David Jobbins
@davidj2024
Birder, journalist, democratic socialist, life member, NUJ, WeBS counter, Hanningfield Res, Essex. Resigned from Labour Party February 2025. Politically homeless.
Photographed this caterpillar in my Essex village today. First and last thought was Drinker but Obsidentify and Google Lens concluded Ruby Tiger. Still not convinced by AI. #ukmoths
Any idea on the id of these bees visiting our bee hotel? #ukbees #ukinsects
Stunning... Terrible photo but at great sight. At 2200 in Essex tonight.
One of just three surviving Southern Marsh Orchids at Southwold Boating Lake, from a colony that once numbered 50-100 spikes. Sensitive management might bring them back but who to take the initiative? @suffolkwildlife.bsky.social
Any ideas on this moth found in my SW Essex village this morning? Lens throws up a couple of options (Golden Silver Y is favoured,) but not conclusive #mothsuk
Always a red letter day when the latest Essex Bird Report drops through the letterbox. A great publication - congratulations to Neil Sumner and his team (for transparency I wrote a section of the systemic list. #essexbirding
An elderly neighbour asked by Essex Highways to cut back vegetation overhanging the footpath as it is difficult for e.g. pushchairs/mobility vehicles. She complies, at her expense. Cars now parking two wheels up, totally blocking the footpath. Authorities can do nothing. @livingstreets.bsky.social
Great cheese and tomato chutney sandwich at the Harbour Inn, #Southwold. Sliced cheese rather than grated a huge improvement.
Easily 7-8 thousand Starlings flying over Reydon, Suffolk, and engaging in murmuration over Reydon Smear this evening #suffolkbirding
Today, Remembrance Sunday, I won't wear a poppy. Instead, I'll think of my great uncle George Ravenhill, who left the rolling hills of Herefordshire to fight for his country in an imperialist war and die on the first day of the Battle of Loos. His body was never found.
On September 25 1915 my great uncle, George Ravenhill, died on the first day of the Battle of Loos. Aged 35, he was a Herefordshire agricultural worker who volunteered to fight in the war to end all wars.
Venus (lower left) and Jupiter in the eastern sky this morning #Essex
Another to-the-point @privateeyenews.bsky.social cover! Keep it up Ian.
Venus (upper right) and Jupiter (lower left and less bright) approaching conjunction (closest on August 15) in the eastern sky early this morning. Some things are bigger than our puny squabbles.
Not so aesthetically pleasing, but just as interesting, the gall of Biorhiza pallida, the oak apple gall wasp, 3-4 CMS in diameter, with multiple tiny holes from which the wasps have emerged. There are two generations - one all female producing a second with both males and females.
Gall of the Oak Apple Gall Wasp Biorhiza pallida, one of several found below an oak in Kelvedon Hatch, Essex. Some 3-4 cms in diameter. #British_insects
Why is the floating crane Rambiz at anchor off Southwold, Suffolk, this morning?
Over my Essex village this morning, five Red Kites (one being seen off by a Raven) and three Buzzards. Can't get over the emergency of Coltsfoot at Hanningfield EWT yesterday #essexbirding
After I pointed it out, the Observer today carries a printed correction to a review that erroneously referred to Australia's "president". That country's head of state, rightly or wrongly, is the king. The review was authored by a senior lecturer in journalism!!
I've been escaping from this insane world by immersion in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin novels. Now embarking on The Farside of the World, the 10th. A picture of a time when honour was all and scrubs were beneath contempt.
We don't have pets but most neighbours do... Great and Blue Tit population has crashed locally.
À la recherche du temps perdu - a Spot Fly on a sunny May morning in an Essex churchyard too many years ago. None since in my village.
OK - that's more than half my "keep forever" books on their shelves. Now where to put the others?
Not a ripple, not a breath of wind, the sky reflected in a surface as smooth as a mirror. Southwold Boating Lake café yesterday.