JJ Millibeter
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JJ Millibeter
@millibeterjj.bsky.social
Amateur bird photographer, mostly Belgium, sometimes abroad
Reposted by JJ Millibeter
March 12, 2024 at 11:15 PM
🪶🦉At the height of the covid lockdowns, I jumped on my bike a few ties in the driving rains, because this Red-necked grebe was spotted 10kms away. And because I needed to be outside. That too...
(Roodhalsfuut, Podiceps grisegena)
March 5, 2024 at 9:19 PM
Song thrush. It does what it says on the package. Sings and is thrush. (zanglijster, Turdus philomelos)
March 1, 2024 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by JJ Millibeter
The IEA just published two fascinating reports

Here are some of the best charts

1/

Clean energy is growing twice as fast as fossil fuels
March 1, 2024 at 10:05 AM
🦉🪶 'I want your clothes, your boots and your motor cycle!'
-"You forgot to say Please!"
This black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) failed the Terminator audition. Got the looks for a movie career, though. (Geoorde fuut)
February 29, 2024 at 7:53 PM
🪶🦉 Great Crested Grebe. She is the lady your friends warned you for. A killer with the stiletto smile. You know you are going to suffer, but you can't turn your eyes away from so much beauty. (Fuut, Podiceps cristatus) Afrikaans: kuifkopdobbertje. Really.
February 28, 2024 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by JJ Millibeter
A tūturiwhatu (New Zealand dotterel) chick. So cute. So vulnerable to predators. There are only 2,500 adults left, which makes them rarer than kiwi. If the sign at the beach says keep your dog on a leash - don’t think you know better. Keep your dog on a leash.
February 14, 2024 at 6:38 PM
🦉🪶 The cuckoo. The bird that really spiked my interest in the natural history of species, and how they evolve. They are not very common in Belgium anymore, judging by how hard it is to hear their unmistakable call. (Koekoek, Cuculus canorus)
February 25, 2024 at 8:28 PM
🪶🦉 Just my luck that my favorite bird is probably the hardest to capture in a picture, and is only around in these parts for 100 days a year. Swift (Apus apus, gierzwaluw)
February 23, 2024 at 1:23 PM
🦉🪶Common pheasant? Common Eileen! An imported species, but a beauty in itself. (fazant, Phasianus colchicus)
February 21, 2024 at 10:03 PM
🪶🦉I mean, why did they call all of our birds here the "common this" and the "common that"? This wonder of nature shouldn't be called a "common" crane. By the way, 50.000 of 'em are leaving Spain right now, to sail over France and hopefully Belgium on their way to Scandinavia. (kraanvogel, Grus grus)
February 20, 2024 at 7:51 PM
🦉🪶Almost that time of the year again, when the coots produce these carnivalesque chicks. Adorable. (meerkoet, Fulica atra)
February 19, 2024 at 10:23 AM
🪶🦉Rose-ringed parakeet, enjoying some winter sunshine in an Antwerp park, where they established a feral colony in the last decade. They seem to perform assembly flights above the city at dusk, before roosting together.
(halsbandparkiet, Psittacula krameri)
February 17, 2024 at 8:46 AM
🦉🪶 The common moorhen, indeed quite common around here year round, will soon start claiming their breeding territories. Which can be a feisty shakedown. (waterhoen, Gallinula chloropus)
February 15, 2024 at 9:58 PM
🪶🦉 Looking at the business end of the grey heron, it is clear that if they were 5x bigger, or we were 5x smaller, there wouldn't be 8 billion of us. I beg you not to google "heron impaling rat/mole". (Blauwe reiger, Ardea cinerea)
February 14, 2024 at 11:47 AM
Imagine your scientific name sounding as cool as Nycticorax nycticorax.

In English, they call you not just the Night Heron, but even the Black-Crowned one!

YOU ARE A SUPERVILLAIN!

And then Dutch just call you: "kwak".

KWAK.

And you don't even quack...🦉🪶
February 12, 2024 at 10:10 PM
🪶🦉Almost as beautiful, the little egret isn't really that much smaller than yesterday's great egret. Especially if you keep in mind the cattle egret, which is chicken-sized. Getting more common in Belgium every year. Lovely. (Kleine zilverreiger, Egretta garzetta)
February 11, 2024 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by JJ Millibeter
I used to forget all the time, but Bluesky has this cool feature where you can get it to remind you.

If you go to setting on the left hand menu you will see a toggle labelled "Require alt text before posting". If you toggle it to 'ON' it tells you when you haven't entered alt text 🧪
February 11, 2024 at 8:17 AM
🦉🪶 Once, at a guided group tour of a local nature reserve, I spotted a great egret, which we call a "great silver heron", and the boomer woman beside me confidently corrected me: "no, he's white, not silver, I can see it quite clearly." I couldn't argue with that. (grote zilverreiger, Ardea alba)
February 10, 2024 at 5:49 PM
🪶🦉 one more spoonful, you say? Here you go, a spoonbill in the nature reserves around the port of Antwerp... (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)
February 9, 2024 at 6:15 AM
🪶🦉oh, the English and their stupid habit of inventing specific words for gatherings of a specific animals! What is this then, a drawer of spoonbills? (lepelaar, Platalea leucorodia)
February 7, 2024 at 6:21 AM
🦉🪶 A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching several kingfishers speardive for a few hours... WHAT A SPECTACLE ! Even without the extraordinary colors of its plumage, anything but a "common" kingfisher. (Ijsvogel, Alcedo atthis)
February 5, 2024 at 3:35 PM
🪶🦉 It seems somebody was determined to get this cutie going with a massive inferiority complex. I mean, naming it the "lesser" spotted woodpecker, just because YOU ran out of inspiration ? Much rarer, and discreter, than the Great and Middle SWP's. (kleine bonte specht, Dryobates minor)
February 4, 2024 at 12:12 PM
Reposted by JJ Millibeter
I wonder if this Golden-crowned Kinglet is dreaming of spring? 🪶🌿
February 3, 2024 at 8:13 PM
🦉🪶 After the great, the middle. Difference in size not that big. Red cap is the tell-tale sign, but juvenile GSWP have that as well, which could confuse. Much more discrete. I was superstoked to make this picture in my own garden. (middelste bonte specht, Dendrocoptes medius)
February 3, 2024 at 10:28 PM