Peter Brash

All reserves with feeders take note!!

From the Liverpool Echo. Erm, don't give up on the day job. Mike Ashley was not available for comment.

Hummingbird hawkmoth in our garden @savebutterflies.bsky.social @royalent.bsky.social @swns.com @omsystem.bsky.social

Today is the 117th consecutive day somewhere in the UK has recorded a temperature of 20°C or higher. The 11th of June was the last time we didn't reach this threshold. Fresher air comes in on Wednesday allowing temperatures to fall, and likely to stay just below 20°C.

There's probably only me that still plays wordle and even fewer people who care, but bosh.

Really disappointed that Andy Burnham hasn't made a speech thanking Donald Trump and the American intelligence authorities for their help in catching those diesel rustlers.

Nope, no, not at all. Does anybody know of a website hosting and email service that hasn't got anything to do with ai? Hostinger was ok until they introduced ai. Looks like they're fully in before with the shit as well.

Pleased to finally add this paperback edition to my library. I suppose I can now cast away the test key and make room for something else.

Why are we destroying our biosphere by posting outrageous ai slop?

Bar-tailed Godwit from yesterday. Feeding well at Riverside Drive.

Not sure of there's any truth in the rumours about Ed Sheeran claiming asylum in Piddington.

What would we do without AI? USE THESE EXACT AMOUNTS.

Piddington New Town has a certain ring to it. Maybe a return to the brutalist new towns of the 1970's?

Had a long awaited patch tick today in the form of Bar-tailed Godwit. Good comparison with Black-tailed at one point too. Riverside Drive, Liverpool.

It's been a joy to see so many people offering a huge THANK YOU to the fabulous @botanybeck.bsky.social for all her wonderful work devising the weekly #WildFlowerHour challenges, which help us focus on different aspects of our amazing British & Irish wild & naturalised plants. Thank you, Rebecca!

Narrowed it down to two for #favouriteplant of 2026. Both were ones that I'd wanted to see for quite some time. Spotted Rock-rose the more spectacular and rare and massively assisted by @mattrjones.bsky.social Lesser Marshwort, not quite as pretty but was all my own work.

This is a disgrace. Brave RNLI volunteers being called scum for risking their lives to save others at sea is just plain wrong. So I've signed an open letter of thanks for the RNLI letting them know these thugs do not speak for the rest of us. Add your name? 38d.gs/jpcf

#LancsBirding

Garganey from Lower Hide, Leighton Moss this afternoon. #Lancashirebirding

#wallplants (very) late for #wildflowerhour There's a real transatlantic feel to the dock walls in Liverpool this year, remnants from the Tobacco trade? Thorn Apple, Green Amaranth and Common Ragweed. The latter two often appear in bird seed mixes.

Things to do in an emergency #3. Lou Reed plays his rooty-toot to placate an aging Noel Gallagher who is upset that the wheels have fallen off his pedal car.

What an absolute prick. Hopefully won't be the last third rate academic to be fired.

Cionus tuberculosus at Blarney Castle yesterday. Couldn't find any records on Biodiversity.ie

I was in Glengarriff, Cork today when I noticed a huge longhorn flying overhead. I kept an eye on it and managed to.leap.amd bat it out of the sky, cat-like (or as cat-like as a 56 year old man can be). Musk Beetle, Aroma moschata, a new beetle for me.

If this is the precedent they've set - hounding a person for their professional transgressions with no regard for the target's wellbeing - asking every journalist who wrote a hit piece, whenever they raise their head, how they sleep at night after killing a man seems not only fair but mandatory.

Up until yesterday I hadn't seen a Metopoplax of any sort. Surveying a quarry in Oxfordshire and came across dozens of Metopoplax ditomoides including mating pairs. Another location in the same quarry had lots of the rarer M. fuscinervis, again including mating pairs.

The drought isn't all bad news as this Water Purslane will testify. A seed bank that has probably remained under water for years is being allowed to thrive. #wildflowerhour

The appropriately named groundbug Nysius senecionis enjoying the Ragwort in West Lancs this week. #wildflowerhour

Had a look at an urban green space in Liverpool today for @scouseflowerhouse.bsky.social Really wasn't expecting a new species! The picture-winged fly Trupanea stellata. Something like the 5th record for South Lancashire.

Bruchidius imbricornis at Chirk Castle National Trust today. One Goat's Rue plant in a herbaceous border and bingo! Possibly the first for Wales.

I know spiders aren't everybody's thing, but this Larinioides cornutus in pink is an absolute beauty.

A bit unexpected. This Passiflora appeared to be naturalised in a supermarket car park in Kidlington. #wildflowerhour

Round-leaved Fluellen managing to flower amongst the sand and gravel car park of an Oxfordshire quarry this week. #wildflowerhour

Our usual method of cooling the house by opening allow the windows in the evening is unavailable tonight. Smoke from North Wales fires has enveloped us.

This unusually coloured Smooth Sow-thistle caught the eye this week. #wildflowerhour

Possibly the most interesting thing about this red card corruption incident is the reaction of one of Balogun's teammates when he heard the news. 'I thought it was AI'. So this great new innovation is now a byword for lies and fakery. That's the first thing that many people think of.

Two of my favourite wetland plants, the gothic Marsh Cinquefoil and the glaucous Sneezewort. #wildflowerhour

It's been a while since I came across Long-stalked Cranesbill. #wildflowerhour

Upright Hedge Parsley putting on a display for #wildflowerhour

My first fully fledged juvenile Black-headed Gull of the year yesterday. Welcome to autumn.

Ivy Broomrape for #wildflowerhour This chlorophyll-free parasite grows in a few locations in Liverpool.

My second 'county first' beetle of the week. This time in South Lancs. The seed beetle Bruchidius imbricornis. Feeds on Goat's Rue.

I was hoping the early morning rain might have cooled the temperatures today. It just added to the humidity. Made me think of Cape May, New Jersey, where I spent most of the summers of my 20's. Our high humidity today is equal to their lowest humidity. No wonder it was so energy sapping.

Spent a bit of time trying to match this to something in the Micromoth book. Waste of time as it's a tiny Caddid Fly Agraylea multipunctata

After weeks that included a variety of invertebrate surveys, I've celebrated #nationalinsectweek by doing...no invertebrate surveys. On the way back from finishing a bird survey in Cheshire today I noticed weevils on Common Toadflax. Turns out that Rhinusa antirrhini is new for the county.