Only 7 moths last night but Poplar Hawk was amongst them and NFY

My illustration of a perched female kingfisher. Drawn in Photoshop using a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet.

Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon, female). From my book A Field Guide to Long Island Sound, Yale University Press, a.co/d/ffZ6GFP
🧪🌿🌎🪶🐡 #wildlife #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifeart #illustration #scientificillustration #natureart #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #kingfisher #LongIslandSound

Side view illustration of a large dragonfly with bright yellow and black markings. One of North America's largest dragonflies, specializes in hunting other dragonflies.

The Dragonhunter (Hagenius brevistylus). From my STREAMS: An Illustrated Guide book, coming in Sept. 2026. a.co/d/gAgXe4q?ta...
🧪🌿🌎🐡 #wildlife #medart #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifeart #illustration #scientificillustration #natureart #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #dragonflies #odos

Why stop at ships? Levy the aeroplanes passing through your airspace too. And don't forget the satellites that pass over your borders. :-)

Mathematicians found out why waiting for the elevator takes forever Does it ever feel like an elevator is always going in the wrong direction? Mathematics can explain why

"[I]t really is the case that elevators travel in the opposite direction than you intend more often than not, as Gamow and Stern’s statistics show."

#Mathematics #Statistics #Lifts #Elevators

What Physical ‘Life Force’ Turns Biology’s Wheels? | Quanta Magazine The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the essence of life.

A powerful electrical motor propels bacteria in virtually every gut and puddle on Earth. After 50 years, it has finally been understood. @nattyover.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/what-physica...

A medium-sized brown butterfly resting on a leaf. The wings have a pattern of light and brown patches running across the wing. Some of the patches are edged in white.

A Malayan Falcate Oakblue (Mahathala ariadeva) spotted in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia on 4 April 2026. An uncommon butterfly, and one I didn't expect to see in an urbanised area.

On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ].

#iNaturalist #Nature #Malaysia #Butterflies #Lepidoptera

Interesting. Sharing it with the local wasp group: the wasp in question can also be found in Singapore.

Wasps move in on ant-plant partnership, disrupting a 10‑million‑year mutualism An international team of scientists from Queen Mary University of London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and other institutions has uncovered surpr...

Those meddlesome wasps.

A large brown bird resting on a horizontal palm branch. It has yellow eyes and a sharp curved beak. The wings are darker brown.

The bird in flight. Its wings are horizontal, giving a view of the flight feathers. Several dark bands run across the wings.

In this flight shot, the wings are down below the body. The wing tips are separate and curved upwards.

The wings are now slightly above the body. The wing tips are still separate and curved upwards.

An Oriental Honey-Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) spotted in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia on 4 April 2026. Managed to get some inflight shots after it took off.

On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ].

#iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Malaysia #Birds #Aves

The electromechanical angle computer inside the B-52 bomber's star tracker Before GPS, how did aircraft navigate? One important technique was celestial navigation: navigating from the positions of the stars, planets...

For more on the electromechanical Angle Computer, see my article: www.righto.com/2026/04/B-52...

The Angle Computer is a complicated electromechanical system with gears, motors, and bundles of wires. It has a grey metal shell that includes a half sphere. Inside this sphere, arms move a star pointer to indicate the position of a star. Other gears and mechanisms read out the position.

In the 1960s, the B-52 bomber could navigate by the stars. Celestial navigation requires spherical trigonometry, so an analog Angle Computer solved these equations electromechanically. Let's look inside...

White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher, markscheflen.com #bwindiImpenetrableforest #uganda #birdsofafrica #birdphotography #biodiversity #flycatchers #conservationphotography #birdsseenin2026

The Neotropic Cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianum) is a medium-sized, slender, black waterbird found throughout the American tropics and subtropics. Known for its long tail, green eyes, and a small yellow-brown throat patch edged with a white V-shape, it is often seen diving for fish or drying its wings in trees, on posts, or on utility wires

Neotropic Cormorant (Nannopterum Brazilianum)

At a nature reserve in Lima, Peru this Cormorant was drying his wings. Unfortunately it looks like he's picked up a plastic necklace. Hopefully it doesn't harm him.

#birds #birdphotograhy #wildlife #wildlifephotography #photography

A small, slate-gray bird with a slightly hooked beak is perched upside down on a flowering plant. It is focused on a bright pink flower bud, seemingly searching for nectar. The background consists of soft-focus green leaves and reddish-brown stems.

I spent some quality time with this wonderful Slaty Flowerpiercer this morning in San Gerardo de Dota #CostaRica

These little nectar thieves pierce the base of flowers to extract nectar, bypassing the pollination process.

#birds #nature

Meet Bruce, the "beak-jousting" parrot Kea parrot missing his upper beak "has rewritten what disability means for behaviorally complex species."

Meet Bruce, the “beak-jousting” parrot who beat out all his rivals to become alpha male. Kea parrot missing his upper beak “has rewritten what disability means for behaviorally complex species.” arstechnica.com/science/2026...

A close-up of a small songbird perched on a branch, partially framed by green leaves. The bird features a striking, vibrant orange throat and upper breast, contrasted by a slate-gray head and back with white-streaked wings. It is looking downward with a sharp, dark beak and a small black eye.

The Flame-throated Warbler has always been a challenge for me, as I don't see them that often and they're very busy little birds as they flit under leaves looking for delicious insect snacks. I got a little luckier today. #CostaRica #birds

Olive-bellied Sunbird is a small, energetic African songbird commonly found in forests, gardens, and woodland edges. #sunbirds markscheflen.com #BwindiImpenetrableforest #uganda #birds #birdphotography #biodiversity #conservationphotography #birdsseenin2026

Two mating black and white tiger moths on a green leaf

Black and White Tiger moths (Ardices glatignyi)

#teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #Lepidoptera #bugsky

A woodpecker holding on to the side of a tree. It has bright red wings, a red head with spiky neck feather and a robust, sharp beak. The underparts are white, with a dark, scaly appearance.

Another woodpecker on the side of the tree. In this profile shot, the spiky feathers at the back of the head can now be seen as yellow.

The woodpecker resting on a horizontal palm branch. The back can now be seen, which consists of yellow feathers. The tail is dark grey.

Another look at the woodpecker on the palm branches. Here, it has turned its head slightly to look at the camera.

Close encounter with the Banded Woodpecker (Chrysophlegma miniaceum) at Windsor Nature Park, Singapore on 19 April 2026. They ignored the excited person shooting only 2–3 metres away.

On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ].

#iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Singapore #Birds #Aves

Treetop toilets may act as communication hubs across mammal species The strangler fig is a keystone species in the tropics, providing food and shelter, and a place to poop for 17 different mammal species.

"A survey of 169 trees found 11 latrines—all of them in the major forks of the strangler fig tree (Ficus tuerckheimii). A camera trap at one arboreal potty captured 17 different species visiting the spot."

#Nature #Behaviour #Trees #Animals

How to invent a realistic language for fictional speakers Linguists can mix, match or even break the rules of real-world languages to create interesting imaginary ones.

"Creating a conlang involves much more than stringing together some make-believe words. Languages are complex machines with many interlocking parts, and linguists must wield their expertise in these systems to create functional languages that suit their fictional speakers."

#SFF #Linguistics

Oak-tree Pug - fairly regular in our Cardiff garden.

Eupithecia dodoneata

Eupithecia - a goodly dwarf

dodoneata - from an ancient Grecian town whose oracle spoke when the wind blew through a grove of sacred oak trees - hence belonging to the oaks.

V poetic.

#mothsmatter

Part 1/2 of a 7-panel SMBC comic update. A young woman is praying, asking God "is it OK that I cause a small amount of pollution every day? Even though it results in some small but real increase in the incidence of cancer?" God responds "of course. The harm is infinitesimal." The woman continues her inquiry, becoming more specific. She says "OK, now suppose I work with a million other programmers, each contributing a tiny bit of code to create a torture button on Reddit. pain starts at 0, and can go up to 10 million. Each person can only press the button once. And we can prove that any press of the button causes no detectable increase in pain."

Part 2/2 of a 7-panel SMBC comic update. The woman concludes "by your logic, NOTHING IMMORAL has happened! There must be some quantum threshold for sinning, and below that, it’s open season!" God asks in return "have you been reading Derek Parfit again?" to which the woman responds "it’s the handbook for tactical villainy!" The next panel cuts to later, where God is talking to an angel. The angel asks "another flood then, Lord?" God specifies "yeah, but have each angel deliver a single drop."

The funny part is every action in your life turns SOME torture dial!

COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/dial
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

That reminds me of the time I heard this 'frog call' in Costa Rica, which turned out to be the call of a Keel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus). :-)

www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Pebble Prominent (Notodonta ziczac). NFY.

This morning's Pebble Prominent NFY. There wasn't much in the trap, but this moth was worth the electricity. It even provided me with a few "I am dead!" shots. #teammoth

I was delighted to hear the "sweet-sweet-I'm-so-sweet" song of the Northern Yellow Warbler in my backyard marsh yesterday. Two of them were singing; perhaps they having a sing-off to see who gets to nest in the area.

Black-headed Heron with prey, Gashora Swamp, Rwanda #birdsofafrica #wildbirdphotography #birdsseenin2026 #birds #birdphotography #bird #biodiversity #herons #conservationphotography #rwanda #blackheadedherons #birdsofprey markscheflen.com

An inflight shot showing the profile of the bee eater from below. The body and feathers are orange-brown, with the wings held out in the 'classic' bee eater profile that helps to identify an inflight bird as a bee eater.

The bee eater perched on a branch. The upper part of the wings are greenish. A black band runs across the eyes. It has a dark, sharp beak. The tail is blueish.

Another view of the bee eater on the branch, showing the bright orange throat.

A picture showing two bee eaters perched on the same branch.

A Blue-tailed Bee-Eater (Merops philippinus) spotted in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia on 3 April 2026. Managed to get an inflight shot as it swooped to get a midair meal.

On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ].

#iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Malaysia #Birds #Aves

It's nest building time for some songbirds already! This morning I spotted this female American Robin with a beakful of nesting material.