefn Rhondda, not much peat where the trees were established and subsequently crisped but massive remnant hummocks - among very few other mire veg species - in the peaty areas of the site, which seems common for forest to bog sites around here.
Awesome video! One of my favourite views from the top of the Bwlch over Cwmparc, always stunning. I dug around in the glam archives a year or so ago to try and find the original documents for the construction of that road and on Beili Glas because they went through the peat on top of the mountain
July 11, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Awesome video! One of my favourite views from the top of the Bwlch over Cwmparc, always stunning. I dug around in the glam archives a year or so ago to try and find the original documents for the construction of that road and on Beili Glas because they went through the peat on top of the mountain
After a foot injury and not being allowed walks while it healed, Indy is happy to announce his new shoes have arrived
July 8, 2025 at 7:39 PM
After a foot injury and not being allowed walks while it healed, Indy is happy to announce his new shoes have arrived
Here we see the peatland e-collie-gist at work identifying Sphagnum under the microscope. Indy’s usual technique is to eat it, so this all form part of his CPD
July 5, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Here we see the peatland e-collie-gist at work identifying Sphagnum under the microscope. Indy’s usual technique is to eat it, so this all form part of his CPD
First record of Drosera rotundifolia from the Lost Peatlands surveys at Cwmparc today which was great to see, especially after around 70-80 quadrats with no Sphagnum and very limited mire species on deep peat!
June 30, 2025 at 5:57 PM
First record of Drosera rotundifolia from the Lost Peatlands surveys at Cwmparc today which was great to see, especially after around 70-80 quadrats with no Sphagnum and very limited mire species on deep peat!
Took a year longer that it was supposed to due to my pancreas deciding to stop working properly, but I got my associate fellowship of the HEA. Thanks to all the students who came to the labs, lectures and various peat teaching field trips and Dr Neyland and Prof Froyd for the support throughout
June 29, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Took a year longer that it was supposed to due to my pancreas deciding to stop working properly, but I got my associate fellowship of the HEA. Thanks to all the students who came to the labs, lectures and various peat teaching field trips and Dr Neyland and Prof Froyd for the support throughout
Stunning scenes at the home office as the realisation that I’ve ordered too many custom stickers briefly turns this from a PhD writing day to a ‘what can I label?’ day. Including but not limited to hard hats, auger, multiple toolboxes, peli cases, SD cases, bat detector, an iPad and one Skoda Yeti
June 26, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Stunning scenes at the home office as the realisation that I’ve ordered too many custom stickers briefly turns this from a PhD writing day to a ‘what can I label?’ day. Including but not limited to hard hats, auger, multiple toolboxes, peli cases, SD cases, bat detector, an iPad and one Skoda Yeti
Not as much of a heatwave this week but I did stumble on this Agelena labyrinthica (labyrinth spider) on my peatland survey travels at Cwmparc. Seemed to be the only one around, and at 530m that’s the highest elevation I’ve ever found one at, so that’s interesting.
June 24, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Not as much of a heatwave this week but I did stumble on this Agelena labyrinthica (labyrinth spider) on my peatland survey travels at Cwmparc. Seemed to be the only one around, and at 530m that’s the highest elevation I’ve ever found one at, so that’s interesting.
Fabulous views, as always, from Cwmparc looking over the basin where there is - wait for it - more peat. Great site to come up with a plan to manage a whole upland to lowland transition with peat at every step. Highlight of the day, sea campion on the cliff, unusual for a peat survey in the Valleys
June 17, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Fabulous views, as always, from Cwmparc looking over the basin where there is - wait for it - more peat. Great site to come up with a plan to manage a whole upland to lowland transition with peat at every step. Highlight of the day, sea campion on the cliff, unusual for a peat survey in the Valleys
The next in the ongoing series of ‘bugs that I have seen’ are two of the beefly species we have in the UK. Easy to edit the layers for the wings and fuzz in the Procreate app so I thought I may as well do both. I love beeflies, fascinating life cycle. Divinely uninspired naming convention.
June 15, 2025 at 6:18 PM
The next in the ongoing series of ‘bugs that I have seen’ are two of the beefly species we have in the UK. Easy to edit the layers for the wings and fuzz in the Procreate app so I thought I may as well do both. I love beeflies, fascinating life cycle. Divinely uninspired naming convention.