Arable Emily

It's a grim old day outside and the cat has sat on me. Giving me plenty of time to reflect on a fabulous few days on a fungal survey in Kent. What an amazing diversity!!

Post meeting, late lunch, fungal foray......... NB none of these were lunch.

Getting very excited about my upcoming fungal SSSi survey. Revising by lamplight. One of my favourite past times. @norfolknats.bsky.social @wildernorfolk.bsky.social

Excellent day at Recording in Conservation event @suffolknaturalist.bsky.social, @norfolknats.bsky.social & thanks @timholtwilson.bsky.social Interesting, enjoyable. Great chat on fungi, apps, spiders. I am fairly sure I need a thermal imaging monocular too! @megwildflowers.bsky.social it's 156 🕷️

Excellent day at Recording in Conservation event @suffolknaturalist.bsky.social, @norfolknats.bsky.social & thanks @timholtwilson.bsky.social Interesting, enjoyable. Great chat on fungi, apps, spiders. I am fairly sure I need a thermal imaging monocular too! @megwildflowers.bsky.social it's 156 🕷️

Aside from the masses of underwings of varying sorts it was a Rustic start to the day today. Vine's, Clancy's and Square Spot Rustic greeted me. @norfolkmoths.bsky.social @norfolknats.bsky.social

Clouded Yellows. A glorious but occasional treat in a late Norfolk/Suffolk summer. Almost impossible to capture as they just don't sit still!! So I gave up on that and went for an action shot...... 🖤🧡💛🧡💛🧡🖤

There will be a 'round-up' to come but I am no longer able to function beyond saying... 100 miles done!!! Huge thanks to all those who helped, encouraged, sponsored. www.justgiving.com/page/swannya... @alzheimerssoc.bsky.social

We got up. We walked 23 miles. We hurt. 82 miles since Friday leaving us with a mere 18 to do tomorrow to complete the challenge!! Dodged the worst of the weather & have seen a fantastic amount of wildlife today. Including one of my favourite spiders!!! www.justgiving.com/page/swannya...

Day 1&2 done. 42 miles covered of our Bank Hol Charity 100. Broads to Brecks- Angles Way. Sunshine, wildlife, torrential rain, an incident with a footbridge, some great bruising, laughter, ice baths & great people sponsoring us as we go!! Looking forward to Day 3!! www.justgiving.com/page/swannya...

Greeted on the garden path by an old friend and one of my favourite arachnids. Particularly keen to pose for pictures too which they don't normally. Scytodes thoracica-the 'Spitting Spider'

Practice for the 'Big one'. Not too shabby, 17. 3 miles, 5hrs 25. Pretty stretches, stubble fields hotter than the sun, unmown paths 😡 & a ditch we had to bum slide down to cross 😡😡. Got to be worth a sponsor surely.....🤣😁https://www.justgiving.com/page/swannyandteresa?utm_medium=FA&utm_source=CL

Not a bad tick for the garden whilst doing my butterfly count. 2 Peacocks, 3 Large White, 2 Red Admiral 2 Holly Blue and a Grayling!!! @ukbutterflies.bsky.social @bc-suffolk.bsky.social

Friday friends for me from a post work excursion this week. Something a little different. Phone through binos shot with a little tweaking to sky colour courtesy of AI.

We had the Violet Sea Lavender Weevil earlier in the year to bring Joy. Today I present the Disco Beetle.

' In a muddle if you have got a lot of Buddle?' Treasures lie within. Golden margin 20+years old, greener strip 3 years old, waiting to calm down from years of intensive inputs & allow rarities to flourish. Not sown, but emerging from the seed bank. Alive with insects and birds even in 30°+

August bank hol, my friend & I will be 'enjoying' an independent 93 mile walk for @alzheimerssoc.bsky.social Gt Yarmouth -Thetford. Apparently if we make our donation target we will do a full 100 too, although I am very hazy on exactly when I agreed to that 🤣 www.justgiving.com/page/swannya...

#Meadows are magic. #NationalMeadowsDay. Full of colour, insects and life!!!

Another Happy Emily day. Grasses and Sedges refresher for me but also managed to find a spider!! Drapetisca socialis I think.....wonderfully camouflaged on the silver birch🕷️ @britishspiders.bsky.social @chalkspring.bsky.social

Happy Emily. This cultivated margin had it's time full of Thistles, Mugwort, Sterile Brome to name but a few. Now a sea of Cornsalads, Venus Looking glass, Rough Poppy & Night-flowering catchfly. Patience and attention to detail- topping, ploughing and working the soil has paid off. #itcanbedone

Mottled bee fly. What a beauty.

A couple of nice moths this morning in the trap. Brown Silver Line and a Toadflax Brocade. #WeekendWildlife

May has been so busy my #SpiderADayForMay has been derailed somewhat. Mainly because I have been looking for spiders & finding some superb ones.😆 So here is a mash up to catch up. NB. None were actually mashed. All found on arable reversion in various locations.

I always consider this plant, Toadflax to be one of the last 'new' plant to flower throughout the year. I may be very wrong in this observation but May does seem very early for this to be on full flower. What do others think?

#SpiderADayForMay. Day 13. Seen today. This wonderful 'Marsh Bear Spider' -Arctosa Leopardus.

Remaining in South Africa for day 12 in the #SpiderADayForMay series. I think this is Megaraneus gabonensis. It certainly was mega at least 2inches long and 1 inch wide! Can any of my spider followers confirm/redirect.......

Departure from the UK 11th #SpiderADayForMay is a #SouthAfrican Beauty. I studied intensely my SA spider guide & dreamt of seeing this. With well over 2000 species to choose from I never thought I would and yet..........I did. Gasteracantha versicolor. Common Kite Spider.

#SpiderADayForMay 9,10. 11 to come later! Some sandy friends. Arctosa perita and Marpissa nivoyi. Sand Bear and a Dune Jumper!! #Whatsnottolike #Nature

Eeek, spiders 7 and 8 (having too much fun looking for them to post daily clearly). Uloborus plumipes a 'garden centre' spider import and the ever formidable looking Dolomedes frimbriatus- raft spider. Both in Norfolk. #SpiderADayForMay

Spiders 5 and 6 for #SpiderADayForMay as have been on a mini work trip. All good though as I managed to locate the 2 of our target species.....Pellenes tripunctatus the 'White Striped' Jumping Spider, closely guarding an egg sack & many Pseudeuophrys obsoleta, the 'Whelk Shell' Jumping Spider.

Hardy Geraniums are not everyone's cup of tea. Luckily for the Early Bumblebees they are mine!!. The garden has been alive with them today despite the typically bank holiday weather.

Catching up with #SpiderADayForMay with #4 Steatoda grossa I believe. A false widow. What a beautiful creature and sadly much misunderstood. New species for the garden for me too. :)

Spider 3 for #SpiderADayForMay. The Flower crab spider. An amazing ambush predator with superb, chaemeleon-like powers of camouflage. #Whatsnottolike

Day 2 of #SpiderADayForMay one of my favourites. A Sand Dune Jumping Spider- Attulus Saltator. Those eyes! ❤️

Starting slowly #SpiderADayForMay. Everyone starts somewhere & #Spiders are sooooo cool. Here is spider #1 Enjoying an aphid snack. (Rose garden enthusiasts take note) Heliphanus species or the 'Sun' Jumping spider. #whatsnottolike. Spider 2 later today ....

Nice bit of drive by arable botany today. Shepherd's Needle and Tower Mustard. Not bad for #fridayfinds #formerlyknownasweeds

Nice day for a picnic....#Spiders #Snacks

Something a bit different today. Strongylodon macrobotrys....the most amazing coloured plant I think I have ever seen. The Jade Vine. Just WOW. @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social

Yesterday's bees were indeed confirmed as Bombus pratorum, the Early Bumblebee. Which brings my visibly breeding species count up to Goldfinch, Pigeon, Early Bumblebee Frogs, Orange Tips and Ruby tigers!!

Lunchtime #spidering Crab spider Xysticus hanging out for a snack.

Be more Frog.

Beyond excited to discover 'my'Goldfinches prospecting for a nest site for the 3rd year. Lovely to hear the nearby Greenfinches too, not heard them in a while. Seem to also have a resident Chiff Chaff and a Blackcap too. 2025 fledglings below. #UrbanNature @rspb.bsky.social

Smart little fly found today. Thought it was a picture wing at first but I think having had a look at a couple of keys it could be a fruit fly....possibly Euleia heraclei......?

A spring delight and not often at a height I can get a snap of European Larch.....

First moth trap of the season today and amongst the many small quakers a new species for me I think.....Orthosia miniosa, Blossom underwing I believe. A real beauty. @bc-suffolk.bsky.social

Love watching the garden spring back to life. Peacock, Small White, Large Garden Bumblebee Queen, Flower Bees, and the first Bee Fly of the garden for 2026.

#Saturdayspider time. I finally found a 'Garden centre spider' Uloborus plumipes. An old world species which seems to have made itself quite comfortable in the house plant section of my local garden centre.

I could try and say something relevant, topical, profound even on the general state of everything. However what I feel I need is a small, purple, Sea Lavender Weevil. So here it is. #Nature