Sally-Ann Spence FRES FLS
@SallyAnn_Spence
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I do #SciComm #STEM Presenter & Researcher. Entomology/Agriculture/Archaeology. Passionate about DUNG BEETLES! Founder @berrycrofthub @DungBeetleFarms
Education/Advice/Events/Media
Joined February 2013
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Wow! I am absolutely thrilled & extremely honoured to receive the
@BritEntSoc
Gold Medal in recognition of my work to promote the understanding, appreciation & conservation of British
#DungBeetles
🐄🐏🐎🐖🦌🐐🦙💩🪲👍
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THIS IS AWESOME!!!
Best graffiti EVER! 👇👇
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1K
Ok so it’s my birthday & my kids just made me the most awesome cake...
#DungBeetlesRule
#DungIsFun
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It’s taken me years of careful management on our farm to restore this 100 acres of calcareous grassland to how it is today. It’s still a working project & there’s more to do, but it’s now teaming with invertebrates, reptiles, birds & mammals...
@NaturalEngland
@NFFNUK
@BSBIbotany
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Having been inundated with walkers on their exercise, I’ve decided to use the opportunity for some positive farming & conservation
#outreach
.
Made up loads of habitat info boards & stuck them alongside the footpaths where we have wildlife hotspots
#AgChat
#naturefriendlyfarming
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Want to know something really epic? There are over 2,500 species of moth in the UK. They live in a wide range of habitats, are a major part of our biodiversity & provide a huge array of ecological benefits. Now that’s epic 👍
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The 6,500 year old
#Mesolithic
Bad Dürrenberg headdress is presently on display in the
@britishmuseum
’s awe inspiring
#TheWorldOfStonehenge
exhibition. Who wore it & what was so special about them?
(Archaeology thread 👇)
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Never thought I’d be doing this, but it’s got so bad now we just can’t take the risk anymore. If you are out walking & go through a field with livestock, please, please keep your dog on a lead. Enjoy the countryside & keep everything in it safe. Thank you
@NorthWessexAONB
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So my swift boxes have sparrows in, the barn owl box has jackdaws, the sparrow boxes have bluetits & the house martin nest boxes have a wren. DID NOBODY GET THE MEMO???!
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A CHALKHILL BLUE BUTTERFLY!
1st record on this calcareous grassland since starting the habitat restoration project based around dung beetles. Don’t know who’s more excited, Nick Bowles from
@savebutterflies
or me - undoubtedly not the butterfly who just wanted to roost.
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Hi! I'm Sally-Ann & I'm busy surveying dung beetles in gale force winds in the Orkneys. I also try to inspire kids
#actuallivingscientist
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Haven’t done many watercolour paintings since the days when I was a student raising the funds to buy myself a decent microscope. In this rather unsettling time it has been very therapeutic to start again
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Anyone know what the collective term is for a field full of curlew?
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Well it’s happened. After 12 years clear & right at calving time, we have TB in the herd. The feeling of utter sorrow in my heart is overwhelming right now.
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Tucked away in a drawer in
@morethanadodo
's entomological collection there is a little unassuming brown note book. In it observations are entwined with a fleeting moment of a very human story...
(thread)
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Yet another typical night in the Mayhem household...
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Having some family time...
Leaf insects Phyllium philippinicum
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Our first swallow has just arrived!!!!
Huge excitement - can’t wait to hear the chattering tomorrow after it’s had a well earned nights rest.
@_BTO
@WOXFarmBirds
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I often find objects in our fields connecting me with people from the Mesolithic to today who have known this land as well as I do. Little traces of their lives - from raising their children to working & dying here. Each find both a clue & a treasure
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Had to be done.
(Huge thanks to my neighbour Sue who knows an awesome piece of material when she sees it)
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They just keep coming! Not great news for the planet with the permafrost melting but undeniably incredible discoveries.
A well-preserved woolly rhino with its last meal still intact found in the extreme north of Yakutia...
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@TyFulwood
@katrinasasse
@HollyGodfrey12
My message for Sylvie 🚜
(Thanks for the tag in
@ZwartblesIE
)
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Now THAT’S a stick insect folks!
(Phasma gigas from Jailolo, Indonesia - can fly but tends to glide)
#NIW2018
#InsectsAreAwesome
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Nows the time to find toadlets making their way out from ponds. These miniature hunters will be helping to control insects.
Toads spend more time on dry land than frogs & by mid-Oct they will have retreated amongst dead wood, under garden buildings & other places offering shelter
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Roses are red
Violets are blue
Without dung beetles
There’d be loads of poo
#AcademicValentines
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Folks, take a moment to appreciate please.
It’s a 34 MILLION-YEAR-OLD butterfly👇🏻
Insects really do make for some of the most spectacular fossils.
This is Prodryas persephone, a 34 million-year-old butterfly from Colorado
@FlorissantNPS
(Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument).
Photo by Paula Kuitenbrouwer.
#butterflies
🦋
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& just when you thought you'd seen all the cool stuff on twitter today here's an insect with more than six legs...
(in
@morethanadodo
Coll.)
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A huge & extremely rare Flapper Skate Dipturus intermedia, egg capsule at the Bay of Skaill - Orkney is one of this species last strongholds
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Elrathia kingii is a Middle Cambrian trilobite species found in extremely high concentrations within the Wheeler Formation in Utah.
I’m reliably informed by
@JohnRMoffitt
that their nick name is tiddlywinks after the way they can be popped out of the shale
#TrilobiteTuesday
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That moment when you suddenly realise you actually have just stepped into a Constable painting...
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Not even driving winds & torrential downpours can dull the excitement of finding dung beetles by the 5,000yr old Macleod's stone set amongst the epic scenery of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.
#Dungathon
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Can anyone tell me what crop this is? Not seen it before & very curious
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Now is the time to go looking for a treasure trove of jewels in the countryside - the rose chafers Cetonia aurata.
Family: Scarabaeidae (the same family as dung beetles)
#Coleoptera
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JUST LOOOOK AT THIS!!
@AtmStreetart
strikes again! There’s now an awesome stag beetle walking up the side of
@SuffolkArchives
in
Ipswich 👇👇👇👇
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Carved stone balls - the Neolithic version of the rubix cube...
#YourTheoryIsAsGoodAsMine
#ThoseLongWinterNights
#NoWiFiOr4G
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On
#ValentinesDay
& every day…
Dung beetles love poo.
They need lots of livestock,
& undisturbed soils too.
Let’s conserve all their species,
Practice a reduction in treatments
& look after that faeces!
#ValentinesDay2022
📷
@paulypod
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So Noel the Nautilus just raised the bar on the Christmas cake competition...
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& just when you thought you'd seen all the cool stuff on twitter today here's an insect with more than six legs...
(in
@morethanadodo
Coll.)
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How cool is this? Just received this totally awesome
#DungBeetle
rolling it’s ball of dung made entirely out of folded paper by 15yr old John Fuggle. It took him 5 hrs to make & it is quite simply just brilliant!
(Please check him out on Instagram: tiresome_tessellations)
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The wait is finally over & we are kicking off 2021 with some really good news -
@DungBeetleFarms
website is now live!
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Another south facing solitary bee nesting habitat completed. There are over 200 species of solitary bees in the UK & a majority of these nest in the ground. Providing for lifecycles is vital. Find out more info on these
#pollinators
via
@BumblebeeTrust
...
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The kid's interest in froghoppers suddenly doubled when they discovered it farted bubbles to protect itself
#NIW2016
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Harvest is a very serious business with precision timing between hauling grain from the combine to the grain store. There can be absolutely NO distractions.
Oooo a White Ermine caterpillar!
*leaps out of tractor cab*
Squeeeee!
*totally distracted*
#TheEntoIsStrongInThisOne
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Busy day training a pair of Dexter cows to work together under a yoke in preparation to pull an Iron Age ard
#AsYouDo
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Great to chat about pastureland ecology whilst finding dung beetles with
@herdyshepherd1
on his farm. Lots of shared excitement in soil health & biodiversity 💩👍🏻
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Grimspound on Dartmoor dates from the late Bronze Age. Within a massive boundary wall, about 150 metres in diameter, the settlement contains the remains of 24 stone roundhouses, several internal pens & a convenient water supply as the Grims Lake flows right through the enclosure
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Me "how did you feel about the insects before you actually held them?"
8yr old "I wanted to kill them"
Me "& now?"
8yr old "now I like them"
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A Scottish island littered with Neolithic standing stones, plenty native cattle & some rather lovely dung - the perfect combination for finding
#dungbeetles
in the Outer Hebrides
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This 👆northern dune tiger beetle was painted as part of the
#WildWalls
series from
@ukyouth4nature
by the incredibly talented artist
@AtmStreetart
. He’s also responsible for this gorgeous tansy beetle in York 👇
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Tonight I found out that my colleagues have closed the DUMP project without even giving me a clue it was going to happen. I put everything I am into this work to raise the profile & conservation of UK dung beetles. I am utterly devastated.
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When it comes to ecosystem services in pasture, dung beetles rule! We have 3 groups in the UK, 46 species of Aphodiines who dwell in the dung (endocoprids) & 8 Geotrupid spiecies with 6 Onthophagus species who live in tunnels under it (paracoprids). Species diversity is key
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A thread about molehills,
#archaeological
finds & planting your spring greens…
👇
The humble molehill is a sign of good
#SpoilHealth
as moles eat earthworms & earthworms are important members of the soil fauna.
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Trying to get the harvest in & sometimes the combine has to be driven between fields. At 18.2t in weight & just over 11m in length it’s quite the unit we always have a clearly marked escort ahead of us.
MASSIVE thanks to everyone else on the roads for their patience right now 👍🏻
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Salisbury Plain supports the largest known expanse of unimproved chalk downland in north west Europe
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Call out to a lady concerned about a swarm in her garden. It was a gorgeous colony of tree bumblebee Bombus hypnorum in her bird box. We had a chat about them & watched them harmlessly going about their business. She’s delighted they’ve chosen her garden
#Result
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“Have to admit I never thought I would be emailing a lady a photograph I’ve taken of my cows dung & be absolutely certain that she would be delighted to receive it. These are indeed unprecedented times”
#DungBeetles
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So cool it must be shared! A lovely honeycomb of tunnels made by the various dung fauna that will aid weathering, prevent pasture fowling & are already recycling nutrients in a cow pat that’s only 36 hrs old. Now that’s the total awesomeness of arthropods folks!!
#TinyButMighty
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Swords smith Neil Burridge: “Ask a Iron Age curator what’s the best items in their collection & they’ll say all this bronze stuff. It’s almost like bronze is made for the gods & it lasts. Whereas iron comes from deep in the Earth & spends the rest of its life trying to get back”
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Wasps. Started making paper before humans learnt to write...
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Moved a few cattle onto a calcareous grassland slope to scrub trim & increase the floral diversity by grazing. The Dexter’s are one of our smallest breeds & compliment the grazing habits of the Belted Galloways. The biggest problem I’ve got at present though, is locating them!
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Learn about lichens in lockdown - they are not plants but a mix of organisms (fungus, algae & /or cyanobacteria) in a symbiotic relationship. Ecological indicators, habitat enhancers & even used by birds to camouflage nests...
Don’t overlook lichens folks!
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Spring is officially here & now is a great time to spot oil beetles. These fabulous insects are an important indicator species that need wild bees. Upload your sightings
@iRecordWildlife
& definitely give
@OilBeetlesUK
a follow!
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The 5000yr old village of Skara Brae with stone furniture still in situ.
Now looked after by
@welovehistory
#Orkney
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When your dung beetling risk assessment is just staring back at you…
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Just WOW 😍
@SallyAnn_Spence
@bernoid
@ukyouth4nature
@AtmStreetart
#Odeith
went to
#Stockholm
for this piece 😊
Master!
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A close up of the dung beetle sculpture crafted in wax & almost finished by artist Mairi Hunt before it begins the process of being reproduced in bronze via the lost-wax method. Amazing detail!
#EntoArt
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If one flower could symbolise spring then it should be the cowslip Primula veris. An important early source of nectar for insects including bees, beetles & butterflies such as the brimstone. Cowslips are also a food plant for the Duke of Burgundy butterfly.
#SpringTime
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“Without the work of this humble creature, who knows nothing of the benefits he confers upon mankind, agriculture, as we know it, would be very difficult, if not wholly impossible”
#CharlesDarwin
on earthworms,1881
#DarwinDay
#OTD
#SoilHealth
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Nothing reinvigorates you better for the week ahead than dung beetle surveying along Hadrian’s Wall on a particularly blustery day
#MondayMotivation
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It’s hard not to be wowed by trilobites when they display such a huge & fascinating morphological variance. Every
#TrilobiteTuesday
pays homage to these incredible arthropods. Please, even if you do nothing else today, check out this hashtag folks!
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Come on a little tweeter thread journey with me folks. It’s all about a chap called Gilbert White & his illustrious life. We will touch on nature,
#Christmas
, mental wellbeing & citizen science…
enjoy 😊
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Have just got myself a sarsen standing stone! Had to be done mechanically, not authentically as planned with teams of people due to social distancing & still wasn’t quite the 5 minute lockdown project done mechanically either, but it’s here & it’s beautiful.
#sundayvibes
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There’s still time to see the most aptly named beautiful demoiselle Calopteryx virgo. It can be found along fast-flowing waters in the west of the U.K where the males wait on the bankside for females then take to aerial courtship displays. They are definitely dressed to impress!
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Talking about the importance of insects & the issues surrounding their declines with
@bbcworldservice
. It’s not all doom & gloom & there’s a lot of positive things going on but we can all do more.
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The original Iron Age Orkney hood in
@NtlMuseumsScot
. Found in a peat bog in Orkney in 1867 & made from wool woven in a complex pattern.
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Yet another new flora species to add to the ever growing list in my calcareous grassland restoration project- the clustered bellflower Campanula glomerata. With a sensitive grazing management & native breeds for the dung beetles, the wildflowers are returning
#biodiversity
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The continued hot weather is creating minor whirlwinds in the freshly harvested fields. These are helical rotations which develop at the ground & rise into the sky are often as a result of the strong heating of the ground by the sun in calm or light winds
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One fantastic reason to leave dead wood & not remove tree stumps - a female stag beetle Lucanus cervus
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The narrow natural passage entrance to Dunadd in Kilmartin Glen, one of the most important sites in Scottish/Irish history. Built as a fortified farmstead 2,400yrs ago it became the royal capital of the earliest Scottish kingdom
#D
àlRiata
#ArgllAndBute
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To find out that the last six years of your work has been annulled via a colleague logging into the social media account & changing the bio is the biggest kick. I apologise for this being a personal tweet folks & not my usual but I am floored. Simply flabbergasted & greatly upset
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We have
#DungBeetles
active all year round in the UK - even in the winter months. To keep these species going & to guarantee dung for the early spring species (especially if we have sudden warm weather spikes encouraging emergences) we need some livestock overwintering out
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Had a safe distance visit from one of my greatest & dearest natural history mentors - who is looking more delightfully Darwinian than ever in lockdown
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Admiring these beautiful face masks made for me by the wonderful
@Pselaphacus
- striking
#entofashion
& a great outreach opportunity right there - thank you 😊
#Scarabaeidae
#Buprestidae
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A whole field of sarsen stones lying to the east of Ashdown house in Oxfordshire. This field is classified as a SSSI as the stones host exceptional lichen flora which is thought to have taken centuries to develop.
(Tweet dedicated to the super sarsen sleuth
@artefactual_KW
)
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Now is a great time to get outside & look for oil beetles. These gorgeously big & beautiful beetles are in decline. If you see one, please upload your sighting to the National Oil Beetle Recording Scheme
@OilBeetlesUK
Be a part of their conservation!
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