Author | Lightnews

WonderingChamaleon

@herpsandbirds.bsky.social

57 followers 85 following 81 posts

Herper and birder, here sharing my nature and wildlife photos. All photos mine and all animals wild, except mentioned otherwise. AI not admitted here! Based in Western Switzerland. 🚫 No politics, please. Blocking non disclosed AI.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 7d

🐍🐍 The (not so) Common Adder... at least in western Europe, adder populations have been declining for the last 30 years.

I photographed it the month of May some years ago in eastern France. I think it was a pregnant female. Unlike most snakes, vipers do not lay eggs, they bear live young.

A female adder coiled with the head resting over its body. It has a dark brown zig-zag pattern all over its body, from the neck to the tail. The basic colour is light brown. The eye colour is reddish. It has an inverted V-shaped marking on the top of the head and a dark line that goes in diagonal from the back of the eye to the corner of the mouth.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 7d

🪶 The beautiful greenfinch
Carduelis chloris

A greenfing perched on a small branch with blurred background. As all finches, it has a thick and powerfull bill adapted to break and eat seeds. Its body is a beautiful mixture of olive green and grey tinges, with a bright yellow trailing edge of the wings and rump. The eye region is black giving a masked apearance.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 7d

This is the kind of holes they make in the trees

A tree trunk with huge holes made by a black woodpecker in order to get at the bug larvae they feed on.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 8d

🪶

Amanda Tuke @amandatuke.bsky.social · 9d

I love a great data visualisation - the sweet spot between art and science - & this is packed with them. Respect is due to @phoebeweston.bsky.social & the other authors www.theguardian.com/environment/... #birdmigration #datavisualisation #birds #ornithology

Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised

Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are re...

www.theguardian.com

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 8d

🪶
A black woodpecker doing his thing. This is the biggest woodpecker in Europe, reaching 46 cm length and 73 cm wingspan, nearly the size of a carrion crow.

The sound of its drumming is described as a "machine gun salvo" in my field guide 😂 and it is audible up to 4 Km.

Dryocopus martius

A black woodpecker perched on a vertical tree. It is all black with a bright red spot on the upper part of the head. The bill is long and there are some holes in the wood just in front of the bill.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 8d

🪶
I just love Squacco herons, they look all brown on the ground and then nearly all white when they take flight.

Ardeola ralloides

A lake where you can see blue water in the distance, but covered with green floating vegetagion in the foreground. A squacco heron is taking flight, with its long light brown neck, pure white wings and belly, and yellow dangling legs.

A lake where you can see blue water in the distance, but covered with green floating vegetagion in the foreground. A squacco heron is poised on low water, its legs underwater and hidden by the vegetation.

The heron is all light brown with a very long and thick neck and a black dagger-like bill.

A squacco heron in a crouched position among some floating nenuphars on a lake. It looks all brown, with only the white belly hardly visible. The neck is retracted and looks much shorter than it really is. They do this when hunting, so that they can suddenly extend the neck and snach prey with the bill.

A squacco heron is taking flight, with its long light brown neck, pure white wings and belly. It looks mainly pure white in flight.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 9d

🪶 Little egret, Bubulcus ibus
Flying before sunset in the Camargue, France

A little egret flying with blue water in the background. The low sun before sunset gives a warm yellowish tone to the otherwise all white feathers of the little egret.

The all black eyes, bill and the long legs contrast with the white feathers. The feet and toes are bright yellow.

It flies with its long neck retracted and bent in an S shape and the long legs stretched behind the body.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 10d

🐍 Asp viper, Vipera aspis
Always a pleasure to see them!

Photo from my archive, I don't think they're still active around here.

An asp viper coiled over some dry twigs abd dry leaves. It has brown colour (just like the leaves) with black transversr bars on its back.

The head scales are smaller than those over the body, except for the one big scale over the eye. The eye is golden yellow with a vertical slit pupil.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 12d

🪶
Grey heron closeups
Ardea cinerea

A grey heron, woth a long, snake-like neck, and a huge bill, much bigger,than its head. It has big, yellow eyes and a dark "eyebrow" over the eye that continues backwards in a long drop-down black prnqmzntal feather.

It is poised in high grass and has its wings half open.

A grey heron front view, looking directly at the camera with its yellow eyes.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 12d

🐍 Asp viper, Vipera aspis

An asp viper coiled on a fallen log.
The snake is brown with black transverse bars on it's back.

There are some green leaves borh in the foreground as in the background.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 13d

#AddOcean
🐙🪶
A couple of Audouin's gulls in the mediterranean sea coast.

Larus audouinii

A couple of Audouin's gulls by the sea shore. There are very small waves and ripples on the dark blue water. The gulls are poised with their feet on the water by knee level. Their head, neck, breast and belly are whites, the wings are grey, the tail is black. The eyes form a black spot on the white head. The bills and legs are dark red. They have a slender build and are more elegant than most gulls.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 14d

#addMam
🦊
Red deer
Cervus elaphus

A male deer with full grown antlers stands on a hill with green grass.

Behind it, in the distance and slightly unfocused, there is a mountain with conifers.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 14d

And licking its lips after the meal 😋

The same lizard licking its lips with its grey tongue outside the mouth.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 14d

🪶 I love terns. Here is a common tern bringing a fish to the chicks back at the nest.

Sterna hirundo

A tern flying with a small fish in its beak against a blue sky. The black upperhead contrasts with the white face and neck. The chest and belly are grey. The undertail and underwings are white, but with black wingtips.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 14d

🦎 a hungry baby western green lizard with a bug.
Lacerta bilineata

I don't know what bug is

A small green lizard holding a bug in its mouth.
There is some dry leaf litter around it, and some grass and green leaves from a bush casting shade on the lizard body.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

🪶

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

A male Teal, the smallest European duck, about 2/3 the size of a Mallard.

Always a beauty to my eyes!!

Anas crecca

A small duck swimming. The water reflects brownish and blueish tones from the environment.
Thr duck body is mainly grey, speckled with white, with yellow undertail and a white stripe on the wing. The head is rounded brown with a huge green patch covering the eyes, and a small bill.

The duck gead is also reflected on the water surface, as in a mirror.

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Reposted by WonderingChamaleon

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 19d

Earlier this year, Dr. Jane Goodall sat down for an interview for Brad Falchuk’s new Netflix series, Famous Last Words.

The premise of the series is to interview people on the condition that the interview not air until the subject has passed away.

100 3.1K 7.9K

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

🐍 Meet the Slow worm, Anguis fragilis. Actually not a worm... and faster than a worm!

It's a limbless lizard that feeds on slugs and other invertebrates. You can tell them from snakes because they can close their eyelids and have visible ear openings. They don't need so much heat as most lizards.

Snake-like limbless lizard crawling on rocky ground. Brown coloured all iver with a thin black line along the spine. The rocks have various sizes and are grey.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

Didn't mean like telling what you should do... just that they're awesome!!!

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

You should get a female, so that they could make babies 🤩

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

🐍 Asp viper, Vipera aspis

A viper streched among some small shrubs and grass. The body is long and flexible, brown in colour wirh black transverse bars along all the length, from head to the tail. The head is roughly triangular shaped, when seen from above, and it has black lines running from the nostrils through the eye and to the corner of the mouth.

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WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

🪶 Bittern, Botaurus stellaris
With its perfect camouflage in reed beds. I've seen two explanations for the name stelaris, one that it has specked plumage, other that it looks at the stars (like in photo)

I like very much the male call, which goes like BOOM, and is called Booming.

Photo croped :(

A Bittern is a huge bird from the same family as the herons. It has green legs, and a very large and long neck, which is all striped in white and brown. When scared, it puts its head up pointing the sky, and the stripes on the neck look just the same as the dry reeds around it.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

🪶
White-tailed eagles
Haliaeetus albicilla

It is the biggest eagle in Europe, its wingspan can reach 2,4m. As in all big raptors, you can see clearly the 'fingers' at the wingtips.

When they arrived, all the ducks took flight. Must have been a coïncidence 😂

An eagle flying against a grey sky, seen from the side. It is flapping its broad wings. All feathers are brown, except for the tail, that is white. The big and heavy bill is open. One of the tallons is suspended under the tail.

A couple of eagles flying, both giving a cry, with their bills open. Both have their wings wide open, brown plumage with white tails. One is seen head on from below, the other see from the side.

WonderingChamaleon @herpsandbirds.bsky.social · 17d

It's an Ocelated lizard