Can only imagine that X and Facebook are plastered with 'iT'S cALLeD SuMmEr!!!?'.

In case you needed another reason to hate the New York Giants.

Mate of mine is coming to visit in Oxford today on a Cross Country train from Birmingham. In other words, he isn't coming.

So what happens when Reform take over your local council? This. #KentCountyCouncil

How about we just follow this rule that a convicted felon can’t actually be president of the United States

Having a thoroughly good time (not just the beer I promise) reading Peter Marren's entertaining article about Deadly Nightshade in this month's @britishwildlife.bsky.social. The folklore associated with poisonous plants is interesting and wacky in equal measure.

I think I've just seen a starling sneeze. Thought you ought to know.

Almost unbelievable forecast from tonight’s European model it has trended hotter. We see 32C/90F daily between this Sunday and next Tuesday in London area. Hard to believe we just experienced coolest mid May period in 16 years and now we look to see a historic heatwave. The change is violent.

We have a great tit pair in our garden in West Oxon which fledged a small brood around a week ago (only one fledgling seen around the garden but possible others may be around). The same pair seem to now be nest building in another nestbox in the garden...

🐦🏙️ Bird colours are changing in cities! Dr. Janas (MIZ PAS) co-authored a study across 8 Polish cities showing that more urban “concreting” leads to duller, more variable yellow in Great Tits 💛, while Blue Tits have brighter tails - yet melanin colours stay unchanged. 🐦🪽 🔗 Link: shorturl.at/Adsyw

Regret to inform you all that my lunch is better than yours today. Leftover onion bhaji from last night's takeaway in a flatbread with garlic mayonnaise.

VOTE NOW for Britain's Favourite Butterfly! 🦋 Flashy, adventurous or fantastically freaky. The UK is home to 60 species of butterfly, each with their own unique story. But who will be crowned the nation's favourite? 👑 Vote for your favourite 👉 britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk?utm_source=S...

That's a beautiful cup final goal.

Angela Rayner was dragged through every front page for weeks... HMRC's verdict: NOT deliberate. NOT even careless. Farage pockets £5 million and chooses not to declare it So where's the wall-to-wall coverage? Tell me this isn't a rigged game.

Starmer, Burnham, all of them should face off in a school sports day-style event. Sack race, egg and spoon, throwing a little beanbag. We'll quickly learn who is a real winner. The TV rights would help the economy through the uncertain period. I can't believe more people aren't suggesting this.

britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk/butterfly/pu... Some good harmless fun in a world with some depressing news. Purple Emperor is hardly a hipster choice, but is probably the correct one. 😉

Early signs are that Anderson may have made the wrong decision at the toss in Southport this morning. Given the fragility of the batting line-up, really could have done with a couple of wickets in the first hour.

Extensive, unmanaged woodland habitats, abundant deadwood and understorey layer, good connectivity at a landscape scale, a paradise for Willow Tits. But there’s trouble in paradise. Another territory checked just a day too late. GSW predation hitting hard in Carmarthenshire.

At least 24 killed in Kyiv in one of deadliest Russian attacks since start of war – Europe live

Seems to have become a recent thing in the past 15 years or so, that a struggling PM is expected to just resign when the going gets tough, and that the exploitative leadership candidates will simply solve everything immediately. Long gone are the times where parties work as a collective.

Great tits in the garden appear to have fledged (no more sounds coming from the nest box). Can't hear them anywhere, so hope they have survived their first few hours. A dangerous few days/weeks ahead of them, with numerous cats, rooks and jackdaws, and next door's (lovely) greyhound to contend with!

The dentist: you should brush your teeth thoroughly but carefully, to avoid damaging your gums. The hygienist:

Please don’t put out hair for bird nests. Chicks get entangled in hair balls. Just had to cut hair strands that were tying 3 blue tit chicks together, and wrapped round the throat of one skinny chick that couldn’t swallow food. Hopefully saved in time 🤞

Any ideas why this BTO page is recommending that small-hole nestboxes (on trees) should be installed at 1-3 m? I've seen this advice pasted into ecology reports too. To my mind, this leaves the adult birds (and new fledglings) very vulnerable to predation by cats. www.bto.org/learn/helpin...

The first round of rather feeble (but undeniably cute) house sparrow fledglings from our house have made their first journey into the big wide world. Precisely zero predator awareness and barely able to fly. Somewhat miraculous that any make it to adulthood!

Local Wildlife Sites such as Waterstock Mill near Wheatley and the Letcombe Cressbeds near Wantage are set for a brighter future thanks to increased funding from South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils. More here https://orlo.uk/local_wildlife_sites_4Ddtt

Natural England’s view on White Stork releases, and whether there is sufficient evidence of whether they are native or not 👇🏻 naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2026/05/08/w...

Modest proposal: People who use "staycation" to mean "going on holiday" to be placed under indefinite house arrest.

Species go up and down annually, but a two-thirds (66%) decline of a resident bird in a single year is sign of accelerating terminal decline - that's not a slump that the single-brooded, low-density, low dispersal Willow Tit is going to bounce back from. Bad years get worse, better years are rare.

Personally, would love to see Olly Stone get another go for the England test side. Acknowledge the concerns about his injury history (and associated lack of 1st class cricket in recent years), but that's never stopped them picking Mark Wood. At his best, he's a really tricky bowler to score against.

I'd have snatched your hand off if you'd offered tenth place at the start of the season. If we'd not run out of steam over the last few weeks it could've been more but well done Latics #oafc

Working from home today and I've just heard a Cuckoo from somewhere nearby over the village (West Oxon). They are present along the Thames nearby, but still a bizarre record for our built-up part of town!

He only agreed to the deal after the steelers threw in a 1988 pontiac firebird and def leppards back catalog on cassette

A female reporter loses a job and a NFL coach gets counseling. Speaks volumes on the inequity of how males and females are treated in this country.

Experts call for restrictions on pet flea treatments that harm UK songbirds

First swifts of the year over the village yesterday evening. Magic.

Irrational hatred: chefs that call a commonly eaten item of food 'the humble xyz'.

Some shaky moments but Lancashire top of Division 2 of the County Championship after three games. Certainly needed Keaton Jennings on his return from injury this week. Looking forward to staying in the hotel at OT in a few weeks to watch some of the Middlesex game.

Small rant (1/5): Always puzzled as to why woodland creation schemes (for conservation) still cling on to old commercial forestry principles of planting trees 3m apart with a view to thinning out over time. The main purpose of this approach was to encourage tall, straight trees for a timber crop.

Whatever you do,

As always, a delight to revisit my BTO @bbs-birds.bsky.social square in the Chilterns (Bucks) yesterday morning. My eighth year covering the square.

Taylor's Lazy Sunday (Roast 3) is the coffee equivalent of Doombar.

Good to see some more movement on garden bird feeding but ultimately we need a rethink, not just because of disease but because making common birds commoner can make rare ones rarer #Ornithology #UKBirding www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A shame it's taken the RSPB this long to change their stance on this (presumably would have been faster if they didn't make so much money from selling bird food and feeders). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Blackbird pair nesting in our garden against all the odds managed to overcome near-constant disturbance from neighbours during the Easter hols to bring three nestlings close to the point of fledging, only for a cat to kill one which had presumably 'exploded' the nest in panic. Heartbreaking.

Pleasing to see so many holly blue butterflies in the garden so far this spring. We have a holly tree and lots of ivy (i.e. both of the main larval foodplants), so hopefully we're contributing to that a little bit!

Please let's not f*ck it up.

Amused to find that a planning condition which I applied has made the local paper. Really scraping the barrel for a story here. Applying a condition for details of precautionary working measures to avoid risk of impacts to protected species is standard practice! www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2595724...

europeans when asked to help unblock the strait of hormuz