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Chris Foster

@chrisfoster.bsky.social
434 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 · 28/09/2026
Fond memories from the late 90s of watching Jim Henson, sorry, Henman lose again to Phil Sampras
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
They seem to be having a good year, I'm glad a few species are! Fantastic animals (I've always thought of the smell as highly distinctive rather than 'bad')
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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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Reposted by Chris Foster
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
we literally have a Bayeux Tapestry at home www.readingmuseum.org.uk/bayeux-tapes...
readingmuseum.org.uk
Britain's Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the world’s most famous pieces of medieval art. It is 70 metres long, and chronicles the legendary tale of the Norman conquest of England, when William the Conqueror inva...
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Reposted by Chris Foster
Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This week we had a brilliant 175th birthday party for the official mascot of the @colezoology.bsky.social - Norman the Asian Elephant. An ex-circus elephant, Norman died in 1867, and was bought by the University in 1921 for the price of £30! Happy birthday Norman! 🎉🎁🐘🎂
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This semester's departmental challenge is to bring the balloon down safely before nature takes its course...
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The world really can be a shitty place
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Reposted by Chris Foster
Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Far-right domestic terrorists closing down a lifeboat station is no the big enough news story that it ought to be.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
A poem
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I mean, even Farage has made stronger statements of condemnation pretty much!
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Have noticed and mildly terrified. How badly we needed him to at least be a *tiny* bit better at this.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Honey Buzzard another possibility?
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If he doesn't, what is the point of the Green party?
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Agree on both counts. At least it is somewhat in our power to design assessments that are mutually interesting and rewarding, but they will always carry a significant time and admin burden.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Indeed, some 'punishment'. But I also dislike the framing of teaching vs research in academia - we talk about teaching 'load' or 'burden' and being 'freed' from teaching is a reward for success in research. I might just be over sensitive as a teaching intensive contracted person 😊
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Same round here. It's frightening, but still, we're supposed to 'enjoy' it right...
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Reading still only on 8.8mm for the whole of August, 9.7mm for July and August. Tomorrow morning looks promising. Many trees looking pretty desperate.
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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 · 04/08/2026
My condolences 😔 to your question, yes, I agree. Frequent flier levy the fairest way to reduce demand while acknowledging the benefits of air travel connecting people.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Ok that's enough summer this year thanks bye.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I'm sure I remember some suggestions about 10 - 15 years ago that climate action and nature conservation were in competition for attention and need to be 'balanced'. Not hearing that now. Same crisis.
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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 · 30/07/2026
2019: climate emergency 2022: climate dread 2026: climate despair
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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
Ooh fancy! There's a big patch of comfrey every spring at the top of our local park which is a favourite spot to enjoy Anthophora plumipes, just a few crispy nettles left there at the moment though with council strimmers + drought.
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Both records in now! Do you know if they use any other food plants? The Scarlet Tigers in our garden are mostly on Green Alkanet.
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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
"When a strange looking 'snake' leaps from digital lakes that's AI Moray"
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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 · 27/07/2026
"As we were coming into land, we saw the fires; it didn't look very nice" Incredible.
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Reposted by Chris Foster
Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
As climate change impacts accelerate, these peatland areas continue to dry out during heatwaves. Why? Because they’re not wet enough. Wet peat doesn’t burn. I’ve just returned from a week staying on the best managed upland estate I’ve ever seen. Everywhere was damp or oozing wet. In mid-July.
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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
Probably something to do with the quantity of butter I usually melt into a crumpet
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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 · 21/07/2026
"Will there be a drought". I don't know. Are bears Catholic?
theguardian.com
How can I water my garden in a hosepipe ban and will there be drought this summer?
Millions of people in southern England and parts of Wales face restrictions after prolonged periods of hot weather
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I hear that nature is 'balanced' or should be balanced all the time from many different interest groups, little evidence is ever provided to support it!
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
🤷‍♂️a myth!
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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 · 12/07/2026
Daily forecasts two weeks out aren't really worth much but it's nonetheless alarming to see 7 of the next 14 days on the BBC weather app at 30+, and the rest with highs of 28 or 29. Some tentative signs of rain at least but unlikely enough and damp with 28+ will feel super sticky #doomed
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Having just been in central Manchester I suspect it only scores so highly on a technicality in that GM covers a big area beyond the city itself! Most of the available shade there is from towering new developments...
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Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I can't believe anyone actually likes this weather. They're either lying to themselves or everyone else.
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Reading Entomology @unirdgento.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
For Reading area folk, the film 'The Little Things That Run The World' is showing at Reading Biscuit Factory next Tuesday, followed by a panel discussion featuring our very own @chrisfoster.bsky.social. Come for the bug pix, stay for the bug chat! www.readingbiscuitfactory.co.uk/movie/ttr-pr...
readingbiscuitfactory.co.uk
TTR presents The Little Things That Run the World + Short Film + Panel Discussion
In collaboration with Transition Town Reading, as part of Reading Climate Festival, RBF presents a special documentary screening of The Little Things That Run the World. The Little Things that Ru...
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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 · 05/07/2026
Excellent, yes I don't see any other Norfolk records.
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Ground Beetle Recording Scheme @carabidaeuk.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
A cluster of records for Polistichus connexus from the June heatwave, increasingly common at light on hot nights (usually see egg boxes or moth scales in the record images!) 2026 records filling in some gaps in the spread northwest. 📸Stephen French via iRecord
A map of the UK showing the distribution of the ground beetle Polistichus connexus in the UK. Records are clustered in the southeast of England, with newer records appearing throughout its range but showing a northward expansion in the last 5 to 6 years. The Ground Beetle Polistichus connexus, a brown beetle with orange legs and antennae, a narrow thorax and a single brighter orange patch at the centre of each dark brown wing case.
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