William (Bill) Sutherland

SUNBLEAK (Leucaspius delineatus)! New species for me. Great shimmering shoal puzzled me as to their identity, during a quick dip in South Drain, Shapwick Moor, Somerset Levels youtu.be/SRJUN3omfRw. This shoal, mixed with Roach etc was among few fish remaining where vegetation cleared. #MySwim 1/14

Discussing the critical differences between ruminants and non-ruminants. youtu.be/acSJrID1-V0?...

Much looking forward to seeing Derek v Derek tonight in Cambridge. Only a few seats left! cambridge.thelight.co.uk/derek-vs-derek

I think there is a paper showing that the poles on sweet track in Somerset level were all same age determined from tree rings so concluded was coppiced. Anyone know this or did I dream it? Thanks. Bill

Horse chestnut have difficulty regenerating in native range in Balkans. Did missing megafauna used to spread horse chestnut in Europe? Another example why rewilding looks back beyond the last ice age to understand the missing ecological processes that contributed to much greater past biodiversity.

Astonished on slipping into lake in upper Nar valley, to be greeted by these giant primeval looking beasts youtu.be/dGJ8gh6sIUQ?.... My 1st Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella)! Native to Amur River, not Cyprinids like most UK freshwater fish eg only other UK carp I've met bsky.app/profile/nume... 🧵

Thanks @hughraven.bsky.social for hospitality & permission to snorkel River Shep in Shepreth, having walked by it back in March bsky.app/profile/nume.... The reward, this handsome Brown Trout, as well as a torpid Threespine Stickleback & abundant Water Boatmen (Corixa & Sigara lateralis?) #MySwim

6 weeks after rushed (cos filming with BBC) encounter with best Grayling school ever saw, reunited with them, at same spot in River Nar, still with Trout parr. As I lay there, they vanished. Looked behind me to find them clustered at my side. Taking me for a log? Flattered! youtu.be/XOq1cNEcl2k?...

I love this story about the remarkable history of horse chestnuts youtu.be/ALPywBB11t4?...

Excited by the eruption of nutcrackers in Finland etc. This one was in Falsterbo Sweden late September. I showed the photo to the owner of the telescope who missed it as photographing another at his feet! Hope some head to the UK. Loved seeing one in Westleton in 1985.

Different video discussing how geology gives clues to the thinking of early architects. youtu.be/ubf27rk0_2Y?...

Second geology video. This one examining how basalt forms and the ecological consequences. youtu.be/wl_qIP-n6ic?...

How running an experiment was critical for the survival of this rewilding project. youtu.be/e8loyBgiNPs?...

Love this about the dynamics of wild horses on grasslands. Some interesting online talks coming up connected to this: Jens-Christian Svenning on wild horses- vildmarken.dk/article/onli... and Leo Linnartz on on cattle behaviour - vildmarken.dk/article/onli...

The vegetation structures that herbivores shape are the ones that all flora and fauna are most adapted to. While it's very important to recognise these structures, it's probably more important to realise that in some places there are very few herbivores and in other places no herbivores at all.

Paper written by a team of funders describing how they can and are encouraging the embedding of tests into practice. doi.org/10.1111/cobi...

Both speakers are stars and always interesting and thoughtful.

Delighted that the RSPB are now evidence champions marking their great work, especially in the testing of conservation actions to improve practice. www.conservationevidence.com/content/page... www.conservationevidence.com/content/page...

What can be the consequences of well managed free living horses on ecosystems? youtu.be/lv4x3uBq5Rg?...

Chair combining behavioural studies with sustainability, which I gather may encompass biodiversity www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/hatton-...

Is remarkable how a whole community of migratory fish has largely disappeared. Here we discuss the five different strategies. youtu.be/pSac_QGEMbE?...

THANKS: BBC Countryfile's Anil Olgun, Joe Davies & whole team who made filming my river snorkelling as fun as could be (33 mins in, www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...), Fi Cotter-Craig, hostess with the mostest & esp. Alec Birkbeck who created the wonderland that is the River Nar at West Acre. #MySwim 🧵

If Billy Goats Gruff crossed, trip trap, Iron Bridge over River Little Ouse btw hamlets of Little Ouse, Cambs & Brandon Bank, Norfolk, instead of a troll lurking under, these friendly Perch. Unsure why they're "yawning" as they gave impression that I'm v interesting. youtu.be/2J9eU7BASxc #MySwim 🧵

Most amazing find on #MyWalk in King's Forest, West Stow: Slime Mould (Myxomycetes) Yellow Carnival Candy Slime (Heterotrichia obvelata; only 52 UK @inaturalist.bsky.social records), with Leiobunum blackwalli? Harvestman. Also Trumpet (Cladonia fimbriata) & Field Dog (Peltigera rufescens) lichens.

Interesting article Ross.

On #MyWalk from Gazeley to Moulton end August, besides fine Common Buzzard eating, I think, a young Brown Rat, we came across this magnificent #bracketfungus. Could it be Giant Elm Bracket (Rigidoporus ulmarius) @norwichbirder.bsky.social ? #fungi #mushroom #MushroomMonday #birdseenin2026 #suffolk

Commercial forests are facing serious problems from disease, pests and temperature extremes. How is it possible to create more resilient forest? youtu.be/4a9UHvCwQQ8?...

#Devon's coast in June was superb for Comb Jellies (Ctenophores); had my 1st encounter with 3 species of these harmless beauties. At Blackpool Sands here's the amazing living disco ball that is Common Northern Comb Jelly (Bolinopsis infundibulum), with its distinctive pair of fringed tentacles. 🧵

Returning to Elberry Cove, 3 years later, on 26 June, delighted to witness this argy-bargy between 2 Montagu’s Blenny (Coryphoblennius galerita), the unicorns of the #UK blenny world, having only a single fleshy flap as head adornment, now spreading N & E from SW stronghold. #Fish #blenny #MySwim 🧵

These wonderfully impressive Tauros cattle are an attempt to recreate the extinct auroch. Really interesting to consider their potential role in conservation. youtu.be/OMVw3TLUJQo?...

How do we know the water quality impacts of deforestation? The terrific research at Hubbard Brook delivers the answers. youtu.be/Zk3UvlAw3ys?...

This monster, maybe Sea Trout youtu.be/W3W2KnSWFec?..., a key highlight of #MySwim of 3km of River Little Ouse (Santon Downham ⬆️& ⬇️) on 4 days in early July, here covered in my longest ever🧵. If a Sea Trout, this 1+m Brown Trout'd be 1st in recent times known to go to sea & return to Little Ouse.

Among most amazing snorks ever last week in Burwell Lode down from Cock-up Bridge. Thrill 1: at last, 4+ yrs after hubby gripped me off bsky.app/profile/nume..., quality time with SPINED LOACH. By day v shy, only shot 2, rest vanishing in puffs of silt. By night lolling all over bare silt! #MySwim

Have started making videos on geology, and the impact on ecology and landscapes, and learnt a huge amount in doing so. Also filmed limestone and basalt, which will release over the next weeks. Hope you find as interesting as I did. youtu.be/o8hXAbkn7Gs?...

How to trees respond to damage or take advantages of opportunities? Here I describe the process of reiteration and how this can be used to date when these events occurred. youtu.be/b0wAma9SR80?...

Please enjoy these cooling happy shoals of beautiful Silver Bream (Blicca bjoerkna) with Bitterlings (Rhodeus amarus), Roach & Perch, before I turn to the continued horrors of aquatic vegetation clearance I witnessed in Burwell Lode on 31 July, swimming upstream from the Cock-up Bridge. #fish 🧵1/25

Since 29 July I've swum up & down the 3km of River Little Ouse from confluence with Great Ouse at Brandon Creek to Little Ouse village in 3 swims. This 🧵is top 2km from Bank Farm. Highlight - on each swim, young ZANDER (Sander lucioperca). 1st I've met! Here with ?diseased Bitterlings. #MySwim 1/25

On Friday, swimming 1km up River Little Ouse from its confluence with the Great Ouse at Brandon Creek, delighted, again at Bank Farm to meet young Zander (Sander lucioperca). Always they seem to be out in water column in middle of river eg with Roach, like a strange Pike-Perch hybrid. #MySwim 1/12

On 10 July, shocked, upon swimming up the Wissey across the aqueduct, towards the Anglian Water Water Treatment Works & Water Recycling Centre, to observe THOUSANDS of young Perch frantically rushing down river in a non-stop exodus. Visibility strangely bad, water surprisingly warm... #MySwim 🧵 1/15

Thrilled, on my 1st swim in the Yare catchment, in the lovely River Tas #chalkstream, to meet my 1st live East Anglian White-clawed Crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes aka Atlantic Stream Crayfish), globally Endangered with extinction. Just moulted! See exuvia to left! #MySwim #MolluscMonday 🧵1/10

A week ago the River Lark upstream of the Cut-Off Channel & Barton Mills was rather sad, with relatively few fish compared to recent swims in the Little Ouse, Wissey & Nar. This group of quite small Common Dace (Leuciscus leuciscus) among the rootscape under an Alder were the highlight. #MySwim 1/10

There are lots of views about whether geography or gender bias peer review and whether anonymous peer review is less biased or is harder to operate. Charles Fox has run an amazing series of experiments to find the answers. youtu.be/GtiWx-h_yos?...

Highlight of a fascinating swim up 900m of the River Little Ouse through @littleouse.bsky.social new reserve, Prince Freddy's Meadow, Blo' Norton on the #Norfolk #Suffolk border was couple of pools of Common Dace (Leuciscus leuciscus). youtu.be/iMRVaIug0Kc?... #MySwim #rivers #fish #ukwildlife 1/19

Three videos on forest fires. The challenges of managing forests in the Rockies youtu.be/s9RIvwfwRhA?... then old videos on whether pine forests burn youtu.be/SrNRfLV201k?... and how fires determine the balance between eucalyptus forest and rainforest youtu.be/3oK2OEPJHvM?...

This weekend, such a privilege to explore the wondrous main channel of a River Test tributary in Hampshire. A highlight of this chalk stream was the abundant, exquisite Grayling parr, here energetically feeding with Minnows youtu.be/vZ360iCMro4?.... #MySwim #Rivers #Fish #teamfish #ukwildlife 1/25

How does droughts kill plants and how do some communities benefit from drought? Here I tell the story of Breckland in eastern England youtu.be/0h6GYgza00E?...

In the River Wensum at Ringland, prize of #MySwim a week ago was astonishing congregation under trees of huge Roach & Chub, the like of which I've never seen youtu.be/fzFz9gYCf7s?.... In the 1st "room" it was predominantly Roach then masses of Chub. Gudgeon, Minnows & Dace also milling about. 1/14

Vegetation Structures and Herbivores. It's all about vegetation structures and herbivores. Get these two things working and everything else then just falls into place.

The thorny bush is the mother of the oak, as @fransvera.bsky.social put it. @billsutherland.bsky.social and @leolinnartz.bsky.social are out in the field to explore exactly this youtu.be/IxHLy6uh4-w?...