Colin Purrington
@colinpurrington.bsky.social
Nature pics and science. Swarthmore, PA, USA. https://colinpurrington.com
Reposted by Colin Purrington
One of the Bobtails or Western Shinglebacks (Tiliqua rugosa rugosa) that lives in our Perth Hills garden showing off the blue tongue these skinks are known for
#reptiles #ausreptiles #wildoz #inaturalist #nature
#reptiles #ausreptiles #wildoz #inaturalist #nature
November 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
One of the Bobtails or Western Shinglebacks (Tiliqua rugosa rugosa) that lives in our Perth Hills garden showing off the blue tongue these skinks are known for
#reptiles #ausreptiles #wildoz #inaturalist #nature
#reptiles #ausreptiles #wildoz #inaturalist #nature
So photographs on Bluesky look really bad when zoomed. Are there any tricks to minimize the compression problem? Or should I just stop clicking on images? I've seen lots of conflicting advice. #photography #macrophotography
November 6, 2025 at 4:30 PM
So photographs on Bluesky look really bad when zoomed. Are there any tricks to minimize the compression problem? Or should I just stop clicking on images? I've seen lots of conflicting advice. #photography #macrophotography
Lichen covered in ice. From a trip a few years ago to Lake Mohonk, New Paltz, NY.
November 5, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Lichen covered in ice. From a trip a few years ago to Lake Mohonk, New Paltz, NY.
Wonderful photographs by Svein Erik Larsen of denticidal capsules of some Silene species. Useful for identifying plants in the fall and winter. #silene #inaturalist #botany www.flickr.com/photos/svein...
Silene Seed capsules
6 diifferent Silene capsules 1:Silene vulgaris 2:Silene gallica 3:Silene secundiflora 4:Silene latifolia 5:Silene colorata 6:Silene nicaeensis
www.flickr.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Wonderful photographs by Svein Erik Larsen of denticidal capsules of some Silene species. Useful for identifying plants in the fall and winter. #silene #inaturalist #botany www.flickr.com/photos/svein...
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Thinking about buying a macro lens for insect photography? Along with @ageofarthropods.bsky.social we have been testing many options! Our results are summarized in 2 blog posts in the field www.insectid.org/post/macro-l... and in the lab www.insectid.org/post/lab-tes...
Macro Lens Comparison in the Field
As I continue to dive deeper into insect macrophotography, I have been exploring lens options and fallen down many YouTube rabbit holes and read probably hundreds of photography blogs and customer rev...
www.insectid.org
November 3, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Thinking about buying a macro lens for insect photography? Along with @ageofarthropods.bsky.social we have been testing many options! Our results are summarized in 2 blog posts in the field www.insectid.org/post/macro-l... and in the lab www.insectid.org/post/lab-tes...
Reposted by Colin Purrington
I wasn't that excited about this stock standard photo of a darkling beetle (Eleodes goryi), until I noticed the parasitic tachinid fly egg attached above the insect's midleg. This beetle is on borrowed time.
November 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
I wasn't that excited about this stock standard photo of a darkling beetle (Eleodes goryi), until I noticed the parasitic tachinid fly egg attached above the insect's midleg. This beetle is on borrowed time.
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Dung beetles know where they want to go. They roll, push or shove their dung ball & every few seconds they stop pushing to climb on top of the ball to make sure they are going in the right direction. This dung beetle male is just climbing down after a look around.
More info in alt text
#insects
More info in alt text
#insects
November 3, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Dung beetles know where they want to go. They roll, push or shove their dung ball & every few seconds they stop pushing to climb on top of the ball to make sure they are going in the right direction. This dung beetle male is just climbing down after a look around.
More info in alt text
#insects
More info in alt text
#insects
Reposted by Colin Purrington
🤔 Largely unnoticed by visitors to Ripon Cathedral, Henry Wilson’s 1913 repoussé pulpit gleams with Anglo-Saxon saints and burnished light.
📸 I worked hard here to capture how his craft bridges the past and present, the material and the spiritual. A real hidden gem. #thread
📸 I worked hard here to capture how his craft bridges the past and present, the material and the spiritual. A real hidden gem. #thread
November 3, 2025 at 7:09 AM
🤔 Largely unnoticed by visitors to Ripon Cathedral, Henry Wilson’s 1913 repoussé pulpit gleams with Anglo-Saxon saints and burnished light.
📸 I worked hard here to capture how his craft bridges the past and present, the material and the spiritual. A real hidden gem. #thread
📸 I worked hard here to capture how his craft bridges the past and present, the material and the spiritual. A real hidden gem. #thread
Reposted by Colin Purrington
#MolluscMonday: a small part of the 'Ammonite Pavement' in the Lower Jurassic Blue Lias Formation at Lyme Regis. Pound coin for scale (if you can spot it).
November 3, 2025 at 6:57 AM
#MolluscMonday: a small part of the 'Ammonite Pavement' in the Lower Jurassic Blue Lias Formation at Lyme Regis. Pound coin for scale (if you can spot it).
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Roman glass cups with colourful enamel decoration of animals from the Roman arena. AD 200s.
Found in richly-furnished graves in Denmark. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
Found in richly-furnished graves in Denmark. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
October 31, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Roman glass cups with colourful enamel decoration of animals from the Roman arena. AD 200s.
Found in richly-furnished graves in Denmark. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
Found in richly-furnished graves in Denmark. National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. 📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Does anyone know where the Iguanodon footprints found in the Greensand near Arthur Conan Doyle's house in May 1909, and which ended up on display in his billard room, are today? I suspect they remained with the family, but there are a lot of potential museums they could have ended up in.
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Does anyone know where the Iguanodon footprints found in the Greensand near Arthur Conan Doyle's house in May 1909, and which ended up on display in his billard room, are today? I suspect they remained with the family, but there are a lot of potential museums they could have ended up in.
😿 iNaturalist is down. I've grown accustomed to starting my day with a good nature fix. #inaturalist
October 30, 2025 at 10:50 AM
😿 iNaturalist is down. I've grown accustomed to starting my day with a good nature fix. #inaturalist
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Anyone know what's going on with this dead fly? I think it was on grapevine. #insects #entomology #wtf
October 10, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Anyone know what's going on with this dead fly? I think it was on grapevine. #insects #entomology #wtf
Reposted by Colin Purrington
October 25, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Varves in Castile Formation: seasonal wet/dry variations recorded by alternation between gypsum (white) + calcite (dark) laminae.
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October 28, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Varves in Castile Formation: seasonal wet/dry variations recorded by alternation between gypsum (white) + calcite (dark) laminae.
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Reposted by Colin Purrington
Some spiders can fly! OK, not really fly, but spiders in the genus Selenops are able to glide. If they fall from a tree top they are able to steer and even right themselves in order to make their way back to a tree trunk. #Arachtober
(Selenops sp.) Yasuni National Park, Ecuador 2018
(Selenops sp.) Yasuni National Park, Ecuador 2018
October 28, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Some spiders can fly! OK, not really fly, but spiders in the genus Selenops are able to glide. If they fall from a tree top they are able to steer and even right themselves in order to make their way back to a tree trunk. #Arachtober
(Selenops sp.) Yasuni National Park, Ecuador 2018
(Selenops sp.) Yasuni National Park, Ecuador 2018
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Auriscalpium vulgare - Earpick Fungus. One of my favourite mushrooms. #FungiFriends #ConeOfTheDay
October 27, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Auriscalpium vulgare - Earpick Fungus. One of my favourite mushrooms. #FungiFriends #ConeOfTheDay
Reposted by Colin Purrington
The Gold-ringed cat snake floating and swimming along a forest stream in Singapore. Beautiful and hypnotic
October 27, 2025 at 10:31 AM
The Gold-ringed cat snake floating and swimming along a forest stream in Singapore. Beautiful and hypnotic
Reposted by Colin Purrington
Thoroughly enjoying checking out the spectacular folded and overturned Carboniferous-aged turbidities near Millook Haven on the NE Cornish coast.
Lovely sedimentary structures - graded bedding, slumps, load casts, flutes, all subsequently squeezed into tight chevron folds ::chef’s kiss::
⚒️🧪🌍
Lovely sedimentary structures - graded bedding, slumps, load casts, flutes, all subsequently squeezed into tight chevron folds ::chef’s kiss::
⚒️🧪🌍
October 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Thoroughly enjoying checking out the spectacular folded and overturned Carboniferous-aged turbidities near Millook Haven on the NE Cornish coast.
Lovely sedimentary structures - graded bedding, slumps, load casts, flutes, all subsequently squeezed into tight chevron folds ::chef’s kiss::
⚒️🧪🌍
Lovely sedimentary structures - graded bedding, slumps, load casts, flutes, all subsequently squeezed into tight chevron folds ::chef’s kiss::
⚒️🧪🌍
Reposted by Colin Purrington
These little tools are apple scoops. They date from the 1800s and are made of sheep bone. They were common in apple-growing districts. The marrow has been hollowed out to allow the user to scrape off pieces of apple if they had few teeth and couldn’t afford dentures.
October 24, 2025 at 11:03 AM
These little tools are apple scoops. They date from the 1800s and are made of sheep bone. They were common in apple-growing districts. The marrow has been hollowed out to allow the user to scrape off pieces of apple if they had few teeth and couldn’t afford dentures.
Reposted by Colin Purrington
A long-held myth about a mosquito evolving in the London Underground has been debunked! 🦟
The insect gained notoriety in the Second World War, when it fed on Londoners seeking shelter in the rail tunnels during the Blitz.
Discover its true origin story.👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
The insect gained notoriety in the Second World War, when it fed on Londoners seeking shelter in the rail tunnels during the Blitz.
Discover its true origin story.👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Origins of the London Underground mosquito revealed | Natural History Museum
New research reveals that these insects likely evolved in the Mediterranean basin more than 1,000 years ago.
www.nhm.ac.uk
October 24, 2025 at 9:49 AM
A long-held myth about a mosquito evolving in the London Underground has been debunked! 🦟
The insect gained notoriety in the Second World War, when it fed on Londoners seeking shelter in the rail tunnels during the Blitz.
Discover its true origin story.👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
The insect gained notoriety in the Second World War, when it fed on Londoners seeking shelter in the rail tunnels during the Blitz.
Discover its true origin story.👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Many of the articles on the mosquitoes that were recently found in Iceland mention wine ropes. Here's a video by @savebutterflies.bsky.social showing how to make them. #entomology #insects #wine www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZcj...
National Moth Night 2020 - how to attract moths using wine ropes and sugaring
YouTube video by Lancashire Branch Butterfly Conservation
www.youtube.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Many of the articles on the mosquitoes that were recently found in Iceland mention wine ropes. Here's a video by @savebutterflies.bsky.social showing how to make them. #entomology #insects #wine www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZcj...
