stervander.com
Singing evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, insulaphile. PhD. Senior Curator of #Birds @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social, Scientific Associate @ Natural History Museum London, Assoc Editor Ibis & Ornis Svecica. He/him. (Views obvs my own) [ex-X-@nesospiza]
285 posts
3,351 followers
447 following
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It was my first time with the Forth Seabird Group, but I presume it will. I'll check!
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I am so sorry, Peter, I haven't been on here for quite a while... We don't have a ton of modern specimens, so if in decent/salvageable condition (and still in your freezer), I'd be happy to get it to the NMS collections!
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As I suspected in the field, they were not four, but actually five (2♂ 3♀)! Got a video demonstrating it, but too large for Bluesky.
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The photos of @ijandrews.bsky.social are great! I filmed with phone while watching in bins, but here's a phone screen grab to water your mouths...
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Yet I missed the big show - this was just the tail end...
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Botched the ALT text. 😠 Pink Aurora borealis over Portobello beach.
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This is to be followed up on Thursday, when I am next in the collections (though the tail may be too worn to say much)!
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Not sure it's really too stripy either, Vitor, compared to photos? search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?taxo...
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If not Volatinia, what other options may there be from N Guyana? Any ideas, @piacentini.bsky.social?
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Thanks for the input, Vitor. The light may be playing a part; I somewhat sloppily adjusted brightness to compensate for suboptimal lighting for photography in the collections. Attaching an unadjusted pic here. But it could also be faded due to light exposure, increasing contrast.
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And welcome over to BlueSky!
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Excellent, many thanks Alexandre! It's really, really worn, so I'm guessing it's an adult female (with the caveat that I don't know their moult pattern).
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Very glad to hear this; many thanks for taking your time!
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Hi Steve,
Guy was going to be my next step if the BlueSky hivemind doesn't solve the issue!
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I'm not gonna argue that some of that has not happened at here at some point... ;-) Trying some untangling!
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It's a small bugger, collected in end of April in Bartica Grove in northern Guyana. Wing length 49 mm. I'd be very happy for your input!
#LBJ #MuseumLife
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It would be amazing if your persistence was fruitful, so please do continue! (Given the rigorous research, though, I doubt that it will be.)
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Great Q, Howard! Yes, we do—for some of them. Sadly, for 3 specimens, we do not have many details. For a 4th, we only know it was collected (somewhere) in April (some year). Remaining 3 were collected 31 Jan 1859 in Nice, France (!); 7 Sep 1884 in Dobrudschka, Romania; 28 Jan 1863 in Giza, Egypt.
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Mm, I think the butterfly is doing better anyway so far, with user curation rather than standard algorithms determining what you see. 🦋
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I'll be keeping the account with that one tweet, unless I am banned. This way, my posts won't be used for AI training and no one else will assume my previous Twitter identity...
And who knows, maybe I'll dig up some golden oldies from the Twitter archive and recycle here. ;-)
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Rock star there!
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Glad to be very clear about the location..... 🤣
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🤣
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Hi @bogarty.bsky.social, I definitely think that @emilycbrown.bsky.social, our rock star ;-) (ok, maybe more of mineral star...) of NMS should be included in this starter pack!
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... is the collection purchased from French ornithologist and taxdermist Louis Dufresne (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_D...) in 1819. This contains several specimens that should have been collected in the late 1700s, but they rarely (never?) have exact dates!
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Excellent question, Frank! With the caveat that I've only been in post for two seconds, and am still getting to know the collections, the tentative reply is as follows. Our earliest accessions are from 1813, with specimens dated to early 1800s. However, a historically very significant part ...
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Woohoo, indeed! Thanks for you persistence.
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Ha ha, I appreciate all your efforts! Maybe this is a blue celestial sign that I need to publish more papers.... 🤣
Seriously though, I have no idea why it doesn't work, but clearly it doesn't. Don't sweat it, I don't want to become a nuisance. Cheers!
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No worries, Jacob, although it still doesn't seem to have worked! Waited a while to see whether there was some sort of lag, but I am now positively certain I'm still not there. ;-)