Joe Bishop
@jpbishop
Lover of music and the natural world, and follower of bad sports teams. Council ecologist by profession. Oxfordshire, England.
An excellent team day out at the White Horse in Uffington yesterday, enjoying the beautiful calcareous grassland. Reassuringly saw an impressive abundance of butterflies on the wing. Marbled white in particular seem to be having a good year.
Great to see England women finish their very impressive run in the T20 World Cup group stage last night. A glorious evening at The Oval.
You know the air temperatures are unusually high when butterflies are out on the wing at 6:30am! A marbled white, in some lowland calcareous grassland in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns this morning.
Great tits in the garden still heroically battling the heat to feed second brood nestlings. Feeding rates unsurprisingly seem to drop in the afternoon when the heat is worse. Must be taking a huge toll on the parents.
Met Office forecast looking even more grim than the BBC, with possible highs of 39C for Weds and Thurs in our part of Oxfordshire. I'm sick of the few idiots on here that still play this down as 'climate fear'. It's not normal.
Cat? Fox? Not seen the latter here for years though. On a related note, our little (c. 2x2 m) garden pond has dwindling water levels and about to get even lower with the incoming heatwave. This year's tadpoles unlikely to survive to adulthood I think (note the recent duckweed invasion too!).
Any ideas on the culprit here (sorry, bit grim!). The bottom half of a frog, discarded on a mown path through a mini meadow in our garden. Second time in a week I've found this- first time it was just the legs 😬. The context maybe indicates a mammal following the mown path?
Back from an excellent long weekend in the New Forest. Birding highlight was probably a handful of flyover hawfinch, but also lovely to see crossbill, woodlark, tree pipit, redstart, spotted flycatcher, and lots of marsh tit family groups. Nuthatch photographed here.
Having a thoroughly good time (not just the beer I promise) reading Peter Marren's entertaining article about Deadly Nightshade in this month's @britishwildlife.bsky.social. The folklore associated with poisonous plants is interesting and wacky in equal measure.
We have a great tit pair in our garden in West Oxon which fledged a small brood around a week ago (only one fledgling seen around the garden but possible others may be around). The same pair seem to now be nest building in another nestbox in the garden...
The first round of rather feeble (but undeniably cute) house sparrow fledglings from our house have made their first journey into the big wide world. Precisely zero predator awareness and barely able to fly. Somewhat miraculous that any make it to adulthood!
As always, a delight to revisit my BTO @bbs-birds.bsky.social square in the Chilterns (Bucks) yesterday morning. My eighth year covering the square.
I see the speed-skating is on now. Sure, lots of skill, determination and fitness required. Can't take that away from them. But don't let that distract you from the fact that they look completely ridiculous.
With five weeks left of the season, just been revisiting my NFL over/under bets from before the season (a token £1 per team!). A very mixed bag (maybe on track for 18 or 19 out of 32 depending on the remaining schedule).
Harissa halloumi and pepper orzo thing wot I did this evening. Not bad. Inevitably I'll forget what I put in it and never be able to replicate it again.
12 days into parenthood. It's been both a joy and also extremely challenging. But the joy always outweighs the challenges.
Saw a sad demonstration of the potential for avian flu spread this morning at Farmoor Reservoir whilst watching this ringed plover opportunistically showing interest in scavenging a dead gull. Still, cool behaviour though. #UKBirding
You know it's desperation time in your fantasy football season when you were forced to take a punt on the backup Jets QB on waivers in the hope he might start (overpaying in the process), and then had to sweat out his injury status (he's now out).
I have never eaten a crisp which tastes more like the flavour it is supposed to, than this. Sensational excitement for a Friday night.
Maybe I just stay here instead. At the Sandford Park Alehouse and this beer is a beauty. Old Spot from the Uley Brewery.
Didn't post about it on here directly afterwards, but for those who are yet to experience it, End Of The Road festival continues to be the most beautiful place in the world to be a music fan. Never, ever a disappointment.
I may be on my own here, but I like this sort of thing being reported on local bird news. Rare stuff is nice of course, but finding enjoyment and interest in day-to-day wildlife happenings is nice too. #ukbirding
Male noble false widow spider Steatoda nobilis in the bathroom this morning (I think...). Any entomologists able to confirm? The size was about right (around 10mm). Colours haven't come out well in the photo, but had a dark body with fairly distinctive abdominal markings and reddish brown legs.
Aw, bless the roundabout brigade with their little red tins of paint, frothing at the mouth about the pride flags they're painting over.