Meanwhile, everything's gone quiet on cycling in Wandsworth, council still running scared. Wandsworth Council Simon Hogg Jo ❤️ Balham Jack Mayorcas

Looks like Nomada lathburiana have followed the Ashy mining bees into the garden (or more accurately here, house before being liberated). So, so many of the former still present in the local park. Ian Beavis

🌱 We're joining the #NoMowMay movement for the first time this year to support biodiversity and create a haven for local wildlife. Will you be joining us at home? 🦋🌼

First Early bumblebee worker in the garden and she's tired. Hoping she'll get enough from this buttercup to see her on her way. One solitary queen last year after a bumper 2022 but that year's heatwave prob did for them. Buglife Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Oh FFS, there are even top notch bee hotels within centimetres of this. #NotTheTargetSpecies #RedMasonBee Dave Goulson

Female small white enjoying the nectar bar on Wandsworth Common.

Sometimes you need to go looking at night, other times the lepidopteran signs are there all around. The rolled silver birch leaf is a new one to me. Butterfly Conservation 🦋

Present in abundance in the local park, but rare here in the garden, this fresh-looking female ashy mining bee sadly has a wing deformity. Possible emergence holes in the long grass so hopefully tempered by a new colony being formed. Buglife Steven Falk Ian Beavis

This guy is a survivor. Not sure what happened to his leg but he's been around in the garden for a couple of years so it's not bothering him too much. Froglife

After the fairly regimented nature of frog spawn, there is something quite endearing about the 'stick it anywhere' habits of newts. Those in my pond tend to use blades of grass. Froglife ARG UK

I was just thinking, today feels like a damselfly sort of a day, when one emerged daintily from the pond and settled on a hawthorn leaf. British Dragonfly Society Dave Smallshire

Swift in Balham. Lev Parikian

The full paper of our recent study on the butterfly benefits of having long grass and flowering ivy in GB gardens is now freely available for a limited time. Please RT to spread the word 📣authors.elsevier.com/c/1i~vVB8cd0JT1

This looks very nice indeed.

Loving the 3-tier mowing on the dog-free zone of Wandsworth Common this year. Close for the cricket outfields, medium for the ground-feeders and lower wildflowers and lush edges for the rest. Starlings enjoying it and green woodpecker also heard. Enable Parks Wandsworth

Good amounts of yellow rattle starting to establish on parts of #WandsworthCommon , boding well for the future plant diversity in the no-mow margins.

I’ve seen a fair few Beaver dams, but this complex was up there with the more extraordinary ones. Goshawks were calling and month-old roofing signs of Wild Boar were apparent, but it wasn’t in Germany or Poland but Wiltshire. A sign of what’s to come?

Very excited about our new paper! Lisbeth Hordley & I show that if you have long grass in your garden you’ll see more butterflies, that more long grass is better & that the effects are greater for gardens in more urban & arable landscapes. sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 🧵

We're aiming to rebuild bridges between young Europeans on both sides of the Channel.

Today, we've proposed to EU Council to open negotiations with the UK on youth mobility.

This would make it easier for young citizens to study, work and live in the 🇬🇧 and 🇪🇺.

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Just a few home improvements that have needed doing for ages. #UnderShedFox #FoxOfTheDay Chris Packham