Caroline Quinn
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luoqing.bsky.social
Caroline Quinn
@luoqing.bsky.social
300 followers 230 following 96 posts
🇬🇧, previously living in 🇺🇸🇸🇱 and 🇨🇳. Almost certainly using this for 99% bird and bug-related content with a light dusting of foreign policy and feminism. She/her.
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luoqing.bsky.social
The general sense of everything going to hell in a hand-basket isn’t the best thing to layer on top of my usual January blues but this weekend I got to watch a beautiful Barn Owl emerge from its nest box and start hunting at dusk, floating silently over the fields like a ghost. #birds
A Barn Owl stands perched on the corner of a wooden nest box platform in grey winter twilight light, with the slanting roof of the nest box to its right. The owl is seen in three-quarter profile looking out towards left of shot. There are bare grey tree trunks and branches in the background. It is a beautiful owl with a snowy-white heart-shaped facial disc, large black eyes, white breast and underparts and pale sandy-brown head, wings and tail, speckled and dusted with pale grey.
January 26, 2025 at 10:56 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Eurasian Wrens are just such wonderfully round bois, proper little tennis ball-shaped dudes. #birds
A Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglogytes) is seen in profile facing right of shot, perching in flat winter light on a bare lichen-encrusted tree branch against a pale grey sky. It is a small, almost spherical-looking bird with chestnut brown wings, back and head, a perky short chestnut brown tail held up at a jaunty angle, warm buffy brown breast and underparts, a beady dark brown eye with a warm buffy brown eye brow stripe, pink legs and feet and a small slender pinkish-grey bill.
December 28, 2024 at 10:21 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Happy Christmas to those who celebrate from me and this gorgeous leucistic Common Pheasant I came across at the allotments on my walk first thing this morning. ☺️ #birds
A leucistic female Common Pheasant is seen in three-quarter profile facing right of shot, standing on a small mound of grassy soil with a wheelbarrow and bark chippings in the background. It is a large almost entirely white game-bird with a few flecks of dark greyish-brown scattered across its wings and breast, small dark eyes, a small pinkish bill, pink legs and a long slightly grubby whitish-brown tail.
December 25, 2024 at 1:47 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Obviously this Magpie and its pals were actually doing their level best to annoy the hell out of this Common Buzzard this afternoon, but I like how this photo accidentally looks like they're teaming up to take on crime on the mean streets of Gotham. #birds
A Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) and a Common Magpie (Pica pica) are seen perching on a wooden fence rail, facing left of shot, in bright afternoon sunlight, with dry brown grass and scrub in the background. The magpie is a striking black and white corvid with glossy, iridescent green shades showing where the sun hits the black parts of its wings and its long black tail. The larger buzzard is a stocky raptor with largely warm brown plumage, white undertail coverts and a brown and white chest, a hooked grey beak with a yellow base, and bright yellow legs and feet.
December 22, 2024 at 9:10 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
If the Mao was the hardest endemic to find on my trips to Samoa this year, the Samoan Myzomela was the easiest - this gorgeous little honeyeater is Samoa's smallest bird and there always seemed to be one zipping around wherever there were plants in bloom ❤️🖤 #birds
A male Samoan Myzomela (Myzomela nigriventis) is seen in profile facing left of shot, perching in golden evening sunlight on a strand of rusty barbed wire against a blurry backdrop of dark green foliage. It is a stunning little bird about 11cm long with a bright scarlet head, breast and back contrasting sharply with its glossy black belly, wings and tail, and a tiny black bandit mask around its beady brown eye. It had a long, slender, curved black bill for probing into flowers in search of nectar and the tip of its pale tongue can just be seen poking out of the end.
December 18, 2024 at 9:57 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Day 5 at home with norovirus 😩 - cheering myself up with the memory of a very special encounter with a Mao while hiking in the forest on my day off during a work trip to Samoa in October. This chunky endemic honeyeater is endangered with a total estimated population of no more than 500 #birds
A Mao (Gymnomyza samoensis) is seen in profile facing right of shot, perching in a tree on top of a large, flamboyant orange flower against a bright white sky with green foliage in the foreground. It is a large honeyeater about 30cm long with dark bronze-brown plumage with a light caramel-coloured “moustache” stripe under its small pale blue eye and a thick, slightly curved black bill tapering to a fine point.
December 18, 2024 at 9:40 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Dark morph Pacific Reef Heron (matu'u in Samoan) hunting for its breakfast, blending in with Samoa's volcanic sand and lava rocks (the white morph Reef Heron is apparently very rarely seen in Samoa). #birds @everyheron.bsky.social
A dark morph Pacific Reef Heron (Egretta sacra) is seen in bright early morning sunlight in three-quarter profile facing right of shot, its left foot raised as it walks across a gently sloping black sand beach which is covered in shallow water as the ocean laps at the shore. It is looking intently at the area on the right of the frame where the water meets the beach as it hunts for small fish in the tidal zone, its long neck mostly extended. It is a charcoal grey and dark brown medium sized heron, about 60cm tall, with a white throat, yellow legs and feet, yellow eyes and a chunky, dagger-like yellowish-orange bill. A dark morph Pacific Reef Heron (Egretta sacra) is seen in bright sunlight facing left of shot, standing on black lava rocks at the edge of a bay with calm shallow water behind it. It is looked intently at the rocks in front of it, its long neck now hunched into its shoulders and breast in an S-curve as it scans the rocks for small crustaceans or lizards. It is a charcoal dark grey and dark brown medium sized heron, about 60cm tall, with a white throat, yellow legs and feet, yellow eyes and a chunky, dagger-like yellowish-orange bill.
December 17, 2024 at 6:57 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Day 4 stuck in the house post-norovirus 😩 so cheering myself up by thinking about all the excellent #birds I was privileged to meet in Aotearoa New Zealand last month, including the moment I crossed paths with this splendidly chonky Takahē on Tiritiri Matangi Island.
A Takahē (Porphyrio hochstetteri) is seen in profile facing right of shot, its left foot raised mid-stride as it walks across short mown grass, about to enter longer grass to the right of the frame. It is a delightfully stout flightless swamphen with bright red legs, a chunky red triangular bill with a red forehead shield, and dark purple, green, bronze and blue plumage. It has small white and blue plastic rings on its left leg, as it is part of a small group of birds translocated to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a predator-free sanctuary, to try to establish reservoir population.
December 17, 2024 at 6:26 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Stumbled on this handsome chap taking his afternoon nap in a south London park this afternoon. He gave me a good Paddington Bear hard stare for a minute but decided I wasn't a threat and went back to snoozing in the spring sunshine. Always lovely to see an urban fox looking healthy and content. 😍
A European Red Fox lies curled up asleep on a mossy patch of ground with green bramble leaves in the foreground, its head resting on its outstretched paws. It is a beautiful animal with russet-red fur, except on its muzzle and throat where white fur can be seen, and has large pointed ears and a long thick tail.
April 14, 2024 at 9:21 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Spring was in the air at Walthamstow Wetlands in London yesterday, even if it did start hailing right after I saw these Great Crested Grebes canoodling. 🪶
Two Great Crested Grebes in breeding plumage are seen in profile facing each other in the centre of the frame, their heads slightly board and the tips of their bills touching as they swim on the calm waters of a reservoir. They are large waterbirds about 55cm long with dark brown wings and backs, lighter between sides, white breasts and throats, long necks, a fan of chestnut and black feathers framing each side of their faces, a small black crest, white faces with small reddish eyes and long slim pointed grey bills.
February 25, 2024 at 10:01 AM
luoqing.bsky.social
The Common Kingfisher has to be one of the UK's most beautiful birds: it looks like it belongs in the tropics rather than fishing along a stream in a wee London park next to a children's playground, but that's where I found this handsome chap this morning in Colliers Wood. 🪶
A male European Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis ispida) is seen in profile facing left of shot, perching on a bare lichen-encrusted branch with blurred green and pale brown vegetation in the background. It is a stunning, compact little bird about 17cm long, with a long dagger-like black bill; beady dark eyes; a turquoise blue crown, moustache stripe and wings, with a lighter electric blue stripe running from its nape all the way down its back to its short tail; an orange spot in front of its eye, and an orange cheek, breast and underparts; white throat and ear patch, and bright orange feet.
February 4, 2024 at 10:50 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
What is the absolute cutest British bird and why is it Long-tailed Tit (aka flying teaspoons, mumruffin, poke puddings and, most delightfully, bumbarrels)? 🪶
A British Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus rosaceus) is seen from below and behind as clings to a slender bare twig in a coppiced willow or hazel in bright winter sunlight, looking towards right of shot, with a thicket of similar twigs rising vertically around and behind it and bright blue sky in the background. The bird is tiny, only about 14cm long including its tail which projects towards the camera and is about 8cm long, and extremely cute with a tiny stubby little grey bill, beady dark eyes in an innocent-looking white face, with a black and white striped head, black back, black and white wings and tail and floofy-looking flanks and rosy-pink underparts.
January 11, 2024 at 8:19 AM
luoqing.bsky.social
So exciting to see a Grey Seal swimming up the Thames this afternoon as I biked home from the London Wetland Centre! The tidal Thames is home to around 3000 of these gorgeous animals and they occasionally fish surprisingly far upstream - such a great sign of the river's ecological recovery. 🦭
The head and back of a Grey Seal are seen above the rippled surface of the Thames river as it swims towards left of shot, low in the water but showing its distinctive "Roman nose" profile with its long, flat muzzle, parallel nostrils and eyes set about halfway back on its head. It has dark grey skin with some lighter brown mottling.
January 7, 2024 at 5:18 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Dead chuffed the Bohemian Waxwings stuck around in Balham until I got back to London! It's turning out to be a great "waxwing winter" in the UK - so happy to have had the chance to see these gorgeous Scandinavian irruptive visitors feasting on berries just a 15 minute bike ride from home. 🪶
A Bohemian Waxwing is seen in profile facing right of shot, perching on a slender twig among bunches of small white and pale pink berries with pale grey sky in the background. It is a gorgeous, sleek little bird about the size of a European Starling, roughly 20cm long, with a small black bill;beady dark eyes set in black 'bandit mask'; black chin; cinnamon-washed forehead and moustache stripe; buffy head with a long, silky crest; dove-grey and black wings, with white and yellow wing flashes and tiny waxy red tips to its secondary flight feathers; paler grey breast and underparts; a grey and black tail with a broad yellow band at the tip, and rich chestnut undertail coverts.
December 30, 2023 at 6:22 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Happy Christmas if you celebrate it, Bluesky - I'm feeling very pleased with my Christmas book haul 💅
Four books are seen piled up on the arm of a cream leather armchair, their spines facing the camera, with a Christmas tree covered in ornaments and white fairy lights in the background. The books are 'God Is An Octopus' by Ben Goldsmith, 'Better Living Through Birding' by Christian Cooper, 'What An Owl Knows' by Jennifer Ackerman and 'The Deep: The Hidden Wonders of Our Oceans and How We Can Protect Them' by Alex Rogers.
December 25, 2023 at 5:00 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Eurasian Jay not happy that I caught it in the middle of stashing its acorns this morning 👀. A single jay can cache an estimated 3000 acorns in a month. 🪶
A Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) is seen from behind perching on a lichen-encrusted branch, looking back over its right shoulder towards the camera, with a bramble vine slanting diagonally across the frame in front of the bird from top left to bottom right and a tangle of bare twigs in the background. It is a beautiful little corvid about 35cm long with a stout black bill, pale whitish eyes, whitish forehead and crown, white throat, black moustache stripe, pinkish-brown head, nape, back, shoulders and flanks, black and white wings with a sky-blue patch on the outer edge of the wing, and a long black tail.
December 22, 2023 at 9:27 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Feral Mandarin Duck male eyeing up the lady Mandarin Ducks in Battersea Park this afternoon. 🔥💅🪶

#UrbanBirding #BirdNerd #LondonBirds
A male Mandarin Duck in breeding plumage is seen standing at the edge of a park lake, facing the camera with its head turned towards right of shot. It is a small, elegant duck about 45cm long with a bright pink bill, beady dark eyes, a swooping white crescent above itas eye running back through a shaggy purple-chestnut crest and bottle-green "mullet", chestnut plumes sweeping down from its cheeks, two vertical white bars running up through a black band at its shoulder, pale brown flanks, raised auburn feathers forming a "sail" over his rump and tail, orange feet and legs, and a white belly and breast
December 10, 2023 at 11:39 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
🎵I like big bills and I cannot lie / You other birders can't deny / When a bird walks in with an itty-bitty crest and a big sharp beaky face... 🎶 🪶

#UrbanBirding #BirdNerd #GreyHeron
The head and neck of a young Grey Heron are seen in close up profile facing right of shot, against a backdrop of blurred green and yellow vegetation. The heron has a long, dagger-like yellow and black bill, pale yellow eyes, a pale grey crown, thin black plumes trailing down the nape of its neck, a white face, pale grey neck and a white and black streaked breast. The head and neck of an adult Grey Heron are seen in close up profile facing left of shot, against a blurred background of yellow autumn leaves floating on dark green lake water. It looks very similar to the immature heron seen in the first picture, but has a yellower bill, pure white crown and a thick black stripe above its eye, extending to the back of the head where long, thin black plumes trail behind it.
December 4, 2023 at 10:05 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
It was unrelentingly grey, rainy and bitterly cold here all weekend but I was glad to have ventured out to Beddington Farmlands in south London when this handsome little Eurasian Kestrel landed in a tree about ten metres from me and decided to hang out. 🪶

#UrbanBirding #Birds #BritishBirds
A male Eurasian Kestrel is seen from behind as it perched on a thin bare branch which runs across the middle of the frame, head turned to look towards right of shot. The sky behind it is a very pale grey and the light is flat and wintry. It is a small, fierce-looking falcon with a pale grey head, chestnut back and wings with black spots scattered across the tips of the feathers, black wing tips and a long grey tail with a thick black band at the tip. It has small dark eyes which are gazing intently around for prey, and a small wickedly hooked yellow and black beak.
December 4, 2023 at 7:57 AM
luoqing.bsky.social
Ivy flowers may not look like much but they're vital late autumn food sources for pollinators like this hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus, aka the Footballer, the Sunfly or the Tiger Hoverfly). Watching bees, wasps, flies and butterflies coming and going on sunlit ivy earlier this week was mesmerising!
Helophilus pendulus, a type of small European hoverfly, is seen nectaring on a globular cluster of English ivy flowers in bright autumn sunlight. The flowers, the green ivy leaves behind them and the cloudless blue sky are out of focus as the camera focuses on the tiny insect at the centre of the shot. It is a little over a centimetre long with transparent, veined wings, large compound chestnut-brown eyes, a black and yellow striped thorax, and a black and yellow banded abdomen. The stripes running along its thorax give it one of its common names, the Footballer: it is also sometimes known as the Sunfly or the Marsh Fly.
October 19, 2023 at 5:21 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Apple photo search ☺️: all fish are sharks.

Me: nooo, not quite...

Apple photo search 😤: ALL FISH ARE SHARKS!
A screenshot showing the results when I search my camera roll for "shark", with many underwater dive photos: some show nurse sharks andnwhale sharks but others show manta rays, barracudas and other non-shark species of fish.
October 17, 2023 at 7:50 AM
luoqing.bsky.social
I'm kinda impressed Apple photo search was able to pull up so many of my diving photos that actually had sharks in them (although it also thinks mantas are sharks apparently). Lovely nurse shark checking me out to see if I was going to spear any lionfish during a dive in Belize in 2021 🦈
A large nurse shark is seen cruising low over the ocean floor, across patches of white sand and scattered outcrops of coral and sponges, headed towards bottom right of shot. Another nurse shark can just be seen in the distance at the centre of the frame headed directly towards the camera. The nurse shark is a beautiful, sleek chonk with tiny eyes, a rounded snoot, and a long body and tail, with sandy greyish-brown coloured skin and the expression of an animal entirely focused on finding and inhaling snacks.
October 17, 2023 at 7:44 AM
luoqing.bsky.social
This Stilt Sandpiper, seen foraging in an ephemeral pond at Kenilworth Park in Washington DC last week, would like to let you know that the theme of this year's World Migratory Bird Day is "Water: Sustaining Bird Life". These lovely birds breed in the subarctic tundra and winter in South America. 🪶
A Stilt Sandpiper is seen in profile facing right of shot, standing in a sunlit pool of rippled water with green grass in the foreground. It is a medium-sized wading bird about 22cm long with a long, slightly drooping slender black bill, beady dark eyes, a pale brownish-grey heas with a whitish eyebrow and chin, whitish-grey breast and underparts and brownish-grey upperparts. Its relatively long, thin, greenish-yellow legs are hidden by the grass and the water in which it is wading.
October 14, 2023 at 8:02 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
Crystal Brain Fungus, I think? Saw these little pinkish beauties on a fallen log this morning in a scrap of woodland beside a busy A-road. There's beauty everywhere if you keep your eyes peeled. 🍄
Two globs of pale pink crystal brain fungus are seen in close-up on a sunlit log, looking like tiny brains carved out of rose quartz. There are smaller globs of the same fungus scattered around them and in the background.
October 14, 2023 at 6:10 PM
luoqing.bsky.social
The "cartoon Spidermen pointing at each other" meme again, with three Spidermen labelled "Semipalmated Sandpiper", "Western Sandpiper" and "White-rumped Sandpiper"
October 9, 2023 at 1:10 PM