#natural-history — Public Fediverse posts

#Birdnetpi #Nature #Birdwatching #SanDiego #NaturalHistory #BirdNET

Audio spectrogram of a hooded oriole at normal and at one quarter speed.

Recorded on a home-brew Birdnet-Pi in my back yard in San Diego.

Just finished E.A.R. Ennion’s “Adventurers Fen” - written in the 40s and describing the fen’s context and the evolution of its ecology through phases of development and in effect managed rewilding in the four preceding decades. A short book, with a really authentic feeling of intimacy and fascination, the more poignant for both describing its development again in the Second World War and for the allusion in the preface to that and to the likelihood of it freeing itself again - and knowing what it is like today.

#Reading #Nature #NaturalHistory #Ecology

Kewanee Voice: Guinness names 11-year-old Cambridge resident world’s youngest museum curator. “Anderson Taylor of Cambridge, Ill., has officially been recognized by Guinness World Records as the youngest museum curator in the world. Now 11, Taylor was just 9 years old when he opened the Cambridge Natural History Museum on August 10, 2024.”

#Birdnetpi #Nature #Birdwatching #SanDiego #NaturalHistory #BirdNET #birdnetpi

Audio spectrogram of an American Goldfinch at fill speed and one quarter speed.

Recorded on a home-brew Birdnet-Pi in my back yard in San Diego.

Chris Helzer's inimitable US prairie photos
#Ecology #NaturalHistory #Conservation #Restoration #Sustainability
#Biodiversity #USPrairie
https://prairieecologist.com/2026/05/15/photos-of-the-week-may-15-2026/

#Birdnetpi #Nature #Birdwatching #SanDiego #NaturalHistory #BirdNET

Audio spectrogram of a Cooper's Hawk.

#Birdnetpi #Nature #Birdwatching #SanDiego #NaturalHistory #BirdNET

Three audio spectrograms of a Bewick's wren recorded within a minute. The visual representation makes recognizing the bird easier than the sound, at least to me. Notice that the distinctive chirps come as a set of three, four, and five. The bird either can't count or it can count and changes this feature of it's call for reasons a mere mammal can't understand.

Recorded on a home-brew Birdnet-Pi in my back yard in San Diego.

Via @your.local.federal.agent on Instagram:

Facts about Homotherium!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYS1MivMG0k/

#homotherium #prehistory #naturalhistory #prehistoric #sabertoothtiger

A lovely story about one tough bird
#NaturalHistory #Birds #Biology
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/no-beak-weak-not-for-this-new-zealand-parrot-thats-the-alpha-male-of-his-flock/

#GiftArticle

#DavidAttenborough celebrated his 100th birthday on Friday, a milestone in a remarkable life that has taken him from hunting fossils as a boy to becoming perhaps the world’s most celebrated #naturalist.

#environment #science #nature #wildlife #film #documentaries #DocumentaryFilm #NaturalHistory #conservation #ClimateChange
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/arts/television/david-attenborough-100-birthday.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hVA.q8_f.6gG-zJJ0IW6A&smid=nytcore-ios-share

In a class of his own
#NaturalHistory #Science #Scicomm
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/david-attenborough-100th-birthday-9.7191293

#Birdnetpi #Nature #Birdwatching #SanDiego #NaturalHistory

Western Bluebird recorded on my BirdNET-Pi in my back yard.#Birdnetpi #Nature #Birdwatching #SanDiego #NaturalHistory

"As the British naturalist marks a milestone birthday, we take a look at how his work has shaped science."

https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-01371-5/index.html

#DavidAttenborough #Environment #NaturalHistory #Documentaries

David Attenborough and the voice that revealed a planet, by Danny Chau:
https://www.theringer.com/2026/05/04/tv/david-attenborough-voice-nature-earth-100-years

#DavidAttenborough #NaturalHistory #broadcasting #nature #TV #animals

"On Thursday, the Natural History Museum paid tribute to Sir David by naming a species of parasitic wasp after him.

"The Attenboroughnculus tau is native to the Patagonian lakes of Chile, and a specimen was recently found in the museum's collection, four decades after it was collected.

"Other species to have been named after the broadcaster in the past include a wildflower, butterfly, grasshopper, dinosaur and ghost shrimp."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3pww9g0p5o

#NaturalHistory #DavidAttenborough

Happy 100th Birthday to David Attenborough.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3pww9g0p5o

#DavidAttenborough #Centenarian #Birthday #NaturalHistory

#Nature #NaturalHistory #Birds #BirdsOfFediverse

Hermit Thrush (American Crow in the background)
Recorded by a home brew #BirdNETpi in #SanDiego .

Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners by Thomas D. Seeley

"The personal backstory to 20 of the most exciting research projects that the author has been part of during his 50 years of research into the abilities and behaviors of honeybees."

#BookReview by @grrlscientist

#honeybees #books #pollinators #NaturalHistory #Entomology https://grrlscientist.medium.com/piping-hot-bees-and-boisterous-buzz-runners-by-thomas-d-seeley-review-90f7d1d746d1

Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners by Thomas D. Seeley

"The personal backstory to 20 of the most exciting research projects that the author has been part of during his 50 years of research into the abilities and behaviors of honeybees."

#BookReview by @GrrlScientist

#honeybees #pollinators #NaturalHistory #Entomology https://grrlscientist.medium.com/piping-hot-bees-and-boisterous-buzz-runners-by-thomas-d-seeley-review-90f7d1d746d1

Piping Hot Bees and Boisterous Buzz-Runners by Thomas D. Seeley

"The personal backstory to 20 of the most exciting research projects that the author has been part of during his 50 years of research into the abilities and behaviors of honeybees."

#BookReview by @grrlscientist

#honeybees #pollinators #NaturalHistory #Entomology https://grrlscientist.medium.com/piping-hot-bees-and-boisterous-buzz-runners-by-thomas-d-seeley-review-90f7d1d746d1

Thirty great medieval epithets for people and beasts

Why do we say a gaggle of geese, a flock of sheep, a pride of lions or a swarm of bees? Well it harks back to medieval times when sportsmen grouped together collectives of beasties to refer to them in movement or attributing a quality to them – presumably while the poor creatures ran away in terror from their sounding trumpets and dogs in chase.

And so began the tradition that animals were distinguished by their own unique epithet. Attributing the wrong epithet to an animal was akin to social suicide in those days. It was a way for the posh to recognise those who came out in yesterday’s wash.

Although a lot of these epithets are now obsolete, they come in and out of favour. It’s hoped by adding them here that they return into use in some miraculous way.

• Lepe of leopards

• A bevy of roes
• A sloth of bears
• A singular of boars
• A sounder of wild swine
• A route of wolves

A rag of colts

• A stud of mares
• A team of oxen
• A tribe of goats

A skulk of foxes

• A cete of badgers
• A richesse of martins
• A fesynes of ferrets
• A nest of rabbits
• A clowder of cats

 a kindle of young cats

• A shrewdness of apes
• A labour of moles
• Two greyhounds were called a brace, and three a leash
• Two harriers or spaniels were called a couple.

Men’s traditional occupations also had epithets…

• A state of princes

A skulk of friars

• A skulk of thieves
• An observance of hermits
• A safeguard of porters
• A stalk of foresters
• A blast of hunters
• A draught of butlers
• A temperance of cooks
• A melody of harpers
• A poverty of pipers

• A disguising of tailors
• A wandering of tinkers
• A fighting of beggars
• A blush of boys
• A bevy of ladies

Via the fascinating Chambers Book of Days

#Birdnetpi #Nature #Birdwatching #SanDiego #NaturalHistory

Black Pheobe recorded on my BirdNET-Pi in my back yard.

A little discussion of the goals of controlled burns in there
#Ecology #NaturalHistory #Conservation #Restoration
https://prairieecologist.com/2026/04/27/photos-of-the-week-april-27-2026/

My #book #thewildheartofindia is now out in #paperback! A revised edition, with some new #essays and a lovely new cover by Sartaj Ghuman. Do take a look! Available in a number of #indiebookstores like #Higginbothams (photo) and #Champaca (link)
https://champaca.in/products/the-wild-heart-of-india-nature-and-conservation-in-the-city-the-country-and-the-wild

#nature #wildlife #conservation #naturewriting #ecology #NaturalHistory #india #Books #WestlandBooks

A Brief History of Auckland’s 53 Volatile Volcanoes

There are approximately 53 volcanoes in Auckland, which have over thousands of years produced an array of interesting lagoons, tuft rings and lava flows in Auckland city. The biggest, most active and most visible volcano – Rangitoto sits on an island of the same name in Auckland harbour.

This has erupted repeatedly over the past thousand years, with ash clouds and lava flows lasting for several weeks to years. It’s the only volcanic eruption here witnessed by humans. This exciting and dynamic landscape lends Auckland its unique features including mound like hills all over the place which provides ample places for nice picnics, photo-ops and so on.

Fast Facts about Auckland’s Volcanoes

• The volcanic field is currently dormant but could become active again at any time.
• The field is vast and consists of Lake Pupuke and Rangitoto Island in the north, Wiri Mountain in the south, Mt Albert in the west and Mt Wellington in the east.
• The first eruption occurred approximately 248,000 years ago in Onepoto
• The most recent eruption occurred about 600 years ago in Rangitoto Island, local Maori iwi in Auckland retell stories of the eruption which predates European settlement. 2.3 cubic kilometers of lava was spilled into Auckland harbour coating what is now Auckland CBD.

• Each volcano is pretty small with an average of 150 metres in height.
• Orakei volcano is an explosion crater which spilled out and formed what is now Orakei basin and a picturesque lake. The same can be said of Lake Pupuke which is a crater now a beautiful lake.

Maungakiekie or One Tree Hill which sits inside of Cornwall Park features a long 270 metre lava tube (a cavernous length of basalt rock carved out of the earth by volcanic eruptions. This lava tube has the auspicious name “The Cave of a Thousand Press-ups”.

During the last Glacial Maximum when most of the water was locked up in ice, both of Auckland’s harbours – Waitemata and Manukau were dry land and that is when there were many eruptions in Auckland. Except for Rangitoto which exploded recently, around 600 years ago.

Before Europeans came, Māori pā or settlements were popular on the sides and peaks of these volcanoes because it provided scoria to use as building materials and also provided a vantage point to set up hill forts to see other tribes approaching or attacking from afar.

Since 2007 the Volcanic field in Auckland has been a World Heritage site.

• Contrary to popular belief, the volcanic field is not extinct and there may be new volcanic events happen at any time.
• Volcanic events have the potential to be spectacularly destructive.
  • Pyroclastic surges
  • Earthquakes
  • Lava bombs
  • Ash fall
  • Closure of the Port of Auckland, State highway network, Auckland Airport.
• There is substantial evidence that several volcanoes could go off all at once.
• Auckland Museum, itself built on the crater of Puwekawa volcano has an immersive exhibition where you can experience what it’s like to be inside of a volcanic eruption and earthquake.
• Auckland Council has a Volcanic Field Contingency Plan for emergency services, evacuation and so on, should the worst happen.

Read more