Lesley Totten
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lesleytotten.bsky.social
Lesley Totten
@lesleytotten.bsky.social
170 followers 180 following 53 posts
Passionate about Birds and Nature in general. Poet. Studied Art History. Teacher of care-experienced young people. Proud mother and resident of Edinburgh.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Lesley Totten
bigissue.com
This week’s Big Issue is out today! 🗞️

🦅 Claire Foy talks H is For Hawk
⭐️ Meet the 15-year-old girl helping homeless families
🌳 Get ready to birdwatch

Read a sneak peek here. 👀 www.bigissue.com/behind-the...
January 19, 2026 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
radiolento.bsky.social
Recorded on a grey cold day like today. This was one of our most extreme records. We got absolutely drenched!

Episode 153 - Freezing January rain under Britain's highest pylon (23min)

Sharp winter rain. Drops gathered on metal above, falling heavier through the hum

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-k4c7y-...
Grey sky. On a rainy January day. No colour. A huge huge metal pylon stretches up into the sky. 190 metres up into the rain.
January 22, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
markavery.bsky.social
Hen Harrier killing continues on England’s #grouse moors in 2025. A parliamentary debate back in June did not generate a step change.

Blog: markavery.info/2026/01/20/r...

Photo: Dynamo/Ivan Ellison

@rspbinvestigations.bsky.social @northyorkmoors.org.uk @forestofbowlandnl.bsky.social
#Defra
January 20, 2026 at 6:09 AM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
lesleylovesnature.bsky.social
This week’s #TheWinter10 -
Common Field Speedwell, Groundsel, Yarrow, Hazel (flower & catkin), Stinking Hellebore, Primrose, Common Ragwort, Daisy, Dandelion & Red Deadnettle
#WildflowerHour
10 native wildflowers in bloom
January 18, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
bsbibotany.bsky.social
It's Sunday, it's 8pm so it must be #WildFlowerHour!
Please share pix of any wild or naturalised plants you spotted coming into bloom last week across Britain & Ireland.
Mystery plant?
Use #WildFlowerID to summon help from the friendly @wildflowerhour.bsky.social botanical community!
alidiva.bsky.social 🌟 Ali 🌟 @alidiva.bsky.social · 5d
Here they come! The joyous sight of snowdrops beginning to flower in Hampshire's Test Valley 🤍💚 #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social
January 18, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
cycle4nature.bsky.social
Some budding Winter Aconites for this week's #WildFlowerHour, in our local Cambridgeshire park.
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
January 18, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
bsbiscotland.bsky.social
Two nice urban flowers for #wildflowerhour today: Cut-leaved Dead-nettle, with its 'cut' lobed leaves, and Henbit Dead-nettle, with rounded, unstalked upper leaves. Both in flower for #TheWinter10, if you squint hard enough!

Both locally scarce, and new finds for this bit of industrial Falkirk.
Cut-leaved Dead-nettle (Lamium hybridum) - a bright green plant with paired leaves with sharp lobing dissecting the leaf margins. A small pinkish flower is just visible. Growing against a backdrop of stones and soil, in the open circle at the base of a planted street tree. Henbit Dead-nettle (Lamium amplexicaule), growing in a gravelly margin just in front of a square wire fence. The red stems raise it above the low basal rosettes and mosses also growing in the verge here. It has paired green leaves, the lowest with short stalks and the higher ones more or less sessile (stalkless). A tiny pink flower is just visible on one of the right-hand plants.
January 18, 2026 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
clothofnature.bsky.social
Wandering our heartland, I gathered a small constellation of wildflowers — snowdrop, primrose, daisy, aconite, dead-nettle, hazel, alder, cow parsley — each gently present. Arranged in a circle, they became a kind of medicine wheel: not of knowing, but of noticing. #WildflowerHour #NoticingNature
A circular arrangement of early wildflowers and catkins laid on a neutral background. Each stem is placed with care and named on a small handwritten slip of paper. Snowdrop, primrose, daisy, winter aconite, white dead-nettle, hazel catkins, alder catkins, and cow parsley leaves form a gentle wheel, with the soft green of the parsley weaving between them. Shells anchor the names. The overall feeling is quiet, intimate, and devotional — like a small seasonal altar or medicine wheel made from wild things.
January 18, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
bigmeadowsearch.bsky.social
For #wildflowerhour it’s the humble but important to science, Thale Cress, Arabidopsis thaliana.
The first plant ever to have its genome sequenced
January 18, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
wildflowerhour.bsky.social
Thank you for sharing your winter ten! 👏🏻🌿🌸
jeremyjem.bsky.social Jeremy Sanders @jeremyjem.bsky.social · 5d
A rather sodden #thewinter10 in N. Wilts. for this week's #wildflowerhour: Lesser Celandine, Common Ragwort, Dog Mercury, Yarrow, Snowdrop, Winter Aconite, Stinking Hellebore, Red & White Dead-nettles & Trailing Bellflower. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @wildflowerhour.bsky.social
January 18, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
venetiajane.bsky.social
I can add a couple more wildflowers to the list this week, dog’s mercury and winter aconite! Here are my #TheWinter10: red dead-nettle, dog’s mercury, sweet violet, snowdrop, field speedwell, hazel catkins, primrose, winter aconite, white dead-nettle and cyclamen. #WildflowerHour
A collage of late winter wildflowers, showing close-up photographs of small purple, white and yellow blooms alongside fresh green leaves and hazel catkins, including dead-nettles, dog’s mercury, sweet violet, field speedwell, snowdrops, primrose, winter aconite and cyclamen, photographed outdoors in soft natural light.
January 18, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
naturelark.bsky.social
Spurge Laurel, Daphne laureola, at Hutchinson's Bank in Croydon. For me this is one of the heralds of a new year of botanising, bringing with it the anticipation of seeking out new (to me) species, and the revisiting of familiar ones. Always something new to learn! #WildflowerHour
January 18, 2026 at 8:25 PM
lesleytotten.bsky.social
Good evening @wildflowerhour.bsky.social from soggy Edinburgh - this evening we have Dandelion and Herb Robert along the Water of Leith (Bonnington area) @wolct.bsky.social a strange stormy afternoon 💦🌸🌼💦 #wildflowerhour
January 18, 2026 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
bsbibotany.bsky.social
This wintry weather is really zapping our wonderful wild plants!
Three cheers for everyone who braved the elements to hunt for flowers & post them here for #WildFlowerHour.
Have a great week, keep warm, see you next Sunday!
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social
sarahfaulkner.bsky.social Sarah @sarahfaulkner.bsky.social · 12d
Just a quick local walk today to see what I could find for #wildflowerhour as been poorly all weekend.

Incredibly, 18 species in flower found (list in Alt) - didn't expect to get #thewinter10 today with the stormy weather. I particularly loved this pristine Lesser Celendine, and a bonus Firecrest!
18 sp found in flower today - 11.1.26 on a short walk in Weymouth. Pictured: Dandelion, Petty Spurge, Red Dead-nettle, Annual Mercury, Ivy, Groundsel, Hazel catkins, Common Ragwort, Lesser Celendine, Winter Heliotrope, a white coloured Periwinkle, Red Clover, Yarrow, Daisy, Common Field-speedwell, Gorse. Not pictured, but also seen: Shepherd's Purse, Smooth Sow-thistle.
January 11, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
themarshtit.bsky.social
For #wildflowerhour this chilly week: alder, European gorse, stinging nettle and hemp agrimony
January 11, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
wildflowerhour.bsky.social
A fabulous winter ten Kate! 👏🏻🌿🌸❄️
kategold24.bsky.social Kate Gold @kategold24.bsky.social · 12d
An hour to kill in Chichester today so challenged myself to find enough #pavementplants for #thewinter10: Garlic Mustard, Annual Meadow Grass, Groundsel, Yarrow, Red Dead-Nettle, Sweet Violet, Winter Heliotrope, Petty Spurge, Daisy, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Annual Mercury, Primrose #wildflowerhour
January 11, 2026 at 8:15 PM
lesleytotten.bsky.social
Winter aconites pushing through the just thawed ground #drneilsgarden for @wildflowerhour.bsky.social #wildflowerhour
January 11, 2026 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
wildflowerhour.bsky.social
It’s Sunday & it’s 8pm so it must be time for #wildflowerhour but did you manage to find anything in bloom amidst the snow & ice!!! 🥶❄️
s4r4h-l.bsky.social @s4r4h-l @s4r4h-l.bsky.social · 12d
#WildflowerHour This plucky common daisy gets his/her own post. Despite the frost and rain in #Lancashire this week they pushed on and bloomed. I caught them looking at me 🤭 @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social #vitaminN
A pretty common daisy seemingly looking into the camera!
January 11, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
sarahlambert7.bsky.social
A final #NewYearPlantHunt on my birthday round suburban streets of Longthorpe in Peterborough - a much lower total than on previous hunts, with just 37 species but some new including Wild Radish, Oat and the first few flowers of Cut-leaved Dead-nettle.

#wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social
Somewhat sad-looking flowers of Wild Radish Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. raphanisttrum Oat Avena sativa, found flowering in a churchyard Cut-leaved Dead-nettle Lamium hybridum just flowering - some plants had more open flowers...
January 4, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
bsbibotany.bsky.social
A very Happy Birthday to the fabulous @sarahlambert7.bsky.social!
She is one of our amazing #BSBICountyRecorders and does a huge amount for botany and botanists in Northants. and more widely.
Huge thanks to Sarah for spending her birthday taking part in #NewYearPlantHunt and #WildFlowerHour!
sarahlambert7.bsky.social Sarah Lambert @sarahlambert7.bsky.social · 19d
A final #NewYearPlantHunt on my birthday round suburban streets of Longthorpe in Peterborough - a much lower total than on previous hunts, with just 37 species but some new including Wild Radish, Oat and the first few flowers of Cut-leaved Dead-nettle.

#wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social
Somewhat sad-looking flowers of Wild Radish Raphanus raphanistrum subsp. raphanisttrum Oat Avena sativa, found flowering in a churchyard Cut-leaved Dead-nettle Lamium hybridum just flowering - some plants had more open flowers...
January 4, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
petersketch.bsky.social
A short thread for #WildflowerHour showing off #TheWinter10 achieved while doing the #NewYearPlantHunt on Friday in Dawlish. These two are the two common Bellflower species, Trailing Bellflower and Adria Bellflower (I've heard other names for the latter, not sure which is official)/
A plant with blue, star-shaped flowers. A plant with purple flowers, shaped a bit like a bell, opening into a star shape.
January 4, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
jillwhitelock.bsky.social
Day 11, #12DaysWild. Cow parsley in flower for a #NewYearPlantHunt back in Ely. #WildflowerHour @bsbibotany.bsky.social
White flowers and green leaves of Cow parsley against a dark green background.
January 4, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social
My husband always buys me beautiful secondhand reference books for Christmas, but he forgot to give me this one, till today. I love it! Not least because of the story of how it came about…

Perfect timing for the last day of @bsbibotany.bsky.social ‘s #NewYearPlantHunt

#wildflowers
January 4, 2026 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Lesley Totten
joaniemcnaughton.bsky.social
Winter walk this pm at Selm Muir Wood, W Lothian, looking for #HairIce. Mission accomplished! @edinburghnats.bsky.social. Only one flowering plant for #NewYearPlantHunt @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiscotland.bsky.social
January 3, 2026 at 6:25 PM
lesleytotten.bsky.social
A #WinterTen for @wildflowerhour.bsky.social thanks to my #BlackfordBotanyBuddy & #NewYearPlantHunt @bsbibotany.bsky.social V cold but great plant hunting 🥶🌱🌸💚 Scratching my head re Field Madder tho - flower parts or leaves ? #WildFlowerHour All #BlackfordHill or #Bawsinch @scotwildlife.bsky.social
January 4, 2026 at 8:26 PM