Buckland Hill Pocket Nature Reserve is a small but remarkably wildlife-rich habitat mosaic in inner Maidstone, featuring a part-demolished WWII air raid shelter & historic spring-fed ditch, visible on old maps.🦟maidstonebc Kent Field Club Kent Wildlife Trust BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland Buglife

Today's Photo of the Day is taken as the sun was setting in Graveney, Kent by Ben Mann #BBCCountryfileMagPOTD

Another useful diagram of the parts of a #leaf.

Broadleaf trees undergo significant transitions throughout the seasons, greatly altering their appearance❄️ To identify what species a tree is, it is good practice to look at several different features - especially when they've dropped their leaves!🍂 👉ow.ly/Z0W850LW76Z

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flowers-on into a chilly December within a Miyawake plot at Park Wood open space, Maidstone. The small yellow achene-like fruits, or cypsela, are clearly visible.🌳 BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland wildflowerhour Morethanweeds The British Nature Guide Kent Field Club Plantlife

Long-eared Owl located in Kent earlier this year. One of this years highlights was watching them thrive in the environment, subsequently breeding successfully! Location withheld for the welfare of this sensitive species KOS

Ending 2022 - 217 avian taxa on my patch SBBOT with a certain omg Falcon😂 trumped by a wt* Bunting🤯, plus Caspian Tern, Buff-breasted Sandpiper (& a BBRC pending) all patch lifers. Notable dips: Rosefinch😭Mandarin, RL Partridge, Ring Ouzel, Crossbill & Goosander😬

Happy New Year! Butterflies and moths are often seen as a symbol of hope and new beginnings. 🦋 Keep an eye out for these species in your gardens and local green spaces this month, and let us know what you see. 👀 #SaveButterflies #MothsMatter

A bit of New Years reading for you, reporting on the highlights of a whole year patch birding at Swanscombe 😁 kentwilderness.blogspot.com/2023/01/swansc…

A scout around the garden this morning presented me with the opportunity to look for tiny, pinky red anemone-like Hazel flowers... #NewYearPlantHunt

Spent the day in the Stour Valley noting 68 species. Highlights included 2 Hen Harrier, 1 Nuthatch, 3 Woodcock, 2 Pintail, 1 Merlin and 1 Great White Egret. Full list on the link. ebird.org/checklist/S125… martyn wilson KOS

A roadside holly hedge flowering quite prolifically #wildflowerhour

Find out what’s going on beneath the waves in our 2022 Marine Review. We’re spilling all our ocean’s secrets from sea dragons to 100 year-old sharks 🦈 wildlifetrusts.org/news/marine-re…

Hare having a bit of a spruce up before hunkering down out of the wind to enjoy the sunshine Elmley NNR Mammal Society #hare

First of the wild Primrose seen locally, Snowdrops starting to come up too, only obvious additions since New Year plant hunt. Early for #wildflowerhour

Not the usual suspects at Elmley today.

Creeping Buttercup, Ranunculus repens. Hairy. Leaves up to 10cm and divided in to 3 lobes or leaflets. Central leaflet may have long stalk. Petiole with sheathing base. Creeping runners root at nodes to form new plants.

Most butterflies overwinter as a caterpillar or pupa, however the brrrilliant Brimstone is one of the most cold-resistant species that overwinters in the UK as a butterfly. 📷: Eberhard Pfeuffer #Winterwatch #SaveButterflies BBC Springwatch

Not sure how unusual Ermine Stoats are in Kent, definitely a first for me at Dungeness on my early morning plod today. Unfortunately not particularly sharp images.

On a typically windy day around the Dungeness peninsula at the beginning of the month, it was great to see 56 Bewick’s, 5 Whooper & 42 Mute Swans across Walland Marsh & the ARC Pit! With a fair number of juv. Bewick’s in the flock! RSPB Dungeness #WinterBirding