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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 2h

Here's my drawing for Day 20 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Philippine Cockatoo, a gregarious mid-sized cockatoo from the Philippines, and "lounge". I was just going to draw a group of Phillipine Cockatoos having fun on a couch in a […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a group of Philippine cockatoos (white parrots) sitting on a couch with a bowl of peanuts and a TV remove. (Next to them is a cage with a human-shaped figured inside.) (And, yes, I misspelt Philippine on the drawing.)

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

I've made it to Day 19! Here's my quick drawing for Day 19 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Blue-necked Jacamar, from the forests of tropical South America, and "Confused". To confuse the Jacamar, I've had a tropical fruit (a Moriche palm […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a small bird with a long pointy beak, perched on a branch with a question mark above its head as it looks at an oblong fruit about the size of its body that's landed on a stick.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

Here's my drawing for Day 18 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Sunbittern, from South America, and "Flightless". Sunbitterns have big wings with sun-like eyespots on them and they're definitely not flightless. To ground this bird, I figured […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My quick cartoon ink drawing of a sunbittern (which looks a bit like a heron), sitting on the ground a bit dazzled and singed. The sun is beating down and the caption says "Don't fly too close to the sun or you might get sun bitten".

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

Here's my drawing for Day 15 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, from South America's cloud forests, and "Contraption". The first contraptions I thought of were Sylvester McMonkey McBean's Star-on and Star-off […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of two Andean Cock-of-the-Rock birds, both bright orange with big feathery heads. They're beak-to-beak and one has its wing around the other. One has a star on its belly and the other does not. The text above them reads: "The Andean Cock-of-the-rocks got really quite smart on that day. The day they decided that Andean Cock-of-the-rocks are Andean Cock-of-the-rocks. And no kind of Andean Cock-of-the-rock is best in the jungle. That day, all the Andean Cock-of-the-rocks forgot about stars. And whether they had one, or not, upon thars." (Apologies to Dr. Seuss.)

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

After their trip to the Funhouse, the pair of Blue-Capped Cordonbleu's affectionately referred to each other as Gangly and Fubsy. We're up to Day 16 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge and today's prompts are East Africa's Blue-Capped Cordonbleu, and "Gangly". It […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My quick ink drawing (with some colour pencil) of two Blue-Capped Cordonbleu birds (blue and brown birds) in the front of two funhouse mirrors, making one look stretched out and gangly and the other short and squat and fubsy.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

It’s a little known fact (so little known that I may not deny having made it up) that the collective noun for Long-tailed Broadbills is a "Hooray". Yes, it's another quick drawing, now Day 15 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Long-tailed […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing (with some colour pencil) of a row of long-tailed broadbill birds perched along a stem of a vine spelling the word "HOORAY". The birds are small and mostly green with blue tails and yellow heads with black caps.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

Introducing Lady Victoria C. Pigeon of the New Guinean Columbids. It's my drawing for Day 14 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are New Guinea's Victorian Crowned Pigeon and "Lady." Unlike yesterday's Himalayan Monal, both the male and female […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a Victorian Crowned Pigeon, presented as a Victorian era portrait in an ornate botanically themed frame.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

Here's another quick drawing, for Day 13 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Himalayan Monal and "Flimsy". Admittedly this one's a bit subtle. I learned that "flimsy" is old slang for bank note, and in 2005 the Nepal Rasta Bank released a […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a brown chicken-like bird with blue eye marking looking at a Nepalese bank note. The text says female Himalayan Monal with soft flimsy.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

I was just looking through our copy of the Collins Complete and Unabridged English Dictionary and discovered the word “Flummery”. I’m not sure if I’ve ever used flummery before but it’s a good description of a lot of modern politics, and not the pudding […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a passage in the dictionary defining the word “Flummery”. See the post for the definition.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Here's a quick drawing for Day 12 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Sharp-shinned hawk, a small raptor from the Americas, and "Toss". I've drawn a bird that's being released after being banded. For all the good that this does for bird […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a sharp-shinned hawk, a small hawk with bands on its wings and talk. It's just been let go after being banded and it's looking back with a less than pleased look on its face.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Have you lost a shoe? I recommend hiring Bill from Shoe Rescue. This is my drawing for Day 11 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Shoebill from Africa, and "Rescue". I was reminded that the scientific name of shoebills is B. rex […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Here are four of my more notable observations from my weekly biodiversity run about Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, yesterday. The steel blue ladybirds are back. These are Australians that have been spreading through the city over the past 6 years […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My photo of a small, accurately named steel-blue ladybird walking along a stem.

A photo of an iridescent bronze beetle on a leaf. There are a few holes in the leaf from its feeding.

My photo of two kererū (NZ woodpigeons) up in a tree. They're big green birds with white breasts.

My photo of a young native mistletoe growing on a (lemonwood) tree branch. The lower left branch of the mistletoe has a couple of small fruit developing (the first time this plant has fruited).

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

Here's my drawing for Day 10 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Crimson Rosella from Australia, and "Mystical". (Most mystically I discovered that my fingers still know how to write in cursive. It's been a *long time* since I've done that.) […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My stylises ink drawing of a rosella (parrot) in flight with a cosmic background.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

@edfoc.bsky.social Great paper. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking at their Figure 3 and oh boy does it underscore how car addicted NZ, Australia, USA, and Canada are when compared with other countries. We're the highest in car ownership and car use per capita, and […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

Graphs showing each country and its number of bikes and cars per capita each graphed against the relative use cars and bikes for transport. NZ, Australia, Canada, and USA are the highest in car ownership and car use, and, while moderate to high in bike ownership, they are near the bottom of the world rankings for bike use in transport. This is Figure 3 from Chen, W., Carstensen, T.A., Wang, R. et al. Historical patterns and sustainability implications of worldwide bicycle ownership and use. Commun Earth Environ 3, 171 (2022). https://doi-org.ezproxy.lincoln.ac.nz/10.1038/s43247-022-00497-4

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

As something of an antidote to my previous roadkill post, I also saw this family of Kakīānau, Australasian Black Swans, on my bike home today. It's great to see them breeding now in the wetlands that have been built around the fringes of Ōtautahi-Christchurch […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My photo looking through some trees at two adult black swans with three pale coloured cygnets.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

I was saddened to find a kāhu (Australasian harrier) amongst today's roadkill on my bike commute home from work. For a bird so frequently seen scavenging for roadkill, I see them killed by cars surprisingly rarely. This bird got unlucky. As sad as it is to find […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My close-up photo of the head of a kāhu, Australasian harrier, dead on the side of the road. It's a brown bird of prey.

My close-up photo of the talons and tail of a kāhu, Australasian harrier, dead on the side of the road. The tail feathers are pale with brown stripes. The feet are yellow with sharp, curved claws.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

If you've got a tricky demolition job, be sure to hire the right animals. Here's my drawing for Day 9 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Rook, and Ram. Working together, I reckon they have a unique set of destructive skills. #Birdtober […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a roadside billboard showing profiles of a rook (a black bird with a long pointed beak) and a ram (a male sheep with curled horns). The text says "ROOK & RAM Hire the Demo Experts 0800-SMASH-GRAB".

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

I've let myself get so busy in recent years that I've not sat down and just drawn something for fun in over five years. Now I've drawn something every evening for 8 nights. I used to draw all the time when I was young. It feels good. 😀 #art #inktober #birdtober

A photo of my art book with two open pages showing my eight drawings (so far) for this year's Ink-Birdtober.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Here's my drawing for Day 8 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Spectacled Owl from the tropical Americas, and "stinky", so I've drawn the owl after catching a striped hog-nosed skunk. That's probably not it's preferred prey, but I'm reading […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a spectacled owl with a dead skunk draped over a branch. Spectacled owls are appropriately named as the white markings on their face almost look like frames of a pair of glasses.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

There's no need to panic when we share our world with such exquisite creatures as the bee hummingbird, the smallest of all birds. Here's my take on Day 7 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are Cuba's tiny bee hummingbird and "panic". 😄 #Birdtober […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of my hand with my thumb sticking up, and an approximately life-size bee hummingbird perched on my hand. Behind my hand is a stylised planet with a ring around it.

A close-up of my drawing of the bee hummingbird. The drawing is black ink but in reality the feathers around the head are iridescent orange.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Ogres are misunderstood creatures. They're generally peaceful and prefer to chill out watching birds while staying well away from all the mean and greedy people. When ogres get together, they like to dress up in home made costumes to look like their favourite […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My cartoonish drawing of a happy ogre dressed as a paradise tanager bird. That's a black and blue and red bird with a yellow-green head. I had to borrow my daughter's coloured pencils for this one so you can see the colours of Hilda's costume.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

The Day 5 Ink-Birdtober challenge was a tricky mashup: the Atlantic Canary and "Smack". That is, until I read that a collective noun for jellyfish is a smack. So, with admittedly some hesitation, I bring you The GREAT ATLANTIC SMACK CANARIUM! Part aviary, part […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a poster advertising an attraction on the Canary Islands called the GREAT ATLANTIC SMACK CANARIUM. There's a picture of a canary singing next to a mauve stinger jellyfish, which has a big cap and four long tentacles.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

Here's my Day 4 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. The 4 October Birdtober prompt is the Gouldian Finch, from Northern Australia, and the Inktober prompt is Cacti. There are no cacti native to Australia, so I've substituted the mungily, *Tecticornia verrucosa*, a […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing for Birdtober-Inktober of a Gouldian Finch, perched on the top of a succulent plant.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Which Quetzal is right for you? Here's my Day 3 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. The 3 October Birdtober prompt is the Resplendent Quetzal and the Inktober prompt is Miniature. I figure the Quetzal Mini must be an egg and the Quetzal Ultra is the ridiculously […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing for Birdtober of the Resplendent Quetzal. On the left is the adult male, labelled as Quetzal Ultra, "Innovative design for ultimate resplendence". Next is the female, less colourful and without the silly, long tail feathers. She's the Quetzal Pro, "Strength. Beauty. Replendent.". Third is a fluffy little brown juvenile, recently fledged. They're Quetzal Air, "Say hello to Quetzal". Last is the small Quetzal egg. This is Quetzal Mini, "The smallest Quetzal ever with Pro resplendence inside".

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

I'm just heading out for my weekly run about the city, to count and map wild species (this is a route I've been doing fortnightly since 2008). I always count wild birds, mammals and herps, and my core set of insects, like butterflies. Plants, on the other hand […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A piece of paper with hand-written plant names in pencil. It says Chilean mayten, Laburnum, big Euphobia, bluebells, Syzgiuym, evergreen buckthorn, Lophomyrtus + myrtle rust.

A photo of all the kit I'm about to take on my run. There's my monocular, my iPhone (13 mini) plugged into an external RODE videomicro microphone with a wind shield (they city's a windy place so this set-up makes much better recordings), a Garmin GPS unity, a Sony RX0ii mini-camera (used mainly for photopoints), and a Nikon Z30 camera with its DX 50–250 mm telephoto lens plus a Raynox DCR-250 macro attachment. Plus, there's my backpack (which also contains some snacks).

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Here's my Day 2 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. The 2October Birdtober prompt is the Hawaiian ʻIʻiwi, and the Inktober prompt is Relic. I've mixed them up with an ʻIʻiwi finding a lost old iPod (ʻIʻpod) on the mossy forest floor. #Birdtober #Inktober #birds […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My drawing of an ʻIʻiwi (a long, curved beaked bright orange Hawaiian bird but this in in inked in black on white paper for Inktober) and it's lookig at a lost OG iPod on the mossy forest floor.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Look! I did a drawing! I haven't drawn in years. Let's see if I can keep this up for a month! This is Day 1 of Ink-Birdtober challenge. The 1 October Birdtober prompt is the African Lilac-breasted Roller, and the Inktober prompt is Apple, so I've mixed them up […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a bird eating a caterpillar from an apple.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Here's last night's sunset from Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. The day ended with a thick easterly cloud bank across the city and Canterbury Plains but at the end of the day the sun did its best to peak through. I just uploaded my favourite two photos to Flickr. Pop […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My panorama photo of the sun setting under a thick low cloud bank over the Canterbury Plains. The sun is shining out from behind the cloud to light up the trees and farmland in the centre of the photo.

My photo of the sunset, tilted on its side a little showing an aeroplane in the sky in the top right and an electricity pylon lit up by the sunset in the lower right.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Note to self: don’t drop micro SD cards in the forest. Last weekend I didn’t realise until after I got home that I’d accidentally dropped a memory card at one of my bird monitoring stations. I went back today to look for it, and it took me a while, but *I found it*! Lesson learned (I hope).

A screenshot from Messages on my phone with two photos, one of the forest where I lost the SD card, and my hand holding the found SD card, followed by the words “I found it!!!” and my wife’s reaction of a gif of Joey from Friends with his mouth wide open in surprise.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

My evening has been spent programming AudioMoths for passive monitoring of birds in the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. When I swap over the units tomorrow it will mark 12 months of recording across 14 sites, from Ahuriri Bush in the west to Jollies Bush […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of some tech gadgets (AudioMoth audio recorders) in plastic water-proof containers on the floor.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

Here's a wee post in memory of Gimli Pig, our guinea pig, who passed away yesterday. My daughter and I caught Gimli and his brother Scruffles back in 2019 in the reserve by our house, where someone had abandoned them and the rest of the family. It took us a […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo from July 2019 of one of the makeshift traps we used to catch the abandoned guinea pigs in this public reserve. Dogs regularly are walked off lead here so it was a race against time. The photo shows a plastic basket up-side-down propped up with a stick attached to a string.

A photo of young Gimli Pig the day after we'd caught him. He's a blotchy tan brown and white guinea pig.

A photo of the morning ritual of our rabbit Firecracker and Gimli Pig the guinea pig eating carrot peelings in our lounge.

A photo of young Gimli Pig relaxing on our couch with the family.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

After a reviewer questioned how long we said that some hedgehog carcasses lasted on the road, we added this supplementary Figure with examples of unusually persistent European hedgehog carcasses observed along the study route. (A) An 11 month old carcass on a […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A figure from our new paper showing photos of four old roadkill carcasses of European hedgehogs, The oldest, on the top right, is over 5 years old.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

I spent Friday on Ōtamahua/Quail Island in Lyttelton Harbour with the first year ecology course of #LincolnUniversityNZ. Ōtamahua is a public reserve that has for several decades been the focus of tree planting and mammalian predator control. Each time we visit […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of the students of our first year ecology course being told about the history of the ecological restoration on the island by James Ross, Lincoln University's wildlife biologist and an ex-trustee of the Quail Island restoration trust.

A photo of one of the waitaha geckos that are now thriving on the island. This one is being gently held by the university herpetologist Jennifer Gillette, who has a permit to handle lizards. Don't pick up geckos unless you have the training and permit, as you can hurt them if you do it wrong.

A photo of some of the ecology students in forest. Each year our students survey the growth of the forest on the island. All of the canopy trees here were planted about three decades ago (by volunteers) and there are now wild seedlings regenerating underneath.

A photo of Tim Curran, left, with students, exploring the sea life along the rock shore. When we're lucky to time our visit with low tide, we can see what marine creatures we can find.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

I looked up NZ's road statistics so far for 2026. 17,635 road injuries resulting in ACC claims. 221 people dead. All just this year. Instead we're fretting about e-scooters being dangerous and needing more regulation. (Perhaps they do, but they're not the […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

Here are two reminders from my bike commute today that, despite all the recent high profile hand wringing in the NZ media about e-scooters, these are not the big reason why the streets of our cities are dangerous. Of course it's all the cars. It's a choice that […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of the protective metal barriers either side of a pedestrian traffic island on Rose Street that were both flattened some time today by what must have been a large vehicle driving over the top of them.

A photo of a broken school crossing sign lying on the footpath by Dyers Pass Road, after a vehicle collided with it.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

I've spent part of my weekend making this graph. It shows the trends in three native NZ forest birds that I've heard and seen over the years while locking up my bike at Lincoln University. The lines on the graph show the trends in whether or not I saw or heard […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A three panel graph showing the trends in three bird species since 2007, from the bike stands at Lincoln University where I work. The top panel is korimako, the NZ bellbird, which shows up on campus in the winter months and in the last three years has increased substantially. The middle panel is piwakawaka, the fantail which has wobbled up and down a lot (its quite sensitive to bad weather in late Winter/early Spring). It was in decline but has picked up again in the recent couple of years. The third panel is riroriro, the grey warbler, which shows a more accentuated version of the piwakawaka pattern, almost disappearing before increasing in recent years.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

Dick Gaughan’s song “Prisoner” was a poem written by German poet Oswald Andrae. Or, if you instead believe the lyrics feature on Apple Music, it was written by Ben Margulies and Mariah Carey. Which, well, that seems unlikely. 😀 #AppleMusic

A screenshot of Apple Music for the lyrics from Dick Gaughan’s song “Prisoner”. The grim historical lyrics end with “Written by: Ben Margulies, Mariah Carey”.

“Five-six-two his prison number
Listen, child, I beg you please
Keep in mind, always remember
He got the Nobel Prize for Peace

In the struggle against injustice
He fought hard and he fought long
Child - remember Ossietsky
Peace won't come by words alone”

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026

I've been catching up on the nature meme thread on the iNaturalist Forum. There's lots of good ones, including this one. forum.inaturalist.org/t/nature-insp… #meme #nature #iNaturalist #owl #bee #Terminator

Three panels. The top has a photo of an owl and a honeybee looking at you. The text says "owl, bee (front)". The middle panel has the owl and the bee on their sides and the text says "owl, bee (side)". The last panel has the back views of the owl and the bee and a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026

Here's a new long-horn beetle for our house and garden: the NZ endemic *Eburida quadriguttata*. This one flew into our house yesterday evening and landed next to my computer, so I photographed it. I've been recording all the species in our garden for over 15 […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a long thin tan brown beetle with very long antennae (hence a long-horn beetle). It has four spots on its eletra (wing cases) which help to distinguish this species.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

Look!! It's me! I got a huge and pleasant surprise yesterday when one of our recent graduates from our B.Sc. Conservation and Ecology programme, the talented Chinese botanist Shuizetinglan Dong (水澤汀蘭), returned to NZ and stopped by the university to presented me […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of an artwork made from lots of carefully cut out pieces of coloured paper. In the middle is a man with glasses and a camera and an orange brimmed hat (that's me) surrounded by many different plants and fungi and animals.

The design sketch that Shuizetinglan made for the art work.

A photo of me (an old greyed haired white guy with glasses) and Shuizetinglan, a young Chinese man wearing a Tibetan-styled colourful coat, both holding the framed paper-cut artwork.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

One of my PhD students, Will Frost (who is fast becoming one of NZ's Lepidoptera experts) has just published the first of his thesis chapters, in the journal Austral Entomology. It looks at mōkarakara, the NZ magpie moth, *Nyctemera annulata*, and the […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

Figure 2 from Will's science paper on *Nyctemera*, showing photographs of the distinguishing features of the NZ *Nyctemera annulata* on the left and the Australian *Nyctemera amicus* on the right. The Australian moth has moth orange features and larger white spots on its black wings, and the Australian *N. amicus* caterpillars have two large tufts of hairs behind the head that NZ caterpillars lack.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026

I photographed this wee fly on the campus of #LincolnUniversityNZ, during a student-led campus BioBlitz this month. Otago Museum fly expert Steve Kerr has confirmed on iNaturalist today that it's the endemic species, *Melanagromyza senecionella.* This makes it […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My photo of small black fly sitting on a leaf.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026

Here's my unexpected find for the day. A postgrad student and I were looking for examples of recent articles from the bird journal Emu, to help format a bird song paper we're working on. We went to the journal website, searched on "song", sorted by date, and the […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

Figure 1 from the science paper linked in the post showing throw black and white photos at night of an owl swooping down and hitting a woman walking along a path.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2026

Over the past three days I’ve run and walked 54.2 km (and made 4,480 species observations). I’m going to sit down for a while now. :-)

A map of my 3 km run route down the Cashmere hills (and then up again)

A map of my 10.6 km run route through southwestern Christchurch, NZ.

A map of my 20.9 km run route into the centre of Christchurch, NZ, and back, from the city’s Cashmere hills.

A map of my 16.8 km walk route through the beach and streets of Mount Maunganui, NZ (I took the long way from my hotel to the airport).

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2026

Hey babe, would you like me to fluff myself up and bob up and down for you? I saw this pair of kererū in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens yesterday. It looks like love is in the air. www.inaturalist.nz/observations/389… #birds #NZ #Ōtautahi […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

Tauranga airport just reminded me of this useful piece of Māori life advice. I reckon aspiring to the ingenuity of an octopus is still a pretty good, until you get cornered. Then, fight like a shark. :-) #whakataukī #Aotearoa #NZ #Māori #octopus #shark #proverb

Kia mate ururoa, kei mate wheke Fight like a shark, don't give in like an octopus. These are the words on photo of a part of a display with Māori crafts and whakataukī (proverbs).

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

Morena from Ōtautahi and Whakaraupō. I had to get up early this morning to get up in the hills and swap over batteries in some of my bird recorders on the way to work. Here's Christchurch City at sunrise and Lyttelton harbour, from Mount Pleasant in the Port […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo from my phone of Christchurch City at sunrise with the Port Hills in the foreground and the snow capped Southern Alps in the background. The first light of day is catching the buildings in the centre of the city.

My phone photo looking down at Lyttelton Harbour, the port of Christchurch City, surrounded by the hills and bays of Lyttleton Harbour.

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