Tim Holt-Wilson
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timholtwilson.bsky.social
Tim Holt-Wilson
@timholtwilson.bsky.social
580 followers 260 following 690 posts
The story of the Earth - geoconservation, museums, the poetry of things old & wild - based in East Anglia, UK.
https://futureheritage.wordpress.com/
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timholtwilson.bsky.social
Aye, and the North Sea was depositing Norwich Crag sediments at Covehithe (Suffolk, UK) at this time.
But no hominins there to watch the sunrise and meditate on the meaning of life and mastodons.

(Thanks @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social for pic.)
Sandy sediments in a low cliff above a beach with some trees behind. From base: a) pale yellow shallow- water marine sands; b) grey estuarine clays; c) yellow deeper water sands; d) unconformity above which lies a brown, sandy diamictic layer, probably of glacial origin. Image courtesy Dr Jo Parmenter.
November 26, 2025 at 6:21 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Summer's leftovers - old root galls of the tiny wasp Xestophanes potentillae on Creeping Cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans) to surprise us @norfolknats.bsky.social at Wymondham Abbey today - identified by Robert Maidstone and serenaded by the congregation (fervent hymn sounds muffled through walls).
Black nodular swellings on the roots of the Creeping Cinquefoil plant. The tiny wasp which made them is long gone.
November 23, 2025 at 9:58 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Spots and frost. Upper Oakley.
A leaf of Common Lungwort, Pulmonaria officinalis, with its spotted, bristly leaves stippled with frost.
November 22, 2025 at 9:46 AM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
New samples of shelly Norwich Crag sediment from the Waveney valley, Norfolk, UK, perhaps 1.5 m yrs old. A Crag site new to science and rich in fossils #barnacles #bivalves #forams #gastropods. Sadly samples were extracted from below quarry water level so field relationships uncertain. #Pleistocene
Shelly sediment of the Norwich Crag. A mixture of orangey-yellow sand and white and russet brown debris of fossil bivalve and gastropod shells, etc. Cockle shells are visible in the middle of the picture Close up (@ 10 times magnification) of a sieved sample (@ 1.4 mm) of white and brown debris of fossil bivalve, gastropod and barnacle shells. A sieved sample of barnacle debris from the Crag magnified 16 times. A sieved sample of tiny gastropod shells - perhaps Hydrobia ulvae - from the Crag, magnified 16 times. Perhaps suggesting that mud flats were not far away.
November 18, 2025 at 9:12 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
FRORE (adj)
Middle English froren, from Old English, past participle of frēosan to freeze.
A leaf of Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) showing its grey spotted, hairy leaves with the hairs attractively decorated with frost. Leaves of Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens) and grasses decorated with morning frost.
November 18, 2025 at 6:44 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Cranial punk Green beast headjog Datura ripens in the sun Spike rind and seed Waylays some unfortunate Witless consumer Stramonium poets Sing of apple and thorn The terrible caput Which peppers a field A pharmakon Of delirium or healing
November 18, 2025 at 12:58 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
《Our collagen data raise the possibility that the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) may be the closest living relative of Thylacoleo carnifex, the so-called ‘marsupial lion’.》
:-D
An AI generated image confection showing an enraged koaliform arboreal mammal with fangs and claws leaping from a gum tree with blazing eyes. Image courtesy https://medium.com/did-you-know-short-fun-facts/did-you-know-short-fun-facts-6b5e4ffb6b86
November 16, 2025 at 8:41 AM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Not so smartly dressed but a terrific galloper in mottled grey velvet.
Eratigena atrica, household denizen, midnight surprise.
An example of a giant house spider walking on a wall. It is about 4 inches from outspread toe-tip to toe-tip. The pedipalps can be seen, indicating that this is a male questing for a mate.
November 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Foul weather.
Turn your back on #StormClaudia.
Hunker down and shelter under your tail.
Nibble acorns.
A Grey Squirrel sheltering under its tail from the rain, sitting on the wet branch of an oak tree.
November 14, 2025 at 3:35 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Ant hills create patches of topographic and biological diversity in the Bungalow garden.
An ant hill in my garden. The grass is looking dried and withered. Ant hills tend to be better drained than their surroundings. Ant hill about 0.8 m wide and 0.4 m high. It has recently been strimmed to let light and warmth onto its surface. An ant hill in my garden, showing two different grass species on it. The longer is probably cock'sfoot grass.
November 13, 2025 at 8:46 AM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Can ecological surgery of ant mounds help to restore grassland habitats?
- www.gabrielleflinn.com/post/ecologi...
@ukceh.bsky.social @rspbscotland.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk Funded by John Lewis Partnership Foundation.
My own ant hill work chronicled: storvaxt.blogspot.com/2025/10/enco...
Four people standing around a trailer beside a road on Scottish moorland, with four ant mound blocks of earth to be transported to their new home
November 12, 2025 at 11:37 AM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Living on the chill frontier of autumn, a hoverfly Ectophasia sp. soaks up the falling year's offerings of daylight and nectar on Scentless Mayweed.
A springtail looks up at the gigantic aerial zoomer with whom it shares its lifeworld.
#Norfolk #diptera #biodiversity
An impressive hoverfly with black body and wings transparent apart from a brown base and a black bar on the outer side. It is resting on the yellow centre of a Scentless Mayweed flower surronded by a rosette of white petals.
November 10, 2025 at 9:05 AM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Don't look too closely what it's growing on, but this tiny, delicate fungus is creating an ethereal garden out of filth. Seen today at Feltwell, Norfolk. Can you put a name to it @ians4ad.bsky.social @britmycolsoc.org.uk?
A man photographing tiny fungi on a grassy verge. Tiny white fungal parasols growing on dog muck. Close-up of tiny white fungi growing on dog muck. They look like snowflakes. Close-up of a tiny fungal parasol growing on dog muck near a yellow fallen leaf. It looks like a snowflake.
November 8, 2025 at 10:11 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Excrescence on over-fertilised arable soil, Peziza [vesiculosa] swells and fructifies, brews spores, awaiting rain.
West Norfolk #fungi @norfolknats.bsky.social
A fleshy, velvety bag-shaped fungal cup showing weird mammilated structures in its interior. Close-up of weird mammilated structures in the interior of a fleshy velvety, bag-shaped fungal cup.
November 8, 2025 at 9:33 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Crawling across my carpet (rather than the florets of an umbellifer). Fine punctuated patterning on its elytra.
Thanks Dr Ross Piper @suffolk-nats1929.bsky.social for identifying the leaf beetle Chrysolina oricalcia (Chrysomelidae) 'nationally scarce' but expanding its range. @colsocbi.bsky.social
A small, pill-shaped leaf beetle about 7mm long with punctuated linear patterning on its elytra. It is black in colour and has its head tucked down defensively. The underside of the small leaf beetle Chrysolina oricalcia. It is black in colour and is waving its legs about trying to get the right way up.
November 7, 2025 at 1:56 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Glad someone else loves beach shingle plants too :-)
November 6, 2025 at 5:43 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
From a great height?
Eyes bigger than stomach?

Seen on the floor of a Norfolk chalk quarry, visual evidence that someone - bird or mammal - ate too many sloes. The result is a regurgitation too splendid to ignore.

#slowfood #fastfood #Prunus_spinosa #AutumnBounty
November 5, 2025 at 8:38 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
A Raven passed over the Bungalow garden last week, heading south.
Did it see me wave? I doubt much escapes their acute attention.
A close-up of a raven's eye and part of it's beak. 'The Raven's Eye' From the greeting card by Les Herman https://pixels.com/featured/ravens-eye-les-herman.html
November 1, 2025 at 7:18 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
My entry to this world was 'Living Lights. A popular account of phosphorescent animals & vegetables' by Charles Holder, London, 1887. When I was 10 my aged headmaster caught me at the top of a wooden ladder in the library reading this book. He gave it to me - probably his when a boy in the 1890s.
Luminous crustaceans. An engraving showing a large shrimp with long legs and antennae and a smaller translucent crustacean. Luminous fish. An engraving showing an eel-like deep sea fish with a fangy, snapping mouth. Luminous sea jelly and mollucs. Shows a bag-like phosporescent cnidarian, a small cuttlefish and what look like free-swimming pelagic bivalves.
October 30, 2025 at 1:12 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
I think this dandelion is too.
October 30, 2025 at 9:10 AM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
Good one!
I am not tidying away the last tardy floral tributes to Summer just yet, in case some insects need a final Autumn pit-stop.
Great Burdock plant showing a few last purple flowers. Hogweed plant showing an umbel of white flowers.
October 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
A Supreme Court judgment yesterday has upheld the Habitats Regulations – confirming that public authorities must assess potential harm to protected wildlife sites at all stages of the planning process. Read the statement: ow.ly/pCJZ50XgLVO #biodiversity #conservation
October 23, 2025 at 10:12 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
This one poss Hermaniella sp.?
Nine scaled photos of oribatid mite species with names. Photo by R. Elo.
October 23, 2025 at 4:33 PM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
A miniscule subfossil creature (0.2 mm) in my sediment sample from East Harling @norfolkponds.bsky.social. Must be a detritivorous oribatid mite - one of the little things that run the world. Who studies them @danhoare.bsky.social @vannabartlett.bsky.social?
An oribatid mite skeleton, dorsal view. It looks like a brown tick. A sand grain is next to it. An oribatid mite skeleton, ventral view. It looks like a brown tick. An oribatid mite skeleton, side view. Excavation of a backfilled natural pond, showing layers of sediment infill overlying chalk bedrock. A man stands next to a trench.
October 23, 2025 at 7:13 AM
timholtwilson.bsky.social
"It is tempting to lay much of the blame for this situation on LPAs for not taking enforcement action against non-compliant developments. ... Monitoring rarely happens, as most enforcement teams do not have the resources ... LA budgets have been subject to swingeing cuts over the last 15 years ..."
A graphic representation showing that a high percentage of habitat and species enhancements are missing from housing developments: woodland edge seed mixes 82% / woodland edge plug plantings 74% missing / trees on planting plans 39% missing or dead / native hedges 48% missing / wet grassland 60% missing or damaged / wildflower grasslands 59% sown incorrectly or damaged.
October 21, 2025 at 3:36 PM