Good morning and welcome to a new week! Our featured Spanish tour of the week is Spring Butterflies of Andalusia - a chance to enjoy a mouth-watering array of special butterflies rare or absent elsewhere in Europe. (1/2) mariposanature.com/tours/butter... @europebutterfly.bsky.social

Yeah, but BBC, Donald Trump....

NEW ESSAY: The Story No. 8 | Fieldwork – The Linnaean Way | Writing and Drawing during Naturalist Journeys: Part 2. www.ikfoundation.org/itextilis/th...

Didymium melanospermum with a pin for scale. The slime-mould was found on a beech log at the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield.

January Plans....... Grateful for reposts.... open.substack.com/pub/intotheh...

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

It turns out that what I thought was just a dead car battery is actually some kind of gremlins in the electrical system so… I would really love it if anyone wanted to buy some Christmas cards so I can pay the garage to sort it out….

My first Snow Flea (Boreus hyemalis) of the winter at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve today. Nice of her to pose out in the open on a fallen leaf, so didn't need to spend hours waiting for one to emerge from the Polytrichum moss! @ynuorg.bsky.social #Mecoptera #Boreidae #ukwildlife

Far Side

Never forget that a Democratic US Attorney’s decision to prosecute Aaron Swartz for downloading JSTOR PDFs contributed to his suicide but AI firms’ decision to download everything ever will be a justification for hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer bailouts and legal exemptions.

Appalling neglect in a nature emergency. Please explain @ForestryLS

My great-grandad was a piano tuner from Huddersfield. He was conscripted into the army during the First World War, and had an awful time. After I found out a bit about what he went through, I wrote a short story. I thought today might be a good day to share it. richarddsmyth.com/2025/11/09/n...

"Like a bunch of gangsters": 100+ nations were set to approve a historic plan to slash pollution from cargo ships. Then the US stepped in. Diplomats were stunned by “nasty” and “very personal” threats, including blacklisting, financial penalties, tariffs, sanctions, and the revocation of US visas.

Re rabbit holes (see previous post), in seeking more definition of Galeobdolon, [galê, Ancient Gk for weasel ... not all roots are Latin], I came across a treasure trove. By William Smith - The Ancient Library, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?... @justagalandadog.bsky.social

the combination of 'amazing Mark Duffell' & etymology set me off down a rabbit hole that turned into a warren! Weasel scented: all mustelids are stinky, this one likened to rancid garlic x tomcat spray. Ancient Greek for weasel is galê (γαλέη). Myrica gale OTOH, is from Gagel, its German vernacular

Ophrys lindia and Ophrys eptapigiensis from this year's @mariposanature.bsky.social Orchids of Rhodes tour that, as usual, I co-led with my good friend @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social. Just two of the many rarities we saw that week - we know the island's secret places and hidden taxa treasures intimately.

Barnacle geese growing from a tree BL Royal 13 B VIII; Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hiberniae, c.1196-c.1223 CE; England, N. (Lincoln?); f.8v

I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide. And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft. What does OpenAI offer the world?

Hey everyone, is there a literature (can be grey) discussing the ethics of using #generativeAI in #conservation and-or #ecology? I have to persuade some folks to consider the “darker” side of it and some authoritative/academic sources would really help. Thanks for any links. 🌍#conservationscience

"The lake's waters reached 41ºC, or 105.8ºF — hotter than most spa baths." "You couldn't put your finger in the water." Just terrible. There's no other way to describe this. News: www.cbsnews.com/news/dolphin... Peer reviewed: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🌎 🧪

Viburnum farreri, syn. V. fragrans. It is indeed very fragrant, but is the sort of scent that is of dubious morality, and induces migraines if over indulged.

Here's one from the archives of a tiny and quite fuzzy longhorn beetle (Lophopogonius crinitus) that I found in my backyard. It's the only species in its genus. I haven't seen one since, which isn't surprising given that they're virtually invisible on bark. 🐙🌿📷 #Bugsky

We're now starting to get reports of dead Whooper Swans with rings. If you find a dead bird & feel comfortable doing so - check for rings using the below @btobirds.bsky.social advice 👇🏻 Collecting information on ringed birds helps better understand the impact on different age groups.

Inept birder.

& the sun inconstant, coming & going in patternless interludes - rainbows blaze & fade above patrols of grey heron - & as it steadies to leave picks out corvids wheeling to roost

December Moth on the move 🤎 💛 #TeamMoth #NatureWithin

The very beautiful and always very welcome Aphanus rolandri. #Bugs #Hemiptera #VC55 #Lygaeidae #macrophotography #macro #OMSystem

Restored Triumph Spitfire to be sold for hospice #Shropshire 🔗: https://www.bbc.com/news/arti...

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... 'a few years ago, there was a global consensus around net zero. There’s not now' how can Labour keep on getting it so wrong. This is bollocks. There IS global consensus among those who recognise the primacy of data and evidence, not uninformed opinion.

"The Hague’s fossil-fuel advertising ban is more than a policy- it’s a signal. By rejecting the normalization of fossil fuel promotion, the decision to implement a ban locally can challenge entrenched norms globally... FF advertising bans present a compelling opportunity for governments to act"

Real science tends to be so messy, it takes several generations to figure out exactly what happened when something was discovered. TBF though, Watson did not exactly behave in a way to make the (over-simpified) idea of his having stolen data feel implausible.

They're not shaking the accusations of authoritarianism are they? Fascism isn't the uniform of blackshirts, jackboots or whatever, it's changes like this to how the system functions.

You know what this timeline needs tonight? A weird-ass invertebrate sea creature! Here's an undescribed (at time of photo, not sure about now) endemic Hawaiian Spiky sea cucumber, Stichopus sp. Actually an Earth life form. 📷🦑🐙 #invertebrates

And this is why the global BHL community does what we do: so others can build on, use, and share 500+ years (63 million pages) of biodiversity knowledge & spectacular #SciArt. Over to you… 📖 🌏 🦆 🌱

I saw a post once which said that AI's best customers are also its worst because they cost so much more than they could ever pay. People who are super keen to use the technology will end up making it unprofitable, which is nicely ironic. AI will eat itself. 🤞🏻

This little bird survived a volcanic eruption! Buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, this Roman fresco of a little bird pecking at fruit re-emerged looking as delightful as it did some 2,000 years ago! Villa Poppaea, ancient Oplontis, Italy 📷 by me #FrescoFriday #Archaeology

Prosartes trachycarpa, our Rough-Fruited Fairy Bells, blooming at Deer Creek Canyon Open Space #nativeplants #FallbackFlowers #Fallback to May 7 🌿

Issus coleoptratus nymph. #Bugs #Hemiptera #VC55 #macrophotography #macro #OMSystem

Meanwhile, this coming January, I've the Up Helly Aa winter tour I co-lead here in Shetland for Shetland Nature with my good pal Kate to look forward to. There are still some places available if you fancy a wild and wintery #Shetland adventure with us. www.shetlandnature.net/holidays/she...

#Galanthus season is officially underway in the yarden! Galanthus rizehensis 'Lady Latife' right on cue ☺️

Cosmopterix pulchrimella (Pellitory Beauty) Cley Moth Obs November 7 2025 @linnetincley.bsky.social #cleymothobs #norfolkmoths #teammoth 2/2

Siting new nuclear at Sizewell and Oldbury deemed ‘problematic’ due to high level of flood risk.. www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/sitin...

NEW YORK (AP) — James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix shape of DNA, has died at age 97.

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours earlier today perusing a fascinating old book: An History of the Fungusses Growing About Halifax, by John Bolton. It's fascinating to look at the names being used to see how ideas about classification were forming 200 years ago.

Banger, obvs.

Wow, we found an even bigger and brighter one!!! analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/2025/11/how-...

Hundreds of thousands of people, dead because of a decision made by the world's richest man

PS - Dear EVERY, SINGLE WEBSITE WITH "How to de-skunk" DOGS INFO: These instructions are being read: 1. By people who are in a TOTAL STATE OF PANIC 2. Either at 5 a.m. or 11 p.m. We do NOT need 5 paragraphs on "Why skunks smell, how to keep your dog away from skunks, etc." before the FORMULA 1/2

🎉 At our 1 trillion-page celebration, Senator @ScottWiener.bsky.social honored the Internet Archive with a California Senate Certificate of Recognition for the Archive's “remarkable innovation and leadership.” More ⤵️ blog.archive.org/2025/11/05/c... #Wayback1T

🐙 Scripps Oceanography scientists have engineered bacteria to mass‑produce the pigment that lets octopuses and squids change color! This breakthrough not only sheds light on animal chemistry but also paves the way for sustainable, bio‑based materials. t.co/Oitp8NnntR