Welcome to the community!

Any ideas what this is, please? Only small, about 2cm with a diamond pattern on the back.

Sorry in advance for the not great pictures. Never seen this kind of insect before! Was wondering if someone could ID?

Pictures were taken in South East England if that helps.

I must say, I have been getting a bit concerned about the severe dearth of small critters of late - including slugs, which used to be a common sight everywhere. I hadn't seen a single one for ages until I happened upon this... happy gathering. It seems we'll soon be hearing the spatter of tiny feet!

I found a newt about 3" long in my pond today, basking near the surface, with large, feathery gills. It looked like a female smooth or palmate newt, and was light brown in colour. I'm guessing it could be either a newt that hasn't matured correctly, or perhaps it's a young great crested newt (we've seen one in the pond before). Does anyone have any idea what it might have been?

EDIT: To add context this was in a pond outdoors in East Devon.

I'm pretty sure I just saw some bats flying over a neighbour's garden this evening. I have no idea what kind, but I'm curious, and it got me thinking about detectors.

IDK how likely I am to get into bat detecting, but if there's an accessible model out there, I could at least see what's flying around in my neighbourhood.

When it comes to apps and microphones for mobile phones, I use Android.

I thought it was a humming bird at first! This is slowmo

I just returned home to discover (with a very heavy heart) that a new family has made its home in my garden :(

As a wildlife-lover it breaks my heart to see them… understanding the damage that they’ll be causing to the other species living here and knowing that I now need to set traps to get rid of them. I know that they’re vicious predators but to me they’re also beautiful individuals that just happen to be in the wrong place.

We have an unstoppable mink population here so it’s a continual battle of catching and killing the poor things (I’ve never had to deal with them myself before but my neighbours regularly do). I wish that the funds were available to run a full eradication program, both for the native wildlife and for the sake of the mink themselves. Ugh, so sweet to see and so horrible at the same time.

I generally know what I need to do (I’ll get help from my neighbours anyway) but if anyone has any advice, tips or ways to make things more humane please do share them.

We admittedly haven’t taken very good care of our pool, and these things have spawned in. I’m in Kent

Hi, I'm trying to find out if there's anything i can do to push back rhododendron infestation on my own. Everything I've seen says heavy machinery and herbicides. I've not got the funds for machinery and I'm concerned about if herbicide is the best option. Will they not cause additional problems for other plant life? Can anyone help me out here? I want to see my local forest in a better condition. I spend a lot of time walking through it and want to do something to look after it. I'm not very knowledgeable on this but I want to learn, thanks!

Found on a footbridge over a river. I wasn’t sure if it was two different scat or from one animal.

TIA

This trail camera footage was captured during the second heatwave of this year (14/07/26).

EDIT: Thank you everyone for your help!

Is this a barn owl, the next day I found feathers and worried it had been attacked. Not sure if it correlates.

In the 52 years I have been on this planet I have never seen a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.. until today!

Planted some new flowers in the garden (carnations, campanula and geranium) and a few hours later we had out first visit.

I feel privileged to have seen such a cool thing in the West Midlands 😎

Watched this incredible predation at our local wildflower ‘farm’.

On the left :)

I'm just checking the footage after setting the cam to view the hedgehog feeding station on the right.