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Chris Foster

@chrisfoster.bsky.social
435 followers 368 following 360 posts

The twit formerly known as hatbirder. Insects, birds, etc. Lecturer in ecology / entomology at University of Reading. See also @carabidaeuk.bsky.social.

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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Wild grown Quercus robur and meadow ant mounds on the University of Reading campus in an area left unmanaged since 2019. This being mostly a landscaped park we also have an area with Quercus robur, palustris and ilex saplings popping up alongside each other 🤷 Two hobbies over calling, fantastic.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Plenty of bees both Ivy and Honey but flies and wasps feel very thin on the ground this flowering ivy season
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A poem
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Apparently I missed my calling in life
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Yarrow: "what drought?"
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Even last summer the more heathy parts of the reserve just upslope were looking very dry indeed
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Pleased with this portrait of the bug Liorhyssus hyalinus, with eggs, in our garden this evening. Another species new to me elsewhere locally in the last week or two.
A side on view of a yellowish bug with striped sides to its abdomen sitting on a faded composite flower head with a cluster of red eggs.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
My first Comfrey Ermine a few mins walk from home at the weekend, first for the garden briefly resting on our out of control sage this evening. What a splendid little animal.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Course looks great but I hope the AI graphic was inserted by EventBrite (it's not on your website)
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I completed the survey since I do live in one of the relevant catchments. The thankyou page has more, featuring these lovely fin-nosed fish and mysterious animal rearing out of the water, Anaconda perhaps?
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
So much for the rain. It wasn't going to be enough anyway.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Presumably these just keep growing back so you don't need to buy another packet
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
My Salvia brings all the bees to my yard
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Finally a nice temperature in the middle of the day. Now for some rain please 😫
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Now with additional extraordinary, average air temperature for July running a whole 5 degrees above the 1991 - 2020 average for Reading
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Shaping up to be the most extraordinary run of warm months as recorded on the @unirdg-met.bsky.social field station.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Best approach to today honestly
A white and tabby cat sprawled on a red rug
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
I thought we might become climate refugees in a decade or so but actually how about by Tuesday?
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Excellent day out in the New Forest with @unirdgento.bsky.social students yesterday. Lots of nice finds including Golden-haired Longhorn (Leptura aurulenta), something of an old oak specialist.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Ugh (from the University of Reading Met observatory @unirdg-met.bsky.social )
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Splendid evening walk from home yesterday turned up two Grasshopper Warblers reeling, roding Woodcock, juv. Tawny Owls and a Cuckoo on the night shift calling after dark.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Reminds me of this guy
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Bit disappointed the butterfly is not named! May as well have a picture of a flower that says 'flower'. It's not very informative.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Many things waking up in the neighborhood today.
A soggy Green Shieldbug rescued from a bucket of water, springtails climbed aboard to hitch a ride out too! Scarlet Tiger caterpillar - a black bristly caterpillar with a yellow and blue stripe down the centre A hedgehog picked out by phone light on the pavement
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
On a cheerier note at least one pair still in evidence...plus Crossbills in the larch at the top end and excellent prolonged views of a Goshawk tussling with Ravens.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Plenty of nice woodland left but it's for sure wholesale felling, not mere coppicing. Ash yes but also mature oak. Take the point that no woodland management at all would be equally bad for Willow Tit, but losing extensive areas of habitat on one go can't be good for such a small population.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Bit shocked by the heavy handed felling in parts of Combe Wood though! Once was a Willow Tit nest there 😢
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
What a gorgeous day it was yesterday for one of my favourite views 😁
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Distractions while finally catching up with some winter pruning in the garden.
Hazel catkins with blurred suburban garden beyondMale hazel flower - delicate deep pink star emerging from a brown bud7-spot Ladybird starting to wake up in the mild weather White-lipped Snail quickly tucking their head in - no photos, please!
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
For local folk I'll be talking @carabidaeuk.bsky.social at Kintbury Wildlife Group tomorrow, 7:30pm 🪲https://kintburywildlife.co.uk/Current-programme.html. If I'm organised enough might have some specimens to look at...possibly live ones too!
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Spot the birder who can't read or thinks their views or photographs outweigh bird welfare
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
It certainly is.. good thing about non-native introductions is I feel a little less guilty about posing them for selfies! Nonetheless the majority we found went back into overwintering sites, have retained some to try and breed 🤞
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Specially for @kitenet.bsky.social here at last is a picture of me with ground beetle! More to come later to see which you like best 😆
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Happy Burns Night! With thanks for Scotland and her fine culture, food and drink. Not my home country but I feel at home whenever we go 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
A slow @rspb.bsky.social garden birdwatch. 3 Feral Pigeon (strictly speaking these were on the roof, not in the garden), 3 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Woodpigeon. Benny the cat may have seen something we missed but he'll never tell....
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Poor urban foxes, always being vilified by the press
Newspaper photo of a fox sleeping above the headline 'Sex pest failed to turn up in court'
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Starlings at Speen Moor, attracting plenty of admirers from nearby Newbury every evening.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
On the major plus side, here's our local Starling roost. They may only count once for #footit but I feel mega abundance should get bonus points....Great White Egret flying through and a very overdue first Grey Heron of the year make it 54 species on foot since January 1st.
A large flock of Starlings against a dark blue sky with silhouettes of trees in the foreground A large flock of Starlings against a dark blue sky with silhouettes of trees in the foreground
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Chuck in one or two of these as well
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
My favourite scrubby accidental 'wilding' field for spring warblers in the middle of Newbury has fallen victim to a 'conservation' project. I will enquire about the intended replacement but I can't imagine it being an improvement on what was a nice mosaic of scrub, small trees and tall grassland.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Another delightfully wintry day. Somebody forgot to order a white Christmas so we got a white Epiphany instead! Went out for just 15 minutes and 4 Snipe dropped into the (very ordinary) field nearest our house for #footit 49. Meanwhile the cat continues to enjoy walking across the garden pond 🙃
A domestic cat on a red harness and lead walks across a small snow-covered frozen garden pond. A snow covered canal and towpath with rows of trees on either sideA garden holly bush with plenty of red berries and a dusting of snow
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
A distractingly beautiful morning meant I couldn't resist a much longer walk from home than planned. Siskins *everywhere* glowing in the low sun. Lapwing and Golden Plover flocks going over bring #footit total to 47 species.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
With a light snow dusting! I assume there was a bit more out your way? He wasn't sure about the cold white stuff underpaw...
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Abundant Hawthorn and abundant Redwings on a 2 hour tramp from home at lunchtime. Otherwise slow going, 36 species but Redpoll and Stonechat were nice patch ticks. #footit @footit.bsky.social
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
What fresh HR hell is this?
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
I'd wondered what that on earth that packet of 7s I found in our lab was for...maybe still not big enough for Norman!
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
One of my favourite bird songs! Woodlark gave a wonderful close flypast in full song then continued to sing from a perch for a while.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Splashes of October colour on Greenham Common this morning while a Woodlark sang (listen below! 👇)
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Ah, happy memory of a formative and necessary experience as a politician at any level - being slightly misquoted out of context by the press 😆
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Great Green Bush Cricket from a park in Potsdam earlier this month. Strikingly yellow legs on this individual
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