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Broad-leaved Everlasting Pea & Common Toadflax, roadside near Broadwater Warren #wildflowerhour

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A bicoloured clump of Common Heather at Brosdwater Warren #wildflowerhour

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Devilsbit Scabious & Goldenrod at Brakeybank Wood, Tudeley #wildflowerhour

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Cyclamen, Verbena bonariensis, & Purple Toadflax naturalised on Rusthall Common #wildflowerhour

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Sudden burst of flowering from Common Gorse on Tunbridge Wells Common, with dropped Rowan berries #wildflowerhour

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Common Fleabane, unusual as a 'street weed' #wildflowerhour

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Figures 2-2f here show colour forms of Pale Tussock caterpillar (see my last post) and its pupa & cocoon. From William Buckler's Larvae of British Butterflies & Moths vol.3 (Ray Society, 1889)

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The impressive caterpillar of Pale Tussock moth spotted on our High Weald Walking Festival walk at Broadwater Warren & Eridge Rocks today. Often seen wandering in the open in autumn looking for a pupation site.

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Foraging worker Buff-tailed Bumblebee (note full pollen baskets on hind legs) at ivy in Woodbury Park Cemetery.

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There's plenty of flowering ivy in Woodbury Park Cemetery for Ivy Bees and other pollinators

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Temporary information panel about an Ivy Bee nesting aggregation in Woodbury Park Cemetery

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Martine🦋Brennan🍄 @martinebrennan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Found locally at RSPB Broadwater Warren. The orange colour on the abdomen looks almost luminous in shade - as if it's got a little LED inside

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

Very happy to find a little migrant Vestal moth in my field last night, they don’t often make their way to the Irish midlands, and best of all it was my first pink one💓#teammoth

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

Claire Laila Dines @freedomtodoubt.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Insects observed feeding on #RoughHawkbit (Leontodon hispidus) were many & varied in the chalk grassland along the #dykeapproach path. Really worth growing this much overlooked drought-hardy stalwart & cheery nectar source, especially in late summer/early autumn #chalkgrassland #insects

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Video of that Ivy Bee nest site in St James' churchyard, Tunbridge Wells, showing swarming males

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David W. Williams @vc40orthops.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Another Ivy Bee nesting aggregation, this time in St James' churchyard, Tunbridge Wells. There are probably about 400 individual burrows here, some so close together there's no bare ground between the heaps of spoil

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

Female & male Wood Crickets, Nemobius sylvestris, seen in Gorey, Jersey last week. The females were quite easy to spot walking around on the road surface at the edge of the wood. Males very audible but more skulking & had to be searched for in the leaf litter.

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

Dr Stuart Green @stuvigreen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Visited the Somerset Levels last week. With a bit of help from the locals + some timely sunshine, we found Large Marsh Grasshoppers.

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An impressive wood ant Formica rufa nest at RSPB Broadwater Warren

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Checking up on the Tunbridge Filmy Fern at Eridge Rocks today

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David W. Williams @vc40orthops.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Willow Emerald now on Rusthall Common as well as Tunbridge Wells Commom

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

M & F Guanchia pubescens, another southern earwig sp which has spread north & is now breeding in Jersey(+ seen on Guernsey & seems to have been present in central London for maybe a couple of decades). This pair + others seen in Gorey, Jersey, last week.

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The scarce tachinid fly Cylindromyia brassicaria (Large Tube-tail) at Brakeybank Wood, Tudeley. Seen on three separate visits over the last two weeks, all visiting devil's-bit scabious.

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Compare that last backlit view of female Brimstone with this more conventional shot of the same individual

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Female Brimstone feeding at devil's-bit scabious in a woodland ride at Brakeybank Wood, Tudeley, today. Backlit view reveals a lime-green tint.

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Mating pair of Small Copper in the meadow at Brakeybank Wood, Tudeley, today. Good numbers of these still, along with Common Blue & Small Heath

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David W. Williams @vc40orthops.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

One of a group of Rhododendron Leafhoppers swarming over a sunlit birch sapling along a woodland path at Pembury today. I've not seen that behaviour before.

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

Two Jersey Grasshoppers, Euchorthippus elegantulus, both gravid females, seen at Les Blanches Banques, Jersey last week. In the wider UK this species is only found in Jersey, though it is widespread in France etc. Quite like a Lesser Marsh Grasshopper, but that species is not found in Jersey.

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

Lloyd Davies @lloyd9632.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Two nice little finds with appropriate names from the Abbotsbury Beach today. One of the Golden Keyhole Weevils, Sibinia arenariae and the Rhombic Leatherbug, Syromastus rhombeus

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Reposted by Ian Beavis

The Ecologist @theecologist.org · 15/09/2026

“It tells young people this is not simply the study of what has gone before. It is about understanding the living world they will inherit and recognising the part they can play in helping it thrive.”

theecologist.org

Kids demand natural history lessons

Children are losing touch with nature - but not their desire to protect it, new research finds.

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Another large Ivy Bee nesting aggregation - this time on Rusthall Common, including sand pile ejected from a badger sett

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A row of Ivy Bee nests on Tunbridge Wells Common showing different coloured sand spilling down the slope from each excavation

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A very late Ornate Tailed Digger Wasp (Cerceris rybyensis) on Tunbridge Wells Common today

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