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12 Oct, 6 tweets, 5 min read
Final evidence that Star Jelly is actually the oviducts of amphibians. On Sunday I found quite a bit of Star Jelly on Whixall Moss. It was only going through the photos now, that I saw actual spawn with it. @AliDriverUK
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_jelly ImageImageImage
For some years I've been regularly finding and photographing the substance known as Star Jelly on Fenns and Whixall Moss NNR. It normally appears from the Autumn through winter.
Initially I was sceptical at some speculation that it was the substance from the oviducts of amphibians, regurgitated by Corvids etc, which had eaten amphibians. But I reconsidered later when I found it on top of fence posts in November 2019, often used by birds. ImageImageImage
This latest find was on an access track, where lately a pair of Carrion Crows have been regularly, and there was a large number of blobs of Star Jelly in one area. I only noticed the undeveloped spawn when viewing the images on the my computer screen.
The last shot in the first tweet is a crop from the second picture. It clearly shows early stage amphibian spawn probably from a Common Frog or Toad. This pretty much settles it for me.
@drbob5018 @Jannerbirder @arg @sosbirds @ShropsWildlife @BBCSpringwatch @ChrisGPackham @IoloWilliams2 @NE_WestMids @MagsCousins @AmiesPhilip

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More from @SteB777

Stephen Barlow Profile picture
14 Oct
A common misconception amongst those with no background at all in science, is that they can understand science with common sense reasoning alone, and without understanding anything about science. This is profoundly mistaken as science does not operate on common sense.
It's not me saying this. This is what Professor Lewis Wolpert, the biologist explained in 1992 - "SCIENTIFIC laws run contrary to common sense."

Read the article.
independent.co.uk/life-style/boo…
Our modern societies are in a complete mess, with us facing an existential threat to our civilization from the climate and ecological crisis, and the irrational response of our governments, to the COVID-19 pandemic. Caused by non-scientist politicians pontificating about science.
Read 16 tweets
Stephen Barlow Profile picture
13 Oct
The important point people are missing about this story is that it is not just about Dominic Cummings being let off the back council tax he owed. It is that Cummings appears to have misled the public in his Downing Street press conference.
In Cummings' Downing Street press conference, he said this about where he stayed. '“The point about it was not that it was some nice place to be. If you have been there, you would see that it's sort of concrete blocks,” he said.'
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
Dominic Cummings' clearly tried to imply that he stayed in some sort of run down outbuilding that was not "a nice place to be", rather than it being his purpose built holiday cottage.
Read 9 tweets
Stephen Barlow Profile picture
13 Oct
Please read and retweet @joshual951 important tweet thread.
UK peatlands contain far more carbon that all the rest of the vegetation in the UK put together. An old JNCC reference used to say 100x more. Emissions from damaged peatlands could cancel out all tree planting.
bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
You see, when wet, with an active peat forming surface of Sphagnum peat bogs store carbon, potentially forever. However, when peat bogs dry out they start to release carbon and contain absolutely massive amounts of carbon far bigger than that all the rest of vegetation.
Read 5 tweets
Stephen Barlow Profile picture
17 Aug
1) What the situation in Belarus illustrates, is how even brutal dictators need public support, and are powerless when the public stand up to them. This lesson has profound implications for how we address the climate and ecological emergency.
2) Ultimately, people make a decision about what is, and what is not in their best interests. They will ignore the brutality and corruption of a regime, if their lives continue in a reasonable way. But will act when they see that regime threatens their well being and future.
3) Most people, quite mistakenly do not see the climate and ecological crisis as a threat to their lives and well being. They mistakenly perceive it is the growth based economy which sustains them, not the natural systems, which actually sustains the economy.
Read 25 tweets
Stephen Barlow Profile picture
22 Jul
A big thank you to @GeorgeMonbiot for highlighting my response to him and I will try to explain what I meant in a tweet thread here. I have been inspired by @GretaThunberg to clarify my ideas on this.
1) For most of my life I've been trying to understand how we got to where we are i.e. heading towards a sustainability crunch point, an ecological crisis and why we've failed to change direction. Like Greta I had a sudden flash of insight when I was 10, but this was 50 years ago.
2) We've been led to believe this globally suicidal economic model, and the refusal to deviate from it is because it's what people demand and our leaders our powerless because people refuse to change direction.
un.org/press/en/2011/…
Read 26 tweets
Stephen Barlow Profile picture
30 Jun
1) In 2008 I observed something extraordinary, which totally changed my perception of all life. I observed hoverflies carefully and deliberately opening up the anthers of a flower and scooping the pollens grains out of the anthers to their mouthparts with their front feet.
2) Until this point in time I wrongly assumed flies just crudely prodded around in a flower drinking nectar and hovering up any pollen. But the way these hoverflies were going about it was very systematic and they were using their front feet in coordination with their mouthparts.
3) You do not think of an organism like a fly, of having the awareness, focus and coordination to navigate it's way around a flower like this, then to deliberately open up the anther of the flower containing the pollen and to scoop it towards their mouthparts.
Read 25 tweets

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