DebSheldon

Life is so short just do what makes you smile

[Ramblings @ramblingsloa]

Somewhere out there,
Someone is listening to birds instead of breaking news
And the world feels a little more hopeful there.

[English Country Life @engcountrylife]

I cannot describe why the presence of a rather dull brown moth that hovers like a hummingbird fills me with joy each year. But it does.

Am I odd that I love these little markers in the seasons?

[Matthew Oates @MatthewOates76]

Welcome Home! A trio of House Martins reclaimed artificial nests on my house this afternoon, chortling in their joy. More to come. Bring them on!

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

A bricklayer in East Yorkshire has spent 35 years installing nest boxes for barn owls in his free time.

No grant. No organization behind him. Just Robert Salter, quietly building and mounting over 350 boxes across fields and farms on weekends, before and after work, for three and a half decades.

This year was the second-best barn owl breeding season in the region in decades. 304 owlets counted. Last year there were 95.

Barn owls have struggled across the UK for generations due to habitat loss, rodenticide poisoning, starvation from agricultural changes that eliminated the field margins where voles live, and collisions with vehicles on roads that cut through their hunting territory.

In many parts of England, populations collapsed while nobody was paying much attention.

One man paying attention changed the outcome for an entire region.

"This bird has lived alongside humans since they settled in this country," Salter told the BBC. "Because of that close relationship, I just feel like we owe it to barn owls to help and maintain their future populations."

The conservation story we usually tell involves governments, legislation, and international agreements.

Those matter, but so does one person who decided a species deserved better and just kept showing up.

[Andrew Thomas @AndrewPBF]

I thought it was just a battered Small Tortoiseshell on a muddy patch… but something wasn’t quite right. Then it clicked—it was far too big! My first-ever Large Tortoiseshell, emerging in the sun after months of Cornish rain. @savebutterflies @Cornwall_BC

[David @Disc_light]

to be completely honest I never expected this image to be so popular! I do love this spot and in particular those 2 trees guarding sentry over the path.

[Steve Nikols @nikols_steve]

As this year’s butterfly season draws to a close, it’s time for me to reflect on an excellent 2025 which yielded a total of 51 species. The first sighting of Green Hairstreak was at Brandon Marsh on April 11, my earliest record by 15 days. @BCWarwickshire @savebutterflies @WKWT

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.

Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.

However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.

When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.

The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.

Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?

I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.

The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.

Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

[lin hillside @linjianyangbe]

male Reeves's Pheasant (白冠长尾雉,Syrmaticus reevesii), in Henan province.
The male has an extremely long and silvery white tail barred with chestnut brown.
Endemic to #China, it is under top-class state protection. ❤王瑶

#birds #BirdsSeenIn2025
#Nature #Peace #Chinese

[Kerria @Kerria]

There is something haunting in the light of the moon.

~Joseph Conrad
#GrimLitFriday

[Steph Murphy @StephMurphy66]

Autumnal Firecrest singing in the back garden @DevonBirds #torbay

[Plantlife @Love_plants]

This #BiodiversityDay, let’s celebrate plants and all that they do:

🌬️ Absorb Carbon
🐞 Create habitats
🍃 Purify our air
🌱 Prevent soil erosion
🦋 Boost biodiversity

📸 Nathalie Esselin, Jane Showell, Paul Glendall, Pip Gray, Sarah Shuttleworth, Ian A Kirk, Luke Morton

[Michelle Paul @nature_michelle]

Synchronised flying! I caught these two delightful Common Brimstones fluttering around together in the bright sunshine yesterday 💛🦋

[Sarah L @s4r4h_l]

A pretty small white feeding on brambles flowers on a stroll after work yesterday evening. @savebutterflies @BC_Lancs #Lancashire #vitaminN #joy

[Andrew Wappat @AndrewWappat]

Woodcock studies, Sleddale.
Whilst checking in on my local redstart pair, delighted to spot two magnificent woodcock probing for food early afternoon. Superb plumage, and relatively confiding. @nybirdnews @NorthYorkMoors @teesbirds1 @waderquest @Natures_Voice

[Simon Walkden @mazymixer]

Beautiful weather for today's run from Edale to Grindleford.

It took a little bit longer than the train journey from Grindleford to Edale!

#PeakDistrict

[Tim Birch @TimBirchWild]

Good news is #cuckoo flowers not mown yet on A40 verge outside Scleddau, #Pembrokeshire Ive had no answer from @TrafficWalesS about their mowing plans for this verge. This verge is critical habitat for threatened #cuckoo flower and orange tip #butterfly @CThomasMS @huw4ogmore

[VenetiaJane's Garden @VenetiaJane]

“Mark the fair blooming of the Hawthorn Tree,
Who, finely clothed in a robe of white,
Fills full the wanton eye with May’s delight.” - William Browne.
Known as ‘May’, the hawthorn is another birth flower of the month. Its blossoms symbolise hope & the bond of true love. #folklore

[Sheep’s Head Nature @SHeadbirder]

One of several Green Hairstreaks in my garden this morning on the Sheep’s Head peninsula. ⁦@savebutterflies⁩