Why buy it, when you can make it - cheaper! I've been raiding the hedgerows again, this time to make Elderberry Syrup ahead of the winter flu season. It taste good, it packs a health punch! The berries are packed with antioxidants & vits that boost your immune system #phenology

Fantastic episode of @TrooperSnooks et al's excellent @countryslidepod Lizzie @LizzieGrayshon and Megan @MeganRural from @Gameandwildlife talk about the importance of farmer clusters, what works re. on farm conservation, and the odd mention of hedges... https://t.co/8gnWgFFa5e

The best @BluePlaques I've seen. Selborne, Hampshire. Bet he was quite a guy! @SullivanBlack3

Dad’s out checking the stock. He’s got a heart condition & early dementia but he drives around the farm daily, & takes the dog for a ride. His life is embedded in this landscape Sometimes he doesn’t know me but he can spot a problem with a cow at 1000 paces #farm24

Listen! Quail calling. Sounds like "wet my lips!" I heard it on one of the farms MartinDownFarmerCluster @MDSuperCluster today while doing fieldwork. Amber listed, migratory (Africa), farmland bird species. Found where there is plenty of arable farmland & open grassland @_BTO

@RoyalAirForce

26 miles walked this week - highlights were silver-washed fritillary (too fast for photo), over 40 DG frits, watching corn burning dropping into fields of spring barley to feed chicks & catching up with the farmers/members of MartinDownFarmerCluster while on farm @MDSuperCluster

The sun is out and the first combine is rolling on our Allenford Farmer Cluster....followed by a close flyby! #Harvest25 @farmersweekly @royalairforceuk @MDSuperCluster #farmercluster

Fantastic day yesterday @Groundswellaguk - my first time & I will definitely be going back, but for both days, as I feel I'm missing out today! Lots of interesting sessions, demos, talks, debates & meetings up with familiar faces and meeting lots of new. Can't wait until 2026!

The latest sightings for May are now on the HOS website https://t.co/8RM5BbcC2C

A colleague & I have had the same experience this season doing #BreedingBirdSurveys- locations >1hr away-on the same day-thinking we had heard a nightingale, song was identical but it was a blackcap mimicking! @_BTO Anyone else had this? @mattthesparrow @GrahamDenny9 @HOSbirding

Just found this pigeon egg buried in a very high (4ft) and deep planter, must have been a fox

Note to self - check pots before watering them! The rudbeckia was moving & then a robin chick popped up on the edge of the pot! A closer look today, she actually nested in there and there's not 1 chick but 3!! @_BTO #naturefriendlygarden that's 11 nests in our garden for 2025!

And another one less than 20 minutes later 🤯 #banballoons

No, it's not my birthday and I am certainly not happy seeing this balloon littering the @MDSuperCluster while conducting bumblebee & corn bunting surveys. Accidentally or purposely released - not acceptable. Littering, causes harm to wildlife&livestock #BanBallons @labour

#nomowmay The slow worms are doing well in our garden!

Guess where I've been.... 💚

A first for me! An Emperor Moth, in the grass on the pristine chalk downland at MartinDown in the heart of our #FarmerClusters @MDSuperCluster This female (10cm without feathery antennae) was hunkered low. So pleased! #mothsmattertoo @savebutterflies @hantsconnect

Lovely to see this species today, I think I've only seen a handful in my lifetime and I saw two in one day! I give you the Wall Lasiommata megera, Pembrokeshire, Wales. @savebutterflies @Britnatureguide @PembsCoast

SWIFTS! I heard one yesterday evening but I actually saw a pair just a second ago in the Test Valley @HampshireSwifts