Kate King
LightNews LightNews
Kate King
@katekingmh.bsky.social
66 followers 150 following 48 posts
MH adviser on lived inpatient experience, writer, and lover of open mountains and green lowlands. MBE she/her
Posts Replies Media Videos
Today's #BirdOfTheDay is #BirdsWithBerries. Set by Helen @helenbennett.bsky.social. So here’s a Long tailed tit enjoying the sun on Devil’s Dyke, Cambridge
Long tailed tit sitting on hawthorn? On small branch surrounded by berries. Part of a flock going through and hunting for insects among the berries. This one’s just sitting in the sun though looking right into the clear blue sky. They have a red eye lining that is the same colour as the berries.
September 16, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is: #Silhoutte; any bird in silhouette, so, better late than never, is a cormorant in a tree
Comprantesi silhouette in tree, bare black branches in and out of focus, blue sky beyond. The cormorant is looking to the right, back towards the thinner branches
September 15, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Kate King
francesryan.bsky.social
For the last 6 months, I’ve been working on a story of prejudice, bureaucracy, and misplaced cost-cutting.

In today’s paper: the disabled people who are being banned from going abroad by the state. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s... - by me and @patrickjbutler.bsky.social
‘I want to live’: the disabled people unable to go abroad because of care funding refusal
Campaigners say care users face a postcode lottery for support overseas – despite no extra cost to taxpayer
www.theguardian.com
September 3, 2026 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Kate King
northeastbylines.co.uk
Eventually somebody was going to realise there were votes available in supplying a very simple answer that Disabled people are the problem. Enter Reform | James Waterson
From PIP reform to Reform UK: how disabled people became a political target
Eventually somebody was going to realise there were votes available in supplying a very simple answer that Disabled people are the problem. Enter Reform
northeastbylines.co.uk
August 26, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Today's #BirdOfTheDay alt theme is #ReflectionsAndShadows. I had a lot of fun photographing local little grebes this spring. When they come up from a dive, their feathers are slicked back and they look almost black.
Little grebe in breeding colours, though you can barely see the russet red neck. It is swimming amongst the reflections of reeds. The green and brown reflections look almost like a 1970s fabric design: green circles and lines with the dark still shape of the grebe and it’s reflection at the centre
August 25, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Happy to see Chalk Hill Blues on dyke near Swaffham Prior. Have to remember the ‘paw prints’ on the upper wing
Male Chalk Hill Blue settled on a lump of white chalk on Devil’s Dyke. The wings are quite faded but the body is an intense blue and you can see dark veins running out to the wing margins past little round dark circles surrounded by white. The ground around the white chalk is dry littered with dried out grasses and stalks.
August 23, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is: #Simple, so here is a welsh meadow pipit in the sun. Wish I was there today, though walking along Devil’s Ditch nr Swaffham Prior and listening to chattering flocks of young goldfinches was a nice way to spend the morning.
Meadow pipit (I hope) standing on a concrete pillar, side on facing left, with its head turned to look at camera. It was taken in May, and it looks very smart with orangey lega and even brown streaked breast on cream.
August 23, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Good to see clouded yellows still flitting around Magog Down. Thanks to @andrewknights.bsky.social for this. I should have laid down to take the photo… but you can see the warm buttery yellow of the wing showing through. Butterflies making the best of very dry conditions.
Clouded yellow sitting with wings folded on a dried out path. It’s underwing is green, more like a brimstone, with brown spots and brown/white fringe. Straw coloured antennae and legs, like dried grass, and a round green eye - why do butterflies so often look so discomfited? Small blue I think. So dark with a dusting of blue and white fringing Female common blue on a dried seed head surrounded by other dried stems the same colour as her brown wings.
August 17, 2026 at 11:29 AM
An eclipse on a fence, mediated by trees
A projection of the partial eclipse, on a wooden fence. It’s caused by the sun shining through vegetation.
August 12, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #PeekABoo. So here’s a Stock Dove peeking through the greenery in rather late light.
Stock dove looking sideways through the small leafy twigs of a tree. You can see it’s black beady eye,the iridescent teal blue feathers on its neck and its pink feet on a larger branch.
August 11, 2026 at 7:38 PM
So nice to have cooler weather on Magog Down. Following a tip (thank you!) we did get to fruitlessly run around after a beautiful clouded yellow butterfly. Also a couple of Latticed Heath moths, tiny with chunky little stripey bodies, and willing to sit around long enough even for me..
#ukwildlife
Latticed heath with dark brown veining and creamy white. Tiny.
August 6, 2026 at 2:22 PM
#BirdOfTheDay theme #FabulousWaders makes me a bit sad as I’m missing the sea and its wildlife. Here’s a foraging curlew from my first trip last September to Cley Marshes - and what lovely friendly birdwatchers there were there!
A curlew foraging on salt marsh. Its feathers are fluffed by the wind, legs buried in long grass. They are facing slightly away so you can see their dappled back, golden head and long long slightly curved beak. It’s keeping a watchful eye out for predators (and observers)
August 4, 2026 at 9:04 AM
@alan678.bsky.social
#BirdOfTheDay theme is #OverTheRainbow - a bird looking skyward: so here’s rainbow seeking wood pigeon.
#ukwildlife #birds
Head of a wood pigeon looking up. You can see the striated iridescent blue green feathers on his neck. Behind him the background is orange, red and green.
August 1, 2026 at 8:50 PM
#BirdOfTheDay theme is #EgretsAndHerons, so here is a heron sat in a tree and doing a Jarvis Cocker impression
#birds #ukbirds
A heron sitting face on the camera, head slightly tilted, one eye each side of his beak and looking down at the camera. He has a fringed suit of brownish grey feathers at the front. He’s framed against a funky blurry backdrop of bare branches against which he seems rather well camouflaged. He has a mournful look probably because he’d just dropped a fish in a stream by mistake.
July 31, 2026 at 6:47 PM
Posting this because it’s just a wren in the green, singing its heart out. #BirdOfTheDay theme is: #YourChoice
#birds #ukbirds
A russet brown wren singing in a hawthorn. Its eyes are part closed, and it’s perched on a small twig off a lichen covered branch covered with old spider web. The leaves are bright green and the lichen ochre yellow
July 30, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Three Jersey Tigers hanging out in hedges in our Cambridge street today. First saw them last year, glad to see they’re back! #ukwildlife
Large Jersey Tiger moth sheltering in a holly hedge. Stripy black and white upper wings, orange red lower wings just showing along the body. Stripy yellow and black legs, yellow body with black spots just visible. When they fly, slow flappy wandering, they are stunning: orange red and stripy black and white.
July 9, 2026 at 12:26 PM
I thought maybe a chiffchaff among hazel (?) leaves, wrangling a delicious insect would be suitable for #BirdOfTheDay #FeathersInFoliage
A Chiff chaff in a small tree at Magog Down. It is sitting on a small lichen covered branch that swoops up to the right. The chiffchaff is looking up to the left and holding a bright green insect in its beak.
May 15, 2026 at 7:47 PM
A little dappled bird on the Dyfi: a Grasshopper warbler for #BirdOfTheDay #Dappled.
A slim grasshopper warbler stretched out to sing from gorse. He is a pale brown with streaked neck and upper back, his belly is pale yellow as is the stripe over his eye. (He was very loud!)
May 5, 2026 at 8:04 PM
A pair of wary stock doves in a cypress tree for #BirdOfTheDay #Pairs
Two Stock Doves sitting in a fastigiate cypress. One is facing left, with one eye on the camera. The other is straight on but their head is turned to the left to keep an eye on the sky. You can see their characteristic black eyes and iridescent green necks. A bit of clear blue sky is visible between the frondy branches.
May 4, 2026 at 7:12 PM
This is such a lovely piece of writing about being in nature with a child of insatiable curiosity claireivywaters.substack.com/p/unfurling-...
Unfurling amongst living fossils full of air bubbles, under the green glow of woodpeckers.
Yesterday our nine year old wanted to make his first pilgrimage of the year to visit his patch of carnivorous sundews on the north facing moor across the valley, to see if they have started growing.
claireivywaters.substack.com
April 22, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Thought I’d add to today's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #Petals&Perches with a Rook in Cowslips
A Rook, with a large pouch under his beak, wandering through a field of yellow cowslips on Magog Down
April 21, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Definitely spring at the Cambridge Botanics today @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social
Three mallard chicks sitting in long grass. One’s looking straight at the camera, one behind and to the left is grooming his chest feathers. Their mother is half out of shot behind.
April 16, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Kate King
francesryan.bsky.social
Have you ever been criticised in public for using a Blue Badge? I’m looking to gather disabled people’s experiences for The Guardian to explore hostility around the Blue Badge and Motability schemes.

We’ve made a quick form you can fill in here: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a... (Please share.)
Blue badge holders: how are you treated by other members of the public when out?
Have you experienced reactions from other people when using your blue badge? We’d like to hear from you
www.theguardian.com
April 14, 2026 at 6:44 PM
This is such a lovely author interview, on the level. Don’t think the title really indicates the emotional and intellectual breadth of the piece.
March 28, 2026 at 12:30 PM
Lovely to see the little grebe back in his breeding colours @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social
Male Dabchick in breeding plumage: dark grey with russet neck on green water with ripples and reflections of green plants
March 3, 2026 at 3:18 PM