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gaming-birder.bsky.social
@gaming-birder.bsky.social
200 followers 610 following 200 posts
D&D obsessive, gamer, birder, and pig dad to Ben, Scruffles, Whisky, and Peat.

🌈Jerry Sept 20-Mar 25
Posts Replies Media Videos
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Introducing Whisky to the colourful world of dancing fruits! Never seen a pig sit so still and contented for so long.
#guineapigs #cavies #piglife
A golden-blond, long-haired peeeg lies on a comfy blue and red, circus-themed cushion facing away from the camera and towards a large screen of dancing avocados. A tiny Lego illithid and it's pet intelligence devourer look on in the corner.
August 18, 2025 at 9:34 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
More like Piggie siesta for my Ben!
Tired of all that hard work monching on grass, Ben a floofy white and grey guinea pig is having a nap (sleep of death with his eyes wide open) out of the sun, in the shade of both his rainbow hidey and a big piece of cardboard as a temporary roof over his outdoor pen.
July 18, 2025 at 8:29 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Aren't they just, the new guys in our house. Here are the other two for you!
Ben and Scruffles, two magnificent floofs. Ben, massive, white and long haired is pokes his head into shot from the left. Whilst Scruffles, grey and white and in the background, gives some suspicious side-eye towards the camera.
July 12, 2025 at 6:00 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
I'm sorry to hear how your family visit went, have some piggie love!
Whisky, the pale blonde pig, sticking his head out of his rainbow hidey, grass all around! Peaty, the black and brown pig, in the shade monching the grass beside his rainbow hidey.
July 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
First time out in the garden for Whisky and Peaty, thankfully we've plenty of shade to keep the pigs (and me) cool!
#guineapigs #cavies #piglife #keepingcool
Whisky, a pale blonde guinea pig with a white rosette pokes his head out of a rainbow hidey. Happiness is a pig surrounded by grass! The sun may be shining here in the Highlands but we're in the shade. Peaty, a black pig with a curious ridge of hair along his back is grazing on grass between the edge of the enclosure and their rainbow hidey.
July 11, 2025 at 3:40 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Back home after 18 days of working away in Shetland.
Here are our two new boars that we got, from a local rescue, the day before I left.
Presenting, Whisky and Peat!
#guineapigs #cavies
A timid, black and brown boar stares untrustingly at the camera from beside his rainbow hidey. The pile of grass between him and the camera is the only reason he hasn't immediately run away from me. Looking through the bars of his cage, a gorgeous wee blonde piggie face points in from the right. He's nomming some grass and looking fairly comfortable with his new house.
June 6, 2025 at 6:28 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Grass on the sofa while their house is being cleaned out and proper breakfast awaits!
Bit of side-eye from Scruffles who still thinks I might eat him if he's not too careful.
#guineapigs #cavies
Two floofy guinea pigs eating grass on a grey sofa. Ben a white pig, in the foreground, is not quite the floof he once was after a rough haircut from me the other day. I'm sure he's happy about it though, given the rise in temperatures over the past few days. He is happily eating the grass, and after many years with us is happy that we're safe people. Scruffles however is not. He's only been with us for a couple of months and occasionally can be a bit flighty. He, a grey pig with a white face, is in the background eating grass but ready to run if I as much as move to pick up a mug. Poor thing.
May 14, 2025 at 8:08 AM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Oh yeah, also we saw this snake. Snakes are cool, so I won't apologise for an additional birding tour photo.
This is a Four-lined Snake, lovely wee thing was sitting in the sun at Kalamitsa wetland, digesting a very mouse-shaped meal.
#reptiles #snakes #skyros #greece
A pale brown snake with two sets of two parallel black lines running down its back, and a dark eye-stripe, lies in a spike dead shrub, sunning itself. Just hanging out.
May 10, 2025 at 8:16 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Final image, honest!
Skyros is definitely one of my favourite destinations, not just for the birds and other wildlife, but also for the culture, the food, and (above all) the supremely relaxed atmosphere of the island!
Definitely worth a look!
#skyros #greece
Turquoise waters lap in at a beautiful, sandy, beach which curves away into the distance where it seamlessly joins hills behind. The deep greens of the hillside vegetation is punctuated by distant groups of square, white, houses. The main, craggy, hill (central to the image) is at the centre of Skyros town, and features an ancient fortification and a monastery/church to St. George; which can just about be seen in the angular shape of the hilltop. Out to the left-hand side of the image, the mountains of the southern half of the island can be seen. Image was taken from Molos beach, looking south towards Magazia and Skyros town. A archetypical Greek church sits at the top of a hill above Linaria, Skyros. The walls of the church and its steeple are white-washed and its red tiled roof contrasts with both the white of the church and the pale morning sky. Arcs of pale blue top each of the ecclesiastical windows. The belfry of the steeple is open to the elements and three dark bells can be seen within. To top-of this image, a Greek flag flaps hard in the strong breeze by the church. Dark Corsican Pines sit along the hill beside the church, as palms sit in front of it.
May 10, 2025 at 8:11 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Little Bitterns used to be a (fairly) easy bird on Skyros for us, but this was the only one seen by my @heatherleabirds.bsky.social group... and it landed beside us as I laid out lunch beside Rupert Brooke's grave.
#birds #birding #skyros #greece
A tiny female bittern sits, head and bill at around 45 degrees pointing towards the sky. It sits amongst the rocks and hardy vegetation on the edge of the dry stream gorge leading down from Rupert Brooke's grave. The reedy-like colouration of the neck and back are not only useful for identifying the bird as female, they also give it reasonable camouflage even in the open area.
May 10, 2025 at 7:54 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
My first Lesser Grey Shrike in Skyros, Greece, after seven(?) trips with @heatherleabirds.bsky.social in the last decade... and we got two!
Real stunner of a bird and close to the track too - very pleased with this one!
#birds #birding #greece #skyros
A Lesser Grey Shrike sits atop a spiky bush with blue sky blurred in the background. The shrike has a deep black bandit-mask, which creeps higher on the Lesser than the Great Grey Shrikes we see in winter in the UK and its salmon-pink breast really comes through here, further differentiating it. Definitely one of my trip highlights!
May 10, 2025 at 7:46 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Bee-eaters from my recent trip out to Skyros, Greece, with a @heatherleabirds.bsky.social group.
We had a flock of a dozen with us out in Trachi, snaffling bees as they went. Fantastic birds and even better views!
#birds #birding #greece #skyros
A frankly stunning European Bee-eater sits, balanced, on a rusting fence line. It is sitting sideways to the camera, but looking towards us, showing its beautiful yellow throat, turquoise breast and belly, and mantle, back, and wings like burnished brass. The background of yellow-green plants is heavy blurred out, bring the bird into sharp focus. A European Bee-eater in flight against a dusty-blue sky, seen from slightly below. The light catches its head, especially highlighting the yellow of its throat, with much of the rest of the bird in shadow although hints at the brassy-yellow colour to the underwing as the light filters through the feathers.
May 10, 2025 at 7:39 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
I'm so sorry Ben! But it's too warm for floofy pigs.
He's in the huff with me now, which is fair.
#guineapigs #cavies
A white guinea pig sits eats grass on the sofa. Whilst you can't see it there is hate in his eyes. Why, you ask? Well, beside him is a pile of cut hair about the same size as him. It is a bit of a brutal hack-job of a haircut, and I've apologised to him for it but he refuses to listen.
May 10, 2025 at 6:56 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Bit of magic in the centre of Aberdeen, while waiting on the ferry.
#streetart #aberdeen
A tall, grey, fairly brutal-looking, cuboid multistorey building has had a face-lift with street art as tall as the building. A young red-haired girl, wearing a blue hoodie, jeans, and a purple backpack, cradles a baby unicorn amongst the trees. Text down the side of the building reads, "I am the keeper of magic... but happy to share." The building is at the harbour in Aberdeen, where the North Link ferry to Orkney and Shetland departs from.
May 5, 2025 at 5:46 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
They are all great, I agree! I'm out leading a tour in Greece just now, here's one of mine from yesterday (back of camera).
Five European Bee-eaters perch on a rusty gridded fence. The middle bird's head is highest with a bee in its mouth, with the others lower down, making a pleasing inverted-V shape. Each of their bright yellow throats are on display, with pale turquoise underparts and burnished brass-like red-orange cap, mantle, and wings (closed) also on show. They aren't quite in crisp focus though, as the image was taken through a car windscreen.
May 2, 2025 at 3:26 AM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
We're away from home this week, but are being sent piggie photos by our lovely neighbour who is keeping our pigs well loved and well fed!
#guineapigs #cavies
Two guinea pigs sit on a fuzzy, waterproof blanket which protects the sofa underneath. A wooden ramp can be seen in the background, allowing the pigs to make their way up onto the sofa. The lefthand pig is a massive white floof called Ben, whose hair is long a flowing, so very majestic. The righthand pig a wee and mostly dark grey but with a white face, but still similarly floofy. In front of the two pigs is a large, tasty, pile of grass. You lucky pigs!
April 29, 2025 at 6:47 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Out in Skyros for the week leading a birding tour. Today we headed out around the south of the island on a yacht and saw c.40 Eleonora's falcons. Not a bad day for it either, what a place!
#skyros #birding
Photo taken from aboard a sleek fifty foot yacht, the prow is in sight as it cuts through beautifully clear turquoise and ultramarine waters. Scrubby hillsides dominate the horizon, with a hazy blue sky above.
April 27, 2025 at 6:58 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
I was sent some Ben & Scruffles asmr the other evening by my wife, a nice treat whilst I'm on the road, so I thought I'd share it with you!
#guineapigs #cavies
April 20, 2025 at 5:16 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
My dad spotted one of last year's tadpoles in his pond back in January.
Today I spotted it amongst the hundreds of this year's tadpoles.
Wonder if it'll ever grow legs, or just stay as a massive tadpole?
#froglife #tadpoles @froglife.bsky.social
A bad photo of a huge tadpole show the head of the beast as five or six times larger than the tiny tadpoles from this year near it. Up in the Highlands with us it's not unheard of to have tadpoles overwinter and become frogs the following year - usually a combination of cold weather and poor feeding, I've seen tadpoles at 1200ft in a shaded ditch in February, snow all around. However, this tadpole is barely above sea level in a wee garden pond. I guess only time will tell if it turns into a frog in time, or stays as a tadpole!
April 18, 2025 at 11:52 AM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
The first of the yellow rattle pushing through in our wild patches in the garden. Always good to see in bloom!
#yellowrattle #wildflowers
Tiny lobed leaves of yellow rattle, a grass parasite (hemiparasite anyway) and 'meadow maker', can be seen pushing it's way through the moss, clover, and course grass (those few words sum up our lawn!). Soon it's yellow flowers will be all over!
April 16, 2025 at 8:40 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Almost a great photo of these cuties, thanks Ben!
#guineapigs #cavies
Two guinea pigs stare at out through their cage bars. The right, a wee dark tufty looking menace with a white face is perfectly still and in focus. The left, a massive white floof is almost in focus but instead of sitting still decided to go for a drink at just this moment. On the cage bars hangs a wee wooden guinea pig, which reads "Jerry" for our recently departed piggie.
April 14, 2025 at 7:32 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
They can have this daisy (trying hard to be two daisies) I found yesterday, as side salad with it!
Two conjoined daisy flower heads, almost separated from each other, faces up at the camera growing up from between the slabs in my garden.
April 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Away for work, so tried my hand at a bit of drawing for the first time in a long time.
Thought it only appropriate to draw my boy Jerry given he's just crossed over the rainbow bridge 🌈
#guineapig #cavies #guineapigart
Three pencil sketches of a black and white guinea pig. The first one in profile is my favourite, the last one I dislike because it somehow ended up looking like a cross between pudsey and a sea otter. What can I say, I'm not an artist! The first pencil sketch of the three in the last image, my favourite. It shows the black and white guinea pig in profile, black patch extending from out of shot, across the ear and ending between the eye and nose. A slight notch can be seen in his ear, a bite mark most likely. He arrived on gotcha day with it in October 2020. A very simple, and rather silly, cartoon pencil drawing of two guinea pigs nose to nose. The left hand pig is the black and white one from the previous images (Jerry), the other shows the luxurious floofy hair of our white pig, Ben, who is still with us.
April 3, 2025 at 9:34 PM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
Sad to say that Jerry crossed OTRB on Monday. Having regained all his lost weight & looking his best in a long time, his weight suddenly plummeted.
He didn't respond to any treatments and we had to make the decision to help him along rather than watch him fade away.
Miss you so much!
🌈Sept 20-Mar 25
October 2020: a tiny black and white guinea pig hides in the hood of my grey and white superdry hoodie, his head barely poking out from behind mine. January 2025: the same, but now far larger (or did I shrink?), black and white guinea pig pokes his head out of the hood of my festival red oodie, complete with Christmas tree designs.
March 27, 2025 at 8:14 AM
gaming-birder.bsky.social
All three piiigs together!
We've been keeping Scruffles (left) apart until the others get used to the idea of a third pig in the house. This is the first time we've had all three together.
#guineapigs #cavies
Three guinea pigs sit on a fleece blanket on our sofa. Left-most is the new guy, Scruffles, who is smol, fluffy, and grey. Mid is Jerry, black and white average sized pig. Right is the regal white floof himself, Ben, who is a big pig!
March 7, 2025 at 7:24 PM