Janet Drew

A pair of spectacled ducks stood next to the water. The water in question is the meltwater forming the lage at the foot of the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina. The ducks are mostly a warm chocolate-y brown, with a purple/bronze speculum visible on the wing. The 'spectacles' are very distinctive white patches between the actual eyes and the top of the dark pointed beak. Orange legs and webbed feet. The darker barring on the chest is a nice feature.

A pair of spectacled (or bronze-winged) ducks - for today's #birdoftheday #waterbirds. Details in +alt #birds

One of the most unusual and beautiful sights we had were the Buzzards, some of them had this amazing plumage and markings. Although we saw the most common type we have here in the UK, this one was in my eyes something special. It could be a young Buzzard but I am not sure. 😉😊 @rspb.bsky.social

The first of three photos all featuring the octagonal light that is the eye-dragging effective centre of this impressive cathedral. Here the view from the choir stalls looking back down the nave. The dark wood tracery of the screen is in strong contrast to the bright octagon above.

A close up fo the decoration around the base of the octagonal light - as seen through one of the (also decorated) gothic arches.

A view up to the octagonal light from not quite below it. The ribs the reach into the light and create a star-like pattern around it can be seen in the barely iluminated gloom.

Well done for lying down - I didn't. I thought I'd just add some some of my photos, to your inspired shot, of this very fine and remarkable bit of cathedral architecture ...to fill out the context. #ElyCathedral #IsleofEly #Ely

The Brexit anniversary is a day for sadness. After the results of the Brexit ref came through all those years ago, this young woman was asked to put her thoughts about it on camera. Her eloquent words spoke for so many of us back then – and her worst fears have tragically come true.
#RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺

A male(?) chimango caracara at rest on a branch of a dead tree, atop Cerro Llao Llao (near Bariloche, Argentina). The bird is looking to its left placing the head in profile, while the light-brown mottled, delicately feathered chest is seen from the front. Sunlight illuminates the left side of the bird, whilst also seem to catch the tip of the down-curved beak.

For today's #brownisbeautiful #birdoftheday, a chimango caracara seen in the Bariloche area of Argentina. Pretty chest feathers. This predator was soon bullied off its perch by the bigger predator, a crested caracara. #birds #nature #photography

The Carney doctrine Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech

“The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.”

As a piece of prose and geopolitical analysis Carney’s Davos speech feels history-making. paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney...

From the back garden around midnight: trees, part of the house, a bit of cloud at the top of the frame - and in between - a red aurora glow (to the north)

Aurora as it just happened: looking north, from the hills above Wicklow Town.

A view across the railway line out of Kilcoole towards Wicklow Town. The sun is low in the southern sky behind fine "combed-out" cirrus. Marshland occupies the middle distance, showing very dark green in the highly angled light.

Taken as we set out on this afternoon's walk, next to Kilcoole's marshes. Great sky! #EastCoastKin

Some #astronomy - a weird discovery, even.☺️

A picture of very gently rippling water, with a thin fringe of reed to the fore. Right at the front is a greylag goose in profile: fine orange beak, buff chest, pale rump and patterned brown feathers. Another one further back, has its head down.

For #BirdoftheDay #anatidae These greylags were on Hickling Broad in Norfolk.

The photo shows a doorway with a tall winerack to the near side of it. One of the two cats in the photo sits on top of the open door, while the other opts for the next highest point on top of the wine rack. A typical moment of madness from these two!

Cats... being cats. (Instinct > reason!)

Yep! Both the blog and the comments should be read. The two together are definitely mutually enriching. (I would personally sleep more easily in a world WITH international law seen as a thing.)

Two black guillemots swimming together in Greystones Marina. The view is from above, via a telephoto lens. Their bright red legs show under the water. Most of the plumage is a rich chocolate brown. The birds appear 'black' only from a distance and/or under cloudy sky. The distinctive white wing patches are clearly visible.

Just one black guillemot in this picture - seen at an angle where you can see the speckling around the top of the beak that signals the beginning of the switch to non-breeding plumage. When the switch is complete most of the 'black' will have gone, giving the bird a very different appearance.

For #birdoftheday, I have #most pictures of so-called black guillemots - a lovely chocolate-y brown, close up (the consequence of living next to a marina in Wicklow, they visited often). In photo 2, the non-breeding plumage is starting to show around the top of the beak. #birds #EastCoastKin

Today our message to Starmer is loud and clear: scrap the £3bn Trump tax on our NHS and put that money into social care now.

@libdemdaisy.bsky.social

A ring-necked parakeet clinging to a feeder, checking her surroundings (if male, the ring around the neck would be more prominent). Seen Christmas Day 2025, in strong winter sunshine. Mostly green plumage, although the tail has some blue in it, when viewed from behind.

My #mostrecent bird snap for #birdoftheday, taken yesterday - during a pre-Christmas-dnner stroll to the nearby, essentially urban, nature reserve. First saw one in 1995 (Chiswick, London). Now they're all over SE England.

A robin, on a gravel footpath in the National Botanic Garden, Kilmacurragh, Wicklow. Facing left, he/she is looking up at me as I take the photo (taken early March this year) - quite unfazed by the people around at the time.

A #Grounded robin for #BirdoftheDay - suitable also as a subject for the #holidayseason. The robin was clearly human-comfortable, being a small number of feet away on a gravel path, and happy to wait a while as I took the photo.

A Christmas-themed knitted postbox bonnet, seen in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Two dinosaurs, wearing Santa hats, sat on a white (snow?) base, with a smaller decorated Christmas tree at the front. The blue dinosaur with a striped scale on its back seems to be trying to swallow a Christmas pudding. The dinoosaur at the back is green with yellow spots and is swallowing some tinsel.

...seasonally-themed postbox bonnets are a thing in St Albans, Herts, too. I raise you two dinosaurs in Santa hats!

Great tits, juvenile blue tits, and a couple of siskins on 3 bird feeders hanging outside a cottage window in the Lake District. June 2022.

10 #birdsonfeeders for #BirdOfTheDay. At this location - a cottage near Coniston in the Lake District - there was never any shortage of birds on the feeders, which would empty in a day. The blue tits visible have grey caps, marking them out as juveniles (photo taken June '22). #birds

...such a nihilistic, mean-spirited thing to try to do. Despicable. Imbecilic. Have to hope congress pushes back.

Eight Chilean flamingos in the lake next to El Calafate, in Patagonia, Argentina. Photo taken on an October late-ish afternoon. One of the two flamingos at the extreme left is facing the remaining six who are pretty nearly lined up, as if in a class of some sort. All of them have warm rose-pink plumage, with a slash of shocking pink near the tail.

For #Birdoftheday #groups - a troup of Chilean flamingos, seen near El Calafate, Argentina. The way they are arranged almost looks like a class for debutantes in how to carry yourself. Lovely and comical at the same time. #birds

#BirdOfTheDay #NestingBirds - how about a repost of a kittiwake building a cliff-top nest in warm sunshine. ...still is my favourite gull.

Reposting for #birdoftheday #reflections.

MPs with PhDs hide the fact. ...tells you a lot.

Black male and orange-brown female 'white-lined' tanagers, on a bird feeder in a Tobago garden. The wikipedia entry admits that the white on the male is often not visible. Needs to be watched in flight. We put out papaya for them, as I recall.

#Mr&Mrs white-lined tanager. He's black and she's a light orange brown. For #birdoftheday. Why white-lined? ...apparently there's some white under the male's wing and a patch of white on the upperwing. Don't think I saw it. #birds

A side bed in a Hertfotrdshire back garden, Nov 21 2025. There is a winter jasmine in full flower up against the fence. To its right - a rose bush, STILL flowering and even has rosebuds visible.

A #gardening oddity: a photo from yesterday showing winter jasmine in full bloom (normal for Dec/Jan ...so not far off), and a flowering rose, of all things (normal for June to early Sept). One of those little signs life is turning strange. #climatechange

Hornsey, or Blakeney Point?

The fizzingly scarlet autumn colour of the leaves on a japanese maple ('orangeola'). The frame shows nothing but the 'dissecta' leaves of the shrub from no more than month ago.

A #bright photo for #BluSkyArtShow. The dazzling colour of an acer in autumn, in the back garden. The colour is as close to true as I could make it (the camera tried to push it ~pink). The leaves were SO vivid. #Nature

A mute swan, rearing up out of the water with its wings open and up. Seen against a backdrop of wintry reeds on the water in Tyttenhanger gravel pits. With it being winter, the sun is low rendering the swan with strong highlights and partial shadow.

A #swan for #BirdofTheDay. A mute swan, making itself look bigger and more statuesque, by rearing up out of the water - for no apparent reason at the time. #birds

The pain and effort definitely got its reward. This captures the feel of the Somerset Levels so well.

A group of female eider ducks sunning on a slipway in Seahouses harbour, Northumberland. Three are fully within the frame, with the nearest actively preening. One is standing, showing off her beautifully plump, rounded, brown-striped chest.

#DucksOutOfWater for #BirdOfTheDay. Female eiders sunning on a slipway, looking very chilled out - a WI (Women's Institute, for those unfamiliar with the term) of ducks.