iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Beetle people of the internet - Pseudovadonia livida? I pulled it from a spiders web so it’s a bit drained and doesn’t quite fit perfectly as that in my mind. Really gold in person so did cf Orsodacne but with body 9mm ended up back at longhorn. Any advice? #beetle #entomologyi

100

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Definitely a survey highlight for me for the past week, this lesser bladderwort in flower on Cors Goch Trawsfynydd that I saw with my @peatlandcymru.bsky.social NPAP hat on. Fantastic site & great to see the Life funded bunds holding well. I also managed to see (& not take a great photo of) a curlew

0102

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

A very rewarding day to be out not only delivering training for BSG Ecology on peat and habitat management, but to find water vole latrines on a forest to bog site that in November 2023 looked like this, a bare stump flipped landscape. An incredible change in only 2.5 years!

The first water vole record for Cregan HRA

082

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Bee people of Bluesky, who’s this? From my Swansea garden today. The tail looked so yellow in person I’ve confused myself on a possible ID. iRecord is telling me it’s a red tailed. What do we think? #bee #entomology

120

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Nice record of a female notch-horned cleg from a peat restoration site this week with wonderful banding over the eyes. If the bites weren’t so painful I’d like horseflies a lot more. Most people very sensibly swat them away rather than letting them get you so you can take photos for ID

031

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I’m trying to get much more systematic in my biological recording effort, and doing at least three incidental records a week. I know it’s not much but it gets you into the habit outside of survey spreadsheet submission. Highlight (or lowlight…) so far, two Pholcus phalangioides in the pub toilet

One of the Pholcus phalangioides resident in the men’s loo of the uplands tavern, Swansea. No YOU have a strange hobby.

010

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

swyddi.cyfoethnaturiol.cymru/VacancyInfor... There is a new role out for the Welsh National Peatland Action Programme (NPAP) for all you peaty people who are looking for a role in GIS/Remote Sensing/Modelling. Lots of very positive peatland action in Wales and a great time to get involved!

An aerial view of Cors Fochno, a raised bog in mid wales. The picture is advertising a job as specialist advisor for modelling and remote sensing

044

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Big week for Indy the bog E-Collie-gist, he spent his first day on site on the blanket bogs of mid wales in his new role as survey and monitoring team assistant. Duties included clearing brash (through chewing), vegetation survey (by standing in the quadrat) and peat condition survey (eating dirt)

A man with bad knees in a red jacket and a dog with no brain in a red jacket standing on a tree stump while their colleagues do real work

A collie chewing on a stick in a red harness (the collie, not the stick) on a bog in mid wales

A collie sitting on a rock on top of a mountain in mid wales

090

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Cracking walk today at Pant y Sais fen led by Liam, Sparrow & Carys from @gloinatur.bsky.social , even managed to see the Fen Raft Spider in full nursery mode protecting its eggs. Hopefully the first of many peatland specialist inverts for me this summer!

A fen raft spider protecting its egg sack. The spider is facing to the right of the photo

1114

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Well it’s taken a very long time, but Indy’s finally old enough and calm enough that he’s happy to fall asleep on my feet in the pub.

000

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Couple of eye catching finds out in Eryri today, Bryum alpinum and Mitrula paludosa (aka Bog Beacon which is a much cooler name than the Latin I think!). Stunning colour on the Bryum, really stands out on the boulders.

0250

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Sunny days in Swansea means being outside all the time and playing rugby for one happy border collie. Looks like rain again next week, so Indy’s going to have to suffer through being inside while I work on my greenhouse flux data

A border collie on grass with a rugby ball

021

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Unbelievable scenes on University Challenge as they put up a picture of Polytrichum and Amol tells them that the correct answer is that it’s a Sphagnum moss. Who’s got the phone number for Ofcom? The country needs to know the truth, and the bryology community needs a written apology!

Very clearly a Polytrichum moss on a television

Academics who couldn’t name even one genus of moss (really?come on…) and were told that what is clearly a photo of Polytrichum is actually Sphagnum. On a TV.

6201

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

A very enjoyable but very rainy day out on the bog today with our yearly MSc field trip to Castell Nos habitat restoration area. A really engaged group this year, which is fantastic to see, and it’s a highlight of my teaching for me to come back here every year and see how the peatland is doing

A group of people by a roadside on a blanket bog in the Rhondda, south Wales

191

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Saw some familiar friends (people & mosses) during my first week with @peatlandcymru.bsky.social as part of the NPAP survey team. Been a long time since I’ve been back to Cors Fochno and it was great to see the parts of the peatland I did my MSc on years ago still with Sphagnum austinii hummocks

A peat bund holding water on Cors Fochno

0214

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Alongside being a nature and moss nerd, I am also a comic book nerd. If anyone isn’t familiar with the 2000AD villain Bilious Barrage, please enjoy. He last appeared in the comics in 2016 in the final weeks run up to the brexit vote.

A racist, absurd cartoon character

Was the inspiration for this comic book villain

000

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Looking back on photos from instrumenting the bog this last week, it’s become clear to me that somewhere in the four days of lone working between installing dipwell 1 and dipwell 23, i did in fact lose my mind

Dipwell (actually stilling well) 1 in a ditch

161

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

First frogspawn in the bog of the year for me today. Along with the first real bit of sun I’ve felt for months at this point I think. Much more enjoyable dipwell installing weather than Monday

Sun shining over the Neath Valley, looking northeast from the summit(ish) of Cefn Morfudd

Swansea bay in the sun from the summit of Cefn Morfudd, near Tonna, Neath

090

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Some VERY healthy and happy looking Sitka that were planted on deep peat on a site I work on. I’m of course devastated about it. Check out the cracking on that excavated peat dollop. Hard to even think about the carbon balance for planting on 1m+ of peat when the trees don’t even survive 18 months

A dead or dying Sitka spruce on a mound of peat excavated for planting

A dead Sitka spruce on a mound of drying peat left from planting

A dead Sitka spruce on a mound of peat excavated for planting, next to the pit the peat was dug out from

171

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Absolutely shocking weather but still managed to get some logging dipwells and stilling wells into the bog today. Two sites down, three to go before the end of the week!

A forest to bog site in south wales, the trees are about 400m away, shrouded by heavy rain and fog. The site is covered in tree stumps

A logging stilling well in a ditch on a forest to bog restoration site

A logging stilling well in a ditch on a forest to bog site. The yellow thread lock is actually Rimmel London quick dry nail varnish which works better and is much cheaper than the commercial alternative. Don’t tell anyone, trade secret

151

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Feel very proud of Indy because today he went to school with my partner to meet the SEND kids in the STF to help them learn about pets and dogs and be comfortable around animals and he was very well behaved and did a great job. I expect the absolute mountain of treats he was bribed with helped

A border collie in a red harness on a beach looking at a ball in a ball launcher

010

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

I drive over this road all the time and always think there’s a nice experimental design in waiting here as a result of the road which was slapped through the dead centre of the bog. One side is heavily grazed and one isn’t. Probably one of the only places in the valleys with peat but no conifers.

1131

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Very emo Sphagnum on site today. Must have heard the rumours of a new my chemical romance album this year and (as I’ve been considering) dyed its hair black like it’s 2008 again. Caused by deposition of organic C and humic acids when peaty water evaporates as far as I know #MireChemicalRomance

5275

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Well, here I am, on the fringes of the peat person blob. I’m devastated and shocked beyond words that there is no moss and liverwort enthusiast megacluster. Small consolation that I’m not with the birders

A screenshot of the Bluesky map showing different clusters of users grouped into similar categories

260

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I don’t like to use social media to complain but feel compelled to share this photo of the worst cup of coffee I have had for some years, from an event I was at recently. Marked down for taste, smell and general overly oily nature. Well grim. Just look at the sheen on it!

A cup of ‘coffee’ which can only be described as cruel and unusual. I had fruit tea for the remainder of the day. The layer of oil on top of the actual coffee was quite something, it was thick enough that I could poke it and it would remain as one layer. Any more and Trump would probably try and claim my mug for national security purposes.

110

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Lowlight from this week - after it took weeks (or months?) to get installation permission for dipwells off the landowner, i walked the whole site to our pre planned, signed off location that hadn’t been ground truthed, found this grisly scene, at a localised patch of peat too shallow for the well

Two sheep skeletons in a patch of rushes on a bog

030

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Some more trial pits and dipwell installations, this time under unexploded ordnance supervision at the Cefn Morfudd Lost Peatlands site. Some great stratigraphy on show in some of them, nice to have some clear bands of soil to point to in the contract specs and PowerPoints down the line

A hole in a peat bog - a trial pit showing different layers of peat and plant material

A surveyor in a hi visibility jacket in a peat bog using a magnetometer to look for unexploded WW2 ordnance

A dipwell in a peat bog - a 42mm (outside diameter) pvc pipe with a filtering geosock and protective yellow netting. This is inserted into the peat and houses an automatic sensor which measures water level (derived from a water pressure value) every hour. The whole pipe is later anchored to the underlying strata below the peat

A hole in a bog - a trial pit and the material excavated in it showing the stratigraphy of the peat. The excavated material is returned to the trial pit and the end of the survey

080

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Unofficially repping @adfernatur.bsky.social at the @sewbrec.org.uk recorders forum today. Some great talks so far, including one all about plants so I’m happy! Looking forward to the coal spoil talks in the afternoon

A large screen and associated stand for a conference

041

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Trawling through old photos and found this of Scytodes thoracica, the spitting spider, from my old flat in Brynmill. In 2020 this was the western-most record in Wales on inaturalist, but someone found one two roads over last year. I’m further west now, I need to find another to get my pride back!

173

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

There’s a fantastic photo of a cap woven from Polytrichum commune in Melanie Giles’ Bog Bodies book. I find it really fun that this moss was used to weave a cap that looks like hair, and its common name is haircap moss, but that’s not the reason why it’s just a coincidence!

A photo of the Vindolanda cap taken from Bog Bodies by Melanie Giles made from polytrichum commune

2173

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Nice bit of Frullania dilatata that I spotted on a willow in a farm yard waiting for people during peat surveys. Left my hand lens at home and missed the Metzgeria furcata until I looked at the photos. At least I know where it is so I can go back to get some for microscope photos. Love liverworts!

Frullania dilitata (Dilated scale wort - awful name) and its ever present companion, Metzgeria furcata (forked veil wort - better name). Frullania is the brown/green one with overlapping leaves, Metzgeria the small translucent green thallose one that forks at the end with a thick midrib. Both liverworts and both infinitely more interesting than talking about managing shipping containers in a working farmyard, which was my colleagues choice of conversation

080

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Two Lost Peatlands site visits in two days, this one with worse weather. Nice to see the timber dams holding well and talk to colleagues who may be contract managing about approaches for ECoW and work specs for upcoming restoration sites for next winter. Downside, Indy left his ball on site.

Timber dams in a large peat channel at Castell Nos, Rhondda

141

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Interesting site visit yesterday as part of Lost Peatlands to try and figure out how we work on part of this site that has unexploded bomb risks, livestock, limited peat, and the drains I want to block are part of a scheduled ancient monument. Luckily we had a good outcome and discussion with Cadw

A view over a peatland site at Cefn Morfudd, South Wales

070

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

It always feels a bit sacrilegious to me to dig trial pits in the bog but needs must to check how deep in the peat the oxidation was at the upper Cwmparc peat site and if we can actually make the bunds we proposed. Several pits and von posts later, I think we can. Here’s the upper 20-30cm ish ⬇️

The upper layer of a Molinia dominated upland blanket bog showing some oxidation of the peat towards at the surface

061

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Managed to find some winter sun for site walkovers at our Cwmparc peat restoration site yesterday. Almost immediately after three of my colleagues left, when it had been raining and foggy all the time they were on site. Still nice to not be at a desk even in awful weather!

A view of a peat body in glacial moraine deposits at Cwmparc, Rhondda

A view of a fen type peat feature (left) at the base of a Cwm in Cwmparc, Rhondda. To the right coal spoil deposits from the local colliery abut the peat. The peat is a mix of tussock sedge and Molinia on very amorphous peat. If you can believe it, it’s not very nice to walk through

070

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Of course, presented without comment. I have acquired a new ink for my fountain pen

A jar of fountain pen ink with the name ‘Bloody Brexit’ made by diamine inks. Ironically the ink is incredibly smooth, predictable and pleasant to use. The company is British but the bottle is manufactured in Italy, if you can even imagine such a thing as a business needing to work across borders, or some kind of cooperation being a nice idea. Many people apparently couldn’t, but I’m not bitter at all. Not even a small amount. Fuckers.

3172

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

An incredibly proud moment seeing my Sphagnum moss stitch amongst the other fantastic displays from the moss worlds project at the Castlefield Viaduct visitors centre. Huge congrats to the moss worlds team on a fantastic project and great exhibition. If you’re around Manchester - go and see it!

A selection of embroidered ‘moss stitch’ artworks on a glass window overlooking a section of the Castlefield Viaduct

071

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

First field day in a while this week at probably my favourite peat site of the year at Cwmparc. We managed to find some incredible macrofossils preserved close to the boundary with the underlying clay and bedrock strata. Almost intact Sphagnum plants with entire stem and branch sections! Great fun

A view south of Graig Fawr, Cwmparc, Rhondda

041

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

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*

A crowd in front of empty chairs with a background from the Australian comedian Matt Stewart’s show, Bad Boy, before the show starts

010

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

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

A view of Castell Nos peatland restoration area, near Maerdy, Rhondda

260

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

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

Burrow at water level (centre) that curves up and out of the stream

130

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

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

Two surveyors in a greater tussock sedge filled fen feature at Cwmparc, Rhondda

Spot the water vole droppings (they’re next to the target)

1131

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

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.

A Skoda yeti having its front drivers side wheel replaced on a gravel track

020

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

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

1120

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

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

The web of a labyrinth spider in Juncus, the entrance to the funnel is central in the frame with a platform shaped web extending out from it

The funnel of the labyrinth spider web, the entrance is to the left of the frame and the funnel extends into the Juncus to the right

050

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

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

A white slime mould on Sphagnum fimbriatum and subnitens

030

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

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

050

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Two species added to the ongoing tally for upland peatland inverts in the Valleys for me. Red longhorn beetle and common carpet moth

Red longhorn beetle on Sitka spruce stump, south Wales

Common carpet moth on Molinia in a peatland site, south Wales

010

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

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

A collie looking at a peatland ecologist in a drain in a molinia dominated blanket bog in south wales

031

Joey Pickard @bootlegbryos.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

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

191