Crepuscular Ray

Thank you. Not something that I've seen before in this corner of west London. Presumably it got lost between the park and the the cemetery.

I'm probably being stupid, but has anyone got any ideas what this is? It was sunning itself on a south-east facing wall (accompanied by dozens of harlequin ladybirds and a larger number of wasps) earlier. Apologies for the picture, but it was about 14 feet up and I had to lean out of a nearby window to get something even this incompetent.

Eeek, difficult one. Technically, rainbows are centred on the bit of the sky directly opposite the Sun, so when the Sun's overhead, it would be pretty difficult to spot a rainbow. However, there are other atmospheric phenenomena that also show rainbow-type colours. I'll ask my Dad (long-standing rainbow/other atmospheric phenomena watcher) if he's come across any good websites...

Down here the feral pigeons breed all year. My Dad (who lives in East Sussex) said earlier that he saw a massive group of swallows chasing flying ants earlier this afternoon (well he saw a lot of swallows zipping around after something and later saw loads of flying ants dropping down) so he assumed that they were taking the opportunity to stock up before crossing the channel this evening. They haven't seen any swallows for a couple of weeks before this, so are assuming by this time that its migrants from farther north.

True, it was even visible from South Kensington with full orange streetlights and amazing seeing the structure in the coma through a small telescope. But, not having seen Hale-Bopp from anywhere dark, I'll stick with the eclipse. - first astronomical memory, being woken up and shown comet Ikeya-Seki when I was barely toddling. (Come to think of it, that's probably the earliest thing I remember at all).

Solar eclipse. Was fortunate enough to have the holiday of a lifetime - literally - in 1973 and saw that year's total eclipse from the deck of a boat somewhere off Mauritania. It's the spookiest thing you can imagine, seeing the darkness rush towards you, watching the colours leach out of everything and the sudden drop in temperature. A partial eclipse does not come close! Then there's the corona, which is the most beautiful thing you can imagine, and the diamond ring, which in a way is sad because you know that that 6 and a half minutes is never going to happen again.... (I might have said aurorae if I'd ever been fortunate enough to see one...)

Dunno whether this year's been unusual: when I was a kid (60s/70s), we used to see them lining up on telephone cables in Norfolk round now (i.e., last two weeks of summer hols). However, if they are departing early this year, it's possibly related to the awful breeding season: feeding young keeps them tied to their nest sites, but if there are no young, they'll head back to southern Africa asap.

Squeaks with laughter. (well, anything else I might have done wouldn't get through the left-trouser-legging filter).

How long have Sky been doing Channel 5's news/weather? I've not seen Francis Wilson on telly for about 20 years until I turned on the end of this evening's Channel 5 news to see the sport news and caught the weather instead. He's even madder than I remember. Does he have some self-imposed rule that he's only allowed to talk in two-word bursts? It's the funniest thing I've seen all week.

Not sure how far your memory goes back, but there was a tremor felt in St. Albans in the late 80s (though I can't remember exactly when) - I was on the phone to my brother's gf (me in central London and her in Elstree) and we both felt the Earth shake within a fraction of a second. If I'd not been on the phone to her, I'd have attributed it to the Jubilee Line, but that doesn't go as far north as Elstree. I think they said the epicentre was near Worcester. There was a quake just off the Kent coast earlier this year, which was a bit larger than this one and caused rather more damage.

Yes, Charmouth/Lyme are brilliant for fossil-spotting (finding an 18-inch ammonite when you're only about three feet tall - I was only about five at the time, before OOn starts - is absolutely amazing), but bear in mind that the whole area is now a World Heritage Site and fossil digging is an absolute no-no, although I don't know about picking up those that are already loose - does anyone know what the rules are?

Given your 'accuracy' over the last few weeks.........

I'm not sure whether it's chickweed or not, but I tend to follow the basic definition, "If it's growing where I don't want it to, it's a weed."

John Hammond is both good, but Sir Rob's the best as far as I'm concerned, followed by Philip Avery and Peter Gibbs. I find Dan Corbett's mannerisms so distracting I can't remember the forecast fifteen seconds after it's over. Kaddy doesn't have full broadcast meteorologist training, so would probably have to go back to MetOffice school before she could move to BBC Weather Centre, if she wanted to.

Have now heard back from a friend who knows a lot more than I do about insects (and has lots of books), and she says that it's an adult female speckled bush cricket. They're apparently quite common in the south of England, although I've never see one before.

Obviously it's some form of grasshopper/cricket. It was sitting on a pansy leaf in E. Sussex at the weekend and was about 3/4 in long.

Which bird species?

There is strange mixture of buds, flowers and green, red and black blackberries. It looks like they're trying to squish an entire summer into about a month.

Sorry for the double post, but the red blackberries I saw earlier in the week are now black.

Silly boy. The organic lentils I buy come from Turkey, not Bangladesh. My carbon footprint would probably have been a lot higher if there had been a wine-bottle-miles section.

No, very well insulated flat, work at home, no carbon-hungry kids, no car and only don't do standby on things like the telly. Given how mild last winter was, I hardly had the heating on at all. If it were colder next winter, it would be a far different issue,.

Smug, smug, smug, smug, smug 0.77 tonnes a year (although they say I should be able to cut it to 0.62....)

The blackberries I saw emerging a couple of weeks ago are now turning red, despite the lack of sunshine. Must go back and check how the hazelnuts are doing. At this rate, they'll be ripe before long and I wouldn't want to let the squirrels beat me to them.

Maybe it's why they won't even put the Countryfile/Landward forecast online: they're too worried that on Friday we might look back on how accurate the forecast for the week was.

Dunno about early flowering, but here (w. London) I've noticed both wild blackberries and wild hazelnuts emerging in the last couple of days as they drop their blossom. Obviously they're nowhere being ripe yet, but it strikes me as being somewhat early.