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Ben

@deedbn.eurosky.social
64 followers 57 following 119 posts

Oh so easily distracted human. Love nature for it's unending interests and complexity. I also dabble in IT, games, genealogy, spirituality and a whole host of other stuff.. Work in progress.. Sensible here: www.linkedin.com/in/deedbn

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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 16/10/2026
Recently stayed near Haydock. Never actually been into St Helens and enjoyed. The Sefton was welcoming and would def go again. Pennington Flash was a surprising range of habitats, also well worth the visit (get away from the carpark/playground asap).
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 16/10/2026
It's been a bit of a special battering of a month or so, especially this week. Trapped at home at the moment and have missed a flurry of exciting training and have cancelled surveys so best i can do is the park at home, Grey-gilled Blackening H. cinerifolia and (maybe, probably?) Apricot club.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026
The open source LiDAR dataset is such a great dataset and i feel so underutilised! Randomly scrolling when i found the two features on the right; oval and a square shaped enclosures. Neither on Historic England's Gateway, unknown? Also found the circular feature only to see its already up there.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 20/09/2026
Like old friends arriving it was exciting to see my first two waxcap fungi pop up in the front lawn this weekend. First up this year was Oily and Slimy! Oily has come up in almost the exact spot I saw Pink about 5 years ago and brings the total to 9 waxcaps.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 30/08/2026
Spinney stones and playing around on that there Jurassic Coast looking for some fossils. @ West Bay, Dorset.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026
Amazing book shop, The Sanctuary in Lyme Regis. Nabbed myself a copy of The Natural History of Selborne.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026
Sizeable False Widow fell out of a pub chair in Lyme Regis! Bit of a surprise! Beautiful wee beastie.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026
Dee found a big cannon! Start of the family holidays already a week ago!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 13/08/2026
Survey companions from last Friday. These curious cows cocked up my field survey for about an hour following me around the field! 😂 (Young and a little jumpy it would have been foolish to get on the ground and start trying to pick out plants with them around me). 🐮
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 13/08/2026
Dusk without a sunset. Gentle light of yesterday's partial eclipse over Bolton.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 13/08/2026
It's Spider season! Going into the end of Summer and Autumn is arguably the best time to spot spiders. Having fattened up over the year their adult forms are now much easier to find sat waiting on their webs. 📷 Four-spot Spider, Araneus quadratus
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 13/08/2026
Wandering up on to the edge of the moors and found a great display of butterflies on Creeping Thistle. Some 30-40 Painted Lady butterflies, possibly gearing up for the southward migration to Africa. Also in the mix, good numbers of Red Admiral, Green-veined Whites as well as Small Heath. #Nature
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 08/08/2026
Site from last week, listed under Bog guidelines supporting a rich mix of mire and grassland plant communities. Unfortunately the bog itself was very dry with exposed peat and collapsing in places. Possibly as a result of changes to hydrology caused by a conifer plantation on the adjacent land.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 08/08/2026
Grateful to be given permission to survey a really interesting piece of pasture on the moorland fringe yesterday. Not a listed site but very much looks to have potential as a new Biological Heritage Site.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 07/08/2026
One of these days I'm going to spend some time trying to ID these fascinating species. In the meantime I'm just going to keep sharing how awesome they look!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 03/08/2026
Beautiful people, amazing music and stunning skylines at Wickham again this year.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 30/05/2026
Ingleborough National Nature Reserve is such a special place! I have been to a number of local wildlife sites in Lancashire which have had Globeflower, though often I've failed to find it and never to the extent of the population present at Ingleborough!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 21/05/2026
Count the orchids! Within the site there were several spikes of Early Purple Orchid, then while heading back to the car I happened to check a slope next to the road where I found over 30 spikes scattered in a small area of otherwise scruffy looking young woodland!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 21/05/2026
Not far from the Herb-paris I stumbled across several locations for Toothwort, a parasitic species that coexists with Hazel here, another species I've rarely encountered. Interestingly all the flower spikes were associated with Mole activity...
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 21/05/2026
Fortunate to today visit a Biological Heritage Site with several good patches of Herb-paris scattered around the woodland, caught at just the right time of year. The site had little description so I was unsure what to expect l, this made a nice surprise!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 30/04/2026
Not what I wanted to see on the first local site survey of 2026 earlier this month... This small clough is plantain on ancient woodland and asnw remnants but it appears over the last year or so to have been subject to felling..
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 29/04/2026
The last few days have been a fascinating mix of people wanting to make the world a better place for people and nature through science and innovation. I often worry about technology and prioritisation of new policy and strategies but I can't question the hearts and intentions of the people present.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 24/04/2026
Fantastic displays of Early Purple Orchid from todays visits. Superficially very similar, the Green-winged Orchid lacks spots on the leaves and has dark veins on the sepals around the flower. Can you tell which is which?
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 24/04/2026
Beautiful day out at Silverdale taking part in the 2026 #CityNatureChallenge for Lancashire.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 24/04/2026
This should be a woodland Clough. Identified as 'PAWS' not what I wanted to see on my first local site survey of the year..
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 06/04/2026
Just watching some Daisies... Doing a bit of weeding today making the most of the sunshine and figured now would be a nice time to get in my first FIT count of the year. Do it for the pollinators! #citizenscience #insect #biologicalrecording #takepart #pollinator
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 21/03/2026
Shocking fact that 30%, some 140,000 blood donors stop giving each year and just 2% of those that can donate, do. If you can then please book yourself an appointment and get down to your local donor site. You could literally be saving someone's life. www.blood.co.uk
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 17/03/2026
Never been a particularly good scientist. I ask a question find a practical solution and move on (forgetting how i worked anything out). Works fine most of the time, unless i want to re-visit how the buggery i created this graph so i can do it again for a comparison of alternative predictions..
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 10/03/2026
Couple of cool little ephiphyical things in the Magnolia this morning.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 16/01/2026
The Lancs LNRS went live today. It introduces a new strategy for nature recovery in the local area. It's two and a half year production has has involved and provided the opportunity for input from private and public sector organisations, the public and eNGOs. www.lancashire.gov.uk/council/stra...
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 02/01/2026
Nice reminder from Google, this time 5 years ago at Entwistle Res.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 15/11/2025
Exciting! Fungi commenced from this year's CHEGD surveys packaged and nearly ready for sending off for DNA barcoding by the awesome Mycopunks as part of this year's Autumn Mycoblitz!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 01/11/2025
My favourite find from last week just in time for Halloween. The Powdercap Strangler. This rarely encountered fungus parasitises the Earthy Powdercap hijacking it to explode from the stipe and replace the host cap with its own, allowing it to spread its own spores #fungiphotography #grasslandfungi
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 01/11/2025
Exciting site found last week near Anglezark reservoir. Likely meets county level significance for grassland fungi and may well have been developing it's species richness for hundreds of years. Good number of species of global conservation significance present. #CHEGD #Grasslandfungi
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 05/10/2025
Just some waxcaps.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 28/09/2025
Delemere Forest, a beautiful place once you get away from the crowds. A little surprised to see a few Dragons darting about the Black Lake.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 24/09/2025
Brief reminder that the application window for our new Environment Officer with Lancashire Environmental Records Network at Lancashire County Council closes this week! fa-esms-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 21/09/2025
Bit more fungling about on the moors today checking on the predictive mapping. Reckon this area could be a bit of a hotspot in about a month time.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 16/09/2025
Out looking for fungi grasslands last weekend around Rivington and the West Pennine Moors. Loads of potential and looking forward to going back in a few weeks to see what's there! Really need help from naturalists in Lancashire to find more though. Comment/message for details.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 15/08/2025
Out on site surveys this week and ended up at a bit of a hidden gem. This valley runs from Rossendale from near Scout moor into Bury. A combination of species rich grasslands, heath and wetland along a river.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 26/07/2025
Cool little crystalwort from a grassland this week. Small and easily overlooked you'll often find them scattered on damp bare and disturbed mud and soil. Some even float!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 26/07/2025
Incredibly diverse calcareous grassland up Silverdale way this last week. Always nice to go somewhere that's still in good condition! To many sites left to neglect or lost to ignorance.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 13/05/2025
Somewhat exasperated at the state of UK and world politics so here's a Green Hairstreak wandering around doing it's Hairstreak thing.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 28/04/2025
Just received the latest publication from the Lancashire and Cheshire Fauna Society. Collated by Malcolm Evans this atlas details the current known distribution of all hoverflies on the Fylde.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 26/04/2025
The bee collection! Bilberry was buzzing on Rivington with bees of all kinds. This is a selection of some that sat still long enough for a photo! A Nomada (fascinating cleptoparasites), Andrena cinerea, Andrena haemorrhoa and Andrena fulva #CityNatureChallenge
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 26/04/2025
One of my smallest finds in yesterday's #CityNatureChallenge a Notiophilus beetle. These tiny jewel like ground beetles are tigers of the soil, hunting springtails among other soil fauna.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 26/04/2025
Green-veined White butterfly. A common and widespread species but one of my favourite pics from the #CityNaturrChallenge yesterday. The fresh dusting on the veins of the underwing and the butterfly poised to set off on its next journey.
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 23/04/2025
Loads of these Green Tigers racing around up Sandaig
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 23/04/2025
Wonderful to be invited back to see Lancashire Wildlife Trusts Lunt Meadows nature reserve in this it's 10th year for a celebration of the opening of it's new learning centre!
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Ben @deedbn.eurosky.social · 22/04/2025
A fascinating tour of loch Linnhe with common and Atlantic seals, still waters of loch Lomond and some of the poorly pressed flowers a reminder of our visit.
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