This afternoon's photo of a heron in a pond - with hazy dream-like reflections in the water. #birds #photography #nature #ECK

Here's a Trinidadian Motmot, for #birdoftheday #JKLMNOP. #birds #nature #photography

More #spring #bloomscrolling: a white bluebell, peak blackthorn and two flowering cherries. #photography #nature

Peak bluebell! A photo from yesterday, April 9th, in Heartwood Forest, SE England. #bloomscrolling #nature #ECK #photography

...something's going on at the back of our garden this morning: two wood pigeons loitering up in the bay tree. They've been in there for over an hour, perhaps longer. #birds #nature

Some serious up-ended Jurassic layers on the less-visited east side of Durdle Door in Dorset. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLForLayers #ECK #nature

Hats off to the Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board: a concise, wise statement. The aphorism '...if you don't use it, you lose it' certainly applies to power of thought. Equally, if you don't put in some effort to use it, you won't (magically) gain it, either.

Images of #spring in Wicklow, #Ireland. The weather since the this year's has been very wet, windy and often cold. It has felt like a hard wait! But finally, spring arrives. #nature #EastCoastKin #photography #blossom #flowers

A magellanic penguin: both #blackandwhite and #wingsopenbutnotflying ...in a manner of speaking! For today's #birdoftheday and #birds. To my eye, not the prettiest of penguins, but they still have ALL the winning, ungainly charm on land, you expect of this bird group. #nature

There's a really good piece on the (UK's) intergenerational gap by John Lanchester in today's Guardian.I've grabbed a bit of the text that is, for me, a source of continuing pain... www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...

#Sideview of a patagonian sierra finch (...great name!) which also has a #yellow tummy. For today's #birdoftheday.

Fulmars are gliders par excellence. Here are 6 of them (with only one actively flying) low over the ocean off Jan Mayen Land for #BirdoftheDay #fourormore. #birds #nature

The puffin in the foreground is standing very erect, perhaps rather pleased with itself its and its haul of sand eels - a #powerpose of sorts for today's #birdoftheday. #birds #nature

A Royal Reckoning. JonathanPie.com youtu.be/yiOvAgw4hwE?...

Just felt like posting a couple of archive photos - of the Matterhorn, to brighten up the timeline. #photography #nature #EastCoastKin #mountains

A pair of spectacled (or bronze-winged) ducks - for today's #birdoftheday #waterbirds. Details in +alt #birds

One of the most unusual and beautiful sights we had were the Buzzards, some of them had this amazing plumage and markings. Although we saw the most common type we have here in the UK, this one was in my eyes something special. It could be a young Buzzard but I am not sure. 😉😊 @rspb.bsky.social

The Brexit anniversary is a day for sadness. After the results of the Brexit ref came through all those years ago, this young woman was asked to put her thoughts about it on camera. Her eloquent words spoke for so many of us back then – and her worst fears have tragically come true. #RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺

For today's #brownisbeautiful #birdoftheday, a chimango caracara seen in the Bariloche area of Argentina. Pretty chest feathers. This predator was soon bullied off its perch by the bigger predator, a crested caracara. #birds #nature #photography

“The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.” As a piece of prose and geopolitical analysis Carney’s Davos speech feels history-making. paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney...

Aurora as it just happened: looking north, from the hills above Wicklow Town.

Taken as we set out on this afternoon's walk, next to Kilcoole's marshes. Great sky! #EastCoastKin

Some #astronomy - a weird discovery, even.☺️

For #BirdoftheDay #anatidae These greylags were on Hickling Broad in Norfolk.

Cats... being cats. (Instinct > reason!)

For #birdoftheday, I have #most pictures of so-called black guillemots - a lovely chocolate-y brown, close up (the consequence of living next to a marina in Wicklow, they visited often). In photo 2, the non-breeding plumage is starting to show around the top of the beak. #birds #EastCoastKin

Today our message to Starmer is loud and clear: scrap the £3bn Trump tax on our NHS and put that money into social care now. @libdemdaisy.bsky.social

My #mostrecent bird snap for #birdoftheday, taken yesterday - during a pre-Christmas-dnner stroll to the nearby, essentially urban, nature reserve. First saw one in 1995 (Chiswick, London). Now they're all over SE England.

A #Grounded robin for #BirdoftheDay - suitable also as a subject for the #holidayseason. The robin was clearly human-comfortable, being a small number of feet away on a gravel path, and happy to wait a while as I took the photo.

10 #birdsonfeeders for #BirdOfTheDay. At this location - a cottage near Coniston in the Lake District - there was never any shortage of birds on the feeders, which would empty in a day. The blue tits visible have grey caps, marking them out as juveniles (photo taken June '22). #birds

...such a nihilistic, mean-spirited thing to try to do. Despicable. Imbecilic. Have to hope congress pushes back.

For #Birdoftheday #groups - a troup of Chilean flamingos, seen near El Calafate, Argentina. The way they are arranged almost looks like a class for debutantes in how to carry yourself. Lovely and comical at the same time. #birds

#BirdOfTheDay #NestingBirds - how about a repost of a kittiwake building a cliff-top nest in warm sunshine. ...still is my favourite gull.

Reposting for #birdoftheday #reflections.

#Mr&Mrs white-lined tanager. He's black and she's a light orange brown. For #birdoftheday. Why white-lined? ...apparently there's some white under the male's wing and a patch of white on the upperwing. Don't think I saw it. #birds

A #gardening oddity: a photo from yesterday showing winter jasmine in full bloom (normal for Dec/Jan ...so not far off), and a flowering rose, of all things (normal for June to early Sept). One of those little signs life is turning strange. #climatechange

A #bright photo for #BluSkyArtShow. The dazzling colour of an acer in autumn, in the back garden. The colour is as close to true as I could make it (the camera tried to push it ~pink). The leaves were SO vivid. #Nature

A #swan for #BirdofTheDay. A mute swan, making itself look bigger and more statuesque, by rearing up out of the water - for no apparent reason at the time. #birds

#DucksOutOfWater for #BirdOfTheDay. Female eiders sunning on a slipway, looking very chilled out - a WI (Women's Institute, for those unfamiliar with the term) of ducks.

This was a once only opportunity for me - I've one other photo of the male upland goose alone, but not next to the brown female as here. For #BirdOfTheDay #Least photographed. Seen on eastern side of Andes, Argentina. Such dimorphism ...in a goose! #birds

For #BirdOfTheDay, a southern crested caracara with wings up, about to #takeoff. (This is the second of the caracara pair I posted a week or so back - the first has already gone in this photo.) The amount of muscle packed into the base of the wing is obvious. #birds

Let’s hear it for librarians and libraries!

#BirdOfTheDay #lunchtime ...for a curlew, in marshy ground, north Norfolk coast. It was actually lunchtime. On the menu: crayfish. Good camouflage - only spotted because it was moving. #birds

A #BirdOfTheDay #close-up, just about. Very fine detail is visible in this photo of a rufous-collared sparrow, including what looks like a wart just above the eye. Widespread in Los Gaciares, Argentina. Takes 'brown job' to a new level. #birds

A mouning sierra #finch for #BirdOfTheDay, seen at the edge of a car park on Valdes Peninsula, Argentina. #birds

A personal picture of the day - taken today, while totally wet after bouts of furious squally rain. The sun through the trees seemed an act of weather kindness. #landscape #nature

The gull makes all the difference. Donegal harbour, yesterday at dusk. #BirdOfTheDay #gulls #landscape

Peak autumn in Wicklow. #gardens #nature

...have to admire this blue tit. On the other hand, goldfinches have surprised me by how (needlessly) aggressive they can be - they squabble all the time. #birds #nature

For #BirdOfTheDay #Egrets, here's an unabashed free-loading little egret - parked beside a pool in Orlando's SeaWorld, probably waiting for someone else's feeding time. #birds