Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Simon Corston-Oliver

@simonhco.bsky.social

390 followers 450 following 200 posts

Linguist / computational linguist. Keen hiker and nature photographer in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I mostly photograph amphibians, fungus and birds, or whatever comes across my path.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 28d

I led a nature walk today at Burnaby Lake, British Columbia. We heard Pacific treefrogs but didn't see any.

Then after the walk I saw this tiny guy (~2cm) perched on top of a black-eyed Susan in the rain.

#herps 🐸 🌿 #frog #treefrog

A lime green Pacific treefrog perches on the black center of a black-eyed center. The petal of the flower are a vivid yellow and glossy with rain.

7 24 170

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 3d

Finally working thru some pics from April 2024.

Cretan frogs, Mili Gorge, Crete, Greece.

Classified as endangered, esp. due to competition with invasive American bullfrogs. I was lucky to see them.

Note the color variations and the vocal sacs. It was breeding season.

#herps 🐸 🌿 #frog #crete

A Cretan frog, its vocal sacs fully inflated. The frog is light brown with dark brown patches.

Two Cretan frogs with dark brown patches against a light green background.

A brown Cretan frog mostly in the water with its head and part of its torso exposed.

A Cretan frog. It is light brown with dark brown patches on the torso and dark brown stripes on the hind legs.

8 46

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 5d

Me in the forest: what is this odd looking tiny fungus?
Me at home: oh it's a tree root with a bit of rotten wood on the end.

🌿 #fungus

A thin tree root sticks up. At the tip of thr root there is a small piece of rotten wood that looks like the cap of a mushroom.

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 5d

Bleeding bonnet fungus growing from holes in a rotting log. Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, Maple Ridge, British Columbia.

If you zoom in you can see various little critters in, on and under the caps.

#fungi #fungifriends #mycology #naturephotography #macrophotography 🌿

One large mushroom grows from a hole in a log. From another hole a clump of four mushrooms grow. There are small white mites on and around the mushrooms and a larger bug partly visible under one cap.

Canon R5+RF100, 0.5sec, f5.6, ISO 400.
Focus stack of 47 images.

10 120

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 8d

Labyrinth Street in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. You are being watched.

street signs on the corner of a stone building. The signs are in Greek. One says "Tobazi Street" the other says "Labyrinth street". There are two security cameras, one facing down each street.

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 8d

Cretan ebony (Ebenus cretica), a legume native to Crete, Greece.

#bloomscrolling #bloomsky #flower #flowerphotography 🌿

A bloom flower catches the light. The flower has white feathery petals.

2 7 46

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 8d

We were reminiscing last night about our trip to Greece in 2024, so today I decided to revisit some photos from Crete.

This is the Imbros Gorge hike, that descends through an increasingly narrow canyon -- down to 1.6m wide.

#landscape #landscapephotography #nature #crete

A path leads into a narrow gap between high rock walls in a gorge.

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 19d

Scrambling up Christmas Gully in the low cloud yesterday to Mt Strachan I realized I was being watched by a sooty grouse. Two in fact!

The cloud was blowing up the gully, changing every few minutes from misty to clear.

Mt Seymour Provincial Park, BC

#birds #birdphotography #naturephotography 🌿

A sooty grouse in the misty clouds, its head turned slightly to watch me.

Four minutes later the cloud cleared, giving a clear view of the grouse's plumage.

Five minutes later again and it was clear and sunny as the grouse foraged among the grasses.

1 37

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 20d

I meant tufts of yellowish feathers!

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 20d

A red-breasted sapsucker sucking sap. (Well, technically poking holes in the bark and then licking the sap.)

The little tufts of yellowish flowers are a good match for the lichen on the trees.

Today at Mt Seymour, West Vancouver.

#birds #birdphotography #woodpecker #naturephotography 🌿

A red-breasted sapsucker on a tree. Its head is turned towards the viewer.

5 7 71

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 21d

A second pass at the yellow rose I posted a few days ago.

#flowerphotography #bloomscrolling #flowers #roses #bloomonpurpose

A yellow rose illuminated against a black background. Re-edited slightly to correct color balance.

1 12

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 22d

A wasp nest on the ground right beside the Sugar Mountain hiking trail. Sasamat Lake, BC.

I didn't feel brave enough to try to get some macro shots of the wasps for ID.

#naturephotography #wasp 🌿

A mostly underground wasp nest with just a papery shell showing. There is one wasp near the main entrance and another that appears to be repairing the edge of the nest.

1 13

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 22d

A male hairy woodpecker hard at work on the Sugar Mountain trail at Sasamat Lake, British Columbia.

#birds #birdphotography #woodpecker #naturephotography 🌿

A male hairy woodpecker on a tree trunk. Its beak is open and the tongue is visible

4 75

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 24d

The remains of a snack -- from a squirrel or chipmunk perhaps? All the maple seeds are gone and only the propellers remain.

Sugar Mountain, Sasamat Lake, BC.

#naturephotography 🌿 #forest #woodland

More than a dozen propellers from maple seeds in a pile on a bed of moss on the forest floor.

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 25d

Flash photography after sunset with the New Westminster Photography Club last night. Rose Garden, Queens Park, New Westminster.

#flower #flowerphotography #naturephotography 🌿

2 22

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 27d

A galah gala!

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 28d

I can see the family resemblance in the cute toes

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 28d

7 24 170

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 29d

I have spent a lot of time in conferences so I was drawn to the conversation areas of the Hotel Bonaventure convention center while staying in Montréal . There was no conference in progress so the areas were unoccupied.

#photography #art #liminalspace

Low black couches with a back wall illuminated by recessed lighting.

Assorted chairs and side tables arranged in symmetric groups. In the background is a wall with dark wood paneling.

Two high backed chairs with small built-in writing tables before a wood-panel wall.

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 29d

One last Northern leopard frog at the Parc Écologique des Sources, Montréal near a spring.

Note the blue splotches on the back, behind the left eye. Possibly an old skin wound that has disrupted the layers of chromatophore cells that combine to produce the skin coloration?

#herps 🐸 🌿 #frog

A Northern leopard frog, facing slightly away from the viewers. The frog is sitting on some vegetation. There skin is a vivid green with dark green splotches and stripes.

2 32

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 29d

A red fox (Vulpes vulpes) at the Mount Royal cemetery, Montréal this past Monday. Not a young coyote as I at first thought!

#mammals 🌿 #naturephotography #fox

A red fox viewed from behind. It has turned its head to look at the photographer.

4 49

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · 29d

An American toad in a different puddle at the Parc Écologique des Sources in Montréal.

Maybe there's a "one amphibian per puddle" rule?

Apparently American toads are common in Eastern Canada, but it was new to me.

#herps 🐸 🌿 #toad

An American toad sitting in a puddle in full sun, viewed from the side. The toad's skin has a yellowish/orange tint, with lumps that are orange with a black base.

1 24

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · Sep 13

Last week I went hunting for amphibians at the Parc Écologique des Sources in Montréal -- a tiny preserve among the tech companies in Technoparc, next to the airport.

In a puddle in a dirt road I found a Northern leopard frog (lithobates pipiens). They're common, but new to me.

#herps 🐸 🌿 #frog

A Northern leopard frog viewed from above. It is sitting in a puddle of water. The frog is a vibrant green color with dark green splotches.

1 5 55

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · Sep 11

Aha. Thanks! It looked somewhat like the Green Frogs that I’m familiar with but different enough that I wasn’t sure.

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · Sep 11

I thought I had seen a new (to me) frog near Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Maybe a Mink Frog. But now I am pretty sure these are Green Frogs in brown disguise--the same species that is invasive in BC. Note the dorso-lateral ridge, stripes (not spots) on the rear legs, green upper lip.

#herps 🐸 🌿

A mostly brown Green Frog. The torso is an even brown. The rear legs are brown with dark brown stripes. The upper lip is green.

A mostly brown Green Frog, well camouflaged against brown mud. The upper lip is green. There are dark brown spots on the back.

1 26

Simon Corston-Oliver @simonhco.bsky.social · Sep 11

Salt marsh grass on the Bay of Fundy, Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

The expanse of marsh grass reminded me of waves on the ocean, although it was close to the famous low tide.

Canon R5+RF100-500 @ 100mm.
#Landscape #LandscapePhotography #wetlands #TelephotoLandscape

An expanse of marsh grass, with clumps of grass that look like the crests of waves.

6 15 140