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sciencebase

@sciencebase@mastodon.social

Award-winning science writer, prize-winning wildlife photographer, wannabe rock god. Mothing, birding, gardening for wildlife and pondlife

#music #guitar #singing #photography #moths #butterflies #birds #wildlife #science

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lorddimwit, to programming
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Who called it linear typing and not “once in a lifetime”

Who called it const and not “same as it ever was”

Who called it a stack trace and not “well, how did I get here?”

sciencebase,
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@lorddimwit once in a typeface

sciencebase, (edited ) to random
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I was chuffed to bits to catch up with these delightful winter visitors not 20 minutes from home. There were just 4 of the 20+ that had been showing an hour or so before I arrived.

There are at least three flocks, local to us at the moment.

sciencebase, (edited ) to random
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We are in the midst of a decent Waxwing irruption in this part of the country although there are flocks of 100s elsewhere.

30 or so feeding on rowan near the railway station in one of our villages. Great Shelford, as it happens. There were terrors of 25 there today, still.

Got some snaps of a few of them in the New Year's Day sunshine.

sciencebase, to random
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You're a bird, flying in looking for tasty morsels in the shrubbery. Ooh, what's that, something fluttered by and landed? You investigate...sheeeyit there's a sharp-eyed mammal staring back at you!

Yesterday's Emperor

#teamMoth #mothsMatter

sciencebase,
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Something else to mention. Those enormous feathered antennae are present only on the day-flying males. The largely nocturnal females don't need them. They are there mainly to pick up her sex-attractant pheromone and can detect a few molecules on the wind from up to about ten miles away. The males can then follow the trail to its source and have a good time.

sciencebase,
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Here's me fessing up to a rookie lepidopterist error a few years ago when trying to find out about the sex pheromone made by the "Empress"

https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/sex-pheromone-for-an-emperor.html

sciencebase,
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@hanny love the Oak Eggar moth :-)

sciencebase,
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@hanny What sort of butterfly was it?

sciencebase,
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If you're wondering why I've posted the moth upside down...think about what angle a bird might first catch a glimpse, it's not necessarily the right way up! If agitated this species will expose a second pair of eyes on its hindwings

sciencebase, (edited ) to random
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The Buff-tip moth has evolved to resemble a snapped off Silver Birch twig and so the moth, on finding a stick, will embrace it and stay very still in the hope that nobody notices it... #teamMoth #mothsMatter

sciencebase,
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@SteelFolk it was a very careful choice of rubber end on the part of the moth

sciencebase,
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Well, I thought it was funny

sciencebase, to random
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First Privet Hawk-moth of the year, Sphinx ligustri, in our garden last night. The largest of the British moths, can be up to 120mm wingspan.

Some years I've seen several on the same evening along with a variety of the other Hawk-moths. But, 2024 is not proving a very good year for any of the moths here, so far :-(

Privet Hawk-moth
Privet Hawk-moth

sciencebase, to random
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I know, I know, I know...I've posted RKs before, lots...but they are one of our celebrity birds in this neck of the (not actual) woods...so here's another, a closeup as one flew overhead at an altitude of no more than 25 metres or so...

sciencebase, (edited ) to random
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It was impossible to count the number of Starlings murmurating at our local nature reserve (RSPB Ouse Fen, Earith). But, I watched a mile-long stretch of birds flying and based on actual photo counts of smaller flocks, reckon there were several hundred thousand in total.

Went back a few days later, there weren't quite as many birds, 200k perhaps, but I got better video

https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/planet-earith-starling-murmurations.html

sciencebase, to random
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Planning a lyrical wordcloud...let me have a subject and I'll see if I can share a pertinent song from my most recent decade+ of songwriting

https://davebradley.bandcamp.com/

sciencebase, to random
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300th moth species of the year, 40th species I'd not seen before. 500th+ I've photographed in 5 years of mothing

One of the smallest, 10-13mm wingspan, Gracillaria syringella, Common Slender.

One of well over 1000 micro moths we have in the UK

#teamMoth #mothsMatter #mothstodon

sciencebase, (edited ) to random
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It's never a bad day when you see high-speed Sanderlings striding about a beach avoiding the waves. This is one of half a dozen we saw at Titchwell last week and perhaps a flock further along the coast of 30+

The Sanderling might have been called the White Sandpiper or White Wader.

Calidris alba, the genus from Greek kalidris or skalidris, an Arisotlean term for grey waders (shorebirds).

Alba means white, as in Albion, referring to the white chalk cliffs of southern England.

sciencebase, to random
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I saw my first Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) of 2024 on 17th March in Cottenham patrolling a roadside verge (Broad Lane).

This was the first report for Cambridgeshire and Essex butterflies this year, apparently. I have to admit I’ve not kept a personal record of first sightings of this species, but the Cambs & Essex page does and this is a week earlier than any Orange Tip sighting reported on there going back to 2007

https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/orange-tip-anthocharis-cardamines.html

sciencebase, (edited ) to random
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That time a blue bird rolled into town

European Roller, Suffolk, July 2021

sciencebase, to random
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Meet Holly, Holly Blue

ScienceDesk, to Health
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Introducing peanut butter during infancy can help protect against a peanut allergy later on, new study finds.

CNN reports: https://flip.it/jI.kpa

The research appeared in the journal NEJM Evidence: https://evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/EVIDoa2300311

sciencebase,
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@ScienceDesk Was the research sponsored by The Jimmy Carter Foundation?

sciencebase, to random
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One good tern

sciencebase,
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My Ouse Fen Sandwich Tern has garnered a lot of interest from the local birders, especially as it went to roost with some waders at Fen Drayton

sciencebase, to random
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Great Reed Warbler still putting on a show at RSPB Ouse Fen (Earith). Sad that he is very, very unlikely to get a response to his almost constant, loud mating call here though from Europe.

Cell 8, second mound along from the car park...look out for the half a dozen people in green/khaki with scopes, bins, and cameras. The GRW is very loud, you won't miss him.

Great Reed Warbler
Great Reed Warbler

sciencebase, to random
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We were camping near The Thames last weekend. Got up in the middle of the night to see radiant bands of light across the sky. Next morning, we learned the Aurora Borealis had been spectactular across the country. This must have been part of it, although we saw none of the curtains of skyborne colours due to ionised gases in the atmosphere.

I did take a photo of the crescent moon the next night while anticipating a second coming that was never to be.

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