Janet Drew
LightNews LightNews
banner
jedrew.bsky.social
Janet Drew
@jedrew.bsky.social
220 followers 220 following 160 posts
Lifelong astronomer and scientist, with an interest in birds, landscape, geology, and (almost) all things natural. For fun, consumes crime fiction, and tries to play the cello.
Posts Replies Media Videos
jedrew.bsky.social
Some #astronomy - a weird discovery, even.☺️
uclnews.bsky.social UCL News @uclnews.bsky.social · 1d
A mysterious bar-shaped cloud of iron has been discovered inside the Ring Nebula by a European team led by Dr Roger Wesson and Prof Janet Drew @uclmaps.bsky.social @cardiffuni.bsky.social, using data from a new instrument on the William Herschel Telescope www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/ja...
image of Ring Nebula showing iron bar in red using WEAVE data
January 16, 2026 at 12:20 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
For #BirdoftheDay #anatidae These greylags were on Hickling Broad in Norfolk.
A picture of very gently rippling water, with a thin fringe of reed to the fore. Right at the front is a greylag goose in profile: fine orange beak, buff chest, pale rump and patterned brown feathers. Another one further back, has its head down.
January 16, 2026 at 12:17 AM
jedrew.bsky.social
Cats... being cats. (Instinct > reason!)
The photo shows a doorway with a tall winerack to the near side of it. One of the two cats in the photo sits on top of the open door, while the other opts for the next highest point on top of the wine rack. A typical moment of madness from these two!
January 12, 2026 at 10:40 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
Yep! Both the blog and the comments should be read. The two together are definitely mutually enriching. (I would personally sleep more easily in a world WITH international law seen as a thing.)
January 6, 2026 at 7:18 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
For #birdoftheday, I have #most pictures of so-called black guillemots - a lovely chocolate-y brown, close up (the consequence of living next to a marina in Wicklow, they visited often). In photo 2, the non-breeding plumage is starting to show around the top of the beak. #birds #EastCoastKin
Two black guillemots swimming together in Greystones Marina. The view is from above, via a telephoto lens. Their bright red legs show under the water. Most of the plumage is a rich chocolate brown. The birds appear 'black' only from a distance and/or under cloudy sky. The distinctive white wing patches are clearly visible. Just one black guillemot in this picture - seen at an angle where you can see the speckling around the top of the beak that signals the beginning of the switch to non-breeding plumage. When the switch is complete most of the 'black' will have gone, giving the bird a very different appearance.
January 5, 2026 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Janet Drew
libdems.org.uk
Today our message to Starmer is loud and clear: scrap the £3bn Trump tax on our NHS and put that money into social care now.

@libdemdaisy.bsky.social
January 2, 2026 at 5:47 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
My #mostrecent bird snap for #birdoftheday, taken yesterday - during a pre-Christmas-dnner stroll to the nearby, essentially urban, nature reserve. First saw one in 1995 (Chiswick, London). Now they're all over SE England.
A ring-necked parakeet clinging to a feeder, checking her surroundings (if male, the ring around the neck would be more prominent). Seen Christmas Day 2025, in strong winter sunshine. Mostly green plumage, although the tail has some blue in it, when viewed from behind.
December 26, 2025 at 12:29 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
A #Grounded robin for #BirdoftheDay - suitable also as a subject for the #holidayseason. The robin was clearly human-comfortable, being a small number of feet away on a gravel path, and happy to wait a while as I took the photo.
A robin, on a gravel footpath in the National Botanic Garden, Kilmacurragh, Wicklow. Facing left, he/she is looking up at me as I take the photo (taken early March this year) - quite unfazed by the people around at the time.
December 22, 2025 at 10:05 AM
jedrew.bsky.social
...seasonally-themed postbox bonnets are a thing in St Albans, Herts, too. I raise you two dinosaurs in Santa hats!
A Christmas-themed knitted postbox bonnet, seen in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Two dinosaurs, wearing Santa hats, sat on a white (snow?) base, with a smaller decorated Christmas tree at the front. The blue dinosaur with a striped scale on its back seems to be trying to swallow a Christmas pudding. The dinoosaur at the back is green with yellow spots and is swallowing some tinsel.
December 20, 2025 at 10:31 AM
jedrew.bsky.social
10 #birdsonfeeders for #BirdOfTheDay. At this location - a cottage near Coniston in the Lake District - there was never any shortage of birds on the feeders, which would empty in a day. The blue tits visible have grey caps, marking them out as juveniles (photo taken June '22). #birds
Great tits, juvenile blue tits, and a couple of siskins on 3 bird feeders hanging outside a cottage window in the Lake District. June 2022.
December 19, 2025 at 5:15 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
...such a nihilistic, mean-spirited thing to try to do. Despicable. Imbecilic. Have to hope congress pushes back.
weatherwest.bsky.social Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · Dec 17
Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.
usatoday.com USA TODAY @usatoday.com · Dec 17
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
December 17, 2025 at 6:28 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
For #Birdoftheday #groups - a troup of Chilean flamingos, seen near El Calafate, Argentina. The way they are arranged almost looks like a class for debutantes in how to carry yourself. Lovely and comical at the same time. #birds
Eight Chilean flamingos in the lake next to El Calafate, in Patagonia, Argentina. Photo taken on an October late-ish afternoon. One of the two flamingos at the extreme left is facing the remaining six who are pretty nearly lined up, as if in a class of some sort. All of them have warm rose-pink plumage, with a slash of shocking pink near the tail.
December 17, 2025 at 10:04 AM
jedrew.bsky.social
#BirdOfTheDay #NestingBirds - how about a repost of a kittiwake building a cliff-top nest in warm sunshine. ...still is my favourite gull.
jedrew.bsky.social Janet Drew @jedrew.bsky.social · Dec 23
My favourite gull - a kittewake nesting on Bempton Cliff in Yorkshire.
kittewake, building a nest
December 8, 2025 at 9:53 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
Reposting for #birdoftheday #reflections.
jedrew.bsky.social Janet Drew @jedrew.bsky.social · Dec 29
A bit of a weird bird photo: disorienting perfect reflections in the completely still Vendicari lagoon in Sicily. #birds (Taken about a decade ago, now.)
Perfect reflections of birds in water - the largest bird being a flamingo, the others, small waders. Vendicari, Sicily,
December 1, 2025 at 9:28 AM
jedrew.bsky.social
MPs with PhDs hide the fact. ...tells you a lot.
November 27, 2025 at 7:49 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
#Mr&Mrs white-lined tanager. He's black and she's a light orange brown. For #birdoftheday. Why white-lined? ...apparently there's some white under the male's wing and a patch of white on the upperwing. Don't think I saw it. #birds
Black male and orange-brown female 'white-lined' tanagers, on a bird feeder in a Tobago garden. The wikipedia entry admits that the white on the male is often not visible. Needs to be watched in flight. We put out papaya for them, as I recall.
November 23, 2025 at 5:12 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
A #gardening oddity: a photo from yesterday showing winter jasmine in full bloom (normal for Dec/Jan ...so not far off), and a flowering rose, of all things (normal for June to early Sept). One of those little signs life is turning strange. #climatechange
A side bed in a Hertfotrdshire back garden, Nov 21 2025. There is a winter jasmine in full flower up against the fence. To its right - a rose bush, STILL flowering and even has rosebuds visible.
November 22, 2025 at 12:02 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
Hornsey, or Blakeney Point?
November 18, 2025 at 8:38 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
A #bright photo for #BluSkyArtShow. The dazzling colour of an acer in autumn, in the back garden. The colour is as close to true as I could make it (the camera tried to push it ~pink). The leaves were SO vivid. #Nature
The fizzingly scarlet autumn colour of the leaves on a japanese maple ('orangeola'). The frame shows nothing but the 'dissecta' leaves of the shrub from no more than month ago.
November 15, 2025 at 4:27 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
A #swan for #BirdofTheDay. A mute swan, making itself look bigger and more statuesque, by rearing up out of the water - for no apparent reason at the time. #birds
A mute swan, rearing up out of the water with its wings open and up. Seen against a backdrop of wintry reeds on the water in Tyttenhanger gravel pits. With it being winter, the sun is low rendering the swan with strong highlights and partial shadow.
November 14, 2025 at 10:18 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
The pain and effort definitely got its reward. This captures the feel of the Somerset Levels so well.
November 14, 2025 at 9:19 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
#DucksOutOfWater for #BirdOfTheDay. Female eiders sunning on a slipway, looking very chilled out - a WI (Women's Institute, for those unfamiliar with the term) of ducks.
A group of female eider ducks sunning on a slipway in Seahouses harbour, Northumberland. Three are fully within the frame, with the nearest actively preening. One is standing, showing off her beautifully plump, rounded, brown-striped chest.
November 13, 2025 at 10:49 AM
jedrew.bsky.social
This was a once only opportunity for me - I've one other photo of the male upland goose alone, but not next to the brown female as here. For #BirdOfTheDay #Least photographed. Seen on eastern side of Andes, Argentina. Such dimorphism ...in a goose! #birds
A pair of upland geese, seen by the roadside on desolate grassland in Argentina approaching the Andes. The terrain is in a rain shadow, and covered mainly by tussocky yellow-grey grass, used to little water. They were some distance away, and very clearly a pair. Both looking right. The female is mostly soft two-tone brown, while the male is an easier spot having a beautiful white neck and chest, with fine black/white barring on his back and sides. Both have neat black beaks and dark eyes.
November 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
What is it with these birds that like to bob or wave their tails about? E.g. dippers, jack snipes, pied wagtails... What advantage does it bestow? Has someone worked it out?
November 8, 2025 at 9:19 PM
jedrew.bsky.social
For #BirdOfTheDay, a southern crested caracara with wings up, about to #takeoff. (This is the second of the caracara pair I posted a week or so back - the first has already gone in this photo.) The amount of muscle packed into the base of the wing is obvious. #birds
A southern crested caracara readying for takeoff, from atop the branches of a small tree - the wings are up, and blurred a bit by movement. The leading edge of the bird's right wing (especially) is seen end-on and looks quite muscular - as they need to be for these sizeable birds. The photo was taken in Torres del Paine National Park in October 2018. The tree is just coming into leaf.
November 8, 2025 at 11:59 AM