Almond Valley Nature Action (AVNA)
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avnatureaction.bsky.social
Almond Valley Nature Action (AVNA)
@avnatureaction.bsky.social
120 followers 170 following 86 posts
AVNA is an umbrella group covering small, nature projects throughout Almond Valley in West Lothian. We hope to engage communities to improve native biodiversity, & to work with existing projects and organisations

https://avnatureaction.wordpress.com
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avnatureaction.bsky.social
🐝Join Andri for the next BeeWalk on Saturday 30th August in Livingston Village Park, 11am. Learn about bumblebees on a gentle walk around one of Livingstons green spaces. No need to book, just turn up on the day. These events are free. 🌺🌼#BeeWalk #citizenscience #bumblebees
A poster advertising the BeeWalk with dates and details.
August 18, 2025 at 6:37 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
A different Ramble&Chat for us this month! We spent an afternoon out with Buglife at Almondell in West Lothian learning how to do FIT (flower insect timed) counts. The knapweed patches were so busy! #pollinators #FIT #Buglife #WestLothian
Tall trees with afternoon sunlight filtering through. A trail leads through the trees at Almondell. A bumblebee on knapweed Honeybee on knapweed Hoverfly on knapweed
August 18, 2025 at 6:32 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
🦋 What a summer for butterflies compared to last year! Here's a small copper seen today in West Mains Wood, West Lothian. So tiny yet so pretty! #westlothian #smallcopper
An orange and brown small copper butterfly sits basking on the ground
August 7, 2025 at 2:51 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
🦋How's your butterfly counting going 😀? We're seeing so many this year in Almond Valley! A small skipper, a ringlet and a green veined white. Not to forget red admirals, common whites, commas and meadow browns! #bigbutterflycount #butterflies
@savebutterflies.bsky.social
An orange moth-like butterfly sitting on a fern leaf. It has a furry body and orange tipped antennae. A brown butterfly with stripped antennae. The underside of the wings have white dots circled with black and then cream surrounding the dots. A white butterfly with grey veins feeds on tufted vetch flowers.
July 28, 2025 at 7:29 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
Our July Ramble & Chat will be looking at wildflowers and pollinators at a little-known site in Livingston, West Lothian. If you're local come along to meet other nature enthusiasts and while away an hour chatting and wandering 😊🌼🐝🦋🌳
#RambleandChat #pollinators #wildflowers #Livingston #WestLothian
An advert for the next Ramble and Chat event, July 13th near Killandean Allotments in Livingston, West Lothian. It has a picture of a flower meadow with buttercups amongst the trees.
June 15, 2025 at 7:46 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
❗Biodiversity news ❗
🐝New sighting of the mountain bumblebee Bombus monticola in West Calder, West Lothian 🐝
A scarce species and one of conservation priority. Its a cold adapted species more usually found at higher elevations and more typical of heathlands than gardens.
#bumblebee #cotoneaster
A close-up photo of a bumblebee on a cotoneaster bush. The bee has an extensive orange tail, a pale yellow collar and faint yellow band at the thorax.
May 28, 2025 at 6:20 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
On June 8th (from 2pm) we'll #Ramble&Chat around Dedridge Pond. It’s #PondWatch weekend so we’re planning a bit of pond dipping too. Full details coming soon...
british-dragonflies.org.uk/get-involved...

#westlothian #urbanwildlife #NextdoorNature #pondlife #livingston
May 23, 2025 at 11:31 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
…and her video of the famous white squirrel of Ladywell

#NextdoorNature #westlothian #wildlife #nature #greensky
April 30, 2025 at 7:40 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
Here are some pics by our new member Zoe...
squirrel sitting on a post in front of a green hedge a tree with twisted branches and no leaves, blue sky behind a deer looking at camera, standing in a field of grass with yellow flowers
April 30, 2025 at 7:38 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
Dandelions are heroes! They provide food for our hard pressed insects. Let them bloom! These butterflies and bees were all out feeding on them this week, such an amazing food resource for them!
Oh and ignore any ignorant news outlets saying otherwise!
#pollinators #invertebrates #dandelions #spring
Bumblebee feeding on a dandelion. Green veined white butterfly feeding on a dandelion. An orange tip butterfly feeding on a dandelion. Common carder bumblebee feeding on a dandelion.
April 25, 2025 at 11:23 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
With the fine spring weather there were lots of pollinators flying in the woods yesterday. These butterflies and the beefly were spotted in Easter Breich Wood, West Lothian. #butterflies #walkinthewoods #pollinators #WestLothian #beefly #spring
A peacock butterfly resting on the ground. A green-veined white butterfly resting on the ground. A comma butterfly resting on old grass stalks. A dark edged bee-fly feeding on a primrose flower.
April 25, 2025 at 10:54 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
Join us for a Ramble&Chat event - Sunday May 11th at 2pm. We'll be wandering along the National Cycle Network paths around Seafield Law in West Lothian. Full details on the blog. Events are free but book your ticket to let us know you're coming! Everyone welcome!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ramblechat...
Poster advertising the Ramble&Chat event with photo of an orange tip butterfly, the AVNA logo and text details about the event.
April 25, 2025 at 9:56 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
🐝 Tomorrow Sat 26th 👇 BeeWalk in Livingston Village Park @ 11am, details below - no need to book just turn up!

Pick up a packet of free wildflower seeds! 🌺🌼😍
#BeeWalk #WestLothian #Livingston #citizenscience #PlantaPitstop
Bumblebee feeding on a dandelion. The bee is facing away from the camera showing its red tail and wings. There is also a little beetle on the flower.
April 25, 2025 at 9:50 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
Our April Ramble&Chat managed to avoid the hail stones and the rain for the group outing! We ID'd some of the trees in the park, both in bud and in leaf. We listened to the birdsong, ID'd some spring wildflowers and we visited the Livingston Village Park Community Garden with Haleh.
#Livingston
One of the group looks at the branch of a horse chestnut tree. Underneath the branch there is a clipboard showing how to ID leaves. Some of the participants sit on a bench in the park. Behind there are 4 white half-barrel planters of the Community Garden and beyond the grass the park is fringed with trees. Purple flowers of the honesty plant with wooden fence out of focus behind. A picture frame 'frames' the leaves of plants on the ground and the mossy trunk of a fallen tree behind. There are bare branches of trees behind.
April 24, 2025 at 12:11 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
This time of year the gorse bushes are looking impressive and really starting to flower. If you pass them have a wander over and give them a smell. The scent is described as either coconut or vanilla. Smells like coconut to me!
A gorse bush in full flower. It is a spiky bush and the flowers have bright yellow petals.
April 24, 2025 at 10:44 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
On the River Almond today at Livingston Village Park were a pair of common merganser ducks 🦆. The photo is a bit blurry but its enough to make a biological record on iNaturalist! On the riverbank opposite is the non-native plant Allium paradoxum (few-flowered leek) colonising the ground quickly😯
The photo shows the river with 2 merganser ducks swimming upstream. The male is swimming in front and is followed by the females. On the opposite side of the riverbank is a well established patch of the non-native plant few-flowered leek covering the area.
March 29, 2025 at 9:34 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
🐝🐝🐝 Today was the first BeeWalk of the year at Livingston Village Park where 3 volunteers were out recording bumblebees in the chilly and windy weather! They found 2 buff-tailed queens out looking for suitable nest sites to start their new colonies. 🐝🐝🐝
#bumblebees #nature #conservation
A buff-tailed bumblebee queen sits on old brown leaves on the ground while she searches for a new site to nest in and start a new colony. A buff-tailed bumblebee queen flies off over the old brown leaves on the ground to continue searching for a new nest site.
March 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
🐝 🌼🐝 It's time for the BeeWalk again 😃
Sat 29th at 11am, in Livingston Village Park, West Lothian.

Come along to learn about bumblebee recording, no experience necessary! The event is free and you can collect a free packet of wildflower seeds too!🐝🌺🐝
avnatureaction.wordpress.com/2025/02/23/b...
A poster displaying time, date and location of the BeeWalk. It is illustrated with flowers, bumblebees and a ladybird along the bottom of the page.
March 21, 2025 at 7:09 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
The chiff-chaffs are back! We heard the first one of the year at Easter Breich Wood. There were several queen buff-tailed bumblebees out house hunting, and a robin sang its beautiful song to the setting sun! What a lovely spring weekend that was 😀
Silhouette of a robin singing in the bare branches of a tree
March 16, 2025 at 7:27 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
🐸West Lothian 🐸 If you're looking for somewhere to walk this weekend, Bellsquarry Wood run by the Woodland Trust is a lovely woodland worth wandering around. Check out the pond - lots of frogs!
@wtscotsocial.bsky.social
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woo...
Frogs mating in the pond surrounded by spawn
March 15, 2025 at 7:55 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
A buff-tailed bumblebee queen out today in the sunshine! Feeding on some coltsfoot wildflower. Feeling a lot more like spring 😊🐝 🏵️
A queen buff-tailed bumblee sits on a yellow coltsfoot wildflower in the sunshine.
March 6, 2025 at 2:36 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
Cemetery wildlife: you can contribute to wildlife recording in UK cemeteries by adding biological records to Cemetery Wildlife Watch. Simply select the project on iRecord under the Activities tab and your records will get collated in the project 😃 #wildliferecording #cemeterywildlife
Cartoon of a graveyard with church and tombstone. A tree has a squirrel climbing up the trunk and a robin sits on a branch. A mushroom grows in the grass, a butterfly flies past the gravestone and a tulip and ladybirds are present.
February 28, 2025 at 8:31 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
#thicktrunktuesday fabulous beech tree about to do the Highland fling when you're not looking 🤫 Seen in the Scottish Wildlife Trusts nature reserve at Hermand Birchwood, West Lothian. #treewithpersonality
scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserve/herm...
February 4, 2025 at 7:10 PM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
Know Your Crows.

It’s the #BigGardenBirdWatch this weekend. Once the weather calms down, maybe you’ll see some corvids to add to you count.

📷 Elliestrations
January 24, 2025 at 8:59 AM
avnatureaction.bsky.social
I went for a solstice sunrise walk among the pines this morning. It was blowy, and the sky was moody, but I feel energised. It can be hard to leave the house when my mood is low, but when I make the effort, nature never fails to uplift me. Happy Midwinter everyone!
December 21, 2024 at 10:45 AM