Philip Amies @AmiesPhilip Twitter profile

Pinned Tweet

Philip Amies

5 years

Peat, a summary. Peat is found in lowland farmland as well as bogs and upland. 1/ Keep it wet. 2/ Keep it in the ground.

11

103

521

Last Seen Profiles

@neoavatara

@fauzanndz

@biplabmahanta

@LeaksEvents

@noooooz

@crossy16

@SVasternorrland

@TysonDrake1

@bokeplokalmalam

@justi_beatri

@AeonRexTV

@cukienaknikmati

@PSeadanya

@suEXnDB6SfThBT4

@london_edge

@JackBirchmore1

@MERMALHEIDI

@cucvas96002

@BinduDhillon111

@XVismyname

@RevBillCrews

@jasonfarnham

@QMu8N027m6hMOIl

@DIRENGREY_ENG

@wishye_m

@qqqll22

@BinorRaja

@AnhPH889

@ruthwitmer

@paw

@stw_pdg

@mtbr_kome17_cs

@inuzuki_muchi

@RodneyDeLong

@eisaalliyth

@_TripathiJi

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Camping is clearly recreation, court deciding it is not, so therefore nobody can backpack & camp on Dartmoor is bullshit, we have gone from people sleeping overnight on commons across England & Wales to nowhere is legal in a couple of generation or so. Something rotten in this.

21

69

571

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

How to show everybody you know nothing.

25

84

542

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Pair of turtle doves under our feeders

20

37

513

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

If your first thought on seeing many kites or buzzards in sky is ‘too many’ I have news for you, you are the problem.

24

39

464

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

I was very sad earlier this week to receive a phone call telling us Roger had died, I started looking at fungi with his book and eventually via my wife who knew him much of her life got to know him, a remarkable person, full of energy, good fun, hard really to express what an

30

51

459

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

8 months

Gamekeepers are the real conservationists? I'd have thought introducing rhododendron and laurel into ancient woods as cover, and killing every predator including Kingfishers and Barn Owls would invalidate that claim.

15

58

442

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

If anybody noticed an absence after my last tweet at 10.50 on 19th July I collapsed and a paramedic stabilised me at home, I have been in hospital for 10 days, came out yesterday evening, suffice to say I have been rather unwell, apologies to any I have not replied to.

189

1

409

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

I don't understand vaping, I've got a respiratory disease you don't want that, these disposable vapes are obscene waste of materials including lithium resulting in pollution, ban them.

10

70

391

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

What size nature reserve could have been bought from all the money spent on scandalously over priced unnecessary bee houses and other ‘wildlife’ tat bought for gardens? Maybe we should stop buying junk and all get together and buy land?

39

36

385

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

I see on my timeline the statement shooting is conservation, well is pheasant shooting conservation? millions of pheasants

60

90

344

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

If you think shooting 600 pheasants in a day, releasing millions, 8 tons of grain fed per thousand, is acceptable for fun rather than shooting a few pheasants, rabbits for a meal (fine enjoying doing that) then you have problems.

11

55

319

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

9 months

Small-leaved Lime coppice, some decades since it was last cut, the coppice stool in some cases may be 1000 years old or even older perhaps Roman.

8

46

313

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

“The thorn is the mother of the oak” is an ancient forestry saying. Thorny scrub was considered so valuable that a 1768 statute in the New Forest imposed three months' forced labour and lashes of the whip on anyone found extracting it.

15

48

282

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Just seen Jackdaws flying over the meadow, maybe more to the point I can see the meadow, the trees beyond, the dunes of golf links, trees. Also blue is amazing, red so bright, my first eye cataract operation has gone well, it is incredible.

30

6

268

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Blighty, sheep eating turnips.

7

33

252

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

I’ve been away a while, not been well, but stayed out of hospital, still not great but might tweet again, not been all bad, a bit of sitting in garden with migrating snipe, pinkfeet, listening to young barn owls calling and adults screaming, tawny owls chucking juvs out.

37

3

242

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

I'm speaking up for precious wildlife with @cumbriawildlife - will you join me? Plans for a new 450-lodge holiday resort at Roanhead near Barrow-in-Furness will devastate nature including rare natterjack toads.

12

132

228

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Had my first airbnb guest who hated wildlife garden, I don’t give a damn, I love it.

29

5

223

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

I was a 1970s naturalist in SW, yes farmland birds were more abundant, but if you had said bitterns, cranes, kites would be breeding, 3 species of egret, spoonbills, and then added otter will return, beavers, boar, polecat, pine martin, more woodlark & dartford warbler....

15

30

219

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

9 months

A Beech plantation, I can tell you the history as I used to manage this wood. Was it planted using plastic tubes?

10

25

223

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Grim warnings, food, timber, we will not be producing enough because a tiny % of land will be a bit more biodiverse. Look around you almost everywhere is intensive production, it will not be a decrease in production but will be an increase in biodiversity.

8

37

214

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Hi new followers, and old, health taken a down turn, new followers I’m not that long back from hospital, going to need to rest, will follow people back later, tweet again when able.

79

1

209

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Revisited Thursford Wood, Norfolk, took many bluebell photos I will share a plethora from this photogenic gem of an ancient woodland.

4

16

204

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

twat

14

15

197

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Meadows, they seem to have developed a mystique and are becoming apparently somewhat misunderstood. Meadows are historically hay producing grasslands, the ideal time to cut them as a farmer is when the grass is most nutrient rich, which is when the grass is in flower.

12

55

199

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

9 months

What I do not understand is roadside planting, it is not timber production, given time it will be colonised and money can be saved, to me it is landscape architect nonsense wasting money. Maybe to screen houses alongside road in which case price in and carry out aftercare.

42

27

200

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Ancient grasslands and conservation grazing, for a start some open habitat excited in Mesolithic inland even in Southern England as has been shown in part of Dorset chalk and other places, grazed by Auroch & Red Deer, human burning may have had a role, thin poor soils also.

9

27

194

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

What sort of person decides they can own a peregrine falcon, just walk into countryside and take one, to be their possession. What mentality of ownership is that? Ever felt when you watch a wild falcon that you should own it? No me neither.

9

28

187

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Dartmoor 47000 hectares of open access land, Darwall owns 1126 hectares of Stall Moor, his court case has removed right to camp on all 47000 acres from all of us.

5

39

184

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

10 months

Why are Montagu's Harriers vulnerable to an earlier cereal harvest date? They often nest in barley which if cut before birds fledge results in the death of the nestlings.

6

64

182

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Grasses, sometimes simple things confuse, two species? no Yorkshire Fog with panicle closed then open.

13

22

178

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Names of 61 lakes lost in just part of the Fens

21

53

179

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

5 months

Pheasant with Grass Snake photo John Tomsett

10

53

178

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

I have had a fascinating and very enjoyable afternoon at Ken Hill being driven around and shown lots of great things by @WildKenHill who kindly reached out asking if I would like a visit, appreciate it a great deal. A superb project, and I saw a beaver dam!

16

12

173

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Conservation grazing, how easy is it? not as easy as you might think, in many places you might struggle to find somebody to graze a site, can that be fixed by subsidy?

11

25

161

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

Did you know you can leave long grass and flowers during summer and also cut patches, and that some species need short grass? Starlings find insects in shorter grass.

10

41

166

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Well my lovers as time approaches when I will know the reality of my breathing issues and have a prognosis, despite a sense of fear I also have a sense of fuck it, lets face it I’m not a youngster, had some fun in life, and as long as you are standing well bugger it so what.

16

1

161

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Watched a Barn Owl hunting over saltmarsh and dunes this evening which was a big deal as it was my first mobility scooter trip (had it over a week but been too unwell to use it). What was also a big deal is I could see the owl.

11

1

159

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

rivers do not have a channel, they can dry up, or flow over entire floodplain, so think about where you build

13

32

159

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

Trees being cut down for transport links, shame trees can not be moved….

12

51

160

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Turtle Doves have been silent, male now has a mate.

5

7

159

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Ok just a thing, most of us have or do work in a nature related things, do nature on days off, point out nature things on walks when not ‘doing’ nature, do nature social media, read natural history books, OK this is normal right?

36

5

157

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Humberston Fitties Linc. 12 turnstone, 1 redshank, and me able to go along beach in dry soft sand, wet sand, in sea water, I’ll put my deposit down tomorrow and wait several weeks and that is me back out on beach.

17

5

153

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

White-tailed eagle in Norfolk @WildKenHill is a positive step, a decade or so back opposition by landowners and a coalition of people frightened of change stopped this amazing project. It must succeed this time against the inertia of fear and reaction against change.

9

21

153

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

9 months

Ireland was separated from Britain by rising sea after the Ice Age about 14,000 years ago. Britain became an island about 8000 years ago (Mesolithic). Humans recolonised Britain about 13,500 years ago. The glaciers of the Ice Age started melting 17,000 years ago.

13

26

150

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Another headline “Sheep bad for conservation” yet more lack of proportionality, nuance, and sense, if you buy that you are an idiot. Chalk grassland such as Martin Down sheep grazed since Neolithic, burnt-tip orchid just one of many special species.

16

29

149

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Human reality, life was hard, “By hook or by crook” describes the common right of estovers, right to wood you could cut with a hook, pull down with a crook. It also describes attitude “By any means necessary” survivors did what they had to.

5

27

146

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

I’m getting a bit tired of the narrative that UK is most nature deprived place in Europe, it is a rather more complex story, for a start we have more ancient oaks than all of Europe. .

23

148

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

9 months

Ancient woodlands are not primary woodlands or natural, we have none in UK, none in Europe, even Białowieża Forest in Poland is best described as naturalistic (it has a high degree of naturalness). Ancient woods have been in existence since 1600, many are much older.

10

20

146

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

I have spared no expense or trouble to create this presentation on extreme rainfall events, flooding and the role of flood plains. Hopefully this will clear matters up.

5

44

142

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Some of this pasture was clover ley, but much was botanically diverse grassland

9

42

143

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

5 months

I've resolved a question, is twitter dead, or have I been posting boring things nobody cared about. Boring it was lol. So, you are all still out there, thanks for sticking with me, I have also been able to go outside (what joy) and therefore posting less.

26

1

144

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Do we all have to agree and come to a consensus as regards a reintroduction, no. Nobody doubts Great Bustard was a native species, the persecution which contributed to their loss may be gone, but many people questioned the habitat availability as vast commons were ploughed.

9

31

136

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 months

Lapwing, once a familiar sight, birds breeding in spring sown arable and wetlands.

4

33

140

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

6 months

The Wildlife Trusts need to get a grip, this is utter nonsense Harvest Mice do not need humans to make a nest for them, they make their own nests if uncut tall grass left.

6

12

129

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

Just had a “limited view” restriction on a tweet, I had to change “f a g g o t” to dead wood fence. I don’t like it. Context matters, our historic usage of words is still a living usage at least for people like me.

17

11

126

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

8 months

Recently discovered! Known for a very long time, I recollect seeing the hollows they roost in decades ago, it was well known then.

Andrew Fusek Peters

@2peters

8 months

An adapted behaviour only recently discovered - on cold nights, the treecreeper roosts in the soft bark of Wellingtonia @imagery_t @Natures_Voice @OMSYSTEMcameras @BTO_GBW @sosbirding @ShropsWildlife @BirdwatchExtra

5

23

186

22

16

123

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Thursford Wood, Norfolk, I went for a little walk

5

7

119

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Is concentrating on verges an abandonment of hope? Should we not restore entire river floodplains, connect habitat into a vibrant dynamic mosaic on a large scale. That is what we need to do, not tinker around on the edge of a road.

26

10

118

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Today I am mainly fucked off by ragwort obsessives, they have a paddock we manage thousands of acres of grazing, they know best, just fuck off.

6

4

115

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

I like being able to see, looked out of window as a big Pink-footed Geese flock was loudly calling as it headed away west, first thing I saw was a male Peregrine flying towards house. The cataract in second eye operation has gone well, still settling down and I’m staying home

6

2

110

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

so apparently this is as bad as dogs in a tern colony, or setting fire to a heath, get a grip, it is a group of people standing by some bushes in a place they are allowed to stand

21

6

112

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

11 months

Don't build on floodplains, instead move bank to reconnect more floodplain, restore wetland.

Thirzah McSherry

@ThirzahWildman

11 months

Some of the River Witham’s floodplain today. Because this is what rivers do. This is also where @sainsburys have @NorthKestevenDC ’s permission to build a brand, spanking new store 🤷‍♀️

6

50

94

4

32

113

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Battue pheasant shooting; rearing & release, beaters driving birds over guns at pegs in a series of drives in a day, 600 day bag.

14

50

105

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

The day arrived, hospital visit to see consultant, good news, but also not good news. It appears I do not have COPD, trapped air in part of lungs due to severe asthma instead, the bad news is I have more severe asthma than most. New drug to take to lessen allergy pathway.

16

1

103

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Woke at 4.00 Cuckoo singing, Turtle Dove singing and seen in garden, male Bullfinch, 3 Stock Doves, Lapwing and Curlew heard flying over.

3

0

105

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

I am a conservationist, I do not think an individual animals life matters, I think populations of animals & plants matter, their survival in habitats. The continued drama of life, wildebeest crossing a river. Some drown, crocodiles eat some, most live.

7

5

106

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

I warmed up my own meal, put some things in dishwasher so my exhausted wife could sit down and play with puppy, I looked at some moths, sat in garden, and did not spend two hours coughing up gunk gasping for breath, I call that a great day.

3

0

104

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Rural crime is a terrible thing, isolated dwellings, it can be unrelenting and a campaign of intimidation and destruction, all sorts of victims for varying motives, farmers, retired farm labourers, TV presenters like Chris Packham. I have lived amongst it, needs calling out.

4

21

102

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

It is a strange day wife and I are in a state of shock, but have to look at positives, my cataract surgery has gone very well, eyesight really good better than it has been for years, saw a distant V of waders to east, no idea what they were but small and distant is amazing given

7

0

97

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

6

99

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

The news was bad, blockage severe, cancer spread he even if surviving operation given difficulties of intestine repair would have had a short painful remaining life, we made the decision that he would not wake from anaesthetic, an active happy lively dog until last.

69

0

100

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

Announcement, today is incredibly important, Turtle Dove has arrived, so pleased to hear it singing.

4

2

101

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Ivory-billed woodpecker, sad story of extinction

9

37

100

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

A meadow, pasture, what are these things? Our language has meaning but is also mutable, a word does not describe every aspect of a thing. Grassland is a plant community of mainly perennial plants, it may be an ancient community of wild plants or a monoculture which is ploughed

4

28

100

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Excellent, now do same with any plant grown in peat.

Channel 4 News

@Channel4News

2 years

The Royal Horticultural Society has banned artificial lawns at its world famous summer shows over its environmental impact. @alextomo explores the growing backlash against plastic grass.

7

67

196

3

17

99

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

Burnt-tip Orchid Martin Down, just one of the many rare species which thrive on well managed downs using rotational pulsed sheep grazing. Marsh fritillary and Adonis blue in same location

Dee Ward

@DeeWardRottal

1 year

Hi Ben @BenGoldsmith . I like that you are trying to fight for nature & environment BUT this is one of my fields grazed (sustainably) by sheep. There are now literally thousands of orchids - so it’s important we get the full picture on sheep before saying all sheep are bad imho!

18

69

515

3

7

101

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Hi twitter mates been in hospital, had sinus operation, stayed in overnight on oxygen it was a bit fraught in recovery for a little bit, but observations in night went from 2 to 4 hours. Preparation to manage obstructive pulmonary disease well worth it, oxygen saturation 93-94%.

21

0

102

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

5 months

People got engaged with my thread on Pheasants and snakes. Less interest in my mention of a species which could feed on herps in flocks. A species which is not native in Britain, but does visit and bred on St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1416, the only recorded event

5

9

100

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

5 years

Remains of grubbed up hedges, a stark lone tree once in a hedge? or perhaps all that is left of what was once a wood pasture. Dying, and no replacement will happen. One day the landscape will by empty of trees when these old relicts go.

Chantal Sorrell

@ChantalSorrell

5 years

Sadly seen in Crediton, devon. Quite a few beautiful mature oaks ploughed right up to base of the trees, no wonder they die.

10

22

45

11

55

97

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

How much old grassland is gone? 97%, 98%, 99%, why do we not know? disgraceful lack of funding for full resource mapping, we should know where all old grassland is, then protect it, makes you wonder who benefits from this neglect?

10

16

96

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Happy Christmas to twitter mates. Hope you have a good day, just remember if you are not then reach out to people. St Margaret's Church, Burnham Norton, I like to stop and look at building and the view to coast.

11

2

96

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Here is the simple truth, peat use has to be banned, horticulture, garden centres will keep on until government ban. It is decades late, simple step, do it.

5

9

92

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 months

Brownfield can be biodiverse, facts on the ground (from survey) is what matters, prejudgment is wrong, brownfield is not automatically the right location for development.

Ross Piper

@DrRossPiper

4 months

A post-industrial landscape, but it's teeming with bird life, including many species, such as cuckoo and nightingale that have declined and disappeared in other places.

3

7

33

8

30

95

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

I mainly have one thought on my mind, despite tweets suggesting otherwise, later today my wife is bringing home a puppy, tomorrow you get puppy photos.

12

0

93

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

I guess the sad thing about nature capital, financiers rewilding, carbon offsetting, the corporate elite solution, the people involved are in such a bubble of group think and shared lifestyle they likely can not even remotely understand the flaws, or opposition.

3

15

92

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

Anyone seen pollard Birch like this?

Journal of Art in Society

@artinsociety

1 year

Van Gogh’s drawings are often overlooked, but he felt they were “the root of everything” (Pollard birches 1884)

58

711

4K

25

9

92

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Moose (Elk in Europe) are incredibly huge, in Maine I had a visceral experience of sensing one at night near me hairs on back of neck reacted before I understood, primal stuff, a young animal alongside car towered over car.

gavin jones

@ecologyofgavin

2 years

I think most people think a moose is about the size of a deer but with a different face and weird antlers but really moose are terrifyingly large, some are >7 ft at the shoulder, and with full antlers would struggle to walk under a basketball hoop

39

174

1K

8

5

87

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

1 year

Rain did not come out of sky the colour of the local soil.

Charlie Powell

@ITVCharlieP

1 year

The effects of extreme, heavy rainfall in Tipton St. John, Sidmouth earlier today. 📹 - Colin Gilbert @itvwestcountry

218

342

714

5

16

89

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

We spend a great deal of public money on planting some of which we know does not survive. What about taking some of that money into a fund for community nurseries, hire a few workers, get public engaged.

14

13

92

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Papers full of story of first birth in 6000 years of a bison in wild. For a start the Blean project is not wild, it is interesting, but animals enclosed and controlled. Wisent just like African Elephant (Whipsnade) never have been native animals.

9

5

92

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

4 years

Been unwell since October, repeated chest infections, antibiotics, asthma, oxygen saturation down to 91%, passed out and hit floor, not so good. Feeling much better, sun out, started planning a sensible rebuild of fitness, gentle walks, some careful exercise.

15

1

88

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Oak an early colonist of grassland often one of first woody species, if distant from an existing wood more likely a rook cache than jay cache.

5

11

91

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

Lawns, mow or don’t mow, it is not a simple good or bad, it is more complicated. A lawn mower has height settings, also a box for removing cuttings, which is good as this reduces nutrient levels which increases flower diversity (no fertiliser!). Set height to cut higher.

9

22

89

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

9 months

Other people have said clever, meaningful, observant things, all I have to say is what the fuck is this about.

Reforest Britain

@ReforestB

9 months

A request to fell 2 protected pear trees in 'Pear Tree Close', Much Dewchurch, Herefordshire, as they attract wasps, has been supported by the parish council. An application to fell the trees has been submitted to Herefordshire Council

420

454

825

6

10

88

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

2 years

Sitting with a coffee thinking, a question is dominant, then suddenly I know, Turtle Dove starts singing near me, I have the joy of another summer with them.

4

1

89

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

3 years

I read again conservation has failed, no it has not, it has achieved wonders with little, the entire country has been totally transformed after WW2 and has changed a great deal since enclosures and fen drainage had a vast impact on nature. 50% of biodiversity lost means

3

7

85

Philip Amies

@AmiesPhilip

5 months

Curlews I shall never see; Slender-billed & Eskimo, both extinct.