Rob Yaxley
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robyaxley.bsky.social
Rob Yaxley
@robyaxley.bsky.social
Naturalist: lichens, moths, beetles, bugs and anything else that catches my eye. “What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.”
Highest rainfall in 24 hours at Yaxley Acres for at least 3 years.
November 15, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
A mosaic of lichen on a Sussex fencepost #lichens #lichenGBI
November 14, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Details of my annual exhibition
October 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Watching Labour MPs take a wrecking ball to nature makes me so angry & so sad. Their action tonight voting down amendments to the #PlanningBill intended to protect wildlife & habitats from destruction is so reckless & so counterproductive. People didn’t vote Labour for this 👇
Housing secretary tells Labour MPs to vote down planning bill amendment
Amendment restricts protection for animals to allow faster house building
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Pink-footed Geese arriving at dawn, North Norfolk - framed ready for my exhibition this weekend. Painted in sub-zero conditions and ice crystals have left their own marks in the watercolour washes
November 10, 2025 at 7:25 PM
A caterpillar (possibly Fox Moth) consumed by an as yet unknown fungus from Dersingham Bog yesterday. If anyone does have their suspicions as to what the fungus might be, don’t be shy!
November 10, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Surprise surprise… explains why this bill is such a disaster for wildlife & their habitats. We need balanced and informed evidence-based decision making, not this biased, subjective nonsense.

Really hoping my MP
@bengoldsborough.bsky.social will be voting in support of Amendment 130 🙏
November 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
In Svenska lafvarnas färghistoria: Johan Peter Westring,
Stockholm, 1805
A guide to Swedish lichens & their uses, with charts showing the dyes that they yield. Westring (1753–1833), was the king's physician, a botanist and lichenologist.
Lichen saxatilis: Linnean name, now invalid
November 10, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Oak Rustic was new for me this morning, and good to get both Dark Chestnut and The Chestnut.
November 9, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Super useful tips & tricks for insect specimen imaging from @andrewjohnston.bsky.social! He shares how to build an affordable focus stacking system on your own.

Handy guide available here:
www.insectid.org/post/focus-s...

#ECN2025 📸 🪲
November 8, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Whilst at Whitlingham C.P. today I walked past this thistle rosette and twigged that it looked slightly unusual. I stopped and had a closer look, noticing that one of the leaves has edged by the slime mould Diachea leucopodia.
November 8, 2025 at 7:01 PM
On the way back from the marsh at Warham Greens.
November 7, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
#Lichens form their complex thalli through a partnership involving at least a fungus and an alga. But can these living structures be rebuilt in vitro? For more than a century, people have tried. With @spribille.bsky.social we revisited 150 years of #lichen #resynthesis to ask: has anyone succeeded?
November 7, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
I think bluesky needs a #BirdID feed. So I built one.
To start it off, and topical to the #irishrarebirds feed, a blog post on Tundra and Taiga Bean Goose identification.
helhathnobirdies.blogspot.com/2021/04/finn...
Finnish Focus On...Taiga And Tundra Bean Geese
Have been meaning to write a post on Tundra and Taiga Bean Goose identification for a while now. Wildfowl are my guilty pleasure. I've alway...
helhathnobirdies.blogspot.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
I've been checking Yarrow plants for aphids this week, and have managed to add a species to my Norwich aphid list. These are Small Yarrow Aphid, Coloradoa achilleae. The male is the thin yellowy one.
November 6, 2025 at 8:40 PM
A really nice example of Lecidella scabra on a coped tomb at Briningham. Soredia are K+ yellow and C+ orange, with black apothecia on a cortex of rounded pale granular areoles.
November 6, 2025 at 5:58 PM
A large congregation of Ramshorn Bagworm Luffia lapidella at Briningham churchyard today, grazing on the lichen.
November 6, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Umbers Mottled and Scarce by the light trap this morning. Both feed on a variety of broad-leaved trees and shrubs, I wonder what separates them ecologically.
November 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
So @robyaxley.bsky.social tells me. (And convinced me)
November 6, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Isn't lichen brilliant?
November 6, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Has anyone got a reliable place they go to see stag beetles they would be happy to share? 🙏
It got just a bit too dark to quite finish my painting of a #StagBeetle
#SciArt #WildlifeArt
November 4, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Send me records: I am excited to be taking on the role of national springtail recorder. I have huge shoes to fill, but I hope to continue the progress Peter Shaw made in understanding the taxonomy and biology of the UK's #springtails.

www.brc.ac.uk/scheme/colle...
January 21, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
Quite a bit of visible migration today @flamboroughbird.bsky.social Thrushes flying low in the strong south westerly wind with cloud, coming off the sea and making landfall. A flock of 11 Snipe and several Woodcock. A marvellous sight.
November 3, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Thallus areolate to coarsely granular, brown. Apothecia white with thalline margin excluded, up to 5mm.
November 3, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Rob Yaxley
The metal steps at Happisburgh were dismantled in 2012. The plinths which they stood on (shown here) are now 42 metres from the cliff edge. This means that the rate of erosion along this part of the Norfolk coast is 3.2m per year. Fascinating Captain.
November 3, 2025 at 5:49 PM