I Tweeted (@treeruss) the above photo to advertise yesterday's bee walk and it happens to feature the first bee we saw.  This is a male Hairy Yellow-Face bee Hylaeus hylinatus. It's tiny, less than 6mm! Yesterday's male was a bit dozy, presumably due to the cold weather. It soon warmed up in the glass tube I used to show if to the assembled bee…

If you know what you are looking for it's not that hard to demonstrate the vital importance of deadwood in parks.

10 minutes at a horse chestnut stump in CLissold Park this afternoon revealled 2 new nationally scarce species for the park:

• a fungus beetle called Hallomenus binotatus Nationally Scarce…

This weekend saw the opening of the first publicly accessible wetland in Hackney at Woodberry Wetlands, and it was tremendously popular when I went along on Sunday.  Closed to the public since it was built to store water brought along the New River from Hertfordshire it was officially opened by Sir Richard Attenborough on 30th April.…

Found Buffish Mining bee Andrena nigroaeanea on Hackney Downs last week. That's another new species for Hackney.

That brings the total to 50 confirmed species in Hackney so far; 2 new species in a week! That's getting on for 20% of all UK species. See…

This is a photo of the Furry-clasped Furrow bee (Lasioglossum lativentre) I discovered at Abney Park recently. This is a female. The tiny bees nest in the ground but little is known about them.

The species is fairly uncommon but not rare or scarce. It has never been recorded in north or east London before but that's more likely because no one's…

Realising Good Friday was to be the pick of the Easter weekend weather I set out in determined fashion to see if I could find any new species of bees at Abney. After about four hours I had seen: Buff-tailed bumblebee queens, honey bees and lots of Hairy Footed Flower bees (mostly males but a few females had begun flying). There were also quite a few butterflies on the wing. I counted 4…

Stunning Cobalt Crust fungus at Abney Park nature reserve. Previously seen in Wick…

See link below for my article in the current London Naturalist on Abney's rare bumblebee mimic not seen in London since 1966.

Pocota personata returns to…

Species Lists

Below are links to simple species lists for species recorded at Abney Park Nature Reserve and a general species list for Hackney bees.

Abney Park Invertebrates…

Tree Assassination Attempt

Foiled by Tree Musketeer…

Prunus Okame

the best early flowering tree for bees in…

Spring Be – Enjoy the Beauty

Queen Buff-Tail Bumblebee (…

Musketeering – join in the sanity

Another world is not only possible, it exists right now, right here. People helping each other and the planet with no need for pointless, disposable commodities; no fear to engender

deference to…

Nick Perry of Stokey Local succeeded in persuading a High Court judge to grant leave for a judicial review (JR) of the Wilmer Place planning deicison. This is the second JR to be granted permission to proceed. It's complicated but there are two challenges (JRs) to two LBH planning decisions to allow Newmark Properties to build a Sainsbury's and block…

There is just under a week left for you to comment on proposals for a new building and car park on the north marsh. Please try to get your comments in. The questionnaire is open until 9 July on the council's web site.

HMUG's main concerns are

• the amount of private parking (resulting in the building going on what is now grass)
• whether the council will do a decent job on…

Nemophora fasciella - UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species - Mabley Green Redgra

As if the assaults on Abney were not enough Hackney Council are engaged in a 'consultation' to develop Mabley Green.  They want to build another full-size all weather football pitch (awp), in addition to the one built 2 years ago, and create a…

To object on line now takes only seconds but every extra objection is a vote for Abney's wildlife.

The new planning application is almost identical to the last but they have moved back another 1m from Abney. This is far too little and all the…

Objection to

Wilmer Place Planning Application 2013/1583…

Abney Biodiversity Defeats Sainsburys - Will They Appeal?

The formal decision of the planning sub-committee which rejected the Wilmer Place Sainsbury's has been published on the LBH website.  As expected it…

Abney Woodland Edge Saved

the corporate propaganda machine fails…