Reuben Singleton
@bordersnaturalist.bsky.social
📍Peebles, Scottish Borders - Director of Tweed Ecology - 30 years experience of protected species/habitat surveys, Ecological Impact Assessment, Ecological Clerk of Works. Botany, Lepidoptera.
An extraordinary sight today. A weedy turnip field up behind Eddleston with many THOUSANDS of small white, small tortoiseshell and red admiral butterflies nectaring on thistles. #butterflies @savebutterflies.bsky.social
September 6, 2025 at 7:19 PM
An extraordinary sight today. A weedy turnip field up behind Eddleston with many THOUSANDS of small white, small tortoiseshell and red admiral butterflies nectaring on thistles. #butterflies @savebutterflies.bsky.social
It won’t be much different today but over the road is a different matter - the great Carrifran Wildwood is now 25 years old and looking good.
August 31, 2025 at 9:36 PM
It won’t be much different today but over the road is a different matter - the great Carrifran Wildwood is now 25 years old and looking good.
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social Never seen this non-native plant before - lesser balsam (Koenigia campanulata). Growing next to a burn in the middle of a conifer plantation in South Ayrshire. #wildflowerhour
August 31, 2025 at 7:06 PM
@wildflowerhour.bsky.social Never seen this non-native plant before - lesser balsam (Koenigia campanulata). Growing next to a burn in the middle of a conifer plantation in South Ayrshire. #wildflowerhour
The Latin name of pebble prominent is Notodonta ziczac. From the caterpillar which likes to sit in a zigzag.
August 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM
The Latin name of pebble prominent is Notodonta ziczac. From the caterpillar which likes to sit in a zigzag.
Lovely walk up Gameshope this afternoon. Highlights were a peregrine and multiple caterpillars - pebble prominent and poplar hawk the choicest ones! Peggy loved the acres of devil’s-bit scabious!
August 24, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Lovely walk up Gameshope this afternoon. Highlights were a peregrine and multiple caterpillars - pebble prominent and poplar hawk the choicest ones! Peggy loved the acres of devil’s-bit scabious!
Only missing the gold lame top hat. As you say - a berk.
July 18, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Only missing the gold lame top hat. As you say - a berk.
A friend of mine sent me a photo this week of a dead water shrew he had found in Innerleithen. This is the first one I have heard of on the River Tweed so good to know they are there. #tweed @destinationtweeduk.bsky.social @mammalsociety.bsky.social
July 9, 2025 at 7:13 PM
A friend of mine sent me a photo this week of a dead water shrew he had found in Innerleithen. This is the first one I have heard of on the River Tweed so good to know they are there. #tweed @destinationtweeduk.bsky.social @mammalsociety.bsky.social
A morning spent pulling Himalayan balsam on the River Tweed near Peebles. These islands are difficult to get to without waders and even then low water is required. Still making some headway after a few years…
July 9, 2025 at 7:07 PM
A morning spent pulling Himalayan balsam on the River Tweed near Peebles. These islands are difficult to get to without waders and even then low water is required. Still making some headway after a few years…
Very early small pearl-bordered fritillary for Scotland. Riddings Bank, Scaur Water, Dumfriesshire. 11.05.2025 @savebutterflies.bsky.social
May 12, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Very early small pearl-bordered fritillary for Scotland. Riddings Bank, Scaur Water, Dumfriesshire. 11.05.2025 @savebutterflies.bsky.social
Got some excellent new treasure! Collected in the dunes at Mullaghmore in County Sligo, Eire in Mid-March 2025. A lower mandible of a harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) I think. #skull #cetacean #porpoise #Mullaghmore
April 6, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Got some excellent new treasure! Collected in the dunes at Mullaghmore in County Sligo, Eire in Mid-March 2025. A lower mandible of a harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) I think. #skull #cetacean #porpoise #Mullaghmore
Been meaning to go and find alternate-leaved golden saxifrage for years. This week I did it but it rather unhelpfully grows close to its much commoner cousin opposite-leaved golden saxifrage. Chrysosplenium alterniflorum on left and C.oppositifolium on right. #wildflowerhour #rivertweed #cardrona
April 6, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Been meaning to go and find alternate-leaved golden saxifrage for years. This week I did it but it rather unhelpfully grows close to its much commoner cousin opposite-leaved golden saxifrage. Chrysosplenium alterniflorum on left and C.oppositifolium on right. #wildflowerhour #rivertweed #cardrona
I was out on a site in the Borders this afternoon and there were hundreds of disused tree guards dumped. I seem to remember that there was a website where you could upload grid references and photos. I cannot find this. Can anyone out there help? #forestry #plasticwaste
April 6, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I was out on a site in the Borders this afternoon and there were hundreds of disused tree guards dumped. I seem to remember that there was a website where you could upload grid references and photos. I cannot find this. Can anyone out there help? #forestry #plasticwaste
First orange-tip of the year in darkest Peeblesshire. How about this for a record shot? 😂😆😂 @savebutterflies.bsky.social
April 4, 2025 at 6:17 PM
First orange-tip of the year in darkest Peeblesshire. How about this for a record shot? 😂😆😂 @savebutterflies.bsky.social
Good bit of treasure last week on a site I am preparing a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal for in the Borders. A cormorant skull. Look at that beak! #skull #britishbirds
March 25, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Good bit of treasure last week on a site I am preparing a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal for in the Borders. A cormorant skull. Look at that beak! #skull #britishbirds
Good find. Just back from Donegal and think we found a few at Derrybeg. Terrible photos attached.
March 19, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Good find. Just back from Donegal and think we found a few at Derrybeg. Terrible photos attached.
Seen on flight back from Middle East this morning…The poor old Cerne Abbas giant features in the film “Speak No Evil” but had been cruelly emasculated by the Qatar Airways censors…
#censorship #cerneabbasgiant #ouch
#censorship #cerneabbasgiant #ouch
February 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Seen on flight back from Middle East this morning…The poor old Cerne Abbas giant features in the film “Speak No Evil” but had been cruelly emasculated by the Qatar Airways censors…
#censorship #cerneabbasgiant #ouch
#censorship #cerneabbasgiant #ouch
I knew this book was going to be good and have just finished it. Anyone with an interest in how the countryside is managed should read!. Spoiler - the “custodians of the countryside” are doing a terrible job with some notable exceptions. Well done @guyshrubsole.bsky.social
January 30, 2025 at 10:12 PM
I knew this book was going to be good and have just finished it. Anyone with an interest in how the countryside is managed should read!. Spoiler - the “custodians of the countryside” are doing a terrible job with some notable exceptions. Well done @guyshrubsole.bsky.social
Some beautiful lenticular clouds on the way home tonight. Clovenfords, Scottish Borders. 16.01.2025
January 16, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Some beautiful lenticular clouds on the way home tonight. Clovenfords, Scottish Borders. 16.01.2025
Monthly Wetland Bird Survey along the Tweed between Peebles Bridge and Manor Bridge was eventful this morning. 8 little grebe is the most I have counted along this stretch of river in years but the icing on the cake was a female otter and two well grown cubs on the island below the cauld. #peebles
January 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Monthly Wetland Bird Survey along the Tweed between Peebles Bridge and Manor Bridge was eventful this morning. 8 little grebe is the most I have counted along this stretch of river in years but the icing on the cake was a female otter and two well grown cubs on the island below the cauld. #peebles
Sowing yellow rattle yesterday at Neidpath Castle,Peebles prior to the coldest night of the winter as part of the NatureScot funded Tweed Meadows Project run by Merlindale Nature. The cows from Benson Wemyss farms play the vital role of creating some bare soil before seed distribution. #Peebles
January 9, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Sowing yellow rattle yesterday at Neidpath Castle,Peebles prior to the coldest night of the winter as part of the NatureScot funded Tweed Meadows Project run by Merlindale Nature. The cows from Benson Wemyss farms play the vital role of creating some bare soil before seed distribution. #Peebles
Proper winters day today…Love birch woods and snow. Eddleston, Scottish Borders 02.01.2025
January 2, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Proper winters day today…Love birch woods and snow. Eddleston, Scottish Borders 02.01.2025
Winter solstice tomorrow and today I found a reminder of summer in a derelict sports pavilion. Small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies hibernating and former swallow nests. Clovenfords, Scottish Borders - 20.12.2024.
December 20, 2024 at 8:08 PM
Winter solstice tomorrow and today I found a reminder of summer in a derelict sports pavilion. Small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies hibernating and former swallow nests. Clovenfords, Scottish Borders - 20.12.2024.