Author | Lightnews

Janet Roch

@cumberlandjc.bsky.social

3.3K followers 2.6K following 840 posts

Photography and nature keeping me sane. Retired paediatric EM now trying to do my bit to leave this beautiful planet for the next generation. All photo's my own unless re-posts / credited Sheffield UK

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 1d

#SriLanka 2023

"You'd be grumpy too if you didn't have an umbrella in this rain"
A rather disgruntled Green Bee-eater perfect for #BirdOfTheDay #Green today

📷 Canon R5 500mm
#birds #EastCoastKin #wildlifephotography #travel #smArtist #ArtYear #photohour #rain

Photograph of a Green Bee-eater, a beautiful small bird with a rather iridescent green back and wings, a head tinged with rusty orange , a black eye surrounded by turquoise blue, a pale throat and a long dark tail. Its beak is quite long for its size and slightly curved down at the tip.
This bird is sitting on a vertical dead branch in the rain, rain drops can be seen falling and there is a drop of water gathering at the bottom of the branch. the background is an out of focus green of the foliage behind

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 4h

Castle Hill #Sussex Aug 2025
Not often you get to look down on a Kestrel hovering but this one was so intent on an afternoon snack he wasn't bothered by walkers on the hill.
CanonR5 500mm f/10 1/400s ISO800
#BirdOfTheDay #Raptor #Birds #EastCoastKin #UKbirding #ukbirds #ArtYear #smArtist

Photo of a hovering kestrel taken in the south of the UK. Kestrels are a small bird of prey widely prevalent across the UK. They are adept at hovering in one place to look for their prey. Although they will use wing movements for this, this one had enough head wind to be stationary. On this occasion we were climbing a reasonably steep hill and the bird was hovering just below our vantage point allowing a view of the beautiful stripped black brown and buff markings on the birds back, extending onto the wings until it reached the darker primaries and down onto the tail ending in a thicker black band edged with white on the tail tip. The bird is intently looking down for any sign of a small mammal, the background is the out of focus grass on the hill side across the valley

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 5h

😆

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 13h

Thanks Jamie 😊

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 15h

🙏The rain made everything green so vibrant 😊

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 15h

It is! I got a new appreciation of how beautiful Wheatears are this holiday 😍

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 1d

#Morocco 2025
The cute Helmethead Geckos became some of my favourite #herps on the trip so who better to help celebrate #WorldReptileDay. This one was perfectly camouflaged...until they stuck their tongue out 😆
📷 Canon R5 500mm f/13 1/250s flash -0.7EV
#gecko #EastCoastKin #Travel #smArtist #ArtYear

Photograph taken at night in Morocco of a Helmethead Gecko, Tarentola chazaliae. This is a fairly small Gecko, this one approx 8cm long, common along the west coast, It is brown on top with patchy different shades and paler underneath and is characterised by the backwards pointing occipital tubercles which give the appearance of a helmet. Its eye has a vertical pupil. it is sitting on coarse sand which it matches in colour - except for its bright red tongue which is just poking out of its mouth.

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 1d

Beautiful! 😍

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 1d

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you 😊

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 2d

Hmm - we did hit 233 kWh last month (2 people) but we did have 2 long weekends with the Grandkids staying 🤷‍♀️

Foxx Edelweiss @808.foxx.ink · 2d

TIL "The average US household consumes ~900 kWh per month."

Wow 🤯 I barely hit 30 kWh (1 person)

sauropods.win/@futurebird/...

myrmepropagandist (@[email protected])

How many kWh did you use last month? (for your household) The average for a US household is 900 kWh ... this poll is for anyone who can answer it internationally [ ] Under 500 kWh [ ] 501-1000 kWh [...

sauropods.win

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 2d

#Morocco 2025
Northern Wheatear, another bird that seemed to so beautifully compliment its migration surroundings. #Singing its heart out in the semi-desert.
CanonR5 500mm f/11 1:500s ISO400
#BirdOfTheDay #birds #EastCoastKin #smArtist #ArtYear #wildlife #Travel #UKbirds (on holiday😂)

Photo of a Northern Wheatear, Oenanthe oenanthe, A summer visitor to the UK to breed. It migrates to Africa to over winter passing down through Morocco. This photo shows the Wheatear siting on a dead branch with a blurred background of sand and stones. It is a delicate small bird with brown upper parts, a black tail, strongly marked wings of brown black and white, a thin black eyestripe with a white supercilium above it, an orange throat pale orange / buff chest and belly. Its beak is open as it sings and you can see the remains of an insect caught inside its lower beak

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks - I'm rather partial to a puffin and seeing them in their hundreds on Sule Skerry was magical 😊

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you 😊

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 3d

#Morocco 2025
He was a long way off and an archetypal dot in the photo before cropping despite a 500mm lens 😂 but the Moussier's Redstart still deserves a mention as a #birds highlight of the holiday and is certainly #colourful
CanonR5 f/11 1:400s ISO400
#BirdOfTheDay #EastCoastKin #Wildlife #travel

Photo of a Moussier's Redstart, A small bird endemic to N Africa and not seen in the UK. It has a black head back and tail with a bright orange chin, throat, breast, belly and vent. On the side of the head, meeting at a point above the beak, is a broad band of white feathers going backward above the eye and down the neck, there's also a white wing flash. this bird is standing on a thin dead branch singing - its beak open showing off the orange inside its mouth.

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Reposted by Janet Roch

Christine Beeton @christinebeeton.bsky.social · 4d

Today's theme for #BirdOfTheDay is #Black so here is the #Portrait of an #Anhinga.
Southeast Texas, June 2023.

#Birds #Photography #NaturePhotography #TexasStateParks #Wildlife #BirdWatching

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 6d

Wow! This is stunning 😍😍

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 6d

#Borneo 2024
Pied or White Headed Stilt, Himantopus leucocephalus.
Stilts have the longest leg length relative to body size of all birds making a great candidate for #BirdOfTheDay #Skinnylegs
📷 #canon R5 500mm f/9 1:1250s ISO800

#birds #EastCoastKin #wildlifephotography #nature ##ArtYear #smArtist

Photo taken along a river in Borneo shows a white headed stilt standing on a rock in the middle of water. It is a delicate looking bird with a white head, front of neck, chest and underside. It has a glossy black back and nape of neck and a long thin black bill very slightly curved up. Its legs are extraordinarily long and bright pinky-orange. in the foreground are clumps of water hyacinth foliage, hiding the birds feet, with more of the same foliage out of focus in the background.

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 7d

#Morocco 2025
Despite all the birds I've posted this was actually a #herps trip. In 10 days we saw 38 different #reptiles and amphibians including 12 #lizards species. This Occelated Lizard in the Atlas Mountains was gorgeous
📷 Canon R5 500mm f/9 1/400s ISO200
#Travel #EastCoastKin #smArtist

Photo shows a Moroccan Ocellated Lizard, Timon tangitanes. It's a medium sized lizard approx 15cm in length, mainly green in colouration with multiple fine black and brown spots and a bluish throat. Along its sides from its shoulder downwards there are a number of larger blue spots surrounded by a thin line of black giving it its name "ocellated". Its sitting on a sandstone rock in the sun. its forked tongue is just poking out

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 7d

#Morocco 2025
This cute little fluff ball makes a delightful #birdinabush for #BirdOfTheDay but posed me a bit of an identification problem. I've gone for juvenile blackcap but any other suggestions....?
📷 CanonR5 500mm f/10 1:200s ISO800
#birds #EastCoastKin #wildlife #artyear #smArtist #travel

Photograph shows a fluffy brown bird with a buff underside and slightly darker face and topside taken in Morocco in September. It is sitting on a branch in some sort of azalea bush with a background containing some dark red flower buds and some green leaves.

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 8d

#Borneo 2024

Darling, the sight of those beautiful wings gives me goosebumps all down my #LongNeck 😂

Canon R5 500mm f7.1 1/800s ISO800 EV-1.0

#BirdOfTheDay #Birds #EastCoastKin #nature #wildlife #Travel

Photo taken in Borneo along the Kinabatangan River in the late afternoon sun showing 2, uniformly white, great egrets standing on the branch of a palm tree. The bird on the right has just landed and, facing away from the camera, has its wings raised and open as it gains its balance. The bird on the left is facing right looking at the newcomer and showing its long yellow beak, the feathers all down its head and neck are raised

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 8d

😂

Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 8d

#BirdOfTheDay (must check spelling 🙄🙄)

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 9d

How interesting! I knew about "the triangle thing" (difficult to escape if you went to school) but not about his interest and theories of music, or that he was such a progressive (women! as equals! whatever next! 😂)

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 9d

Yes Tatooine was filmed in Tunisia in the desert. We were in the Atlas mountains which were rocky enough to have no vegetation in places, one of our group mentioned it was an area like this used for the Pod Races but in fact the Atlas mountains also extend into Tunisia & they were filmed there

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Janet Roch @cumberlandjc.bsky.social · 9d

😂