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Natalie Downe

@natbat.bsky.social

2K followers 950 following 650 posts

Enthusiastic adventurer, artist, potter, conservation technologist, tidepool guide, California naturalist, community organizer & frontend web developer. WU3M 🦇🦭🦀(🐺🐓🐇) #scicomm Mastodon @[email protected] Twitter @natbat Instagram @natbat & @natbat.art

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · Aug 2

Hello followers! My name is Natalie, I'm a naturalist, ceramicist, community organizer and occasional technologist. A Brit living in coastal Northern California with my husband @simonwillison.net

- My art instagram.com/natbat.art
- Photography instagram.com/natbat
- Mastodon @[email protected]

A photo do me holding a Palid bat at a workshop in the Mohave desert. My name tag says Natalie Downe and @natbat which was/is my handle on Twitter before I left and is also my handle on most other platforms too

I love tidepooling! A photo of me waist deep in a tidepool in California

Cleo won first prize at dog fest in San Francisco, this is a photo of her wearing the costume I made of the Golden Gate Bridge

Simon Willison and I at our wedding posing on the floor with a baby Eurasian eagle owl, we had a falconer at our wedding and he used our deposit to get this amazing creature

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 7h

Thanks! Of course you can get a copy, if you have the Canva app installed you should be able too open this and then create a copy that you can edit yourself.

You’ll need to unlock the panels before you make changes. I lock them after I’m done so I don’t mess them up

www.canva.com/design/DAG2N...

Reposted by Natalie Downe

Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 12h

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 9h

I made and folded a little booklet that I attached mini bags of haribo to and handed them out at the #nokings rally in Half Moon Bay today.

Printable: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kd92p...

The phone numbers are specific to the CA Bay Area, let me know if you want the Canva template I made.

For alt text of this foldable booklet, see the link attached here which should be a pdf you can get the text from

A foldable booklet that says “why are we protesting” “and how you can help”, I’m sat on a sofa in the garden with my dog and my chickens and a glass of wine

Haribo gold bears attached to the booklets

A large orange sign in the shape of a pumpkin that says “free candy”

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Reposted by Natalie Downe

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 20h

Head to a protest today. I can almost promise you will feel less hopeless. That's exactly what they don't want. There are more of us than there are of them.

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 1d

I think I’ve solved two of life’s hard problems! In order to get to sleep and distract your brain, plan what to have for lunch tomorrow!

I’m going to be dreaming of my baked potato with sour cream, butter, cheese and Korean impossible beef!

Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 2d

Today’s episode of “what is that chicken doing?”: Olive has a dust bath…

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 4d

I loved that expression! I think he was pained the pumpkin didn’t weigh as much as he wanted it to

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 4d

I always love the entertainment too, we get free donuts and coffee from Safeway and Jim Stevens is the best pumpkin bard!

The local brass band plays and local celeb Cameron from Cameron’s Inn and local radio personality Marcus from Star 101.3 MC the event and tell very bad pumpkin jokes 🎃

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 4d

Congrats to Brandon Dawson who won the Half Moon Bay Giant pumpkin weighoff yesterday with a 2346lb (1064.128kg) pumpkin!

It’s always such a fun day, the weather held out (before the epic rain last night!) and all the pumpkins were fabulous!

Brandon wins with a giant pumpkin weighing 2346lb

A man looks pained that his giant pumpkin weighs 1805lb

3 of the biggest on fork lift trucks raised and ready to weigh

Pumpkin judges inspect the bottom of a pumpkin

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Reposted by Natalie Downe

Exeter Marine @exetermarine.bsky.social · 4d

POSITIVE NEWS 🗣️

Green turtles move from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Least concern’ on the IUCN Red List, thanks to decades of hard work by conservationists globally.

Read the full assessment - iucnredlist.org/fr/species/4615/285108125

Footage from Open Planet / @brendangodley.bsky.social

🦑🌍🌐🌊🐟🐢

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Reposted by Natalie Downe

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 5d

Everyone I know is sick right now with “a bad bug”

Many are lamenting the fact that they were sick not long ago as well

Then they turn around and ask me when I’m going to stop masking

My N95 means I avoid not only covid, but all the other viruses floating around

Masks rock!

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 5d

Where are you getting your pretty radar maps?

I’m supposed to be in the calm between the blobs but it’s still hectic rain right now!

Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 6d

Wow, that is incredibly exciting. Do you have any videos of you vaulting?

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 6d

The after party had tasty food and some horsey demonstrations, including: a polo match, dressage and “vaulting” which is basically gymnastics ON A MOVING HORSE!!!

whoa94062.org/trail-ride/

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 6d

It turns out I don’t own anything beige at all because I spend a lot of time scrubbing around in the dirt. (Making ceramics, as a naturalist & we have a mini farm)

Instead I wore a sparkly leopard print jacket that I got from a drag queen royalty sale from a queen that was retiring in San Francisco

Me in a leopard print sparkly jacket ans a shark tshirt

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 6d

Such an enjoyable day hanging out with old and new friends. My friend Judy invited me and her housemate Michael and her friend Catherine joined us on our booth.

The four of us dressed in safari clothes and I’m in a sparkly leopard print jacket

Horses come to our booth which is a tent and a table that has a leopard print tablecloth

Judy and Catherine talk to two sherif horses

Judy pets a horse and it’s human is a giraffe

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 6d

The costumes were great, naturally there were a fair amount of zebras and giraffes!

A zebra horse and a giraffe horse face each other

A white speckled horse is dressed as a bird watcher with a hat binoculars and jacket and a green bush as a tail. The human is a zebra with hot air balloons

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 6d

I learnt a lot about horses! My favourite species were the Clydesdale and the Gypsy banner which had furry feet and the Icelandic ones which were so fluffy!

A white gypsy banner horse with fluffy feet has a fake white ruff as a costume

Two brownIcelandic horses are ridden toward the camera with humans dressed as lions

Massive Clydesdale horse, the human and the horse are dressed as a lion

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 6d

I really enjoyed volunteering at yesterday’s “day of the horse” in Woodside.

It’s basically trick or treat for horses, they ride a trail all through the horse park and the town and at each station the humans get a raffle ticket and the horses get a treat!

I petted and fed nearly a hundred horses!!

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 9d

Does anyone know what happened to Corey from iHeart radio’s Star 101.3? I missed the explanation of why she’s no longer on the show this morning at 8:30ish. So strange to suddenly have her leave mid week with no notice! She will be missed! 1013.iheart.com/featured/mar...

About Marcus & Corey | Star 101.3

Want to know more about Marcus and Corey? Get their official bios, social pages and blogs on Star 101.3!

1013.iheart.com

Reposted by Natalie Downe

Kai Ryssdal @kairyssdal.bsky.social · 10d

This is the lesson of 2025

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 10d

he's going to come after you either way, so you might as well act with integrity

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 11d

Which women is he talking about?

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Reposted by Natalie Downe

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 11d

Remember how the Trump administration raged about "transgender mice" because of studies involving transgenic mice?

Well, the woman who just won the Nobel Prize in Medicine wrote her thesis using transgenic mice.

Early life and education

Brunkow was born in 1961 in Portland, Oregon.[2][3] She graduated at St. Mary's Academy in Portland in 1979.[3]

Brunkow received a BS in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Washington in 1983.[4] She received a PhD in molecular biology from Princeton University in 1991, where her advisor was Shirley M. Tilghman.[5] Her doctoral dissertation was titled Expression and function of the H19 gene in transgenic mice (1991).[1]

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Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 11d

Swans are basically the Giraffes of the bird world

Natalie Downe @natbat.bsky.social · 14d

Such a beautiful sunny day for a harvest festival at the Alpaca farm!

If you want to enjoy some great music & food and shop some local crafts & art; come to Montara today!

You can also take selfies with the Alpacas 🦙🦙 maps.app.goo.gl/y4dh7hUdS5De...

I am standing with my pottery stand - two tables of ceramic items, including striped colorful mugs and exciting bowls with complex shapes and glaze effects

Poster for the festival:

Alpacas By The Sea Harvest Festival 2025
Second Harvest Food Bank Benefit
Saturday October 4th 2025
Ranch Open 10:00 AM
• Coastal Artisans •
Donate!m
• Music By
Mark Wieser & The Lucky Dogs • Slack Tide Currents
Liam Miller Band • John Lester • Mondo Stereo The California Turnaround • Steve Gallup
Karen Soo Hoo & Steve Weigant • Dirk Sell
Rick Mixter & Lainey Sainte-Marie • HYTHIN
Jim Rogers & LizAnah & Marianne Rogers Fourth Street Experience • HollerFolk
BAKERONSE
ALPACAS BY THE SEA
1162 Tamarind Street Montara, CA 94037
Images by Jeff Regan • Great Food For Purchase

The view of the festival - hay bales to sit on, grass, craft stands, nice dogs

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