Janet Drew

Nice photo - shows up the size difference very well. This is a female greenfinches without the 'moss green' (Svensson's description) back of the male. The yellows on the greenfinch and goldfinch aren't quite the same - more in-your-face gold on the goldfinch

A red squirrel in the gardens on Tresco, Scilly Isles. This one has his/her face covered in pollen from the century(?) plant it is perched on.

A squirrel for #squirrelsaturday

A detail from the mosaics decorating San Vitale, Ravenna. A peacock and peahen are shown in a flower garden. The panel this comes from sits just above the panel showing Justinian and Belisarius.

Not long since back from an Italian city tour, which included Ravenna and its magnitficent early Christian-era wall mosaics. Here's a detail I love, showing #birds - a convincingly-rendered peacock and peahen, in this instance.

This is beyond pathetic.

Good on them! I hope they find ways to rebut the nonsense widely and loudly.

The other point to make is that it probably isn't just physic depts under this pressure: the IOP is good at keeping an eye on the health of UK physics.

A view down the library corridor, from the Stabat Mater room in Bologna's Archiginnasi. Dark wooden bookcases frame the corridor. Above the first opening , some typical Archiginnasi heraldic artwork.

An example of a historic, but still working, library. Spectacular. The best of human...

Two spectacled (aka bronze-winged) ducks, standing on bare rock by the water - preening themselves. The photo was taken from the walkway at Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina

#birds #MallardMonday Two (well-named) spectacled ducks preening at the water's edge, below Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina.

Isn't the shift in population profile to greater age (and growing amounts of sickness) the real problem, though. Article behind paywall- so haven't read it. Recent migrants are mostly young and have to pay annual surcharges for NHS per family member.

An other-worldly, abstract photo of clouds reflected in Crummock Water (Lake District) with the superposed contrast of an islet plus a couple of rocks.

Just sharing a photo from the archives, for want of something better to do - an abstract or fantasy take on a lake. See ALT for details.

Well, yes - have to agree. Loved the jacket and tie near the end.

Did it have a crest? (hidden on the photo) Would have to be a juvenile harpy, as adults are much darker. Size is a clue - harpies approach a metre, head to tail. The rarer white-necked hawks are half that in length (and only in SE Brazil).

Would that be a white-necked hawk in the third picture. Looks stationary to me (good photo)

One of the Midsumer Night's Dream fairies, in a gauzy tutu, suspended on a fabric loop hanging from the ceiling of the Bridge Theatre, London. Photo taken during the interval when the fairies 'hung around' to entertain the audience below. These fairies needed to be acrobats...

On Friday, got to see the Bridge Theatre's Midsummer Night's Dream production, complete with acrobatic fairies (and Puck) suspended on loops hanging from the ceiling - brilliant idea. Very fresh, and played successfully for laughs.

Defending US democracy: the role of scientists
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

And mine. ..used to read about it too, in TV21 - every week.

Making America Great Again Update: US President not in charge of who gets to attend a meeting taking place at a meeting he instigated on a US military base on US soil with a foreign leader whose country has an economy about the size of the New York City Metropolitan Area.

Yes, absolutely. To me: 'great northern diver'. A grander name, as it happens. Once heard, never forgotten.

...time someone with a platform threw back the accusation of Lysenkoism at these people.

Agreed. She would have been wise not to express a view. The real point here is Musk is not a scientist, and latterly has become a destroyer of science.

8 house sparrows in and around a bird bath. One of them has clearly been in already.

#birds Social birds, socialising. Some of the garden's house sparrow tribe, on a warm day. You can tell who has already been in the water.

Two samoyeds watching the world go by from an upstairs window - today in Greystones, Wicklow

Lean out of the window (silver) hair...

Close up of central composite flower - many little sky blue flowers, surrounded by fiery red fronds.

A large flowering bromeliad on a tree, in a Wicklow garden (Kilmacurragh). Both tree moss-covered tree are big - the bromeliad would be about 3 feet across.

Kilmacurragh National Botanical Garden this afternoon - a flowering bromeliad. Not what you expect in Wicklow, Ireland.

A young robin, with its mature plumage starting to appear. On our garden birdfeeder today

#birds. Now a regular visitor to our garden birdfeeder. Just like a grown-up robin, this youngster only ever shows up on its own.

Would this be Inner Farne? Nice crowd picture.

Juvenile eurasion goldfinch, perched on a roof - show the distinctive primary colouration of a goldfinch. The top half of the birst is very different from the adult - no red/black on the head, and subtle (rather pretty) spotting on its chest.

#birds From this morning: a juvenile eurasian goldfinch, taking a break from the birdfeeder, sitting on our extension roof. The light spotting on its chest (which will go soon) is pretty.

Male calopteryx virgo (beautiful demoiselle), on a fern frond - glowing blue/cyan in the sunshine. About 5 cm or so long.

Female calopteryx virgo (beautiful demoiselle), glowing green. Brown wings showing nicely. On a giant rhubarb leaf. Also about 5cm long.

Mr and Mrs 'beautiful demoiselle' flies - well named. Both seen resting in the warm sunshine next to the River Vartry, in Mount Usher. Seen today. #nature

You don't need pythagoras theorem here, or any trig - squares, rectangles, and the obvious point that a right-angled triangle is half the area of the encompassing rectangle gets you there. So a style of lateral thinking (aka spatial reasoning here) definitely helps.

Collagte of flowering garden plants as they are today: jasmine (top left), lavender (top right), butterfly lavender (bottom left), climbing rose (middle bottom), rose of sharon (bottom right).

From the garden, today, in its early summer pomp. Spot the bee...

I remember seeing one in Tuolumne Meadows over 20 years ago. It was my one-and-only time.