Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 12/10/2026This hapless juvenile song thrush doubtless flew south from Scandinavia on the first harsh wind of winter, only to become a sparrowhawk’s meal on arrival. So doing it has passed its Nordic proteins, carbon, water and stories one step further on the complex cobweb of life. 0401
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 12/10/2026Fleabanes, Mexican and Guernsey Erigeron karvinskianus E. sumatrensis So many stories of exploration, trade, colonialism and agricultural industrialisation written in their common and scientific names and their modern geographical distribution. 1334
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 10/10/2026I endlessly take photos of those sculptures, in all their moods. They’re by Cindy Lee Wright, who’s married to Simon Barnes. 180
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Entire field of grass. Selectively eats nettles. Legend. 5797
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Very late for #wildflowerhour: small scabious 31219
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Same view, fifteen minutes apart. The first as I frantically got my laundry in. Swifts overhead, in a great swirl of house martins. Doubtless the last swifts I’ll see here this year. Go safely wild ones. 5492
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Sunset over the marsh today. As the nights grow longer, you have to seize every opportunity to jump in the sea. 214114
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Went to Wales Stayed four weeks Had no WiFi Wrote 20,000 words Read two and a half books Saw The Odyssey Walked 350,000 steps Reacquainted myself with dippers, common hawkers and gold-ringed dragonflies Was deeply grateful 81073
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 21/07/2026The swallows in this village have no respect for personal space 1160
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 21/07/20261) fat hen, greater plantain, knotgtass sp., annual meadow-grass. 2) annual meadow-grass. #geometricalbotany 0180
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Asteraceae doing the heavy lifting for this week’s #wildflowerhour #stillflowering challenge: musk thistle (with painted lady caterpillar) on chalk grassland, Canadian goldenrod, wall lettuce (in this case door lettuce) and (not Asteraceae) entangled tendrils of tufted vetch and hedge bindweed. 0443
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Wild things from yesterday: black bryony berries a wasp subduing a (still living) peppered moth a painted lady caterpillar on musk thistle 0221
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Speckled wood and black darter in West Norfolk today 0434
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Dusky sallow Eremobia ochroleuca (subsequently rescued) 1150
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 12/07/2026For this week’s #wildflowerhour #aquaticplants challenge, I have four plants (all today) growing very close to water, be it saline or fresh: purple loosestrife, hemp agrimony, sea holly and common sea lavender. 0504
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 07/07/2026Silver-studded blue on a Norfolk heath yesterday evening 2658
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 04/07/2026Some of the gorgeous things seen today, with the equally gorgeous @luciemr.bsky.social: Stictoleptura rubra, Conocephalus sp., and Anax imperator (emperor dragonfly) 0181
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 03/07/2026I know I shouldn’t, but sometimes I snort a line of Buddleja davidii before work. I can totally see what the red admirals and peacocks are getting from it. 4573
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 03/07/2026I’m going to need all the white stonecrop I can find to get through today’s drama. 1241
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 03/07/2026Funny the friends you make when you’re out walking 0493
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 03/07/2026As I was crossing Night Common just now, my handsome, hirsute friend came over to say hello. ‘Where have you been?’ He asked, not having seen me for a week. ‘Downriver,’ I replied. 0383
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 02/07/2026The seeds of this hollyhock came from my late best friend Sarah. She died almost ten years ago but is still in full bloom in my garden. She always made a statement. 3815
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 02/07/2026I just flushed a scarlet tiger in my garden (photo from 2 weeks ago). Without wanting to be simplistic, for every species that, assisted by climate change, goes from unheard-of to common, there’s a familiar, much-loved species that can’t cope. Want cattle egrets? Kiss good bye to willow warblers. 410525
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Hi @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social, a couple of weeks ago I sent you a record of a Hieracium sp., growing on top of a high wall. You asked for more details. This evening I’ve walked past one, in the same population, conveniently growing at ground level. 2141
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 30/06/2026The very last of this year’s clustered bellflowers. Good bye, amazing blooms, until next year. 2391
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Grass-leaved orache Atriplex littoralis. It used the to be a plant of salt-rich coastal habitats (littoralis = of the shore). Now, just like Danish scurvy-grass, it’s just as much a plant of roadsides where tarmac was salted in winter. 0394
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 30/06/2026The most charming red beltie bull you ever did meet 1332
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 29/06/2026I will never not have a moment when I see Catalpa bignonioides. Non-native? ✅ Blousy? ✅ Arguably in poor taste? ✅ But utterly fabulous? ✅ ✅ ✅ 1201
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 28/06/2026Some glorious south and mid-Norfolk plants today for #wildflowerhour, including spiny restharrow, sulphur clover, dyer’s greenweed and crested cow-wheat. 210812
Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 28/06/2026First loop of the wood, looking down at plants. Second loop of the wood, looking up to the canopy for butterflies. At the first place I stop, where goat willow grows beneath a tall oak… instantly a purple emperor. 2342