A stunning evening here on the East coast in Bray with clear blue skies. A nice Friday ahead with sunny spells to start but cloud will move in from West in afternoon before rain arrives Friday night and they rain will hit Eastern areas Saturday morning. Full video update tomorrow.

On the blog today - a new book from @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Publishing which is perfect for any booklover - Looking After Your Books! More here: kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2025/09/25/i...

A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue. The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea. From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt: arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...

Good morning & sorry for the delay in #BirdOfTheDay Today we are going for 'Any Bird Having a Bath' and the alternative is a Robin. i've got a Goldfinch, Jackdaw, Great-crested Grebe & Herring Gull all taking a dip in the water. #birds #photography #EastCoastKin #birdphotography #ukbirding #water

If you've been watching Prime Time & you want to do something to get marine protected areas into law, then sign the @fairseas.ie petition to the Irish Govt asking to get a move on. Join over 80,000 people who have already signed. Let's get it to 100,000! 🌊✊#rtept

More of our underwater residents at Hartlepool Headland - I can confirm that Velvet Swimming Crabs do indeed feel velvety, if you can find one placid enough to let you stroke it. And the Peacock Worm certainly looks better when it’s submerged. #wildlifeArt 🐡🦀🪱

let me share a little story about a remarkable wasp that I encountered yesterday in our local deserts I stumbled across her, and scrambled to get a few crappy photos .... but then realized that she had a burrow, perhaps a better photo op was possible ?? here she is at her burrow entrance.

Sarah Ross-Thompson, fine art printmaker based on the West Coast of Scotland #ReframingWomenPrintmakers

Fully funded PhD working on insectivorous bird declines with a broad range of stakeholders. Starting ASAP #ornithology #zoology #biodiversity #science #ecology www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

Check out this great segment from today's Morning Ireland about our seabird census work on the island of Ireland's Eye, a fantastic collaboration with Fingal County Council: www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

One of a pair of coots during an aborted take-off from the upper Swannie Pond in Dundee this evening. Exposure too slow for BIF so bit fuzzy. 📸🎞️🪶 #birds #ukwildlife

The buff-tip moth (Phalera bucephala) has mastered a very particular kind of camouflage. When they close their wings up, they resemble a broken twig. Native to large parts of Europe, there's regional pattern variation that reflects the local tree species. This one best resembles birch twigs?

🚨 PhD alert 🚨 We are looking for a highly motivated student to use 🧬 genomics 🧬 and 🛰️ bio-logging 🛰️ approaches to disentangle cultural and genetic contributions to seabird migration 🐣 Think this is you, or someone you know? Then come to our Q&A session at on 29/09 and check out the ad below!

A long weekend of slow work digging up regrowth from old stumps and seedlings while getting stung by bees and drenched in the odd downpour at our first site in Corr Uí Mhongáin..... mostly done here but some giant rhubarb will eventually need seeing to

Don't forget, tonight you can join me for a 90-minute chat about Ireland's Incredible Invertebrates. Grab your ticket here while you can: inverts-2025.eventbrite.ie There are so many things to talk about, 116 slides' worth of things to be exact! 🙂

The mellow charm of September. #Goldfinches 🌿

Welcome to Super Seabird Sunday where we ask you to share photos, videos and artwork of seabirds like these Arctic Terns at Dawn over the Isle of May. Volume up :) let’s see what you have? #SuperSeabirdSunday

Let me share a #painting of a place I've loved in the west of Ireland. "Connemara Field" came out of a day in south Conamara where I sat for hours by the side of a road with my bicycle, my paints, and my dreams. #SpeirGorm #ArtYear

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning and toast time for our donkeys

I consider Siobhan McSweeney's role in our nation's psychodrama www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-r...

Some wildflowers have seed heads that are truly spectacular! The challenge this week is to find some and then share your lovely pics for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #SeedHeads! Any wild or naturalised blooms you find too are of course always welcome!

If anyone in South #Wexford wants green hay from this #wildflowermeadow to estblish their own #meadow we are cutting today. It's weed free packed with local seed. Please retweet.

“If you stay aligned with your inner child, you’ll always feel forever young.” Bhuwan Thapaliya🖤 #nn

Picking Apples (Helping at Home, 1961) Artist: Harry Wingfield

The Mermaid of Clonfert Cathedral, County Galway. You can find this beautifully detailed carving of a mermaid on the chancel arch of the cathedral. She dates to the 15th century, and is depicted holding a comb in her right hand and mirror in her left. #Ireland #SpéirGhorm #Medieval 🏺

I am just back from a wonderful few days in Sweden where I visited the incredible Lars Jonsson exhibition in Stockholm, and then his museum on Gotland. Absolutely mind blowing, the selection and range of work was just unbelievable!

We’re settled back into a new school term so shop opening hours will be 10 - 2 weekdays (bar the inevitable few sick days!) We’ve been working on our Autumn/Winter pieces over the summer with customer favourite Robins out on the shelves this week. #irishcraft #speirgorm #wool #robins #visitdublin

Today’s Hummer video, five again in my Corfe Castle garden @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

For a period of a couple of years during the 2010s I was employed regularly by cattle to shoot the covers for the albums they had recorded. It was always wonderfully inspiring to witness the love, hard work & passion they had put into their music, & I really think that comes through in the photos.

Nice to see some recently fledged Ringed Plover at Redcar this week - lovely scalloped feathers and less boldly masked than the adults. 🪶🐡 #wildlifeArt

muppetized book covers: thread

Daphne the Dipper. Photographed today. #birds #ukbirds #nature #wildlife

“The tide has again receded over the sand-flats. The remaining framework of a wooden ship is half-sunken in the sand. On one of the ribs a cormorant stands with wings lifted” Writer: EL Grant Watson Artist: CF Tunnicliffe

Three days left of the August #InverteFest! So, let's do something fun for a brief escape from the horrors. How about a scavenger hunt? Go forth and find invertebrates in historic works of art and bring them back here to share. I'll start with this Vincent van Gogh I hadn't seen before.

Seven #butterfly species enjoying #wildflowers in the sunshine along the #Galway Bay shore yesterday. 😊 My first ever Clouded Yellow. Dozens of courting Green-Veined Whites. Small Tortoiseshell. Red Admiral. Common Blue. Meadow Brown. Speckled Wood.

Incredible find by reserves officer Jasmin! This beautiful wasp spider is weaving an enormous egg sac. Once it’s filled with eggs then, sadly, her work is done and she won’t see another year. But we’ll be on the lookout for wasp spiderlings in spring! @wildlifebcn.org @britishspiders.bsky.social

Delight as first phase of Connemara walking trails opens in #Galway

national geographic but with muppets: thread

RNLI are looking for volunteers crew members for their lifeboat station in Galway City. If you would like to find out more about the role, just go to bit.ly/gvclifeboats #galway #rnli

Yesterday, the IBSG and Fair Seas unveiled a life size sculpture of a basking shark for Heritage Week in Galway! The sculpture created by well-known prop-maker Tommy Casby was part-funded by The Heritage Council and with support from Galway City Council.

Aiden's hairstyle is "party in the front, party in the back, and unbridled chaos on the sides."

25 August: a date James Bartley wouldn’t want to remember, even if he hadn’t died in 1909, because it’s the 134th anniversary of him being swallowed whole by a whale. Mind you, he was cut out of it later – alive. Allegedly...🧵

When the World Sleeps - by Palestinian artist, Malak Mattar Malak was born in 1999 in the Gaza Strip and grew up under occupation and the military siege. She came to London in 2023 to study Fine Art More about this artist and her work, here: www.malak-mattar.com #art #Palestine #Gaza

This mosaic was crafted nearly two thousand years ago. We'd say that's a great bittern, wouldn't you? 📍 Seville, Spain 🪶 #Birds 📷 #Photography

Penguin group logos via dustyburrito.blogspot.com/2009/12/peng...

also just for you -- not part of my set (by H.C. White) but a super image I came across -- Galway market women having a laugh with local constabulary www.loc.gov/pictures/ite...

Bird abilities I wish I had. Buy my new book here: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rosem...

Common Ragwort with Tortoiseshell Butterflies and Hoverfly. #DaisyFamily #WildflowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

Golden suns on the Galway coast. Perennial Sowthistle in the #DaisyFamily #WildflowerHour @wildflower_hour @BSBI_Ireland

'Guiding Star' by contemporary Irish sculptor Rachel Joynt #womensart #August