Off to explore another gem from Nottinghamshire’s industrial past, the Bennerley Viaduct. Survived from 1877, because wrought iron (to keep it light over unmapped coal mining) was too expensive to demolish!

Not a huge fan of Andy Burnham, but kudos for not hiding behind a lectern for his first speech.

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #SummerLovin, so here are some gannets I photographed in glorious sunshine this January in New Zealand. 🪶

Is there a reason that Sean Kelly refuses to pronounce Pogačar’s name correctly (other than to irritate me)?

Garden camera update: enough night now for the occasional nocturnal visitor.

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Triplets, so here’s a sparrow family portrait. 🪶

Today’s #BirdofTheDay theme is #ScreenFiller, so here’s a big brown pelican in the dark evening of the Galápagos Islands. 🪶

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Corvidae, so here’s a crow looking mean and moody. 🪶

You've been murdered; who do you want on the case? This guy. Because if I’ve already been murdered, I would like to think that at least three other people are going to die before he finally figures it out.

Way too hot to be a sheep today. (Shouldn’t they be sheared by now?)

I do like a cathedral close.

View from St Catherine’s Hill: red kite over Winchester Cathedral. 🪶

View from St Catherine’s Hill: Red kite assessing the pickings at Hospital of St Cross. 🪶

Was confused that the statue of the diver who helped prevent Winchester Cathedral from sinking, which I remember seeing many years ago, has disappeared. Turns out there was a reason for it being replaced — they’d made a statue of the wrong bloke! www.winchesterheritageopendays.org/blog/2021/8/...

Rather a lovely rooftop view from this hotel.

That looks like a vaguely sensible decision.

Name the cathedral…

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #SingersAndWingers, so here’s a gannet stretching its wings. 🪶

In other news, for the next Olympics, we propose giving all the medals to the country that wins the most races. I loved relay races (or “collaborations” as we call them), but my joy came from working *with* my peers, not *for* an organisation. 🧪🔭 (wonkhe.com/blogs/peer-r...)

Garden camera update: back in its original location, but the wildlife has proved fairly tame since than.

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Birds&Flowers, so here’s a gull and a razorbill communing over some daisies. 🪶

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #PerfectPoise, so here’s a monopod goose. 🪶

As the person who invented distributed peer review, I should be all in favour, but somehow that smiling face puts me off the whole idea. 🧪 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay alt theme is #OpenBeaks, so here’s a robin singing its little heart out. 🪶

Bird feeder update: new technology installed; first customer checking out the facilities. 🪶

Sitting on a fellowships panel for a research council, when we came to deliberate after the interviews, we always asked the opinion of the fairly junior administrator who was responsible for looking after the waiting interviewees. More often than not, we appointed their preferred candidates.

Just to underline how higher education has lost out in funding in the last quarter century, I remade Fig. 6.1 from ifs.org.uk/publications..., normalising to the 1990 levels.

Really enjoying the slightly abstract effect of the low-resolution Waveshare colour e-ink picture frame showing a random images from our trip to New Zealand, changing once a day at very low power. Tip: if you buy one, update the firmware using github.com/myevit/Photo....

Bird feeder update. Squirrel temporarily defeated. Feeder being put to its intended use. Major technology upgrade later today. 🪶

Looks as if it might be time for the astronomical community to crowd-fund some ASATs… 🔭🧪 (docs.fcc.gov/public/attac...)

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #AmongTheRipples, so here’s are some proud parents from last month. 🪶

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #UpAndDown. Here’s a pair of gannets looking up in a lovely gannety manner. 🪶

Bird feeder update 2/2: Field Marshal Nutkin knows his military history, and is adopting the Maginot Line strategy:

Bird feeder update 1/2: a rare victory caught on camera.

Trail camera temporarily relocated. It may not be sensitive enough to trigger on feeding small birds, but it should have no trouble documenting squirrel attacks!

Hard work, this bird-watching malarkey.

Bird feeder update: the squirrel launched a final desperate attempt to defeat my 3D-printed Plastic Dome air defences, but failed to attain his objective. Subsequently, new technology has been deployed…

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Rocky, so here is an Australian Pied Cormorant posing on a rock for me. 🪶

Garden camera update: my sympathy to this old friend — definitely not the weather for a fox fur coat.

Maybe I am just getting old and cynical, but having just sat through the UKRI/STFC online Q&A session, I come to the conclusion that both Q and A could’ve been generated by a LLM, and no-one’s mind was changed one iota, which is pretty much the definition of a waste of time. 🔭🧪

Oh we have “reset the relationships” with our partners alright — that tends to happen when you bail on them. 🔭🧪 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Today’s theme for #BirdOfTheDay is #BathTime, which gives me an excuse to repost one of my all-time favourite snaps. 🪶

RIP, Bonnie Tyler. Soundtrack to my misspent youth. youtu.be/lcOxhH8N3Bo

Bird feeder update: squirrel looked dubiously at latest modification… hesitated… then launched at the cover… slithered down it in cartoon fashion… and bellyflopped to the lawn. Thought for a moment I’d done for it, but eventually it rose from being winded & scampered off.

My #BirdOfTheDay is this #Lifer from our trip to New Zealand earlier this year, when this chap shuffled up to my feet in the dark. 🪶

One last throw of the dice… let’s see what happens if I deprive the little bugger of most of his gnawing platform. 🐿️

This would be… so good!

On the plus side, it did slow him down a bit…

Last try before changing tack…

If at first you don’t succeed…