Andrew Clarke

My photo shows a museum display with colourful Minoan pottery cups arranged on three clear shelves, one above the other. These cups, known as Kamares Ware, are from Phaistos, Crete. They were made in palace workshops, c. 1800-1700 BC. The cups range in shape and size from conic and cylindrical cups (top and middle shelves) to hemispherical and carinated shaped cups (bottom shelf). They are decorated with multi-coloured geometric motifs; with spirals and swirls painted in red and white pigment on black.

Sipping my coffee ☕️ and thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups!

They look so modern it’s incredible to think they were made during the Bronze Age some 3,800 years ago!

Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. 📷 by me

#Archaeology

What a gorgeous beast! 😍

Many thanks Alex. Like many formerly regular UK wintering birds it seems that Rough-legged Buzzard is a species in decline as the climate rapidly changes.

The book is a frame of reference that describes the current status of a once scarce but regular bird that is now in steep decline. It’s apparent that this reflects the national trend and gives context to the discussion of records from the wider region eg Yorkshire by several contributors up thread.

I wouldn’t rely too much on this @cornellbirds.bsky.social eBird map as many observers use alternative reporting systems.

@shefbirdstudy.bsky.social latest avifauna ‘New Birds of the Sheffield Area’ will have the answers. Maybe someone could post an image of the species account for clarification?

My photo shows part of a limestone wall panel carved in bas relief from the Fifth Dynasty mortuary temple of king Userkaf at Saqqara, Old Kingdom, 2465-2458 BC. It shows a Hoopoe, a crested bird with black and white wing pattern, and an ibis, with long curved beak, amongst papyrus plants in the marshes of the river Nile. My photo was taken in 2022 at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Lovely naturalistic relief of a Hoopoe and Ibis, carved by an Egyptian artisan some 4,500 years ago!

Limestone wall relief from the 5th Dynasty mortuary temple of Userkaf at Saqqara. Egyptian Museum, Cairo 📷 by me

#ReliefWednesday
#Archaeology

Apply a thick organic mulch (eg seasoned woodchip) at this time of the year to all permanent beds.

Mulch benefits plants, suppresses weeds (any that emerge are easier to remove), builds soil, holds moisture, prevents run-off and looks great.

Either invest time in mulching now or weeding later.

The same site where I twitched my first around 1983/84. Always a few interesting raptors to be seen around Upper Derwentdale 😉

Sadly my earliest birding notebooks were lost but I believe that I saw Rough-legged Buzzard before Common Buzzard in the Sheffield area back in the 1980’s.

Latter species is now widespread (even over the city’s suburbs) with RLB a scarce migrant to the @shefbirdstudy.bsky.social recording area.

A gander at winter geese Widespread snow across Scandinavia and northern Germany last week led thousands of geese to cross the North Sea as their feeding grounds were covered; the Hamburg area saw 40cm of snow, the biggest...

The largest flocks of European White-fronted Geese in #NorthWales since the 1980s were driven west by heavy snow in northern Germany last week. These and other sightings in @northwaleslive.bsky.social BirdNotes.

📷 @zoobirder.bsky.social #BirdingWales

www.birdnotes.wales/blog/a-gande...

Considering just how many phone zombies I see shuffling along on a daily basis, their little rectangular devices clutched in hand and heads tilted down, I can only surmise that the greatest demand in the future jobs market will be for qualified chiropractors!

It took me YEARS to gain the trust of suspicious local farmers at an old birding patch.

It took minutes for some selfish twitchers to chase a Woodchat from the roadside onto private farmland.

I’d carefully consider matters prior to releasing #RareBirdsUK news if there’s any chance of disturbance.

Respect! 🤛

Bloody lightweight - just keep them around yer neck at all times! 😉 #BirdingGear

Been thinking exactly the same.

bsky.app/profile/mran...

Having witnessed and experienced countless adverse effects caused by this dangerous drug (drink driving deaths and injury, violence, abuse, hangovers, addiction etc) I find it truly astonishing that the term ‘drugs AND alcohol’ is still widely used.

This must be one of the greatest misnomers ever!

It would be interesting to do a deep search into historical photographs and specimens of UK, Ireland and European Black-throated Divers.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Pacific Diver had occurred in the days before identification criteria and vagrancy potential was fully established.

#UKRareBirds

Plagued by Flooding, an African City Reengineers Its Wetlands As climate change and urbanization intensify flooding in Rwanda, the hilly capital of Kigali has embraced nature-based solutions. The city is restoring and reshaping 18,000 acres of degraded wetlands,...

As climate change and urbanization intensify flooding in Rwanda, the hilly capital of Kigali has pushed nature-based solutions, reshaping 18,000 acres of degraded wetlands, planting native species to filter and slow runoff and enhancing biodiversity.

One of the highlights of a January visit to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens is the collection of Witch Hazels.

Most begin flowering just after the winter solstice. This truly gorgeous cultivar, bejewelled with iridescent orange-scented flowers, is Hamamelis × intermedia 'Jelena'.

#GardensHour

Little Owl pair

acrylic, 30 x 40 cms

Little Owls may be found in parkland, farmland and at the edge of woods. They feed on small mammals, birds, beetles and worms.

On a sunny day they may perch at the entrance, or beside, their roost site- usually a cavity in a tree or wall.

#littleowl #birdart

Artwork resembling a Japanese woman's face created with black thread twisted around tiny nails to form a life-like portrait

Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita winds a single black thread around a grid of nails on a wooden board to create intricate portraits #WomensArt

I met a traumatised ex-soldier a while ago who had served in the Gulf war.

Having seen both colleagues and innocent civilians maimed and slaughtered, and a nation destroyed, he simply described the invading coalition forces as mercenaries for rapacious multinational oil companies.

#Venezuela

It’s almost like green energy is the only way forward and a handful of oil barons are doing everything in their power to keep that from happening so they can get even richer at the cost of literally everything else in the world.

It's almost like there's something Trump wants to distract us from

Fantastic work as usual @jmjbirding.bsky.social both for your weekly updates and this timely summary. There can’t be many other #WelshBirding or #UKBirding counties which have an annual bird report published on the last day of the same year!

Best wishes and good birding in 2026.

Seascape painting with rough sea and turquoise wave with mountains beyond, right, all under a rain streaked stormy sky

Beth Robertson Fiddes, contemporary land and seascapes painter whose work captures the wild nature of the Scottish highlands and Western Isles #WomensArt

That’s very early, certainly compared to my sightings in North Wales. Ebol Troed (Colt’s Foot) in Welsh from the leaf shape.

Scientific name is Tussilago farfara. "Tussilago" from Latin "tussis," meaning cough, and "ago," meaning to act or to cast out, as the plant is used for respiratory ailments.

Common Loon, by BN Singh

The presence of Common Loons indicates ecosystem health because their bodies accumulate mercury and other contaminants as they move up the food chain. Loon monitoring can double as ecosystem health monitoring. The ABA salutes all the birders who monitor and protect Common Loons.

Print featuring a dramatic red, gold and blue dawn or sunset over a hilly landscape with a row of bare winter trees in silhouette

Contemporary Northumberland printmaker Rebecca Vincent #WomensArt

As a child I used to turn the pages of my bird book in wonder, returning over and again to the Bullfinch illustration. Would I ever see one?

Imagine my delight when opening my bedroom curtains one morning after snowfall and there, in the garden, was my first ever pair of this gorgeous finch! 😍