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BjornIdle

@BjornIdle@mastodonapp.uk

Current location: Leicestershire, UK

Introverted human. About 70% water, with the rest mostly microbes and awkwardness. Prone to whimsy and self-deprecation.

NOTE: I am now across the other side of the world from where I usually live, so posting at different times of the day.

All photos are my own (except boosted). Am a little red/green colour blind, so things might look different to how I see them...

I try only to boost pictures with #AltText

#MECFS #pwME #Photography #MacroPhotography

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

BjornIdle , to random
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A chunky old Lesser Stag Beetle clinging onto the side of the church in Owston. My first time meeting one of these friends!

BjornIdle , to random
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This rock pipit flew up onto this rock a few times to drink from a little pool fed by the water running down the wall above it. Then it would be off again, searching under large stones or along the wildflower cliffs above

BjornIdle , to random
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Some nice lichen clumps on this fallen branch I found. I really like the one at the bottom that looks like green cauliflower...

A fallen branch lies on some grass. It has clumps of different types of lichen growing on it - a thick, bushy grey-green variety, a more open branching one that's a little greyer, a flat lobed blue-green type, a greenish one that looks like a cauliflower head, and some dustings of yellow, green and grey blobby species
ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    A Gray Wagtail on the alert for tasty bugs

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A new gunnera leaf getting ready to unfurl. Such spiky!

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Poppies! They're showing up everywhere in different colours and forms at the moment, and catching them at their peak is always a joy

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Went for a walk along the river the other day and saw these Shaggy Scalycap (Pholiota squarrosa) at the base of a tree

    Vertical pic

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Found a thick patch of seaside daisies (Erigeron glaucus) in full bloom...

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Jackdaws don't often seem to pose for photos, but this one seemed quite content with it.

    Vertical pic

    A medium-large black bird with a grey neck and pale grey-white eye perches on top of a metal pole. Three wires attach to an eye bolt on the side of the eye and radiate in different directions. The bird has one foot on the eye bolt, the other on the top of the pole itself, and is facing to our right
    ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    Barley (I think) growing in a wild patch along a suburban street. On a raised headland above an estuary, it moved and swayed, bending and leaning with every gust of wind

    Technically I guess this is ?

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Flower buds of a Nectaroscordum siculum (aka Sicilian Honey Garlic. Sounds tasty - apparently the leaves are used as a spice / flavouring in Bulgaria), all lined up and ready to break out of their protective sheath

    Vertical pic

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A Marlborough Rock Daisy catches the last remaining light on an otherwise gloomy evening

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A little Reed Warbler we spotted down near the coast. I think that's the 5th Warbler species we've seen now - others were Cetti's (amazingly strong call!), Sedge, Garden, and Willow Warblers.

    You know the most interesting thing, though? They're all species of whale.

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Another old piece of wooden fence, and another great little cluster of lichen and moss

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Most of the flowers on our Stauntonia hexaphylla are white to pale pink in colour. However there are a couple of small clusters of these much darker blooms.

    If we had male and female plants we could get edible purple fruit off this vine. No idea what they taste like but would like to try one day!

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A geranium looking very intense as it basks in the sunshine

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Some would say that Eupatorium close up looks kinda messy, ragged, or untidy. I say it looks kinda awesome

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A fern frond starting to unfurl

    BjornIdle OP ,
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    @loren Thanks! They look splendiferous when they're at this stage 😃

    BjornIdle , to random
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    "Why are you hiding under a bush?" the Robin asked, looking at me askance. The rain continued to slant down everywhere around us. I'd found a dry spot under an Acer, and crouched and bustled my way into that to wait out the passing shower.

    15 minutes later and it was still raining. The Robin had gone, more rain was percolating through the leaves of the Acer and I was starting to get quite wet. Time to abandon the cover and head for the coffee shop.

    Vertical pic

    #Birds #BirdsOfMastodon #Robin

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Some cute little mushrooms growing in the side of an old tree stump. Makes me think of a little mossy cave that the mushrooms live in, and they're peering out from the front to see if it's raining...

    Vertical pic

    Closeup shot of a cluster of very small mushrooms growing in a depression in a tree trunk. They have white stalks and cream-coloured parabola-shaped caps with vertical lines down the side and darker tips. There's moss growing around them, above and behind the depression they're growing in, so it looks like a little cave with the mushrooms leaning out of the front
    ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    As an experiment, these are some of the pics I've got edited and ready to go. What should I post next?

    Let me know which one and I'll toot it out. If I don't get any suggestions I'll just randomly pick one as usual...

    #Photography #YouChoose

    BjornIdle OP ,
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    @Iva852 There's no time limit! 😃 Here's that photo in full - I think this is a poppy getting ready to burst open. So hairy, and with those big spikes around the edges too!

    Vertical pic

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #YouChoose #Poppy

    BjornIdle , to random
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    You never know what you'll find if you look closely enough...

    This is a Sloe Bug (Dolycoris baccarum), a kind of Shield bug, hiding inside a dandelion seed head

    A small bug that has the body shape like an old heraldic shield stands on some dandelion seeds that are still attached to the seed head. It has stripey antennae, little bug eyes, and tiny hairs across its back and legs. There are some stripes visible on the underside of its carapace as well. Meanwhile, there are dandelion seeds all around it, both in and out of focus
    ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    A little saxifrage living its best life. If you look closely you can see the sticky hairs on its stem as well as the cute red and yellow polkadots on the petals

    Vertical pic

    Closeup of a small flowering stem with 3 flowers and a few unopened buds. The flowers have 5 petals each, white with dark red and yellow dots, and a pink centre. There are a number of white stamens sticking out, with bright red anthers on the end. The background is blurry, made up of more flowers from the same plant
    ALT
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    • BjornIdle , to random
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    A herring gull nesting on a rocky outcrop at the top of a cliff

    #BirdsOfMastodon #Birds #Nature #NaturePhotography #BirdPhotography

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Orange is such a good colour on a tulip - even a frilly one like this late bloom we found

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A male pheasant in the long grass, happily grazing and wandering around in circles. Occasionally it called out its harsh rasping call, which was sometimes answered off in the distance behind me.

    I had a migraine at the time and could barely see, so really happy to be able to get a photo!

    #Birds #BirdsOfMastodon #Pheasant

    Hidden amongst green grass stems, yellow buttercup flowers and white daisies is the head and back of a male pheasant. Its yellow eye is surrounded by a red patch, its head and neck are blue-green. There's a ring of white around its lower neck, and what little can be seen of its back is mottled brown
    ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    Loved the blue of this lupin flower spike, growing in the garden of a place we were house sitting near Hartland.

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #Plants #Lupin #Devon

    The same lupin flower spike seen from the other side. There's a slight gap between the otherwise tightly-packed flowers where we can see in to the stem that supports everything. Again, the lower flowers are much more strongly coloured than the ones higher up

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Different views of flowers on the same plant (Anthemis tinctoria is my guess). I think I lean more toward liking the second one at the moment, but yesterday I thought the first was better...

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #MacroPhotography #Macro #Plants #Yellow #Nature #NaturePhotography

    Closeup view of the side of another flower on the same plant. This one has a shallow depth of field, focussing on a petal which has not flattened out around the flower's centre like the others, but which is cocked upward at a steeper angle, hiding part of the blurry centre of the flower

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Some lichen finds, plus (what I think might be) a slime mould

    • Various crustose species on the back of a gravestone
    • Slime mould (?) that appeared within a few minutes of wetting this old gate beam
    • Patterns on lichen on an old wooden seat
    • A cladonia species growing amongst moss on an old wooden fence

    #LichenSubscribe #Lichen #SlimeMold #MacroPhotography #Macro #Nature #NaturePhotography

    Raised orange globs that appear out from between the fibres of an old piece of wood whenever it got wet
    Patterns of a few different types of lichen that look like interlocking fingers. Colours are white with raised grey-green grains, grey with raised darker-grey grains, and brown
    What looks like a clump of many-branched coral but which is actually a grey-green lichen that stands out from an old fence beam. It is surrounded by pale green moss, with a few tufts of smaller lichen below it

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Looking down the throat of a lovely blue aquilegia

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #Plants #Aquilegia #FlowerPhotography

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Views lit by the setting sun down by Hartland Quay a couple of nights ago. It was a lovely still evening, perfectly suited for dinner outdoors and a bit of photography

    #Sunset #Landscape #LandscapePhotography

    The silhouette of a clump of grass against the late afternoon sky. It is flowering, complete with dangly bits from each flower head
    The sun (just off camera in the top left) lights rows of dark serrated rocks which emerge from the water in rows. These are layers of sedimentary rocks which have been lifted and twisted upward, eroding at different rates. In the bottom left corner there's a slightly fuzzy patch of armeria (sea thrift) flowers lit by the same sunlight
    The sun partially obscured by a streak of cloud through its middle, lighting ripples on the ocean with a warm rose-gold colour

    BjornIdle , to random
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    One of the ornamental alliums (Allium christophii, I think) looking like a ball of pinky-purple stars

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #MacroPhotography #Macro #Plants

    BjornIdle , to random
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    This fluffy female Muslin Moth (Diaphora mendica) spent most of the day just hanging out on the underside of a crocosmia leaf. The males are nocturnal, I read, but the females are happy flying around in the daytime

    Vertical pic

    #MacroPhotography #Macro #Nature #NaturePhotography #Moth #Insects

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A little friend for #WorldBeeDay

    Edit: Oh, I posted a photo of a different bee on the same plant last year! Oh well... 🐝

    #BloomScrolling #Bees #NaturePhotography

    BjornIdle , to random
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    The tip of a perennial cornflower (Centaurea montana) showing vibrant blue as it prepares to open.

    Vertical pic

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #Plants #Cornflower #Photography #FlowerPhotography #Gardening

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A little cluster of Mica Caps (Coprinus Micaceus) growing near the compost bins in a friend's garden.

    Closeup view of five small mushrooms with pale stalks and brown caps at different stages of growth. There's a leaf leaning over the top of the rightmost one, which has yet to fully mature and has a darker brown cap. A tiny new mushroom has just started pushing through the ground in front of the others, and the background is all blurry foliage and fallen plant debris
    ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    I've been collecting too many lichen photos, so here's a small photo dump of a few of them. I find the flat ones just as interesting as the curly ones, and they're all the more interesting the closer you look.

    That last one was an alpine forest species, and much larger than the others

    #LichenSubscribe #Lichen #Macro #MacroPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography

    Closeup of a thick tangled blob of grey lichen sitting on top of a wooden fence rail, with another black lichen stretching out flat across the wooden surface. It looks like someone has dropped a piece of grey blobby fruit on the floor, and all its black juice has dribbled out into a puddle
    Another collection of variable-coloured lichen. The strongest ones here are a bright orange flakey-looking one with raised cups, and a silver-grey one above it. However, there's a more upright orange one in the top corner that looks like flames, a different grey one with little hairs coming out of the sides of its lobes, and a mixture of flat ones in shades of brown, black, grey and white filling in the gaps between them all
    Photo of the side of a moss-covered tree trunk, with a large silvery-gray with yellow and orange highlights and raised apothecia

    Closeup of a flat rock surface which is covered by many colonies of different types of lichen. They're all riven through with cracks, in different colours like white with raised black blobs, yellow-green with raised black blobs, dark brown, and different shades of grey with darker grey or black raised blobs. Overall it looks like a map of numerous countries
    ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    The flower from Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), growing happily in the garden of a place we were staying

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #Wildflowers #Plants #MacroPhotography #Macro #NaturePhotography #Nature

    BjornIdle , to random
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    A Masked Lapwing (what we'd call a Spur-Winged Plover in NZ) chilling on the lawn at Sydney's Botanic Gardens a few weeks ago. That time seems to have gone so quickly...

    #Birds #BirdsOfMastodon #Lapwing #Nature #NaturePhotography #BirdPhotography

    BjornIdle , to random
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    There was an old wooden fence near where we were staying in Hampshire that had some of the best lichen I've seen growing recently.

    This one is possibly Cladonia portentosa, a fruticose lichen, and I'm really happy with how it came out!

    #LichenSubscribe #Lichen #Macro #MacroPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Cladonia

    BjornIdle , to random
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    I found this beetle on it's back in the middle of a bridleway, waving its legs ineffectually in the air, so flipped it over right-way-up. A minute later and it was on it's back again, looking helpless.

    After a few tries, it eventually managed to stay right-way up and marched off across the ground. I think it's a type of dung beetle (maybe Anoplotrupes stercorosus, or dor beetle)...

    #MacroPhotography #Macro #Insects #Beetle #Nature #NaturePhotography

    Closeup of a beetle striding across sandy ground with fallen pine needles strewn around. The beetle is black, but with flashes of metallic blue and purple on its carapace and legs. There are hairs sticking out from its legs and head, and wide, curved horn-like protruberances on each side of its head too. It looks a little fiercesome and quite determined
    ALT
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    BjornIdle , to random
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    Some other little highlights from the last week:

    • Paulownia tomentosa (aka Foxglove Tree)
    • Lily of the Valley (Convallaria)
    • Acer leaves against a grey sky
    • A little bit of lichen and moss on a tree branch

    Closeup of tiny arching stems carrying white bell-shaped flowers, arising amongst wide green leaves
    Red maple leaves seen from below, and lit by a bright (but gray) sky behind. Where they overlap they form deep shadows, and the sticks and branches that carry them are similarly dark.
    Closeup of the branch of a tree which has a big glob of lichen growing across its top. There are also tendrils of moss growing in from the right-hand side

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Bistort (Persicaria bistorta) seems like a very cheerful plant. The bees were loving it, too...

    Vertical pic

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #Nature #NaturePhotography #FlowerPhotography #Photography #Fotografie

    BjornIdle , to random
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    The flower spikes on the flowering stem of a gunnera, looking like they're exploding outward from an unseen detonation

    Vertical pic

    #BloomScrolling #Plants #Flowers #Nature #NaturePhotography #Gunnera #Photography

    BjornIdle , to random
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    Portraits of some of the recent lichens I've met. My guesses as to IDs:

    • Flavoparmelia caperata
    • A nice moss that looks like asparagus tips, with Xanthoria parietina & physcia adscendens (?) growing through / around it
    • Parmotrema, physcia & candelariella
    • Caloplaca species

    #LichenSubscribe #Lichen #MacroPhotography #Macro #Nature #NaturePhotography #Moss #Mosstodon

    Closeup of a patch of moss seen from above. It has bright yellow lichen growing through it, and is surrounded by pale green lichen with what look like thin fleshy hairs sticking out at different angles
    Closeup of a silver-gray lichen in wide sheets / lobes, growing on top of a blanket of yellow powdery lichen. A few of the narrow grey lichens from the previous picture with the fleshy hairs wind through some of the larger variety
    Closeup of a quarter of a round orange-yellow lichen growing on stone, which has a black powdery residue (possibly another lichen) dotted around. The main orange-yellow lichen has tiny holes near the tips of its fine lobes, an area of whitish-yellow inside this, then its centre is a multitude of raised yellow-orange lumps with cracks in between, looking like the dried, cracked mud left over after a lake dries out

    BjornIdle , to random
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    An osteospermum that has closed up for the evening, as seen from the side. Very neat and tidy!

    Vertical pic

    #BloomScrolling #Flowers #MacroPhotography #Macro #Plants

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