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anaturalistabroad.bsky.social
Sharing the wonders of nature from my base in Norfolk and on trips much further afield.
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Golden Jackal (Canis aureus), Hungary 2024. Once more or less confined to the Balkans in Europe, this species is fast spreading north and west, having recently reached Norway and Spain. Research implicates climate change in the range change as animals try to escape the heat.

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

A tiger in the undergrowth. Tarucus balkanicus, the Little Tiger Blue. I met this one in southern Turkey, but it occurs from NW Africa right through the Middle East to northern India and northward into the Balkans, always loving the hottest, driest spots where it feeds on spiny Paliurus plants.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

The Tule Tree in Mexico is a staggering example of Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), probably some 1,500 years old, with a girth of around 42m. The dimensions are truly remarkable and every time I've visited I find it impossible to take it all in.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Just added the recent and surprising discovery of Water-lettuce to my Flora of East Anglia website. If you've not visited my site yet, you might find it a useful identification aid for your local plants - even if you live outside East Anglia. You can find it at: webidguides.com

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

Oh...

submitted 8 days ago • 3 comments

Take note #UKbirding #Ornithology

submitted 9 days ago • 3 comments

The metalmark family has but a single species in Europe, but in the Neotropics, they go wild, with an extraordinary range of species, many clearly mimicking other lepidoptera families. Here's some from one of my Costa Rica Christmas trips. Notes in Alt text.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

The dreariest of winter weather and appalling light meant little in the way of decent photos from my Naturetrek Norfolk trip this week - but we had some great birds. Certainly nice to see two different flocks of the Swedish Lesser White-fronted Geese that are visiting the UK for the first time.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

One from the archive today. The impossibly wonderful Madagascar Flufftail, great name, great looks, creeps invisibly through tunnels in the grass like a mouse. Can't beat biodiversity and evolution!

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Dear Bluesky, please, please, please stop sending me pictures of people's cats. Just because I like wildlife doesn't mean I want to see relentless pictures of other people's cats. In fact, quite the opposite. Then you. @bsky.app

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The mother of all things. A magnificent Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) trunk offers nurture and a place to get started in life for so many other species. North Norfolk, today.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

When it's siesta time in a hot country, you can either sit in your room, or you can sit in the shade, by a dripping tap, with a camera, to see what happens along... Yellow-crowned Gonalek can be an elusive bird of dense, gallery forest along rivers, but even they need a drink. The Gambia, 2007.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Very early robin fledgling seen in Bermondsey this afternoon. Its parent was relaying food to it from a feeder on a balcony on a nearby building. The temperature was well below zero last night, even in Central London, and there was a heavy frost this morning. Tough little birds!

submitted 26 days ago • 2 comments

A friend who lives in Sweden says that one of things he misses from the UK is Starlings. Sadly, many of us miss them here, too, as Starlings are rare sight with us. Here's the last time I shared chips with friends in Great Yarmouth. We need them back...

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

I do find it a little sad that so many people see the appearance of snowdrops as 'the first sign of spring'. These are winter flowers and I think they are all the more remarkable for flowering in winter - amazing evolution! Here's some pics from the past few days. Click on pictures for IDs

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

The witch-hazels are really at their best right now and one of the highlights of my wanderings around Norfolk yesterday. See Alt text for identifications

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

Conkers? Why do we spend time drilling and stringing conkers when we could just use these? The wonderful, dangly fruits of Davidia involucrata, the Dove-tree or Ghost Tree, a remarkable tree from central China.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Another celebration of trees - Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) dealing with an exposed hilltop.... Dartmoor, Devon, February 2004.

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Blast from the past, we are looking for submissions of the 2018-19 Pied Crow. We already have submissions for Easington, Clevedon & Kent, but it would be great to fill in as many gaps as possible with observers and proof of occurrence in proper submissions. Thanks. #RareBirdsUK

submitted 26 days ago • 4 comments