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Donna Rainey

@donnarainey4.bsky.social
2.6K followers 773 following 1.9K posts

Lover of nature; fungi,native wildflower meadows, native woodlands, and all that depends on them.

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Reposted by Donna Rainey
Dean Mac Cú Uladh @dmac00.bsky.social · 9h
A lovely day exploring charophyte ID at Lough Money, Co. Down We refound all 5 species recorded from the site. It was a useful day to begin organising the groups of similar species together based on field morphology. We saw: Chara curta C. virgata C. hispida C. subspinosa C. vulgaris
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Ireland's Native Woodland Trust @irishwoodlandtrust.bsky.social · 9h
🌳 Volunteers recently spent two days at Ardan Wood installing new wildlife trail signs, collecting fruit from the reserve's only mature Crab Apple tree and checking Spindle and Hawthorn crops ahead of seed collection season. Every sign and every seed is an investment in the woodland's future. 🍎🌰
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The Species Recovery Trust @speciesrecovery.bsky.social · 19h
Meet the rare plant that needs chaos... A thread for #SpeciesOfTheWeek ⤵️
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Earl Russell LD @earlrussell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I am pleased to see this. Climate security is fundamental to the future of humanity on this planet is a global security problem.
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Dean Mac Cú Uladh @dmac00.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Bidens tripartita and Persicaria hydropiper from Loughbrickland, Co. Down - both last recorded in 1989 Such lovely wetland species
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James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
“The super-rich have apocalypse fantasies of their own, built not on faith or ideology but on a calm and rational evaluation of how best to maintain their position; they would genuinely rather reign in hell than share in heaven” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Naomi Klein: ‘Extreme wealth has a deranging effect. It turns you into a supremacist’
She’s tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursui...
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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Why is it that the media never consult an ecologist on articles like this? They conflate meadow with a sown pasture with a few herbaceous perennials. The Chicory in the picture isn't even native! Of course there are few claims beyond “he believes”. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘You can taste the land’: the Somerset farmer bringing wildflowers back to cheddar
Tom Calver has sacrificed milk yields to give his cows a more varied diet of plants and believes the result is better cheese and richer farmland
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Good old reliable Devil's bit scabious, in all it's colours, still flowering today. #wildflowerhour
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Managed to get a bird on the #moon tonight.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Despite cloud, it was a very bright moonlit night. #Harvestmoon
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Jacob Wood @jacob-wood.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Hermaea variopicta (Fire-tipped Sea Slug) at Wembury Point today. A very rare Sacoglossan Sea Slug; just the 8th British record I believe!
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Digital Brain @yourdigitalbrain.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
16 days of rice germination squeezed into under a minute, from hard seed to leafy seedling ready for the flooded field.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The Harvest #moon
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Nicole @nb23.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy Friday 🍃 #scape #forestfriday
a forest shrouded in a thick morning mist with rocky ground covered in green moss
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Moonrise 🩵
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The Russula parasite, fungi growing parasitically on old Russula #fungi in local Hazelwoods today.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Fly agarics in abundance in the Hazelwoods.
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Now we just need to get this to apply to Lough Neagh and other water bodies across Ireland used as sewers for industrial quantities of excrement.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Effective 2025 federal tax rates paid by these corporations: Alphabet: 8.01% AT&T: 4.6% Meta: 3.57% General Motors: 3.09% Amazon: 1.37% Exxon Mobil: 1.31% Disney: -1.57% CVS Health: -3.88% Income tax rate paid by the typical American: 14.5% This is what a rigged system looks like.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
When #fungi are so tiny I can only get reasonable photos using my phone & a hand lens. They are only 2 or 3mm tall, but absolutely beautiful.
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The New Lede @thenewlede.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
NEW: A pesticide linked to cancer and hormone disruption is polluting a quarter of US river miles. “It’s just an astounding level of contamination from just one pesticide,” Nathan Donley of @biologicaldiversity.org said. www.thenewlede.org/2026/09/atra...
thenewlede.org
Pesticide linked to cancer and hormone disruption pollutes a quarter of US river miles
A cancer-linked pesticide banned in more than 60 countries around the world contaminates an estimated 25% of river and stream miles in the lower 48 US states, including many waterways used for drinkin...
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WATERSHED Investigations @watershed-i.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
We organised blood tests for people living near a chemical factory in Thornton-Cleveleys where we uncovered high emissions of PFAS forever chemicals, including internationally-banned, cancer-causing PFOA. Last night, BBC News spoke to people as they received their test results:
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Leana Hosea @leanahosea.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The insidious nature of PFAS pollution - people who've only ever tried to do the best for their family's health realising something harmful has crept in. ITV News covered the tests we ran on PFAS levels in people's blood in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire: www.itv.com/news/2026-09...
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Leana Hosea @leanahosea.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Dr David Megson + Sam Hammond on the Today Programme discussing why a multi-agency investigation at Thornton-Cleveleys didn't recommend bio-monitoring for affected people. Dr Megson says health monitoring is common practice in similar situations in other countries: share.google/Mp6nROVqRtKA...
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WATERSHED Investigations @watershed-i.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"We need to fight this" How long can people accept ongoing exposure to harmful chemicals, while our governments continue to pursue policies of deregulation? Will legal action be the "spearhead" that accelerates action on PFAS pollution? Our story on ITV News: www.itv.com/news/2026-09...
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WATERSHED Investigations @watershed-i.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Law firm Leigh Day is bringing legal action on behalf of one local resident. Read the full story here 👇 share.google/AwmBkidB5SOP...
share.google
Blood tests find high levels of cancer-causing forever chemical in residents near factory
People living near a major chemical factory in Lancashire are told they could be at risk of serious health conditions.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Russula nigracans are impressive large #fungi
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NullPointer 🍄 @nuiipointer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Interesting fungal find: This parasitic plant fungus (Exobasidium karstenii) lives exclusively on bog-rosemary (Andromeda polifolia) and makes some of the leaves much broader, and purple. The green and the purple leaves here are the same plant! #naturephotography #fungifriends
Top view of some bog-rosemary, with narrow, green, rolled up leaves. In the middle is a sprig of broad, purple leaves. They are the same plant, but infected with a gall fungus.
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NullPointer 🍄 @nuiipointer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Mushroom exposition at the Estonian Museum of Natural History. It’s been going on yearly for 64 years! Every other day, museum employees collect fresh mushrooms and replace the wilted ones. #fungifriends #loodusmuuseum #estonia
A table with a covering of fresh moss. Various mushrooms are exhibited on it, with signs. Notably, there are two giant puffballs, and some tall parasol mushrooms.
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Richard Delevan @richard.wickedproblems.earth · 23/09/2026
U Chicago climate researchers project 450,000 heat deaths through Feb due to fossil-fuel-exacerbated El Niño. (That's not including 2nd or 3rd order effects like drought and famine. The *less powerful* 1877 El Niño killed 50m from hunger.) www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Huge El Niño projected to cause 450,000 deaths in next six months
New report predicts a heavy toll from Nigeria to the US – and comes on top of existing impacts of the climate crisis
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Green elfcup #fungi in the woods today.
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Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Raising livestock for products such as meat, dairy & eggs causes 12.5% of the world’s total GHG emissions. With ~$299 billion worth of such products exported globally every year, accountability for emissions & their costs to society travels along supply chains to importers & consumers worldwide. 👇
zerocarbon-analytics.org
Global livestock emissions burden society with costs as high as USD 2.1 trillion every year - Zero Carbon Analytics
Raising livestock to produce animal products for consumption causes 12.5% of global annual GHG emissions. Working with carbon pricing, new analysis estimates the financial burden of livestock emission...
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BSBI Scotland @bsbiscotland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Exciting refind on Ben Lomond: Alpine Meadow-grass, last seen here in 1995, its southernmost Scottish site. 17 plants high on the crags in the northern corries, access was, umm, a little tricky... plantatlas2020.org/atlas/2cd4p9...
Alpine Meadow-grass (Poa alpina) growing horizontally out of a rock wall, with its viviparous flowerheads dropping down against a backdrop of rolling moors and mountainsAlpine Meadow-grass (Poa alpina), demonstrating the viviparous flowerhead and broad, grey-green basal leavesThe location of this population - high on the north face of Ben Lomond, growing out of the left-hand wall of this cleft in the crag line. Not the most straightforward of plants to find...A somewhat wide-eyed BSBI Scotland Officer mid cleft on the north face of Ben Lomond, surrounded by gorgeous plants (and with water running down his back!)
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John Gibbons 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 @thinkorswim.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In a word: no. In two words: definitely not. Agri press moves from #climate denial to delusional complacency instead. Not sure this is progress. www.agriland.ie/farming-news...
agriland.ie
Opinion: Could climate change be a good news story for Irish agriculture?
Meanwhile, food security levels in the European Union continue to falter
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Raptor Persecution UK @raptorpersuk.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Marsh Harrier found shot in North York Moors National Park. Police appeal for information & some commentary by me 🔽 #RaptorResearch #WildlifeCrime raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/09/22/m...
raptorpersecutionuk.org
Marsh Harrier found shot in North York Moors National Park – Police appeal for information
Press release from North Yorkshire Police (21 September 2026): Marsh Harrier found shot in North York Moors On 28 August 2026 a juvenile Marsh Harrier was found in the Westerdale area suffering fro…
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Miles King @milesking.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
What a farce. As farmers fail to access funds to support sustainable farming, this will undoubtedly mean valuable wildlife habitat (recently created or much older) will be destroyed, as farmers feel they have no option but to intensify their farming systems. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Worse than the scramble for Oasis tickets’: England’s sustainable farming funds run out in just six hours
Entire £233m budget for 2026 allocated in less than a day, leaving thousands of farmers disappointed
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa. #slimemould
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Slater & slime mould.
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NBN Trust: National Biodiversity Network Trust @nbntrust.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
NBN Atlas data updates - the NBN Atlas now holds 387+ million species occurrence records covering more than 53,000 species across the UK. Huge thanks to all our 195 data partners and dedicated verifiers. Every record shared helps build a better understanding of UK biodiversity - www.nbnatlas.org
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Rebecca Wheeler @botanybeck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Here’s a rare beauty for #mushroommonday, the stunning Crimson Bolete, Chalciporus rubinus. It has gorgeous carmine red, decurrent pores & red upper stem which gives it a very striking appearance. Very rare & classed as vulnerable on the ICUN red list, I left it undisturbed ❤️ #FungiFriends 🍄 📸
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
These #fungi were illuminated by the sun, under the shadow of a majestic Oak. Such beauty in the woods.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
False deathcap? #fungi
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Dewdrop bonnets. Miniscule little #fungi, notoriously difficult to photograph!
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Dermot Casey @dermotcasey.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The €1bn spent on fossil fuel sinces April would have put 8kw battery & solar on 100,000 homes buying them energy freedom for 20+ years. The €1bn+ that will be spent over the next few months would bring that to 250,000 homes. What we lack is will and vision
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Funky little Slime moulds.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I think these gorgeous little #fungi are Vermilion waxcaps, seen today.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Can anyone help with this tiny thing I found on rotten wood today? Looks like a mini version of an Oak apple gall, literally a couple of mm in size.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Spotted on old Russula nigricans #fungi the parasitic #fungi Asterophora parasitica, I think!
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Louise @louiseplease.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
They had to get kicked out of the WH to publish that poll. I knew that his 1st term.
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Donna Rainey @donnarainey4.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Sunrising on a perfect day.
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