Bronwen Scott
@snailseyeview.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.5K following 970 posts
Invertebrate zoologist; writer; artist; museum fan; bird watcher; living in the tropics; she/her. Sometimes in Guardian Australia. Otherwise https://snailseyeview.medium.com/
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snailseyeview.bsky.social
Look at the birds that have been pushed out contention for the Australian Bird of the Year! Every one is magnificent. Every one was worth voting for. (Also I think the sunbird has already been split and ours is Sahul Sunbird.)

Anyway, vote for the others here: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
A list of the birds that didn't make the cut in the previous two rounds of voting for the Guardian's Australian Bird of the Year 2025. There are 10 species, all illustrated with a small and now forlorn image. The species names and pics are surrounded by a chestnut brown box, which is almost but not quite like a funeral notice. In order, the birds are:
Australasian Bittern
Australian Fairy Tern
Budgerigar (honestly, who doesn't vote for the budgie?)
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Cockatiel (who are these people who don't vote for Cockatiels?)
Emu (still smarting from losing the Emu War, eh?)
Olive-backed (should be Sahul) Sunbird
Weebill (Australia's smallest bird and full of attitude)
Welcome Swallow (somehow now unwelcome)
White-winged Chough (mad lads)
Reposted by Bronwen Scott
ecosystemunraveller.com
This paper is now in press at Oikos, and I can submit an image for the journal cover. I have various crappy photos of mistletoe munching tyrannoids; if you have a great shot you can donate to the cause, I’ll shout you a quality beverage at the very next opportunity
www.authorea.com/doi/full/10....
snailseyeview.bsky.social
I'm not telling you how to vote in the Australian Bird of the Year poll.

But Red Goshawk are absolutely magnificent and they're under threat.
australia.theguardian.com
Restricted now to the tropical north, the mysterious red goshawk is fast disappearing as a result of climate change and habitat loss. Find out more about this majestic bird – and vote for it now – in our Australian bird of the year 2025 poll.
Going extinct ‘right under our noses’: the quiet plight of Australia’s rarest bird of prey
Restricted now to the tropical north, the mysterious red goshawk is fast disappearing as a result of climate change and habitat loss
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Bronwen Scott
doctorwaffle.substack.com
In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:
Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
(Not sure if I spelled that right) 
What immortal hand or eye
Could fashion such a stripy guy? 
What the hammer that hath hewn it 
Into such a chonky unit?
Did who made the lamb make thee, 
Or an external franchisee?
snailseyeview.bsky.social
Not a wasp expert at all, but it's one of the ichneumon wasps. (Narrows it down to a ridiculously large number of almost identical species!) They're parasitoids of other insects.

I'll now stand out of the way to let through people with more specific knowledge.
Reposted by Bronwen Scott
wa-orchids.bsky.social
Endemic to southern parts of Australia, the carnivorous Pimpernel Sundew (Drosera glanduligera) with its lovely orange flower. This one was growing on a lush bed of moss and was covered in early morning dew drops

#ozflora #wildoz #fierceflora #nativeplants #inaturalist #nature
A picture of a small sundew with carnivorous leaves at the base and an orange flower at the top of a short stem. This plant is growing on a lush bed of moss and is covered in early morning dew drops
snailseyeview.bsky.social
At least the lemon tree insights would be pithy.
snailseyeview.bsky.social
They have such a beautiful call.
snailseyeview.bsky.social
You must have the sound up for this!
cherylp14.bsky.social
Noongar white-tailed black cockatoos refer to Carnaby's cockatoos (Ngolyenok/Ngoolarks), an endangered species endemic to southwest Western Australia gathering at Coogee.
snailseyeview.bsky.social
My vote also goes to the Bird-dropping Beetle (Excastra albopilosa), a species I hadn't hear of until a minute ago and which I am now obsessed with. Although it looks less like bird poo to me than an insect that has fallen prey to one of those weird zombifying fungi.
wa-moths.bsky.social
It’s time to vote for the Australian Insect of the Year 2025 🪲🐞🪳🪰🦋

Cast your vote during October.

My vote definitely goes to the amazing Exastra albopilosa, a stunning longhorn beetle that was only described in 2024!
#ausinverts #wildoz #bugsky #inverts

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
Vote for your favourite Australian Insect of the Year
Whether you love beetles or the giant mantis it's time to cast your vote for Australia's top insect.
www.abc.net.au
Reposted by Bronwen Scott
biodivcouncil.bsky.social
🌸 Spring has arrived in Australia, meaning native bees are buzzing around searching for food, mates and suitable nesting sites.

Now is the perfect time to provide habitat for our pollinating friends by building a bee hotel 🐝🧪

biodiversitycouncil.org.au/resources/bu...
snailseyeview.bsky.social
Oh, Andrew, I'm so sorry.
Reposted by Bronwen Scott
firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social
Shout out to all Artificial Intelligence enthusiasts this First Dog on the Moon Spoken Cartoon is not for you soz - everyone else go and look at it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDBl...
Artificial Intelligence - Everyone hates it! A spoken cartoon...
YouTube video by firstdog onthemoon
www.youtube.com
snailseyeview.bsky.social
Remember the old adage:
Snake on the loo
More luck for you
Snake in the loo
I'd wait a bit before going in there, tbh
Reposted by Bronwen Scott
biodiversitypix.bsky.social
🦭 Les mollusques
Paris: Fortin, Masson et cie ., [1836-1845]

[Source]
Historical illustration from "Les mollusques" (1836-1845) depicting four detailed views of a sea mussel (Mytilus edulis). Two whole shells are shown at top left and right, one with barnacle growth. Below, two cross-sections reveal the mussel’s internal anatomy, labeled with letters and showing organs and structures. A long, slender, translucent anatomical detail is centered vertically. The illustration focuses on the edible mollusk’s form and biological features with hand-colored precision against a plain background. Despite the keyword “seal,” the image presents a marine mollusk, not the marine mammal.