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Sarah Watkinson

@festuca.bsky.social
440 followers 376 following 65 posts

Poet and mycologist

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Reposted by Sarah Watkinson
Jo Bell @jobellwriter.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
BOATER is doing tremendously well - check out the Amazon reviews if that is your style - and my goodness, what a GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT IT WOULD MAKE. It's both a personal history and a history of the canals, with some startling information about the marital relations of ducks along the way.
uk.bookshop.org
Boater: A Life on England's Waterways
A Life on England's Waterways
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Hooray! A new book by the one and only Luke Kennard poet!
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Thrilled to see these crimson wax caps in the school wildlife patch I’ve managed for nature since 2000:
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Delighted to find this 1941 reprint of the 1910 first edition of The Oxford Book of Ballads ed Quiller Couch with these superb endpapers mapping the border terrain:
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Jessica Mookherjee @jessmookherjee.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Im judging this years @cafewriters.bsky.social poetry competition - its now open so send me your best poems. www.cafewriters.co.uk/home/poetry-... #poetrycompetition
cafewriters.co.uk
Poetry Competition | Cafe Writers
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Julia Webb @julwe1.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Just a reminder that the Cafe Writers International poetry competition is open. Our wonderful (sole) judge this year is Jessica Mookherjee. Top prize is £1000 www.cafewriters.co.uk/home/poetry-...
cafewriters.co.uk
Poetry Competition | Cafe Writers
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Hooray! Off to do poetry in Wytham Woods with Oxford Stanza and soil ecologist @jedsol.bsky.social
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Exciting news for poetry readers and writers:
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Paul Deane @rhunedhel.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Nine days to submit a poem to the Fall Issue of Forgotten Ground Regained. alliteration.net/call-for-submissions/ #poetry #submissions #Norse #Viking #poetrysky #BlueSkyPoets #PoetsOnBluesky #skypoets #poetrycommunity #litmags #alliterativeverse
alliteration.net
Call for Submissions: Norse and Icelandic Forms
Submit your alliterative poems to Forgotten Ground Regained by October 1
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The Thomas Hardy Society @hardysociety.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
The Thomas Hardy Society is officially on Bluesky! Follow us to learn more about #ThomasHardy - we'll be posting events, news, and more.
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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 23/09/2025
🌿 Banks at risk from nature loss A new study finds 72% of euro-area companies rely on ecosystem services, and 100 banks drive 87% of the sector’s biodiversity footprint. Flood and climate risks compound exposure. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s43... #SciComm 🧪
nature.com
European banks face significant vulnerability to ecosystem degradation and climate change - Communications Earth & Environment
The economy and banks in the euro area contribute and are exposed to nature-related risks, according to an analysis of data on 2500 banks’ dependence and impact on biodiversity, ecosystem degradation, and climate change.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
I think this is brilliant:
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The Poetry Society @poetrysociety.org.uk · 24/08/2025
📚 It's August, which means the #SealeyChallenge is underway! To help you on your journey to read a book every day this month, The Poetry Society has gotten in touch with poets we've recently worked with for some recommendations. Next up is Ian Duhig, who is on the judging panel for (...)
Ian Duhig recommends 'Singletary'. "I have followed Geraldine's work for decades and Singletary contains all her characteristic strengths of exuberant wit, intellectual depth, idiosyncratic learning, slant wit and real spiritual and deep human love expressed with great linguistic panache. If you don't know her, take this chance to get acquainted."
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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Native bees! All photographed recently in the garden. At the moment I’m especially enamored with what I believe are male Western leafcutters: ginger and fuzzy with big green eyes!
Small fuzzy orange native bee with large jade green eyes, feeding on a magenta flower. Metallic green sweat bee feeding on a tight lipped dandelion like bloomSmall striped native bee with extremely full pollen basket, like a super thick sunshine yellow leg warmerYellow and black bumble bee feeding on a purple pincushion flower
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Steve Thackeray @thackers.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
📢 Job alert! UKCEH are looking for a Senior Freshwater Ecologist to join their Aquatic Ecosystems Group, based at their Edinburgh site! 💦🧪 @ukceh.bsky.social #UKCEH_AquaEco share.google/P4sSI2ulbXL9...
share.google
Senior Freshwater Ecologist
Salary - £48,414 - £51,377 Hybrid working (50/50) Permanent We reserve the right to close this advert early if we find the right candidate, so we encourage you to apply early. We are seeking a highly ...
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
🌳 Dame Judi Dench is calling for the return of ancient woodlands. Will you sign the petition to help restore the Ghost Woods and protect our green spaces for future generations? you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/br...
you.38degrees.org.uk
Bring back the ancient woodlands smothered beneath your timber plantations
Ancient woodlands are vanishing – and with them, some of our most loved and endangered wildlife. Forestry England manages over 100,000 acres of land that used to be ancient woodland - that’s bigger th...
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Who remembers all those names for fishing flies? Greenwell’s Glory, Partridge and Orange, March Brown. Father setting out hoping there would be a summer evening hatch of mayfly to excite trout and grayling in the Wharfe.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Absolutely delighted to see this, and proud to be a (micro) shareholder. Loved staying at Bunloit and Tayvallich and learning about the nature recovery work in progress there.
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Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
I am starting a PhD and am looking for grassland restoration/rewilding sites in Northern Ireland! Please forward this flier to anyone who might be interested in having their land surveyed for fungi!
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IPBES @ipbes.net · 20/05/2025
Pollinators: Vital for nature & human well-being, but increasingly threatened.🌍 @ipbes.net #PollinationAssessment highlights the critical roles of pollinators, the threats they face, and the severe consequences of their decline. 🧪 For #WorldBeeDay, swipe through to discover their crucial roles! 🦋
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ForestPlots @forestplots.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Job Opportunity: Lecturer in Ecology and Global Change at University of Leeds. We welcome dynamic applicants from across the world to join our team of tropical ecology and global change scientists. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
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BTO | British Trust for Ornithology @btobirds.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Calling all nature lovers in cities, towns and villages! 🐦🦆 Have you signed up to our Birds in Greenspaces pilot survey yet? ➡️ bit.ly/birds-greensp... #UKBirding #Birds
Image of a Starling perched with wording alongside reading: Birds in Greenspaces survey. Can you help? www.bto.org/greenspaces-pilot. Image credit: Starling © Edmund Fellowes/BTO. BTO logo sits top right of image.
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Salena Godden @salenagodden.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
I don't know who needs this but there is a gentle and inspiring documentary about moss on the BBC iplayer and when I watch it I sigh and feel better, you might like it too, moss is hardcore, adaptable, survivor of ice and fire, it is ancient, lives on air, the guardian of the trees, and that's you.
media.tenor.com
a small plant is growing out of a pile of moss in the woods .
ALT: a small plant is growing out of a pile of moss in the woods .
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The Oxford Nature Network @biodivoxford.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
biodiversity.ox.ac.uk
Oxford Biodiversity Network | FIELDWORK RESEARCH ASSISTANTS WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
The Oxford Biodiversity Network is a network of researchers and practitioners in and around the University working on biodiversity. The network includes academics, senior researchers, students, and st...
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The Poetry Society @poetrysociety.org.uk · 21/03/2025
Happy World Poetry Day! To celebrate the occasion, we are making The Poetry Review modern archive freely available for the next 24 hours for everyone to enjoy the best in international poetry. Click here to take advantage of this offer! bit.ly/4irqvug 📚
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Robin Houghton @robinhoughton.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Just updated my quarterly spreadsheet of (mostly UK and Irish) #poetry mags - when they're open, how to submit etc. Every link checked by a human (me!) - It's free, and you can sign up here robinhoughtonpoetry.co.uk/poetry-magaz...
robinhoughtonpoetry.co.uk
Poetry Magazines Submissions Spreadsheet
Poets! Take the hard work out of submitting to poetry magazines What poetry magazines are there? What are their web addresses? How many poems can I send? Are they open for submissions now? You&#821…
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
This is nice - Research Gate tells me this paper on how fungi help woodland ecosystems to work has had 2500 reads. www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) The role of wood decay fungi in the carbon and nitrogen dynamics of the forest floor
PDF | Introduction The mycelium of woodland fungi can act both as a reservoir and as a distribution system for nutrients, owing to its physiological and... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Blenheim land at Bladon was blitzed with glyphosate ‘to eliminate blackgrass’ in 2013 but later a subsequent 3-year regenerative rotation eliminated it.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Thank goodness
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
I hope they will examine #BotleyWestSolar Farm proposal for its claim of 70% BNG -,apparently to be generated by bat and bird boxes in the ruined landscape.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Impressive @herdyshepherd.bsky.social at #ORFC this morning demanding gov support for sustainable farming systems to trap and sequester C and ensure farm succession.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Great review. I’m still asking myself if a soil microbiome might be a helpful pointer in exploring the living basis of ‘soil health’ - eg by analogy with the human gut microbiome.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
In my experience developers’ claims to restore nature are not enforced. Local councils no longer include experts.
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Louisa @louisathelast.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
PSA for cat owners in the US: cats have been contracting H5N1 (bird flu). They are very susceptible to it and the fatality rate for cats is 67%. To avoid it: -keep your cats indoors. They can catch it from infected birds and mice. -do not feed them raw dairy -do not feed them raw meat
pethelpful.com
Cats in the U.S. Are Contracting Bird Flu: What Pet Parents Need to Know
Cases in domesticated cats have risen dramatically over the past year.
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Dr. Caleb C. Butler 🦠🪸 @calebcbutler.com · 17/11/2024
Reintro: I'm now in my final year and preparing to defend! I'd revamp this to: patterns of specificity in coral-algal mutualisms, and then what that means for their ecology and evolution. A lot of my work has since taken a turn into octocoral symbionts, plus some work in other Cnidarians 🧪 (🪸📷⬇️)
Image of a Palauan coral reef with many soft corals, mostly of family Sarcophytidae and a Lemnaliid in the foreground. Theres a few bouldering corals and one encrusted fire coral (hydrozoan), but they are dwarfed by the soft corals. Image and sampled part of my work, taken by Dr. Todd LaJeunesse
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Thank you so much! And for the repost.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
A Lego orrery!
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AltYellostoneNatPar @altyellonatpark.org · 20/12/2024
We were seeing a 98% drop in exposure over on Twitter. The censorship was so extreme we thought it best to start over somewhere else. We chose Bluesky. Help us gain our following back Follow Retweet Repeat Join the park side @altyellonatpark.org
Black wolf looking straight at the camera. Pine forest behind. Yellow eyes.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Thanks to @ymalhi.bsky.social for this alert to good climate news: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
nature.com
Simple ecological indicators benchmark regeneration success of Amazonian forests - Communications Earth & Environment
Optimal regeneration success in Amazonian forests is mapped by simple ecological indicators, providing reference values for measuring restoration success across successional stages based on a large co...
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Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Ecology lecturer wins Moth Nature Writing Prize The Moth Nature Writing Prize 2024, judged anonymously by Cal Flyn, has been awarded to British writer, researcher and naturalist, Anna Selby, for her poem, Acairseid Mhòr, Gometra www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
irishtimes.com
Ecology lecturer wins Moth Nature Writing Prize
Judge Cal Flyn likens Anna Selby’s winning poem to Seamus Heaney and Edwin Morgan
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Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery @naturerecovery.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
If #WorldSoilDay left you wanting more, this video encourages viewers to appreciate the natural world, highlighting how everything, from worms to flowers, shapes our ecosystem. Designed to inspire, it educates schools & the wider public on environmental interconnectivity. @ecioxford.bsky.social
youtube.com
From Worms to Flowers
YouTube video by The Cultural Programme
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Philip Gross @vaikuspg.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Perverse... An online magazine that adds a healthy tang of strangeness to the poetry culture, inviting writers to contribute things we find ourselves surprised by, even as we write.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Such beautiful, interesting books!
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Steve Eely @steveeely.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
What a fucking book. No prison can contain it.
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Graham Simpson @grahambs.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
“Pesticides that harm bees were found in the majority of English waterways tested in the last year” - Pesticides that are banned in the EU but allowed in the UK due to our Brexit ‘freedoms’ 🤔 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Bee-harming pesticides found in majority of English waterways
The chemicals can harm insects and marine wildlife, environmental charities warn.
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Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery @naturerecovery.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
🧵 Launched today! A Woodland Trust report explores how the Gvt should fund #NatureRecovery in England, focusing on the role of new nature markets, risks, & opportunities, highlighting the vital role of the public sector in driving change. @ecioxford.bsky.social www.naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk?p=2274
naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk
Leading from the front. The Role of the Public Sector in Delivering Nature Recovery
This report sets out an expert opinion on how Government should approach the issues of funding and financing nature recovery in England. The research takes as its starting point the essential importan...
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Excellent soil biology explanation unfolds from this QR code:
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
‘#Naturalhistory #GCSE on hold as qualification seen as ‘Tory initiative’, claims campaigner’ - as if engaging children with the wonder of their world is to do with petty politics.
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Sarah Watkinson @festuca.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Good news for nature recovery in Northumberland:
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