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🦇 #BatsInArt #PreciousBats #BatIllustration #German #19thCentury Eduard Oscar Schmidt (1823 - 1886) DAUBENTON'S BAT Engraving; BREHMS TIERLEBEN, small edition, 1927

The glory of Early Star of Bethlehem, in flower this year.

“What the Bangor affair underlines… is that the right to free speech isn’t the same as the right to a free audience whenever you happen to be campaigning in the neighbourhood.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘When asked by The Hill if Gallup had received any feedback from the White House or anyone in the current administration before making the decision, the spokesperson said, “this is a strategic shift solely based on Gallup’s research goals and priorities.” ‘ thehill.com/homenews/med...

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🦇 Government quietly released a report today. Just 3% of the most important habitat for wildlife is in good condition. This must change or wildlife will be lost forever. Don’t let this report slip under the radar: www.wcl.org.uk/sickening-st...

This is really cool, it's a display of all the bugs found on a single tree. #Invertebrate

Trump: "I haven't been able to find any windfarms in China." Reality: China has far more windfarms than any other country on Earth

"There are windmills all over Europe. There are windmills all over the place." Trump slipping into spoken-word poetry.

Hey, we're getting to Greenland. "I was going to leave it out of the speech..." Apparently Greenland is going to be American because they defended it from the Nazis in World War II, which is bad news for Paris I guess.

“Wolverines naturally exist at very low densities wherever they are found” said Inman. “Fifty to 100 wolverines may not sound like a lot, but that is likely in the same ballpark as the historical capacity here in Colorado.” coloradosun.com/2026/01/14/c...

“The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants,” said Mikkel Runge Olesen… “I have a very hard time seeing that the U.S. couldn’t get pretty much everything it wanted,” he said, adding, “if it just asked nicely.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/w...

It's New Year, so time to look back and forward. These are 10 things I think we need to recognise in 2026. It’s a response to what I think are profoundly damaging mistaken assumptions I’ve heard and read from practitioners, journalists, and analysts in 2025. Warning: very long🧵

🚨 New Lab paper! 🚨 Contrary to assumptions & media narratives, most people have positive attitudes toward wolves & are tolerant of them. This is true around the world & even here in MT where 74% of Montanans are tolerant or very tolerant of wolves. 1/ conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

1/🧵 Two bird species bred in the UK in 2023 for the first time since the 1990s! The latest report by @ukrbbp.bsky.social published in @britishbirds.bsky.social confirmed a pair of Hoopoes raised three young from a nest in Leicestershire and Rutland. #Ornithology

Professor Tim Lenton of @exeter.ac.uk with an incredibly important warning about the dire consequences for the UK if we continue burning fossil fuels and cause the #AMOC ocean current to cross a tipping point—which could happen at 2°C. Full talk: link below. #NEB2025 #FoodShortages

“Reported outcomes offered weak to null evidence for most claimed benefits, including rapid growth, accelerated succession, self-sustainability, cost efficiency, enhanced biodiversity, higher carbon sequestration and increased tree density.” besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Anurans follow Bergmann's rule, urodeles its converse.

i asked chat gpt to fact check an article for me

"The machine removes about the top 5cm of sediment. That's where most of the animals live. So obviously, if you're removing the sediment, you're removing the animals in it too," said lead author Eva Stewart. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

WOW! This was as surreal and spectacular to see in person as I'd hoped 😍 Aseroe rubra (Anenome/Starfish Stinkhorn).

1. Some good news at last. This week’s column is about the amazing thing a couple of us stumbled into three years ago, which we’ve now developed into a global research programme. It doesn’t change everything, of course, but it could help change quite a lot. + 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

US national security strategy. Something sure is unrecognisable here, but it’s not Europe. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

As far as I can see, this nat sec strategy is far harsher on Europe than on Russia. There is no mention of a threat from Russia or of deterrence, only that "re-establishing strategic stability" is a priority. Europe is cast as a major threat to freedom. A radical, dangerous document.

Latest news: Sweden has received a formal letter from the EU Commission stating that the country’s attempt to lower the wolf reference value to a politically determined figure of 170 wolves is not acceptable. Read more: https://bit.ly/3KpeOZo

This table from the new UK Biodiversity Indicators is particularly stark, bleak, and awful. Almost every major group of UK birds is doing badly in the long- and/or short-term. None are showing sustained recovery, most have been declining for 50 years. Awful. #ukbirding #ornithology

Huge News from the Western Amazon: it's the year 2025 and we are still describing entirely new, strikingly-distinctive large-bodied bird species! Behold Tinamus resonans sp. nov. the Slaty-masked Tinamou mapress.com/zt/article/v... #Ornithology @tetzoo.bsky.social 🪶

"There's this common misconception that ecologists like me might see deer as a problem, but that's not the case at all." Join Sarah Watts, on a journey across Corrour Estate, as she emphasises the crucial role of deer and those who manage them. www.scotlandbigpicture.com/rewilding-st...

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"This is the first time we can say with certainty that European wildcats lived in prehistoric Ireland" A stunning discovery and more evidence that there's a lot left to discover about Ireland's ecology! www.rte.ie/news/munster...

Watercolour on Two Rivers handmade paper, the thick stuff. 79x56 cm.

One-flowered glasswort (Salicornia disarticulata) still looking good on a North Norfolk saltmarsh. Distinctive little thing once known. The single flowers seem to typically turn reddish. Most other glassworts had died off for the winter already.

I hope these “early signs of weak recovery” continue. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Nature is not the blocker to 1.5 million homes, instead it’s a necessity for building resilient towns and neighbourhoods. Read our new report on environmental sustainability and housing growth ⬇️ publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

So many Marasmius hudsonii in the woods. #FungiFriends #MushroomMonday

Her sister wrote my favorite essay about her. She points out that RF would have been famous even if she'd never looked at DNA www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

"What Ukraine’s campaign has exposed about Russia is really a deeper vulnerability: an energy superpower whose strength lies in infrastructure built decades ago, maintained through improvisation, and preserved by command rather than innovation." www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/slow-...

Natuur - jagers 1-0

Always fascinating to see new @btobirds.bsky.social Ringing & Nest Recording report. Willow Tits at new low, no nestlings ringed at all, just 6 nests monitored. Ringed Marsh Tit halved from 2010. No Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers ringed in UK for 2nd yr running. www.bto.org/get-involved... #ornithology

Conducting interviews by email has drawbacks

Fantastic news www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In the 1840s the Galson estate on Lewis was cleared for sheep. Most people were put onto emigration ships to Canada. Finally in 2007 - a community buyout. This commemorative sculpture by Will Maclean & Marian Leven is shortlisted for Marsh Award. If it moves you pls vote. pssauk.org/2025-pssa-ma...

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New - my first piece for @science.org ! Absolutely crazy footage of rat behaviour in Germany. Rats filmed snatching bats from air for first time | Science | AAAS share.google/WAsAIQ8j0MKp...

Many lichen species are sensitive to nitrogen pollution, making them natural indicators of air quality. 📱LicheN is a new app enabling people to help monitor air quality using lichens. Data gathered will improve understanding of N pollution and its impacts on ecosystems. buff.ly/AmWAOQB 🧪 1/

Mycorrhizal fungi provide plants with nitrogen, but in exchange they take up to half the carbon plants pull from the atmosphere. In a new study, researchers investigate how the environment influences this give-and-take. 🧪🌱🍄 eos.org/research-spo...

So pleasing. 🪶