Common Nature

The Utrecht Fish Doorbell is back up for the season!

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:20:05 GMT

Posted by: full_metal_ox

https://visdeurbel.nl/en/

The Fish Doorbell in Utrecht in the Netherlands is an interactive online Citizen Science tool, explained in this post from last year: https://common-nature.dreamwidth.org/281642.html

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Photos: House Yard

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 05:08:53 GMT

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith

Today I took some pictures around the yard and did a couple of garden crafts. These are from the house yard and savanna. (See the Worm Bin and the Water Garden.)

( Walk with me ... )

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Burrowing Owl nesting site, taken 28 April 2024 at 19:24 EDT.

Tue, 27 May 2025 10:06:56 GMT

Posted by: full_metal_ox

Taken last year, this is pictorial tax for my previous post; this little guy was one of a family headquartered in a vacant lot along one of my habitual shopping routes.

Note the ropes cordoning the space off, as well as the designated perch set up for the owls. In the upper background, across the path, is another staked-off owl nesting site; unusually for birds of prey, Burrowing Owls are social animals who sometimes form communities of multiple families.

(If I’ve slipped into Earnest School Essay Mode, it’s because this is stuff I myself am very much newly learning.)

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New neighbors!

Mon, 26 May 2025 17:28:45 GMT

Posted by: full_metal_ox

Lizards have been somewhat fewer in the apartment complex than last year, and the other night I learned a possible reason: a Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) couple have set up housekeeping on the back lawn next door! (No pictorial tax as yet: their nest, less than five feet from the curb, overlooks a back alley heavily travelled by garbage, service, and delivery vehicles as well as human cyclists and pedestrians—meaning that they’re probably experiencing botherance enough without amateur paparazzi. (1)

Burrowing Owls are regarded as local mascots and rigorously protected here; standard procedure upon discovering an inhabited burrow is to erect a little designated perch for the owls and cordon it off, crime-scene style, halting any human construction until the young have left the nest.

(1) Rule of thumb is that if the owls are reacting to your presence, you’re too close; the risk of attracting gawkers is one reason that doxxing Burrowing Owls nesting on private property is frowned upon around here. Schools, museums, and other such facilities, however, will encourage on-site nesting, observable by remote cam.

I’m finding varying accounts of how capable they are of digging their own burrows, but certainly the owls prefer the convenience of found housing when they can get it, not only taking over burrows constructed by other animals but occupying such human artifacts as PVC pipes; it’s quite possible to build artificial burrows to attract them.

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Mallard drake at the Wright Stop Plaza bus hub.

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:45:08 GMT

Posted by: full_metal_ox

Taken 15 May 2023, 19:13 U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, at the Wright Stop Plaza(1) bus hub in downtown Dayton, Ohio.

This handsome gent was the last photo I took in Dayton before my departure for Florida, and I’m rather pleased with the role the strong contrasting lines of the paving stones and the bars of the metal bench play in the composition.

(Out of frame: the flock of English sparrows he was challenging for the rights to a popcorn spill. Also out of frame, except for the merest edge of her jacket to the right of my purse: the young lady conducting a live webcast on recovery and the Gospel from her smartphone.)

(1) The Wright Brothers’ names and likenesses are all over the Dayton area, from Wright Memorial Library to Wright State University to Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; these guys are our unofficial genii loci and patron saints.

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The crabapple blossoms as pink as the cherry.

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 23:13:51 GMT

Posted by: full_metal_ox

Taken on 17 April 2017 at 17:00 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time in Dayton, Ohio, US:

This is a snapshot, taken some years earlier, from the place I left in May of 2023. Cherry blossoms are relatively uncommon in Dayton, but flowering crabapples, in red, mauve, pink, and white, are a signature of spring—and this specimen, fallen face down onto the concrete sidewalk, is a perfectly serviceable representation of the sad beauty of transience. The flower is long since gone, of course; so is the tree that bore it, sawn down in the gentrification project when the property changed hands at just about the beginning of COVID quarantine; so is the irascible albino squirrel who claimed it as territory (you don’t seriously think that little expletive deleted deigned to hold still for a photo.) And now, in the Rust Belt desertion and inexorable southward demographic gravitational suck, I’m gone from the premises too.

(I never bothered to photograph much of the surroundings of my native and near-lifelong Dayton: first because I didn’t own a camera until 2010, and didn’t figure out how to host the images until the mid-to-late teens, and didn’t own a home computer of any sort until 2020, and above all because I never anticipated leaving until it was too late.)

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The Dutch Fish Doorbell is live for the season.

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 19:58:03 GMT

Posted by: full_metal_ox

https://visdeurbel.nl/en/

The Fish Doorbell in Utrecht in the Netherlands is an interactive online Citizen Science tool:

The Fish Doorbell is an initiative of the municipality of Utrecht, Hoogheemraadschap De Stichtse Rijnlanden (HDSR), and Mark van Heukelum of Dutch Wallfish. The municipality of Utrecht and HDSR manage and maintain the water quality in the Vecht, Kromme Rijn, and Utrecht’s canals.

Every spring, thousands of fish swim through the Oudegracht in Utrecht, searching for a place upstream to lay their eggs. But the Weerdsluis is often closed. You can help the fish continue their journey! If you see a fish, press the doorbell. This alerts the lock operator to open the lock.

Pressing the doorbell button also snaps a picture of whatever’s in the live camera field, helping the researchers record fish species and numbers.

The time displayed is Central European Time (UTC +1) until March 30, when Central European Savings Time (UTC+2) begins; the Fish Doorbell will continue through mid-May.

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A National Geographic animal held still for me today.

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 21:09:43 GMT

Posted by: full_metal_ox

4 March 2025, 13:43 U.S. Eastern Standard Time. This guy, about a foot/30 cm long before figuring in the tail, was sprawled out basking on the walkway leading to the apartment dumpsters; the maintenance crew had come through shortly before, perhaps flushing him from cover:

Once more, apologies for the limitations of my equipment. Even after applying an intensifying filter, the photo does this iguana’s coloring nothing near justice: I’m talking road-cone orange spines and neon-red underarms. Somebody seems to be looking for love.

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early snowdrops

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 17:36:48 GMT

Posted by: turlough

Was suprised to see the first Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) by a house wall this morning. While it hasn't been really cold, it hasn't been particularly warm either, and I haven't seen any anywhere else. This is a rather sheltered, southward facing spot though and I suspect the house (it's quite old) isn't very well insulated.

Click to enlarge:

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Common Pug moth, UK

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 15:42:43 GMT

Posted by: weird

A Common Pug stopped by on my window today for a rest, and to warm his wings in the spring sunshine. Not the best photo due to his choice of position, but you can see his detailing nicely :) He’s early this year, and out in the day, so doubly rare! location: Derbyshire, UK.

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Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 05:02:46 GMT

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith

I took pictures around the yard today. These are from the savanna and prairie garden.

( Read more... )

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Lake Pictures

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 04:34:40 GMT

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith

Today we went out to the lake. The first few pictures are from my yard, though.

( Read more... )

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Yellow wagtail

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 05:45:14 GMT

Posted by: nanila

Yellow wagtail standing on the wing mirror of an old blue Toyota Yaris.

This is how we know spring has finally arrived. This yellow wagtail - I assume it's the same one - arrives every year to use our house as the stage for his mating dances. One year he spent his time prancing on the windowsill of my husband's office. Another year it was my office window. This year, he's decided that the best place to show off is the wing mirror and passenger door of our second car. He has also produced a prodigious quantity of poop to festoon the mirror's casing but it seems pointless to wash it until his ritual has paid off!

( Three more poses )

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Bullfinch

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 13:18:45 GMT

Posted by: nanila

One of the advantages of giving up on the battle with the dandelions in the lawn is that it means more finches visit the garden, including this handsome bullfinch.

( +1 with a beak full of seed )
(Photos taken back in May 2022 but I forgot to post them.)

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Ducklings!!!

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 20:48:01 GMT

Posted by: nanila

A mother duck and two ducklings came to dabble in the overflow of our lock, to groom, and to have a nap. I may have taken quite a lot of photos.

( ”+14” )

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Mating swans

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 05:31:33 GMT

Posted by: nanila

Eldest and I were just finishing a walk on the towpath when we spotted a pair of swans doing a slow dance in the section of canal next to our house.

We watched them for a while and then it appeared they were finished, so we put the camera down and moved closer. We were a little shocked when the male jumped on top of the female, hence why some of the photos under the cut are a little blurry, as above!
( +12 )

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Sunset

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 20:08:31 GMT

Posted by: nanila

A striking sunset from a couple of weeks ago (rural Worcestershire, UK).

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Holly Blue

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 15:04:12 GMT

Posted by: turlough

Holly Blues (Celastrina argiolus) are apparently quite common here in Sweden but this is the first time I've seen one myself. It perched on a Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa) long enough for me to get a photo, which I thought was very nice of it!

Click to enlarge:

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serenading starling

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 19:17:53 GMT

Posted by: turlough

I usually only see Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in the summer but on my walk this morning I spotted this male singing his heart out:

Click to enlarge:

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Mating ladybirds (with woodworm beetle)

Mon, 06 May 2019 19:32:31 GMT

Posted by: nanila

It struck me that the small grey woodworm beetle in the above photo was being a bit insensitive, walking casually over this pair of mating seven-spot ladybirds. Then again, at least it wasn't shoving a macro lens at them like the big rude human was!

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Cuckoo flower

Sun, 05 May 2019 19:18:56 GMT

Posted by: nanila

These delicately veined little flowers grow out of the cracks in the brickwork at the canal's edge. They're a sure sign that spring is well underway.

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Wild garlic flowers

Sat, 04 May 2019 13:18:01 GMT

Posted by: nanila

There's a half-hidden place next to the canal towpath where a big patch of wild garlic grows every spring, in our little corner of rural Worcestershire (UK). We go down there to pick it and put it in our salads. Right now it's in flower, so Youngest and I took the macro lens down to capture it in bloom.

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