For #BirdOfTheDay - a #thinking bird: a hawaiian goose, or nene, apparently studying a bird id board positioned next to the pond, in Gunnersbury Park, west London.

A #Raptor for #BirdOfTheDay - the harris hawk. Not a wild one, obviously, but still a very fine bird. Perfect claws for the job!

A #colourful #BirdOfTheDay - a trinidadian motmot sitting on a fence (waiting for passing lizards)

For #Black #BirdOfTheDay - a very dapper razorbill. They look a bit strange, face- or beak-on.

#birdinthebush x 2 for #BirdOfTheDay - courting southern crested caracaras. They played the imitation game for some time before one of them got fed up and flew off. #birds

11 months ago, I posted a murky photo of what may well have been the same troupe of migrating geese. These #birds are mainly greylags. The problem - last year and this - is what are the 4 white/brown geese in there? ...hybrids most likely, but with what?

A squirrel for #squirrelsaturday

Not long since back from an Italian city tour, which included Ravenna and its magnitficent early Christian-era wall mosaics. Here's a detail I love, showing #birds - a convincingly-rendered peacock and peahen, in this instance.

An example of a historic, but still working, library. Spectacular. The best of human...

#birds #MallardMonday Two (well-named) spectacled ducks preening at the water's edge, below Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina.

Just sharing a photo from the archives, for want of something better to do - an abstract or fantasy take on a lake. See ALT for details.

On Friday, got to see the Bridge Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream production, complete with acrobatic fairies (and Puck) suspended on loops hanging from the ceiling - brilliant idea. Very fresh, and played successfully for laughs.

Defending US democracy: the role of scientists @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Making America Great Again Update: US President not in charge of who gets to attend a meeting taking place at a meeting he instigated on a US military base on US soil with a foreign leader whose country has an economy about the size of the New York City Metropolitan Area.

#birds Social birds, socialising. Some of the garden's house sparrow tribe, on a warm day. You can tell who has already been in the water.

Lean out of the window (silver) hair...

Kilmacurragh National Botanical Garden this afternoon - a flowering bromeliad. Not what you expect in Wicklow, Ireland.

#birds. Now a regular visitor to our garden birdfeeder. Just like a grown-up robin, this youngster only ever shows up on its own.

#birds From this morning: a juvenile eurasian goldfinch, taking a break from the birdfeeder, sitting on our extension roof. The light spotting on its chest (which will go soon) is pretty.

Mr and Mrs 'beautiful demoiselle' flies - well named. Both seen resting in the warm sunshine next to the River Vartry, in Mount Usher. Seen today. #nature

From the garden, today, in its early summer pomp. Spot the bee...

#birds Busy bird feeder in the back garden this afternoon: can fit 5 at a time, it seems.

Here is the Sun's pitifully small apology for its lie about benefits tourism - a lie that was accepted as truth by millions and helped deliver Brexit. These lies are perverting our democracy. At a minimum, apologies should be published in the same location and size as the lie.

The back garden, today. The best time of year with all the fresh foliage. And sunshine to show it off!

#birds A grey heron.

Holly blue butterfly looking very blue in reflected sunlight - probing for water with its longue thin tongue (zoom in). Cute antennae too. Seen in Mount Usher Gardens, this afternoon, in County Wicklow.

Last hurrah of the bluebells. After a week of sunshine, they're all now on the fade. But packed together, they can still look good.

This kind of stuff makes me so angry. Destruction takes no skill or talent - just a good helping of malice, which is evidently abundant in the Trump mob. The trajectory is clearer by the day.

A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile removed by employer Indiana University, & had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why. arstechnica.com/security/202...

Just sharing a weekend outing. It was a grey, wet day. But still the thousands upon thousands of magnolia blooms of Mount Congreve Garden (Waterford) were simply glorious. Some 'bushes' (trees...) were up to 15-20m height.

Peak crocus, this morning.

I believe Tolkien said it best

#birds Something to enjoy and admire. This fish eagle was weighing down my partner's arm when I took the photo. These magnificent birds are all muscle - and heavy.

The NHM London issuesd a press release on its 'People's Choice Award' today (see www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office... ). A fine photo of a badger. ...it has brought to mind an old photo of mine on the same theme (goose looking at a bird ID board). #birds

Well! This robin saw no risk in hopping up off the ground onto the parcel shelf of my car, when I had the boot open. This happened, today, in the Bru na Boinne car park - great ending to a clear, sunny afternoon visiting Newgrange passage tomb. #birds

Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring www.science.org/content/arti...

6 fulmars in flight - only one is flapping. Hence fulmars only need to flap their wings 1/6 of time: a form of inference used in astronomy. (Large error though! Poisson --> fulmars flap wings less than half the time ☺️) #birds

A contribution to #onlybeautifulthings (definitely the day for it: we also had the Southport murders trial in the news). Gulls are generally brash birds, but not so much the kittiwakes... This one is a picture of fine-feathered calm. #birds

Post a duck, or three... #birds

...too right. It's bad for all of us that someone like Thiel is in a position to exert real-world influence.

Not a single Reform MP has bothered to turn up to today's House of Commons debate on tackling violence against women and girls

#birds Another one from the archive: a collared aracari, on a wet day in central Costa Rica, wondering what he/she is doing wasting time on an empty bird table. Bird, as designed by a cartoonist...

A bit of a weird bird photo: disorienting perfect reflections in the completely still Vendicari lagoon in Sicily. #birds (Taken about a decade ago, now.)

...just caught up with this. The finding that workplace climate is cited more by women leavers certainly rings true.

Have a good one...

Happy Solstice. Here's to lengthening days. (Even shopping centres can have some atmosphere, this time of year.)

#birds A monk parakeet in Barcelona, yesterday. One of the very many filling tree-lined streets and parks with their raucous chatter.

Yesterday - a first revisit to the Sagrada Familia after 21 years. What a transformation! So beautiful, it makes you weep. This immense Gaudi + Barcelona community project has to be a wonder of the modern world.

One for the vulcanologist/geologist - extraordinary veins showing on the shear inner Santorini caldera.