With search engine optimisation and the rising tide of A.I. slop, it's getting increasingly hard to find anything useful or interesting on the internet.
Here are some links to sites I read, use, and enjoy. I do not own or manage any of them unless otherwise indicated.
Blogs and personal sites
Ecology, Conservation, Natural History
Newry Wildlife — my friend Dean, an ecologist based in Newry
Rathlin Stickybeak — two nature nerds on Rathlin Island
Writing and visual art
Alex Sandground — writing by my partner Alex.
Create-Eibh — writing and visual art by my friend Eibhlinn.
Jacob's Cabinet of Curiosities — fiction and writing on history by my friend Jacob.
Jake's Scrapbook — (my site) photos, art, and writing that doesn't fit elsewhere.
Personal/Indie Web
— my favourite HTML/CSS site, which has inspired many of the design choices I have made here.
I am a poem I am not software — a manifesto for personal websites which are more interesting and more expressive.
Resources for Science
I have marked a few resources with a ★, which I would particularly recommend looking at.
See also my page on sources of information for studying plant pathogens, which includes advice on how to use them.
Distribution and biogeography
★Plant Atlas 2020 — an atlas of vascular plants and
charophytes in Britain and Ireland and how their distributions are changing. This is built on BSBI
data, possibly the most robust and complete set of distribution data for any species group in existence.
A must read for any botanist!
★GBIF | Global Biodiversity Information Facility — an international database collating records of all species. Excellent for looking at the global distribution of a species.
Biodiversity Heritage Library — a database of old natural history publications, searchable by species. Good for finding old records of things which may not be on other databases.
Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland — the most complete database of fungal and oömycetous records for Britain and Ireland by a long margin.
Identification of Plant Pathogens and Parasites
★Plant Parasites of Europe — a database of invertebrates, fungi, oömycetes and more by host plant.
Look at my advice on using the database here.
Bryophilous fungi — a guide to fungi which grow on bryophytes in Britain, including information about how to study them.
— (my site) a field guide to pathogens, with
common species arranged by habitat, advice on identification techniques, and essays on why they are interesting.
Ruhrpott-Pilze — Björn Sothmann's site about fungi, with a focus on plant pathogens. Excellent photomicrographs of many species, particularly rusts.
(Obligat) Phytoparasitische Kleinpilze — Julia Kruse's site about fungal/oömycetous plant pathogens of central Europe. She has lots of excellent photographs and photomicrographs.
Dorset Plant Galls — Jenny Seawright's images of plant galls (including animal and fungal galls) she has found in Dorset.
Thrips-iD — Dr. Manfred R. Ulitzka’s website on thrips identification, taxonomy, and ecology.
National Agromyzidae Recording Scheme (Britain and Ireland) — All about agromyzid flies, their ecology, host plants, a checklist, keys etc.
General Ecology and Natural History
Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts — youtube videos by the legendary Bill Sutherland explaining various concepts in ecology.
Jim Deacon's website — a fascinating, ancient HTML site with resources on plant and fungal ecology.
Wayne's Word — an immense online natural history textbook written by a professor in California over several decades.
General Science
Angela Collier — youtube videos on science in popular culture and on physics.
Organisations
Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) — learning resources, funding, and more. This is a
fantastic society and definitely worth joining for the connections, events, and magazine.
Wild Belfast — a community group for people interested in wildlife in Belfast.
We run field events, campaign for better management of green space, and advocate for wildlife in our communities.
