mastodon 4.6.5#Dragonfly obsessed environmental consultant. Welsh exile in Swindon. Mainly #wildlife and #botany with a sideline in unsuccessful sports teams and jokes about politics. #CharltonAthletic #LondonWelsh #CambridgeCity #GlamorganCricket #UKLabour
This was in the crazy wildflower car park in #Bristol. Crimson Clover. I mean, it's lovely and I assume it escapes occasionally, but whoever sold the seed for the wildflower planting saw their customer coming. It's an agricultural crop. #Bloomscrolling #WildflowerHour #plants #flowers #photography
It took a fair amount of searching in the car park with the over-enthusiastic wildflower planting to find a proper wild flower that I hadn't seen in flower already this year. Eventually I found Common Vetch. At least this one's an actual wild flower. Enjoying itself clambering among the more exotic plants. #Bristol #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
A Hawksbeard for #WildflowerHour. Specifically one which has self-sown into the cracks between the paving in my front yard. I suspect it's Beaked Hawksbeard because that what I had last year. The flowers are always closed in the morning and evening so today was the first time I saw them properly. It's quite tall plant which makes it relatively easy to get a photo of the backs of the flowers. #Swindon #Wiltshire #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Also at #Thursley, my first reptile of the year, a Common Lizard on the boardwalk over the bog on Thursday. Sunny spells with occasional cloud, perfect weather for seeing species that like to sunbathe when they need to warm up a bit. #UKWildlife #photography #reptiles
Garlic Mustard for the #CabbageFamily challenge in this week's #WildflowerHour. This one at Henley Hawks RFC on Saturday, taken while waiting for the game to start. #Henley is in the far corner of #Oxfordshire near the point where it meets both Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Given how often I've been to Church Norton, you'd think I'd have spotted Sea Milkwort there before now. But this was a first for me yesterday. #WildflowerHour #Sussex #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
My first Orange Tip #butterfly of the year on Garlic Mustard for the #WildflowerHour #HedgerowChallenge. #invertebrates #UKWildlife #Somerset #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Easy to overlook, the tiny flowers of Early Forgetmenot growing near the lake at Beaconsfield motorway services on Monday. #WildflowerHour #Buckinghamshire #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
I went to Church Norton mainly to admire the Little Terns which breed there, but also to catch the end of the flowering season for the Sea Kale which is very common at the top of the beach. #WildflowerHour #Sussex #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Common Gorse was looking very fine at #Thursley on Thursday when I called in hoping for Woodlark (failed) and Dartford Warbler (saw one! yay!). Such fantastic flowers when you stop to look at them. #WildflowerHour #Surrey #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Not all that much to see at my favourite building site this week - they've got hoardings around some of the best bits. But a good display of Oxford Ragwort. #WildflowerHour #Bristol #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Black Medick for the #WildflowerHour #CarrotsAndPeas challenge (it's in the pea family). Taken last night in failing light; the plant growing in a crack in the paving on my front yard. On the right of the photo is a ladybird, I think possibly a 16-spot? #invertebrates #Swindon #Wiltshire #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Common Broom growing in the exotic location of ... Beaconsfield Motorway Services. On Monday evening. It's in the pea family, as you may be able to tell from the shape of the flowers. #CarrotsAndPeas #WildflowerHour #Buckinghamshire #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Primrose in drizzle and bad light at the fantastic Wiltshire Wildlife Trust reserve at #Ravensroost Wood yesterday morning. My first properly-wild primroses of the year. #SignsOfSpring #WildflowerHour #Wiltshire #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
After long cold months away, the Oxford Ragwort is back in flower at the building site near our office in #Bristol. Hooray! #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
A bit of a surprise in the tree line between the footpath and the river in #Bath yesterday - Wild garlic aka Ramsons. I'd been expecting the invasive three-cornered leek, but didn't find that. This was a much better option. #WildflowerHour #HedgerowChallenge #Somerset #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Several of these at the car park with the planted but unmanaged wildflower area in #Bristol this week. Looks to be Neapolitan Garlic, although I'm not sure I can rule out the less common Hairy Garlic. There's some really mad stuff in that car park, but it's been there a few years and this seems to be coping in the wild so far. #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Another of the yellow crucifers in #Bath yesterday. I'm pretty sure this one is Wild Radish - the shape of the flowers looks familiar. #WildflowerHour #HedgerowChallenge #Somerset #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
My chosen hedge for the #HedgerowChallenge for this week's #WildflowerHour was the line of trees by the river path in #Bath yesterday. It didn't disappoint. Greater Stitchwort showing off here. #Somerset #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Not my first Danish Scurvy Grass of the year, but the first growing somewhere I could get a photo without risking my life. Reading westbound motorway services on Thursday, near the petrol station. #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Common Wintercress growing in the wildflower area of a car park in #Bristol last week. There are quite a lot of #CabbageFamily species with lots of yellow flowers, many of which will grow as weeds in urban areas given the chance. #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
I went to #Thursley nature reserve on Saturday morning, mainly because I wanted to see Woodlark (success!) but also to see if any interesting flowers were out. Lousewort has a really odd-looking flower. It specialises in boggy areas like this. #WildflowerHour #Surrey #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Some roadside plants from #Bath yesterday. Catsear, Bristly Sow-thistle, Charlock and Common Storksbill. #WildflowerHour #Somerset #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Bulbous Buttercup has a very niche habitat around here - it grows in the bits of road verge where the daffodils are, but nowhere else. It flowers early in the season so likes the bits that are spared mowing in early summer but then mown later. Cunning. #WildflowerHour #Swindon #Wiltshire #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Coltsfoot in #Bristol near the River Avon this morning. My first of the year. Normally I see it at my favourite building site in the city centre but that has work going on meaning you can't see into it as easily as usual. So here's a roadside one instead. #WildflowerHour #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
Rue-leaved Saxifrage for #WildflowerHour from a car park in #Bristol on Tuesday. Saxifrage means stone-breaker/ Wikipedia thinks this means it was used to treat kidney stones, but when you see it growing on bare tarmac you do wonder if it can sink its roots into rock. #WildflowerHour #StoryPlants #Bloomscrolling #botany #plants #flowers #wildflowers #photography
This week's #WildflowerHour challenge is #HedgerowChallenge. Anything growing in or under a hedge.
https://bsky.app/profile/wildflowerhour.bsky.social/post/3mk47q5ipo22r
This week's #WildflowerHour challenge is #CowslipChallenge. If you live in a country where Primula veris isn't found, you may need to improvise.
https://bsky.app/profile/wildflowerhour.bsky.social/post/3mig65jaqrk2o
The #WildflowerHour challenges are back! This week is #SignsOfSpring which is a relatively easy one. Of course you can still just post any wild flower you want.
The WildflowerHour team are on BlueSky rather than here - check their BlueSky account from midweek each week to see what the next weekend's challenge is.
https://bsky.app/profile/wildflowerhour.bsky.social/post/3mg6lwm3lyc24
This week's #WildflowerHour challenge is #WoodlandPlants. So technically you could post a Cowslip again.
https://bsky.app/profile/wildflowerhour.bsky.social/post/3miyr73azic2o
Can you find any wild or naturalised plants that have white blooms? That’s the #wildflowerhour challenge this week! Share your finds this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #WhiteFlowers. Happy flower hunting!
https://bsky.app/profile/wildflowerhour.bsky.social/post/3mgrhlgwfvs2x
This week's #WildflowerHour challenge is #StoryPlants - plants about which you can tell a story or a fascinating fact.
https://bsky.app/profile/wildflowerhour.bsky.social/post/3mhcuaghqx22q