Richard Moyse
LightNews LightNews
banner
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Richard Moyse
@kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
750 followers 340 following 360 posts
Kent-based naturalist, with a particular affection for plants, Orthopterans, aculeates, birds. Retired after a career in conservation. I'm here for wildlife, but can't promise not to repost the occasional political piece.
Posts Replies Media Videos
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Harder to find a #winter10 this week. But managed it, with some rural, some urban, some native, some naturalised. Names in alt text. #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social #KentNature
Top to bottom, left to right: Black Nightshade; Black Horehound; Hogweed; Mexican Fleabane; Yarrow; Wood Avens; Smooth Sowthistle; Common Mouse-ear; Wildlife Basil; Smooth Hawksbeard.
November 16, 2025 at 8:08 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
I love #thewinter10 and the way it makes you get out and look. Definitely satisfying to get these together. Names in alt text. #wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social
Top to bottom, left to right: Great Mullein; Purple Toadflax; Mouse-ear Hawkweed; Common Poppy; Long-stalked Cranesbill; Ivy-leaved Toadflax; Perennial Sowthistle; Red Clover; White Dead-nettle; Shaggy Soldier.
November 9, 2025 at 8:16 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
The Tachinid Ectophasia crassipennis was a surprise visitor to the last remaining Ox-eye Daisy in the garden today. Apparently new to Britain in 2019, and now widespread in Kent according to the NBN atlas. #flies #diptera #KentNature
A fly on an Ox-eye Daisy flower head. It has a black abdomen with orange patches, and broad wings with a dark central patch.
November 8, 2025 at 1:32 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Queen Tree Bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum, in the garden just now. #bees #bumblebees #hymenoptera #KentNature
A large bumblebee sitting on Stinging Nettles. It has a black head, a thorax which is foxy-brown on the back, and a black abdomen with a white tip.
November 8, 2025 at 10:23 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
My morning constitutional took me through the parkland at Doddington Place. Heard my first Fieldfares of the autumn. Plus Redwing, Green & Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatch, Goldcrest, etc. Very pleasant. #KentNature #KentBirds
A panoramic view of parkland, with grass, trees and a large piece of fallen dead wood.
November 7, 2025 at 11:12 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Darn you, Bluesky - look what you've got me into! Delivery this morning from @fieldstudiesc.bsky.social. @vc40orthops.bsky.social @vc40ladybirds.bsky.social
Two Field Studies Council publications: Illustrated Key to the British False Scorpions, and Micro Ladybirdd of Britain and Ireland.
November 6, 2025 at 10:59 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
A couple of bugs tapped out of a cypress tree in Doddington Churchyard today: Juniper Shieldbug and the smart red-and-black Corizus hyoscyami. They were also accompanied by a Common Green Shieldbug and a Box Bug. #bugs #truebugs #hemiptera #KentNature @caringforgodsacre.bsky.social
Juniper Shieldbug, a slender, green shieldbug with curved brown markings on the wings. Corizus hyoscyami, a bright red bug with black markings.
November 4, 2025 at 6:20 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Interesting-looking fungus growing from moss atop a tombstone in Doddington churchyard. I took it for dead leaf at first. ObsIdentify says it's Arrhenia spathulata. #KentNature #fungus #fungi @caringforgodsacre.bsky.social
A pale brown, lobed, flattened fungal body, resembling a dead leaf. It is growing from the edge of a patch of moss. The same fungus, from a greater distance, showing the fungus and moss is on the top of a lichen-encrusted tombstone. In the background is a church porch.
October 30, 2025 at 4:17 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Still the occasional final instar Spurge Bug (Dicranocephalus medius) nymph warming itself on the south-facing front wall of the house. #KentNature #TrueBugs #bugs #Hemiptera
A dark brown bug with stubby wing-buds on the brick and mortar of a house wall.
October 27, 2025 at 12:24 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
A smart Wood Blewit for #WildFungiHour, in woodland on the North Downs. #WildflowerHour #KentNature
A mushroom with blue stem and cap, amongst mosses on a woodland floor. Not as deep blue in real life - the camera has intensified the colour.
October 26, 2025 at 8:35 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Rhyparochromus vulgaris on the bedroom curtain this morning. We must have put a dozen of these out of the house over the last month or two - unless the same ones keep sneaking back in! #KentNature #bugs #Hemiptera @britishbugs.bsky.social
October 24, 2025 at 9:31 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Tawny Cockroach nymph, tapped from Ivy at the local churchyard this afternoon. Nice find - I haven't seen enough of these this year. #KentNature #Dictyoptera #Cockroach
A brown cockroach nymph with darker spotting. A snail to the right.
October 22, 2025 at 5:15 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
OK - am I seeing things, or does this bird have pale margins to its feathers, giving a scaly appearance? Doesn't show in the photos, but the flanks clearly looked scaly to the naked eye. It was very tame, allowing me within a few feet. *Awaits reply saying 'It's a Blackbird, you nana.'*
A blackbird (?) with notably pale margins to some feathers, in water at the edge of a pond. A blackbird (?) with notably pale margins to some feathers, on short grass.
October 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Nothing uncommon, but it's nice to see fungi appearing locally, including this False Deathcap Amanita citrina and Parrot Waxcap Gliophorus psittacinus. #fungi #waxcaps #KentNature
Amanita citrina, and pale yellowish-white toadstool with fabulous base and slightly scaly cap, amongst leaves on a woodland floor. Gliophorus psittacinus, a small mushroom. With a glistening orange and green cap, and a green stem, growing amongst grassy vegetation.
October 19, 2025 at 11:59 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Looking for earwigs at Goodnestone Gardens in East Kent yesterday (with head gardener's permission). Only found Common Earwig,but this included several macrolabic males with big pincers. Also enjoyed the lovely gardens & café. #Goodnestone #Dermaptera #KentNature
A male Common Earwig with much larger than normal pincers (macrolabic form). Maggie inkcap fungi growing on woodchip mulch in a plant bed. A new area of amazing, 'jungle'-style planting. 'Birdwatcher Bill'. One of a number of sculptures around the garden.
October 11, 2025 at 10:48 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
A Southern Green Shieldbug from scrub in the Rainham Dock East part of Riverside Country Park in Rainham (Kent) yesterday. #bugs #Truebugs #Hemiptera #KentNature
October 8, 2025 at 7:58 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Also from Castle Coote yesterday, this smart-looking Short-winged Conehead male. What it was doing right out on the saltmarsh, I'm not sure. #Orthoptera #ukorthoptera #KentNature
A green bush-cricket with short brown wings which only reach about half-way along its abdomen. Its pointed head (to the left) explains why it is called a 'conehead'.
September 29, 2025 at 10:00 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
On yesterday's @kentfieldclub.bsky.social meeting at Castle Foote on the North Kent coast, I was really pleased to find the rare ground bug Henestaris halophilus in numbers across the saltmarsh. Habitat shot has notes in alt text. #bugs #truebugs #Hemiptera #KentNature @britishbugs.bsky.social
A small, brown bug on the fabric of an insect net. Its head, with eyes on protruding stalks, is lower left. A stretch upper saltmarsh sward, consisting of a mix of grasses and fairly low-growing Sea-purslane. The bug was swept easily from this vegetation. However, it was not found where Sea-purslane grew in dense, shrubby, single-species stands.
September 29, 2025 at 8:30 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Some of the seven Spurgebug nymphs on the front wall of the house this pm. Presumably must be Dicranocephalus medius as we're on the North Downs in Kent. #bugs #truebugs #Hemiptera #KentNature
September 25, 2025 at 4:17 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Excited to get my copy of Endemic by @bsbicountries.bsky.social today. Not because *ahem* I'm in the chapter on Interrupted Brome, but because of the many other spp & subsp to explore - some of which (like Great Orme's Graylings) I realise I've already seen without realising their significance.
Cover of a book: 'Endemic - Exploring the Wildlife Unique to Britain' by Kames Harding-Morris.
September 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Spent the afternoon in part of the new North Kent Woods & Downs NNR. Was looking for Hop-garden Earwig (a no-show) but did find some nice bugs: Iassus scutellaris, Vernal Shieldbug Peribalus strictus & Asiraca clavicornis. #KentNature #NNR #bugs #Hemiptera @naturalengland.bsky.social
A view from Ranscombe Farm towards Luddesdown. Most of what's visible in the picture is core NNR or associated land. Rough grassland in the foreground, woods and open grassland in the background. Iassus scutellaris - a leaf-hopper with green body and brown head, on an Elm leaf. Vernal Shieldbug Peribalus strictus. A mid-sized shieldbug with a largely brown body and characteristic pale margins to the 'shoulders' of the pronotum. Asiraca clavicornis, an unusual looking planthopper with expanded antennae and leaf-like front legs.
September 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
What very much appears to be European Spruce Sawfly Gilpinia hercyniae, tapped from a spruce at the weekend. Apparently the first Kent record. #KentNature #sawfly #sawflies #Symphyta
A green caterpillar with white longitudinal stripes and a yellowish head with dark markings. Amongst brown conifer needles on a piece of white fabric.
September 22, 2025 at 9:42 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
One of two pairs of Willow Emerald Damselflies hanging round our small garden pond this afternoon. #Damselfly #Damselflies #Odonata #pondlife #KentNature
Two bronzy-green damsel flies, in tandem (the male holding the back of the females head using claspers on the end of his abdomen), on a plant stem.
September 19, 2025 at 3:05 PM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
... while the astonishing and ancient misericords in St Mary's Church suggest that the natural world loomed very large in the Medieval imagination. #Beverley #misericords
A misericord (a sort of decorated rest used by monks during long services) with a carving of a woodwose (a kind of hairy wildman figure carrying a club) standing between two lions. Another misericord decorated with the foliate head of a king. The king has a large crown and waved beard, and vegetation emerges from each side of his mouth.
September 19, 2025 at 10:41 AM
kentgrasshoppers.bsky.social
Tussock-sedges reflected in the Beverley Beck, during an excellent bus-and-train powered trip to Hull and Beverley this week ... #Beverley #Yorkshire #sedges
A line of gonk-like Tussock-sedge plants, matched by their reflection in the still water in the foreground.
September 19, 2025 at 10:41 AM