Six (Brief) Things...

... from the weekend

Thing 1 – Swifts and swallows and martins oh my

They’ve been late to the party, and of course things are far from rosy, but our favourite summer birds* are beginning to catch up.

The reporting rates of, from top left to bottom right, swifts, house martins, sand martins and swallows.

All charts from the British Trust for Ornithology’s excellent Birdtrack. And here’s the original twitter thread.

*other favourite summer birds are available

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Thing 2 – Bach

Viktoria Mullova is not only an extremely fine violinist – she has a nice line in dry humour, too.

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Thing 3 – Willy Wonka

This, from Shaun Usher’s superb Letters of Note, is quite quite lovely.

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Thing 4 – Lightning

Every year, when thunderstorms loom, I find myself looking at the lightning map.

Partly it’s the desire for blessed release from the humidity and mounting air pressure; partly it’s fascination with powers way beyond human control.

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Thing 5 – Penelope

Thanks to @agnesfrim for pointing out this gem from @depthsofwiki.

Full thread here. It’s quite the ride.

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Thing 6 – Flaars

Honestly, you go away for ONE DAY, and this happens.

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