Always fascinated as to how a bracket #fungus can form in this drought covered in droplets like this Oak Bracket Pseudoinonotus dryadeus growing from the base of an oak tree #fungifriends

A long-winged (macropterous) version of a Short-winged Conehead, female Conocephalus dorsalis from Cothill #fen #NNR today. Clearly curved ovipositor...

Check out the spines on this fascinating bug! Found running on bare disturbed chalk soil at Aston Rowant #NNR Coriomerus denticulatus the Denticulate Leatherbug @rowantnnr.bsky.social @britishbugs.bsky.social

Recording rare Broad-leaved Cudweed Filago pyramidata introduction in an annually rotovated chalk field in the NNR at Aston Rowant @rowantnnr.bsky.social Many 1000s of plants in the dead & brown stage. A big success story @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Somewhat obsessed with Great Burnet Sanguisorba officinalis, now being cut in hay in Oxford's floodplain meadows, at Milham Ford Nature Park still some in flower & we're collecting seed for restoration/enhancement of other meadows. Flies are tachinids not pollinating but just sitting on flowers?

Pepper saxifrage Silaum silaus from a floodplain meadow in Oxford. For #NationalMeadowsDay Crush the leaves or seeds for the most wonderful cinnamon smell..

Knapweeds coming in a variety of colours at Milham Ford Nature Park Oxford meadows - full purple, purple with white centre & nearly all white. Common but such a lovely & important plant for #pollinators @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

Seed collecting time already for some species at Milham Ford Nature Park meadows Oxford. Oxeye Daisy, Meadow Cranesbill & Rough Hawkbit well ready. Still full flowering for abundant Red Clover & Tufted Vetch

They certainly are fantastic, & there are some very spectacular & rare flies to be seen on BBOWT's reserves. Here is a harmless wasp- mimic male Clubbed General soldierfly from Parsonage Moor fen today. So rare it is classified 'Endangered' @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Sheets of Bog Pimpernel in flower in Lye Valley #fen ..And can you spot also the leaves of Marsh Lousewort and some of Grass of Parnassus popping up through the pimpernel? @friendlyevalley.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

This spectacular Elm Pouch Gall was found on leaves of Lye Valley's disease resistant Elm trees, Ulmus minor var Ademuz. Made by aphids Tetaneura ulmi. Presume they have now left the gall through the hole? @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Flowering now at Aston Rowant #NNR on the Chilterns. Lots of chalk grassland species but here Fragrant Orchid, Vipers Bugloss, Yellow Wort (and hoverfly) and a (presumed) Common Broomrape. Plenty to see despite the very dry spring, recent showers helped a lot @rowantnnr.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

A recent storm brewing in Lye Valley fen, luckily it passed without a deluge this time & we could get on scything, raking & especially giving a work experience vol (in dayglo orange) a lesson in Austrian #scything by an experienced volunteer @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Flowers just starting to bloom in Lye Valley fen - Purple Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca and maroon flowered Water Figwort Scrophularia auriculata both visible from the boardwalk. @friendlyevalley.bsky.social A pity too wet for any insect visitors #Wildflowerhour

First smart soldierflies are now on the wing in Lye Valley fen. First a female Common Green Colonel Oplodontha viridula, then a female Banded General Stratiomys potamida. Both sitting out a rain shower @friendlyevalley.bsky.social @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

As rain drenched our stalwart volunteers for @friendlyevalley.bsky.social this week, a new scarlet tiger #moth waits things out sitting on its comfrey food plant. Roll on the sunny break between the (much needed) showers for some flying around...

#Fens are peatlands as well as bogs, the difference is that our calcareous fens are fed by alkaline groundwater springs, not just rainwater. A water table just at the surface allows plant remains to fall into the water & not fully decompose, locking carbon away as peat. @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

An alien much reviled weed, ground elder thrives on some of Lye Valley's dry banks. Here it provides abundant nectar & pollen for bees, beetles & flies including this Ashy Mining bee, Mordellid beetle & Chrysogaster hoverflies @friendlyevalley.bsky.social #inverts #diptera

What plants are going into this restoration area at Lye Valley #fen to enhance biodiversity? Stolons of lovely scented Water mint & young plants of Marsh Marigold. @friendlyevalley.bsky.social. Thanks to www.longmeadwildlifesite.org.uk/thames-valle... for plants

Two of @friendlyevalley.bsky.social Wednesday volunteers recently enjoyed a first try at Austrian Scything & sweep-netting the fen to check on our wetland #inverts. We are also again monitoring larvae of soldierflies using grapefruit skin bait-traps. Stratiomys sp here @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

It's Common Butterwort Pinguicula vulgaris flowering time in Lye Valley calcareous spring #fen. Amongst the rushes and sedges on wet tufa the small lilac flowers pepper the fen atop the basal rosettes of sticky-haired leaves that catch insects. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Above Lye Valley spring fen, this dry sandy area (corallian geology) is very popular with #reptiles. Here scything down mainly nettles keeps refuges from being shaded & adding cuttings to heaps gives more shelter areas for our slow worms, lizards & grass snakes @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

I did a lot of chasing to snap this common blue male #butterfly in Lye Valley Fen, here posed on our abundant marsh horsetail. Love that fluffy blue body. We hope common blues will like the increasing population of greater bird's foot trefoil we have encouraged nearby @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

After yrs of looking at common fleabane in hope, & not finding it: finally a volunteer at a conservation work party in at Milham Ford ponds brought me this 'ladybird' he found on fleabane. Not a ladybird but a Fleabane Tortoise Beetle Cassida murraea! what a beauty.. @colsocbi.bsky.social

I know it is common, but it is always a joy to welcome back the first delicate pink flowers of Ragged Robin in their normal places (and in new places we seeded) in Lye Valley fen @friendlyevalley.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Just a caddis fly larval case from a pond nr Oxford. Remarkably constructed entirely from Planorbis pond snail shells and fragments... @freshwaterhabitats.bsky.social

We think this might be the first of the Lye Valley fen's common spotted orchids.....on the other hand it does have those long incurving bracts, so perhaps it is a hybrid with early marsh orchid? We will watch how it develops. Any comments welcome @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Fun to find some spectacular invertebrates & amphibians at Milham Ford Nature Park ponds - a big diving beetle larva with impressive jaws, large Dragonfly nymph, soldierfly larvae (one Stratiomys). Plus several male & female smooth newts and these juveniles under a log in the pond edge.

A big thanks to all the star volunteers of OCV @oxconservation.bsky.social who worked at Milham Ford Nature Park ponds & stream last weekend. Tough task, digging out invading excess Greater Reedmace, Soft Rush, Iris & Branched Bur-reed to keep open water in the ponds for biodiversity.

In Lye Valley fen Common Cotton grass (not common in Oxon & on new BSBI GB red list) Eriophorum angustifolium beginning to look great in its ever expanding new position on the wet west bank. Haven't quite got enough fluff to stuff a small pillow yet..... @friendlyevalley.bsky.social