Harry Saddler
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harrysaddler.bsky.social
Harry Saddler
@harrysaddler.bsky.social
2.5K followers 170 following 850 posts
Wrote a book about a bird (the Eastern Curlew, 2018), a river (A Clear Flowing Yarra, 2023), and a global existential crisis or three (Questions Raised By Quolls, 2021).
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harrysaddler.bsky.social
Making one of my favourite home-made ice-cream flavours, vanilla and finger lime (basically like a bougie lime splice) - but for the first time using finger limes I grew in my own garden 😎 (also vanilla pods that my brother imported, but that’s another story)
A saucepan containing a pale yellow liquid which is dotted with tiny green specks. There’d a black vanilla pod just visible beneath the surface of the liquid, and a whisk half-submerged in the liquid.
November 27, 2025 at 11:04 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Absolutely hectic frog action at one of the local wetlands tonight, I reckon there’s at least half a dozen different species calling in this recording I made (sound up, obviously)
November 25, 2025 at 11:26 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Shades of this great moment in Canberra Raiders history, vis-a-vis club legend Alan Tongue:
An excerpt from the Wikipedia article about Alan Tongue, which reads: ‘In his 200th game for Canberra, on 28 August 2010, a Tongue supporter commented on the opposition (North Queensland Cowboys, through its player Willie Mason) in a sexually suggestive crowd poster shown prominently at the stadium and in TV coverage: "Who needs a Big Willie when you have a great Tongue?".’
November 22, 2025 at 11:31 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Anyone wanna see this cool stick insect I saw yesterday? (Helpful bods on iNaturalist tell me it’s a Children’s stick insect, Tropidoderus childrenii, and Wikipedia tells me the blue wings spots are diagnostic and the body colour and structure mean it’s a male)
A long, skinny, red stick insect on the ground amid leaf litter. Its wings are partially open, showing dark blue colouration at the joint of the wings and the body.
November 20, 2025 at 9:10 PM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Actually saw more than one. That tail - like a baseball bat - is so distinctive, there’s no other tail like it in the southern Australian forests.
Grainy black-and-white night-time footage of a small, dark-furred possum clinging to the trunk of a skinny tree. The possum has a dark black stripe down its spine and a tail which is narrow at the base and thick at the end.
November 19, 2025 at 9:30 PM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Not great footage but check out this Leadbeater’s possum I saw last night! Fastest thing I’ve ever seen in the trees, so good
November 19, 2025 at 9:27 PM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Also if you’re in the Labor Party I hope this fills you with the deepest shame you’ve ever felt in your life! Because it should!!
A paragraph from an article in the Guardian about the Victorian Liberals replacing their party leader. It says: “Some Liberals who supported the leadership change had raised concerns that Battin had become “a one-trick pony” on crime. They argued his campaign on this issue was diluted by Jacinta Allan’s decision to allow 14-year-olds to serve adult jail sentences.”
November 18, 2025 at 7:15 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
In the city today and just saw a celebrity! (One of the Collins St peregrine falcons)
A blurry, distant photo of a crossbow-shaped bird silhouetted against a grey cloudy sky.
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Last Friday night I took a trip to Badger Weir, just outside Healesville, which is probably the best place close to Melbourne to see greater gliders - the largest of all gliding marsupials
November 10, 2025 at 9:18 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
the_cheese_wanter has logged on
A black dog resting his chin hopefully on my leg as I’m seated at a table.
October 31, 2025 at 3:30 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Lol, fucking LMAO:
A screenshot of a paragraph from the Wikipedia entry for Chip Le Grand. It reads: “His 2022 book Lockdown about Australia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic garnered substantial reviews in major Australian publications[8][9][10], even if no one read it.[11]” Included in the screenshot is the citation for reference 11, the statement that nobody read Le Grand’s book. The citation is his opinion article “I wrote a book and no one read it. It’s time to face up to what we have lost.” This is the same article that is being made fun of in this BlueSky thread.
October 30, 2025 at 3:26 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
My take: Albo shouldn’t have been seen wearing an Unknown Pleasures t-shirt, he should have been seen carrying around a 1990s-era Impact Records bag
A green plastic bag with “IMPACT RECORDS East Row & City Walk Canberra City (02) 6247 4401” written on it. The bag features a design similar to the design of the cover for the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures.
October 28, 2025 at 10:59 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Whoops forgot that I also took this video
October 26, 2025 at 10:44 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Haven’t been to the platypus bridge in ages so I popped in after the rain today hoping that I hadn’t missed peak seasonal activity and OMFG?!?!
October 26, 2025 at 6:01 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Little Dog blew a knee out from doing too many eXtreme zOomies and now he has to spend the next 6-12 weeks living in an aquarium, nobody is looking forward to it
A fluffy white Japanese Spitz staring out from inside a mesh pet enclosure which is placed on the floor inside a house.
October 24, 2025 at 10:40 PM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Out of curiosity I clicked through to one of the linked articles in the sidebar and… 🙃
A screenshot of an article about artist Tim Storrier. The text reads: ‘Disillusioned with what he says is the muddling, politicised and esoteric direction of government funded contemporary art, Storrier has chosen Sculpture by the Sea, and the Bondi coast as the backdrop for his new sculptural work, becoming the first Archibald Prize winner to exhibit in the outdoor sculpture walk. ‘“I’ve ceased looking at a lot of contemporary art because I’m fed up to the back teeth of the hectoring nature of their political messages,” Storrier said. ‘“They don’t know the difference between propaganda and fine art. If you are talking about gender and race issues, it’s certainly not subtle. They can keep their disgraceful political messages, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.”’
October 23, 2025 at 5:19 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
“What is this, a hardware shop for worms?!”
A screenshot from Google Maps showing a business called “Worm’s Mitre 10”.
October 22, 2025 at 8:51 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Holy crap the Emergency Vic map at the moment is absolutely hectic. Stay safe everyone!
October 22, 2025 at 7:18 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Heaps of sacred kingfishers - they’ve just arrived from up north. Lots of fantailed cuckoos too. Two brown goshawks. Lots of rosellas - eastern and crimson. Great views of a male mistletoebird. A nice big swamp wallaby. Masses of kangaroos. A jacky dragon. And this beautiful little tiger snake:
October 18, 2025 at 8:43 PM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
How it started/how it ended/how it went
A white man with a dark beard (it’s me) wearing a dark hoodie and a backpack and standing next to a green sign that says “Welcome to Plenty Gorge Park”. There are eucalypt trees in the background. Me again, looking noticeably more tired and wearing a dark green hat and a pale blue shirt over a dark green/blue t-shirt. The straps of a backpack are over my shoulders and the straps of a pair of binoculars are around my neck. It’s sunny and behind me is a grassy field with eucalypt trees in the distance. A screenshot from the Apple iPhone “Health” app showing 46,845 steps and 28.5 kilometres. The timestamp is 5:55pm.
October 18, 2025 at 7:16 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
CARBON SONK
The Stonks meme
October 15, 2025 at 11:02 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Happy weird flower season to all who celebrate! (Actually the wildflowers have been well down on last year in my part of the world, but here’s a spider orchid - I think Caladenia parva - from a reserve near my home)
A mostly green flower with long, streamer-like sepals each of which has a maroon stripe down the middle. The labellum of the flower is maroon at the front and white at the back, and to the sides of the labellum are two white and green comb-like structures. The flower is on the end of a long stalk rising from a single leaf. It looks like a weird alien. A magnified photo of the same flower described in the previous image, showing in particular a series of short maroon club-like stalks rising from the surface of the white part of the labellum.
October 13, 2025 at 9:38 PM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Happy awkward baby bird season to all who celebrate (pictured: a recently fledged white-winged chough)
A black bird with slightly scruffy feathers and, fuzzy grey eyebrows, and a fleshy gape to its beak. It’s perched in the bare branches of a tree with its back to the camera and its head turned in profile.
October 13, 2025 at 4:05 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Happy butterfly season to all who celebrate. If you’re in Melbourne good news - the caper whites have arrived!
A white butterfly with black wing veins and yellow wing spots sitting on the ground amid sparse grass.
October 11, 2025 at 4:44 AM
harrysaddler.bsky.social
Our neighbours have moved out or gone away - we haven’t seen them in months - and we’ve suspected there’s a fox living in their back garden because our dogs keep barking at the fence. Turns out there’s a whole FAMILY! I just saw over the fence one of the adults bringing a dead possum to the kits:
October 9, 2025 at 4:27 AM