Read: The Starling: A Biography by Stephen Moss ★★★★☆ 📚
A nice read about one of my favourite creatures. History, behaviour & plenty of murmuration. Lovely old pictures too.
Format: Status
The Last Apple.
#SilentSunday
Listened: OEG Voices 075: Madison Swain-Bowden and Zack Krida on Openverse – OE Global Voices
Alan talks to two of the team behind OpenVerse. Really interesting. I’ve made amateurish use of the API so great to glimpse behind the curtain of an amazing project.
Listened to Timetable – Episode 135: It is 2025 from @manton.
Love this, 1 minutes 42 seconds. I’ve listened twice, read the transcript. If you are
ready to bring back a little bit of the old web as a shield against a web that feels increasingly like an ad engagement machine instead of a publishing platform and community for people.
micro.one looks like a great way to control your content and
a quieter space that still feels connected to other platforms.
#silentSunday
Along Troon shore, stared rainy and cold, got a little warmer and changed to dull. Lots of dog walkers. But I saw quite a few birds. Greenfinch, stonechats & linnets on the dune side. Turnstone, sanderling and redshank at the edge of the sea. Took blurry photos of them all. Good enough for id & iNaturalist. Also a small dead porpoise washed up on the sand.
Walked part of the Finlas Loop yesterday. Sparking hill day, snow. A lot of deer. Deer seem less inclined to run off in the winter. Fox track all over. A glimpse of an eagle, later watched for 10-15 minutes as it circled back and forth along the skyline above.
map, photos & notes: walkmap
I continued to try and note one ‘natural” thing every day. Fell short, especially towards the end of the year. Leaving for work and getting home in the dark does not help. Here is the 2024 list. I don’t keep the online list up to date, just every month or two.
I also tried to record/podcast each month, but stopped after August. I do enjoy the process. But I suspect I had an audience of none.
I am going to continue in 2025, perhaps making each note a little longer, 2 or 3 sentences. So far:
2025-01-01 Rainy morning. Dumping the rubbish. A very black and shiny crow was making a lot of noise on a neighbour’s washing line. Round the front the traffic is sparse. Across the street, in a pollard, a blue tit is calling.
2025-01-02 Clear blue skies and frost. High tide, at the end of a small rocky outcrop a heron hunches away from the sea and cold. A starling perched high by drain hole under the eaves making experimental sounds.