@johnfen1.bsky.social

@johnfen1.bsky.social

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Countryside Ranger in Rural Access and Urban Green Space. Gardening for Wildlife. Botany, Trees and Hedge Laying

A wooden boardwalk passing through tall herb vegetation. In the background a derelict local authority building, trees and bramble scrub. The boardwalk was part of a project that I was involved in back in 2023 enhancing access along the edge of an urban nature reserve pond.
A gingery yellow, black and chestnut Hornet Hoverfly with brown tinged wings settled on Frogbit leaves - an aquatic floating plant amongst oxygenated algae in a small pond
A littered Greggs Pizza or Bakes and paper bag on an urban green space. The box has the catch line “What’s not to Love” on it. An easily accessible litter bin is available on site.
A swathe of yellow flowering Common Fleabane and Ragwort in the foreground merging with crimson flower head specks of Spear Thistle and taller whitish pink Hemp Agrimony. Great Willowherb and Willow species trees in the background
Yellow flowering Common Ragwort amongst sun scorched grass and leaves against a background of other tall vegetation and trees underneath a heavy sky.
A slender shaped black/brown/yellow Long Hoverfly perched on a yellow Wood Avens flower against a backdrop of blurred green foliage.
Bellflower Heather against a backdrop of Common Heather, scattered Birch and Bracken, drystone walling and blue sky
A partially overhanging Oxeye Daisy partially submerged in a reflection of tree canopies on a canal water surface
A small powder blue coloured butterfly with black dots on its underwings. Holly Blue butterfly on the white flowers of Valerian.
Greenish white flowers of White Bryony attaching its tendrils to a a blue lilac flowered Ceanothus shrub and aiming for the tall stemmed light purple flowered Verbena bonariensis against the background of a red brick wall.
A lunch box and fuel can on the front of a large pedestrian mower pointing in the direction of the return leg of cutting a public right of way through a rough grassy farmland field margin.
Viper’s-bugloss in two shades of blue against a background of grassland carpeted with a yellow hue of Lady’s Bedstraw other spikes of Viper’s- bugloss and specks of bright yellow/orange Bird’s-foot-trefoil. Trees and cloud filled Lincolnshire sky.
A very slender Javelin Wasp with a long white tipped ovipositor connected to an orange banded abdomen. It is clinging to a piece of hazel amongst garden cane nesting tubes. It uses the ovipositor to deposit its own eggs in other host solitary bee and wasp nest chambers. The hatched Javelin Wasp larvae will feed on nectar and pollen deposited by the hosts as well as their larvae for afters!
A gingery coloured Narcissus Bulb Fly feeding on an Oxeye Daisy
Red Admiral Butterfly with hues of black, brown, orange, specks of blue and white on a sun bleached timber fence.
Wildflowers on the raised strip between the heavy farmland machinery tyre tracks
Common Daisy amongst the orangey red of Fox-and-cubs emerging from relatively closely mown churchyard grass. Headstones and church building in the background
Stage set in the grounds of Lincoln Castle. Bright orange effect light show. A digital projected representation of a flower resembling a member of the Daisy Family is rising up behind the band Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark. 11 June 2026
Timber garden boundary fence alongside a local authority access track to an urban green space. The verge has been sprayed with herbicide/weed killer. It is normally managed as a green verge through light occasional strimming to prevent it growing back through the fence. The verge in its green state with low growing flowering plants was not causing any harm.
A brightly coloured yellow, black and greyish white caterpillar clinging to a garden Buddleia stem. Black frass can be seen on the leaf below it.
A formidably spiney plant topped with an open vivid red-purple flower against a background of grassland merging with a hedgerow on the horizon underneath a low cloud sky
Tiny white flowers and anthers of Knotted-Hedge parsley amongst grass at the base of a grey metal pole. The reddish coloured beaked seeds of Doves-foot Crane’s-bill can be seen in front of the pole
Oxeye Daisies caught in the breeze below a pair of trouser legs!
A field of Oxeye Daisy against a heavy sky. The sky can be seen through the windowless ruin on the horizon amongst trees.
A consumer of pollen and nectar this metallic green beetle is on one of its favoured food plants the large flowering Oxeye Daisy with white petals and yellow button like composite centre packed with pollen and nectar.
Creamy white flowers amongst delicate foliage on loose slender stems supported by a low growing bramble undergrowth
Pale green veined flowers with “hairy petals” amongst its own palmate lobed leaves coiled tendrils and elliptical Privet leaves.
A butterfly with brown white bordered upper fore and hind wings with orange spots and two singular black eyespots on each forewing. Predominantly black haired thorax and abdomen.
Littered lake shoreline including disposable BBQs
Triangular almost heart shaped seed heads on tall slender stems of Shepherd’s Purse amongst vivid crimson and white coloured agricultural clovers against a backdrop of trees and sky on the horizon
A Yellow Iris with sword shaped leaves. A marginal aquatic plant against the backdrop of a large urban lake with clouds and trees reflected in it.
A bedraggled Angle Shades moth warming up and drying out on a purple flowered hardy geranium
Tiny starlike white flowers of Corn Spurrey on tall slender stems
A mix of tiny flowered plants with the pink Common Stork’s-bill being the largest at 6-8 mm along with the yellow Black Medick at 3-8mm followed by the white flowers of Thyme leaved-Sandwort at 5-6 mm and finally the blue Wall Speedwell at 4-5mm
A black and yellow wasp like solitary bee with orange legs amongst grass on a limestone step. A nectar feeding cuckoo bee that avoids the hard work of excavating its own nest burrows by depositing its own larval eggs in the already pollen filled nest burrows of other Andrena species bees.
Thick robust trunk leaders and branches of a Horse Chestnut disappearing into a verdant green leaf canopy filtering the sky above it.
A beck in the foreground meandering through a rocky sloping Lake District landscape. In the far distance Coniston Water can be seen. Just before this where there is sparse and scrubby tree cover the purple almost grey like haze of Bluebells can be seen
Tiny star like white flowers amongst grass soil and leaf litter up against a metal border edging
To the left a Hawthorn hedgerow merging into the distance with Cow Parsley (Carrot Family) and Dandelion clocks on a rural Lincolnshire footpath dividing them and a field crop
Today’s view from behind an Etesia mower console, used for mowing rural public rights of way. Ahead a grass margin between a fenced off field to the left and a ditch, farmland trees including a large oak in the foreground and open field to the right. Trees and farm buildings in the far distance
A line of tall thin tangled Hawthorn trees laid at an angle supported by coppiced stakes creating a rejuvinated hedgerow structure. Laid last January 26
The yellows of Coltsfoot and Dandelion with spots of blue Forget-me-not. Amongst white pappus seedheads
Pale pink flowered Cuckooflowers amongst the bright yellow rays of Dandelion on a grassy roadside bank against a backdrop of road, cars and limestone buildings
A mainly orange/red Seven-spot Ladybird perched on a Garlic Mustard leaf.
The full ensemble of the band James on set at the Nottingham Arena 14 April 26. A raised screen featuring lead singer Tim Booth surrounded by a backdrop of cascading digital daisies. The Daisy logo has been synonymous with the band since the early nineties.
Nodding bells of Bluebell amongst the white flowers of Greater Stitchwort at the edge of a woodland area merging with a roadside verge
Yellow Cowslips carpeting relatively rough grassland fringed by a mixed native species hedge against a backdrop of trees and market town buildings.
Large Ash tree in the foreground high upon a grassy bank overlooking a limestone path disappearing into a frothy white tunnel of Blackthorn hedgerows
A solitary in flower Cowslip against a background of urban nature reserve grassland, hedgerow and trees. This picture was posted for last weeks WildflowerHour challenge.
A swathe of roadside edge Danish Scurvygrass on a roadside bend against a backdrop of road surface, farmland and Lincolnshire sky
Blue clusters of Grape Hyacinth amongst grasses at the edge of the remnant concrete substrate of a former airfield runway against a heavily clouded blue sky
Twisted algae and lichen covered branches with clustered male purple anther flowers surrounding the black terminal buds of Ash. Some of the anthers have opened up in a feathery coral like form. These anthers have split open and dispensed their pollen. The tree is overhanging the River Slea against a backdrop of farmland and cloud filled Bluesky.