more quartets of simple character

In our occasional attempts at playing chamber music, we have very much appreciated the collection of

Original String Quartet Movements of Simple Character

by Walter Höckner.

Now I discovered that there is a sequel to it, containing complete string quartets of simple character, which I found at a local Oxfam shop and added to my quartets collection. A bit of searching revealed that Mr Höckner also did similar editions for string trios, some music for "incomplete" string quartets (so they have something to play while waiting for the last one or two members to show up), for flute quartets, and more. Oh, and a third volume of quartets too. Might take a while to complete the collection without paying extortionate prices to some of these online dealers.

Amazingly, I can't find any information about him as a person. IMSLP, in the entry on the pair of quartet collections, speculates he may be related to Hilmar Höckner, who at least has a Wikipedia entry, as the two edited some works together.

The painting that graces both my quartet volumes is called Haydn quartet and is by the Austrian painter Julius Schmid (1854-1935). I'm still on the lookout for paintings of people playing chamber music and I quite like this one so will show it here on its own:

Scanned from my copy of The String Quartet vol. 2.

Note the lovely violin case taking centre stage at the front - it is the same build as the historic case that came with my current favourite violin, number 22. I do remember that I still need to do a blog entry dedicated to that case.

UPDATE 6.6.2025 When I took the photo of vol I and II, I carefully covered up the address sticker of a previous owner on the cover of vol I. Looking at it again I realised that his address is Simrock House - so he named his house after the original publishing company that first published the quartets (although his edition was a licensed one by Alfred Lengnick for the UK). So I became curious and did a bit of searching. Turns out that Richard Schauer of Simrock House was a music publisher himself, and came to London in 1939 a Jewish refugee from Germany. He died in London in 1952, but the company Schauer & May Ltd. still exists, although it moved out of Simrock House in 2002.
Oh, and the copy of the incomplete quartets arrived today. It contains a preface by Walter Höckner signed in March 1962 at Schloss Ortenburg, a castle in Bavaria (near Passau).

the Zeuzheim Clan

After accidentally discovering the place from which the very rare family name Zeuzheim (Zeutzheim, Zeutzem, Zeitzem) is probably derived, I had a look at my files and found ancient copies from a residents register (Ortsfamilienbuch) of Horchheim, the village (now part of Koblenz) where all known Zeuzheim people appear to have their origins. For direct ancestors we also have copies or transcripts of the relevant documents from the (catholic) church archives. For other descendants, we just go by the book.

So here are the descendants of the earliest Zeuzheim person I know of, namely Johannes Zeutzem. He was married to Magdalena and had at least five children with her, born 1661-1668, and then to Margaretha, with whom he had his last known child, born 1675. No further details are known regarding either of the wives.

Close-up of the Zeuzheim sign on the station of Niederzeuzheim, from the photo I used before.

I'll first list the six children on their own, and then again with all their spouses and descendants. I'm marking twins in the list, as my Krefeld Clan has a conspicuous number of twin births and this seems to be something that came down from the Zeuzheim side. I've also marked godmothers and godfathers where necessary to explain the unexpected choices of posh first names. A few people were employed by the local nobility which may explain some of the high-born godfathers and godmothers. The De la Strada lineage has a similar background in the service of the house of Nassau at Oranienstein (near Diez, just south of Horchheim).

1. Hans Michael ~ 6.3.1661
2. Johannes ~ 2.4.1663
3. Sophia ~ 25.5.1665
4. Lorenz ~ 9.3.1667
5. Eva Elisabeth ~ 27.11.1668
6. Lucas ~ 23.10.1675

Note that in this generation there is also an Anton Zeutzem married to Maria Flory and having children from 1685 to 1695. Not clear what the relation to the family of Johannes is, but it seems to suggest that Johannes is not the only Zeuzheim in his generation. There is also a widower named Jakob Zeutzheim. He died in 1707 aged 54, so this couple would have been a bit younger than our founder couple.

Now the whole clan. I think I have all the grandchildren - it gets confusing after that because the same names are popping up in parallel families and from the data in the register it is not always clear which of the Jakobs or Johanns Z. a particular family should be attached to:

1. Hans Michael ~ 6.3.1661
oo Anna Gertrud Enkrich
1.1 Anna Barbara ~ 15.3.1690
1.2. Otilie * 14. / ~ 17.5.1693
1.3. Maria ~ 21.9.1695
1.4. Eulalia ~ 26.10.1698
1.5. Jakob ~ 17.8.1700 + 2.3.1752
oo 25.1.1729 Maria Magdalena Saur (2nd oo 1754 Joh. Sauer)
1.5.1. Johannes * 5.2.1730
1.5.2. Johannes * 14.11.1731
1.5.3. Anna Katharina * 14.3.1736 oo 11.1.1757 Joseph Margareta, Schuhmacher in Thal
5 children born 1757-1762
oo 23.10.1763 Karl Joseph Henrich
8 children born 1764-1780
1.5.4. Franz * 9.2.1738
1.5.5. Philipp Friedrich 9.2.1741 (godfather: PF Baron von Reiffenberg)
1.5.6. Eleonora Katharina Juliana * 5.7.1743 (godmother: EKJ von Reiffenberg, nee von Wasenburg)
oo 9.1.1765 Johann Irsch, gardener with the baron von Eyhs (NB a bit of tragedy piling up here, Eleonora died in 1768 at age 24, her daughter three years later just before her sixth birthday, and Johann Irsch went on to marry Agnes Nickenich, have four children with her within four years (including a set of twins, one of whom died after 10 days) just to die at age 27.)
1.5.6.1. Theresia * 20.10.1765
1.5.7. Margaretha Helena * 5.7.1743 twins with 1.5.6. Her name changed to Maria Magdalena by the time she oo 11.11.1765 Philipp Delastrada but it's definitely the same person, as per a note on her baptism entry confirming that she's the one who married Philipp. The archivist who sent us the transcripts suggested it is most likely that she was called Lena and abbreviated her first Christian name to M., and when she got married and needed a more official name, somebody wrongly expanded the shorter version into Maria Magdalena. These two are the grandparents of Elisabetha de la Strada.
1.5.8. Anna Gertrud ~5.11.1748
1.5.9. Gertrud * 16.8.1751
1.6. Johann Peter ~ 12.3.1703 oo 6.6.1724 Anna Zander + 9.3.1765 aged 72 (see also GedBas)
1.6.1. Jakob * 3.1.1725
1.6.2. Franz *23.6.1726 + before 1793
oo 30.1.1753 Veronica Freusburger from Valendar + 12.10.1793 aged 66 "ob languore"
6 children including Johann Georg Zeutzheim (*27.11.1758) whose family is on GedBas (they are the only grandchildren of Johann Peter listed there)
1.6.3. Johann Georg * 4.6.1729 + 18.3.1796 from asthma
oo 31.1.1758 Elisabeth Mohr from Kobern + 22.10.1775 aged 41 after long term tuberculosis
7 children including a set of twins
2nd oo 11.6.1776 Anna Katharina Struth + 25.2.1795 aged 67, stroke
1.6.4. Matthias ~ 8.11.1733
1.6.5. Johannes * 28.8.1734 oo 27.6.1763 Maria Volcker from Kamp
1.6.6. Anna Katharina * 11.1.1738 + 8.10.1774
1.6.6.1 Veronika Z. * 6.4.1761 + 17.12.1761 (father: Friedrich Augstein from Ruedesheim)
1.6.6.2. Anna Clara *15.6.1765 + 18.6.1765 (father: Joseph Blath, French soldier)
1.6.7. Albertina Franziska 9.7.1740 (godmother: AF von Heddesdorff)

2. Johannes ~ 2.4.1663 oo Maria Margaretha
2.1 Johannes ~ 28.3.1701

3. Sophia ~ 25.5.1665

4. Lorenz ~ 9.3.1667

5. Eva Elisabeth ~ 27.11.1668

6. Lucas ~ 23.10.1675

NB the Horchheim book notes no death or any other further events for the four youngest children - so we're left to hope they lived happily somewhere else. There are Zeuzheim links to the neighbouring village of Pfaffendorf, for instance, now also a part of Koblenz.

on tour again

I just discovered on youtube that Shakira is on world tour again, currently in the US and Latin America. It's been a while since I last saw her (list below) and various things have happened since then that have kept me away from the big arena gigs. One being a tinnitus that became permanent after the Halestorm gig I saw in 2013, the other the discovery that there are lots of opportunities around here for me to play wrong notes in public, which has shifted the focus of my musical interest from mostly listening to mostly playing. With all that, I missed the El Dorado Tour in 2018 (which also ran into trouble when Shakira had problems with her voice ahead of the first European dates).

Shakira performing at Medellin, Colombia. Photo: Wikipedia

I did watch a very lovely video of the New Jersey show from May 15 though (always good to be able to adjust the volume). From this I figured that the Las mujeres ya no lloren tour promotes an eponymous, all-Spanish album which I missed when it came out last year, so I ordered a copy of that. UPDATE 3.6. CD arrived today, after listening to it twice, I'm a bit underwhelmed, so may not be writing up a review.

Latin American dates are scheduled through to November. If and when the tour comes to Europe, I may have to think about some hearing protection ...

Previous Shakira concerts I attended (some of the pre-blogspot blogposts have disappeared):

London 16.12.2002
Madrid 25.04.2003
Madrid 22.06.2006
Antwerpen 31.01.2007
London 18.03.2007
Köln 08.04.2007
Lyon 17.11.2010
Paris 6.12.2010

PS Bonus video - La quiero a morir / Je l'aime a mourir - this wasn't included in the concert linked to above. This one hour video from Toronto is also lovely - seems to have a lot less advertising than the New Jersey one.

an origin story

In family history research, every new answer tends to create two new questions, so in dealing with this hydra effect, it is always satisfying to find a kind of endpoint such as the place and time where a family name came into being, if only as an excuse to stop digging. I have shared a few such origin stories already, some more hypothetical than others, eg for my lineages of Wolff (named after the Wolffskotten farm in Styrum) and Kauer (leading to the Kauerhof at Nickweiler, mentioned in 1074), and the French connection of Dopheide / d'Oppède.

Now I discovered another one accidentally just by looking out of the window of a train while travelling to Idstein:

Photo of the train station of Niederzeuzheim, Kreis Limburg (Lahn), Hesse, Germany, taken from a train.
Own photo.

Ignore the first bit, "Nieder" just means "Lower" Zeuzheim, there is also an Upper Zeuzheim nearby. Now Zeuzheim is also a really rare and interesting family name which probably arose only once, with Zeutzheim and Zeutzem as spelling variations. My most recent Zeutzheim ancestor Maria Magdalena (baptised Margaretha Helena but definitely the same person) married a de la Strada and later became the grandmother of Elisabetha de la Strada, the founding mother of the Krefeld Clan. She was born in Horchheim (today part of Koblenz) in 1743 and died in Krefeld in 1798.

Her father and paternal grandfather were both born in Horchheim as well, and of her great-grandfather we only have the name Johann Zeutzem (as well as two wives and lots of descendants, will have to prepare an entry on the Zeutzem Clan one day). He must have been born before 1640, so it is a plausible hypothesis that he or his parents were displaced by the Thirty-Years War and may have been settled with the name Zeutzheim as the indication of where they came from. The historic villages of Niederzeuzheim and Oberzeuzheim, today both parts of Hadamar, are about 30 km east-northeast of Koblenz, so this would be the kind of place that people in Horchheim would be just about aware of, a half-day's walking journey away.

Meanwhile the fact that I wasn't aware of the place until I passed through on that train is easily explained by the writing as one word with Nieder- or Ober- prefixed to it. Any online searches for the family name would thus not have included the place name among the results.

In gedbas.de there is a Zeutzheim family in Horchheim descending from Johann Georg Zeutzheim born 1758, so 15 years younger than my Margaretha, could be a brother, nephew or cousin. The other spelling variants yield only more recent results. There are Zeuzheim people in Koblenz to this day, including a roofing company established in 1889.

List of origin stories for name lines (this might become a very irregular series):

• Wolff (named after the Wolffskotten farm in Styrum);
• Kauer (linked to the Kauerhof at Nickweiler, mentioned in 1074);
• Weyland is a name chosen by my Jewish ancestor upon his adult baptism - he was the reason I was travelling to Idstein;
• Obelode is a unique name linked to a farm at Steinhagen near Bielefeld
• From the same branch of the family tree and geographic area comes the French connection of Dopheide / d'Oppède.

Ancestors' names matching place names that I should look into include: Trimbach, Wilsberg,

three book reviews

I managed to lose track of my book reviews published in C&I, so here's three of them in a row. Chronologically backwards, because the more recent ones are more interesting than the one from March (which probably put me off blogging about it).

1)

The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability
Annette Kehnel
Profile Books 2024

Annette Kehnel, a historian specialising in Medieval finance, describes various areas where Medieval Europe had sustainable economic solutions, many of which were later replaced with something allegedly more efficient, but actually less sustainable. (I read the German original which is called "Wir konnten auch anders", roughly: There was another way.)

Medieval sustainability

Chemistry & Industry Volume 89, Issue 5, May 2025, Page 31

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

2)

Becoming Earth
Ferris Jabr
Picador 2024

Science writer Ferris Jabr divides the Earth systems into the three realms: rock, water and air, using enlightening examples to show how each of them has been shaped by life far more than we are generally aware. Each section starts in the deep past and ends with current threats, including soil loss, plastic pollution in the oceans, and climate change. 

Build your own planet

Chemistry & Industry Volume 89, Issue 4, April 2025, Page 33

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

3)

Natural biopolymers in drug delivery and tissue engineering
Rangasamy Jayakumar and Vishnu Priya Murali, eds.
Elsevier 2024

This hefty monograph offers an overview of where that medically-motivated use of biopolymers has led. It consists of two separate sections, with nearly 400 pages dedicated to the use of biopolymers in drug delivery, and then 250 on their use in tissue engineering. The editors have helpfully provided a detailed introduction for each of the two sections.

Biopolymers in medicine

Chemistry & Industry Volume 89, Issue 3, March 2025, Page 30

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

As always, I'm happy to send PDF files on request.

how the Sahara became a desert

The Sahara isn't exactly the place where you would want to store your DNA for a few millennia and expect it to still be readable, so it was a bit of a sensation that researchers recently published the first genome-wide analysis of 7000-year-old DNA of humans who lived there, when it wasn't a desert yet. A good excuse to look a bit more closely at the "Green Sahara" and how it became the Sahara desert we know today. It also serves as a warning, as some places are at risk of desertification due to climate change.

The resulting feature is out now:

Becoming a desert

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 10, 19 May 2025, Pages R357-R359

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(will become open access one year after publication)

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky (starting 22.2.2025), but for this purpose I have to post them again, outside of the thread. (I think threads only transfer if the first post was transferred, so once I start a new thread it should work.)

Last year's thread is here .

The Acacus Mountains in Southwest Libya, where archaeological excavations at sites such as the Takarkori Cave have revealed a rich fauna and human habitation during the African Humid Period. (Photo: Franzfoto/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).)

it's the season for naked cycling

The UK's World Naked Bike Ride season kicks off in three weeks time with the Cardiff Ride (aka DiffWNBR), so I'll compile some relevant info here. I typically get the tip-offs from this page but don't find its alphabetical order very helpful, so I am sorting everything in chronological order, as long as it can be reached from Oxford in a day trip using public transport (also including some rides abroad in places where I might be passing through by coincidence). No guarantee, obviously, do check other sources and local info.

As time passes and rides happen, I'll update the list with links to photos, press reports, and whatever I find about them.

8.6. Cardiff
14.6. London
21.6. Cambridge, Brussels
5.7. Brighton
6.7. Eastbourne
12.7. Amsterdam
19.7. Portsmouth
27.7. second Cardiff ride
30.8. Bristol

The list is looking a bit thin so far, but watch this space!

Own photo taken at the 2024 London WNBR as the ride passed the Victoria Memorial shortly before reaching the endpoint at Wellington Arch. .

My list of rides I participated in:

2015 Bristol
2016 Bristol, London
2017 Bristol, Brighton
2018 London
2019 London
2023 Oxford, London (hey that's me)
2024 London (I'm here and here and here - look for the green flag)

Links lead to the specific Flickr albums. All albums are combined in this Flickr collection.

robbed by Schinderhannes

I recently looked into the family history of the infamous robber Schinderhannes after a report that his skeleton was identified. Since then, I've retrieved a few books about the robbers from the library of our "family museum" and read most of

Schinderhannes und seine Bande
by Uwe Anhäuser
Rhein-Mosel-Verlag 2003

which throws around a lot of information in terms of names and quotes from the judicial procedures, but isn't very clearly structured. Although I haven't spotted any obvious connection with the names of the robbers (listed eg here), it occurred to me that a few of the victims and witnesses mentioned in the book could potentially be connected to my ancestry in the Hunsrück area (the ancestors of the Imig and the Kauer clans), so I went through the CV and the list of the crimes at the back of the book and wrote out the names (with place of residence) I could find. There's not much point in having a chronological order, as the whole crime spree was limited to just a few years, so I'll list victims and witnesses in alphabetical order here. NB the list of crimes is often missing first names, whereas the CV is only covering selected victims, and the spelling of names may differ between the two sources. I skipped a few where the information was too thin to be useful or victims were not from the area of interest.

André, NN, brigadier from Sobernheim (we have Andrae people as well, hailing from Gebroth, but our last male Andrae ancestor died 1765)

Andres, Franz, butcher at Kirn (must be related to the butchers family from which the founders of the local brewery emerged)

Bär, Jakob, Merxheim

Benedikt, Salomon, in Erbes-Büdesheim

Bernhard, Valentin, Waldgrehweiler

Frei, Anne Marie, hosted the robbers in Hahnenbach (where my relatives only arrived after Schinderhannes's death)

Frenger, NN, widow, Offenbach (Glan)

Geschwind, NN, Hundsbach

Gottschlick, Herz, Nahbollenbach

Horbach, NN, miller at ... Kanton Grumbach

Joel, Elias, Obermoschel

Köhler, Johann, Niederwörresbach

Kunz, Friedrich, Merxheim (we have Kunz / Kuntz people in that area too, eg Sargenroth, but much earlier, and this is a very common name, witness the idiomatic expression Hinz und Kunz, meaning just about everybody)

Levy, Samuel, Steinhardter Hof, robbed, then died of his injuries

Loeb, Mendel, murdered in 1801

Löb, Seckel, Staudernheim

Mathias, Wilhelm, butcher

Meyer, Herz, Ulmet (Glan)

Mohr, Christian, Schörner Hof (we do have lots of Mohr people in the area, but earlier, see here)

Moses, Isaak, Laufersweiler

Müller, Friedrich Gerhard, Raumbach

Nagel, NN, Bärenbach (the Schinder with whom Hannes served as apprentice and got his nickname)

Philippi, Heinrich (we have some Philippi ancestors from Heinzenbach in the Kirchberg area, the last in the line, Regina Chatherina Philippi was born in Simmern in 1782 and died there in 1851, so would have known of Schinderhannes as a contemporary)

Rauschenberger, Niklas, vagrant

Riegel, Peter, murdered in 1800 by Peter Stibitz, whose name is immortalised in the verb stibitzen, for "to steal"

Scherer, Johann Georg, Kirn, allegedly tried to get Schinderhannes poisoned

Schmitt, Johann, Spall

Sender, Isac, Weierbach

Schowalter, Jakob, Montforter Hof

Schweig, Niklas, Hirschstein

Schweizer, NN, Rehborn

Seligmann, Simon, murdered in 1798

Stumm cloth manufacturer at Birkenfeld

Stumm, Friedrich Philipp, Asbacherhütte (steel works on the river Fischbach)

Wiener, Wolf, Hottenbach

Zerfass, Johann Adam

Zerfas, Anne Marie, widow at Heinzenberg

Zürcher, Heinrich, Lettweiler

life story of a stradivarius violin

Düsseldorf's street libraries never fail to provide me with amazing books I never knew of, so this week I discovered, among other things:

Die Meistergeige (the master violin)
Hans Werder
Otto Janke Verlag 1914

First, it turns out that the male pseudonym hides a female author I never heard of, Anna von Bonin (1856-1933). Although successful in her lifetime, her works fell into oblivion after 1945. You can see why, as the pathos overload typical of the Romantic period doesn't quite fit the reading habits of our times. If you can look past that, however, here is a rather interesting novel, representing the complete life story of a stradivarius violin, some real historic musicians as well as fictional ones.

As the book doesn't provide any years or biographical data, I'll try to conjure up a chronology by listing the owners/players of the violin and including historic events mentioned.

Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), obviously, made the violin, and sold it to:

Lorenzo de Medici allegedly the nephew of Cosimo (III) de Medici (1642-1723), Arch Duke of Tuscany, for whom Stradivari had made a violin before (so we're looking at a period when the luthier was already quite famous, maybe around 1700?). I still think this Lorenzo may be fictional though (seeing that Cosimo III appears to have had a sister but no brothers, so any nephew would have had a different surname). Corelli (1653-1713) is mentioned as his teacher and inspiration. After dramatic events involving a love triangle as well as a vision of the violin being played by a dead man, he sold it to an

unnamed musician who took it to the Franciscan friary of Assisi and died there, leaving it to

the prior of said monastery who gave it to

Guiseppe Tartini (1692-1770) when he sought refuge there in 1710-1713 and studied with Padre Boemo (aka Czech organist and composer Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, 1684-1742). The author makes it explicit in a footnote that all biographical details of Tartini are historic. His baroque colleague Veracini (1690-1768) makes a brief appearance in 1716, as does the devil whom he credits for a sonata he wrote. Tartini left the violin to

Rinaldo Nazari, allegedly a pupil of his but probably fictional? After being saved from an untimely death by a pirate's daughter, Nazari took the violin to Germany and left it to

a woman who looked after him until he died. She later gave it to

Sdenek, a travelling gipsy musician (Zdenek being a Czech name, related to Zdeňka as in Zdeňka Černý), who reluctantly sold it to

the Earl of Konsbruch (fictional? although there was a Konsbruch branch in the descendance of the Goltz family), who left it to his nephew

Roderich who suffered injuries at the battles of Jena (1806) and Leipzig (1813). A young Paganini (1782-1840) also got to try out our violin in this chapter. After Roderich's death it was neglected for decades and eventually came down to his grandson:

Roderich the younger who wasn't a musician and died at the battle of Mars la Tour (1870), leaving it to his musically inclined cousin

Isabella who later gave it to

Harald Eginhardt, a celebrated soloist, who liked his Wagner. He took the stradivarius to the great concert halls and (spoiler alert) the violin died with him.

As for the violin itself, we have to assume it is fictional, as so many of its alleged owners are. While Tartini is known to have owned several stradivariuses, I don't think any of them could be made to fit this story. Although the author describes a specific decorative element, so maybe she had a specific instrument in mind?

So, across two centuries, this makes a dozen owners and eight players, with some having more soul in their playing than others, as the author discusses at length. It is fortunate that this was written before global fame catapulted Stradivari's instruments into the realm of investment bankers and safe vaults, from where only the more fortunate ones escape to play with globally celebrated stars.

The more down-to-earth stories appearing in this novel, with periods of neglect, danger, and a whole spectrum of musical talents are more like the life stories that some of the 19th century German violins that are still among us might also have witnessed. Only, without a famous name, nobody bothers to write them up (or imagine them).

Photo of my very lovely copy. (own photo)

Copies are available to buy here, very cheap too.

I am now making sure I systematically use the tag antiquarian for all books I review after I found them at street libraries. May have to think of a more specific tag later, but for now this will do.

the trouble with butterflies

Everybody loves butterflies, and they are easy to spot and identify, so we have mountains of citizen science data on their distribution and population trends. Which is good and useful, and a good indicator of ecosystem health or otherwise. The only trouble is that we don't know nearly enough about most other insect species. Thus, as we see butterflies declining, as we do now according to several recent studies, we should fear that the less popular and less well observed insects may also be in difficulties, and that may threaten the survival of many other species and entire ecosystems.

While some may consider butterflies as merely decorative, their demise should really worry us more than it does. More about all this in my latest feature which is out now:

Butterfly warnings

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 9, 5 May 2025, Pages R315-R317

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(will become open access one year after publication)

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky (starting 22.2.2025), but for this purpose I have to post them again, outside of the thread. (I think threads only transfer if the first post was transferred, so once I start a new thread it should work.)

Last year's thread is here .

A pair of dorcas copper butterflies (Lycaena dorcas), one of the North American species for which population trends were established in a recent study. (Photo: © David Pavlik, Michigan State University.)