Soldier beetle. When I was looking back through my photos from yesterday I found the compositional simplicity of this one very satisfying!

Common green grasshopper (Omocestes viridulus)

What is a parasite? Why are they so important for ecosystems and hosts? And what can we do to protect the 1000s of species at risk of extinction? A few weeks ago I spoke with a BBC Science Focus podcast about why parasites are awesome and you can listen HERE: open.spotify.com/episode/5864...

Tune into this episode of the Edges of Extinction podcast @extinctionleeds.bsky.social to hear about insect extinctions, what these might mean for the world, and how they can be averted. 🎙️ media.leverhulme.ac.uk/podcast/wonk... #InsectWeek

Took a trip to Stavanger in Norway last week: here's one of the things I made whilst I was there Most of my music is about place, so I always like to take the chance to improvise in situ, and respond to the place and the moment I'm in

I think there's a moral case for public transport, which is that driving makes you a worse person. No-one's a bigger arsehole than when they're behind the wheel

Thinking about lonely seashores and rock-strewn beaches

Tracey Hayes reflects on the cultural inflections of extinction in her latest PhD chapter. If the role of the archive is to preserve cultural traditions, what can they tell us about extinct creatures & what are the challenges of seeking out the extinct in the archive? www.york.ac.uk/anthropocene...

Taking a moment to relax after a busy day

People always say phrygian modes sound dark, but I'm not so sure

The British political class: Why are so many young people out of work? This is deeply mysterious! All job ads rn: Minimum 3 years experience required

Took me a while to get round to reading it, but this is a very interesting paper, and a good example of properly interdisciplinary research done well! doi.org/10.1111%2Fel...

Common blue on birds-foot trefoil. The colours are just gorgeous!

Corizus hyoscyami. I'd never seen this bug before yesterday, but it's pretty spectacular! That's one of the things I love about wildlife - you can be in the most normal, innocuous place, somewhere you go every week, and still find something completely new to you

Green hairstreak - one of my absolute favourite butterflies! A dweller in lonely moors, bogs and heaths, a flash of brown dancing over the bilberry revealing a dazzling metallic coppery green when it alights upon the leaves. Always a delight to see!

We've been asked to share a CfP for a workshop organised by a group of historians at Leeds. Papers on a variety of topics related to the Environmental History of Northern England are invited: the orgnaisers hope to develop some papers presented into a special issue of @northernhistory.bsky.social

the anti-trans bathroom ban is very bad—it's also a sign uk democracy is failing my latest with @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...

Summer has me returning to major keys...they always sound warm and bright to me, somehow, and the weather has been too, today

Another watery world, living to the rhythmn to the tempestuous tides: experiments in rockpool photography. No scuba-diving required, though admittedly it did involve a fair bit of lying on hard rocks at awkward angles

Some wonderful reflections from Dmitry on our album 'Clarinets of the Moon', a year on from its release bayunthecat.substack.com/p/clarinets-...

One of the things that depresses me most about academia is the speed at which exciting interdisciplinary endeavours calcify into new microdisciplines with their own set methods, jargon and shibboleth citations every bit as rigid and narrow-minded as the disciplines they were originally challenging

My tuppence on the history-writing debate is that what we would really benefit from is paid reading time. There's a hell of a lot of good research out there that's barely been read because the only people with time to read are PGRs who are themselves already being overwhelmed by pressure to publish

Common lizard (Zootoca vivipara)

Back from my holiday, rested and inspired

Black-spotted longhorn beetle (Rhagium mordax). Sometimes animals come to you! This one flew by and landed on me, so I did my best to take a photo with my right hand while balancing the camera on my opposite wrist (because the beetle was sitting on my left hand). A spectacular insect!

Environmental history folks - what are your recommended readings on peat? I'm thinking of proposing a project on peat and carbon storage and wondering where I should start #envhist #skystorians #environmentalhistory

Slender groundhopper (Tetrix subulata)

New single! This one is called 'Elf Cups', after the tiny red fungi which grow on fallen branches. I was inspired by the connection something so earthy as a fungus has with otherwordly beings... jdrobertsmusic.bandcamp.com/track/elf-cups

A very nicely irridescent ground beetle (Carabidae - I think this one is Nebria sp.?)

Turns out having a real, 9-5, job is kinda tiring (who knew?), but I managed to steal a few moments with the synth

When @sicilyfiennes.bsky.social started their PhD with @extinctionleeds.bsky.social, the project was a great #conservation #science idea. This latest paper on a more-than-human approach to #bird trade, however, shows how superbly their work developed: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I got the Korg Monotron Delay in December, but it's taken me a while to learn to use it well enough for a video! It's a very fun instrument, but it requires quite a precise touch to pull anything melodic out of it

A weevil on a nettle. This one has a lovely purplish tint to its head! I looked up the etymology of weevil, but apparently it just comes from the Old English wefil, meaning a small beetle. Seems like we've been calling these little guys by pretty much the same name for over a thousand years

Advertising people get paid bags of money to come up with nonsense phraseology and here am I in academia, doing it for cheap

Just me and my bestie talking about birds #illegalwildlifetrade #songbirds #indonesia

In episode 7 of our podcast, 'Edges of Exinction' @jdroberts.bsky.social talks to @sicilyfiennes.bsky.social about the complex and ambiguous 'wicked problem' of bird trade in Indonesia, and how to create just outcomes for humans and birds alike extinctionstudiesleeds.podbean.com/e/edges-of-e...

Green tiger beetle (Cicindela campestris). A dusty emerald, stalking and pouncing across the windswept moor; tiger of the heather, jewel of the crowberry-lined path

Taking a moment to decompress after a busy morning

Zebra spider. Lovely little animals, but very easy to overlook!

I was expecting a bit of pushback against this paper, but so far all the citations have been very positive, which is nice doi.org/10.1017/mdh....

Episode 6 of our podcast. @jdroberts.bsky.social and Lydia Woods talk to @rachelgrandey.bsky.social about the complexities of guilt, religion, blame and loss in the context of extinction and environmental degradation in south-east Asia. extinctionstudiesleeds.podbean.com/e/a-faceless...

I don't have a hot take beyond that, like most historians, I dislike Winston Churchill and think his self-mythologising has deeply distorted public understandings of the second world war, to the detriment of our country. But I like badgers, so there's that

Episode 5 of our 'Edges of Extinction' podcast: 'A Shell like a Paperclip'. @jdroberts.bsky.social and @rachelgrandey.bsky.social talk to Lydia Woods about mass extinctions in the deep past – and the strange world of marine palaeontology. extinctionstudiesleeds.podbean.com/e/edges-of-e...

Last call for this awesome online seminar on danger in Dartmoor tomorrow! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/embodied-e... #envhist #environmentalhistory

Spring is beginning to spring, which means it's light and warm enough to spend a bit of time sat out with the monotron in the evenings. I can manage the tiny keys quite well so long as I'm not too sleep-deprived, but unfortunately...

They say it's publish or perish in academia, but hey, plenty of us manage to do both!

We've got a fascinating seminar coming up next week on embodied environmental histories of danger in Dartmoor! Join us at 2PM GMT next Tuesday (the 10th) for some dangerous discussions... #envhist #environmentalhistory #nationalparks #envhum #dartmoor #Devon

I relistened to 'Helluland' by Northumbria for the first time in a while last night, and it inspired me to go back to basics and make something more classically ambient

In Episode 4 of Edges of Extinction, Seb Stroud, @sicilyfiennes.bsky.social and @jdroberts.bsky.social talk to Andrea Boom about language, plants, culture and frankincense in Oman #environmentalhumanities #socialsci #linguistics #extinctionstudies extinctionstudiesleeds.podbean.com/e/edges-of-e...

Join us in a couple of weeks when @lenaferriday.bsky.social will be discussing the narratives of danger that lurk on Dartmoor in the imaginations of the last two centuries. Come along online on 10/03 at 1400. To Sign-up, see here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/embodied-e...