It's my Book Birthday! Weird and Wonderful Nature is finally here 💚

Most books come out on a Thursday, especially in October... this one's published in the UK by the lovely people at DK. Other countries & languages to follow...

https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241632314-weird-and-wonderful-nature/

#books #childrensbooks #kidsbooks #booksforkids #wildlife #nature #environment

Huuuge night for our local toad patrol in perfect conditions - steady drizzle since mid-afternoon, v mild at 10C at 6.30pm when the phibs start moving.

Looks like 1000+ toads were helped over the road in c2 hours (we were just there for the first hour). Plus a few frogs & palmate newts.👌💚

#toads #wildlife #nature #conservation #volunteer #Somerset #Quantocks

Today I heard my first blackbird of 2023 singing its heart out and... WOW!

After 50 years on this planet I still think blackbirds have the best song of any European bird. So rich, so joyful, so full of meaning 😍

Listen for yourself at https://www.birdsong.academy/species-guide/blackbird

#nature #birds #birdsong #wildlife #wellbeing #joy

"These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines. Of sportive wood run wild." William Wordsworth

Hedges are one of the things Britain used to do well but so many are now trashed by frequent flailing. So it's wonderful to see them being laid properly, the old way... 💚

#nature #environment #farming #agriculture #Cumbria #LakeDistrict

Swathes of snowdrops, here in a Lake District wood, always lift the spirits. They look so at home - yet no one knows exactly when they reached Britain.

The first records seem to be from the 1700s, but as with many other iconic wildflowers such as snake's head fritillaries, their origins remain mysterious. I like that!

#snowdrops #florespondence
#plants #botany #nature #woodland #Cumbria #LakeDistrict

This ancient goat willow is half-tree, half-octopus!

It may have been broken by a Cumbrian storm, but is still very much alive - and supporting lots of other life too. One of my favourite trees 💚

#ThickTrunkTuesday #nature #woodland #environment #Mosstodon #Cumbria #LakeDistrict

Happy Valentine’s, with love from our veg patch

#Valentinesday2023 #valentines #ValentinesDay

I’m told this is the view at Jo’burg airport. 3 of my efforts in the bookshop 👌

OK, sorry. Brag over.

#WondersofNature #NaturesTreasures #SecretWorldofPlants

A warning to anyone who feels the need to tweet about woodcock, cocks of the rock, blackcock, shags, dickcissels, tits, boobies, goatsuckers or leaf tossers...

'Bird charity locked out of Twitter after woodcock tweets'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-64451977

Image: Liz Cutting/BTO
#birds #nature #Twitter

Beautiful pattern made by eroded ribs of an ammonite fossil - an ancient toothy smile from the Mesozoic.

Seen at Lilstock beach on the Somerset coast. Puzzled me at first, until a friend told me what this probably is.

#fossils #ancient #nature #beach #Somerset