Crepuscular Ray

I saw an immature Common Tern over the Grand Union Canal in W. London on Saturday morning, although that was less surprising than brambles coming into flower near Willesden Junction.

Etna's south-east crater has been very active the last few days, with explosions and extensive lava flows. See video on BBC New's science and nature page. Sadly, the webcams don't see to be working.

Famous last words P3, Nevado del Huila in Colombia has erupted, causing some violent lahars and making thousands of people flee. See video on the Beeb's science and nature news page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/default.stm

Hi James I've done a bit of checking, and according to several twitchers' websites, a Hoopoe was seen by quite a few people near Truro on 10th/11th April and another near Porthgwarra on the 14th/15th.

Try looking up Hoopoe on Google images (sorry, dunno how to post images on here). If that's what you saw, you were very lucky: they only get past the channel very rarely, although if it does goes warmer we might see more of them. I'm surprised the place wasn't full of men with beards and binoculars.

But canaries are finches (fringillidae if we wish to be technical), aren't they (closely related to serins and citril finches)? My ex RSPB friends both said that they thought it was a canary (and I hadn't given them any clues).

have asked birdie friends - they used to run an RSPB reserve, so hopefully should know. My (uneducated) guess would be an albino sparrow. Anyway, that's a great photo of a v. pretty bird.

Blimey, that sounds v. nasty Viking. Make sure you keep taking the antibiotics (and do all the other stuff like making sure you get enough sleep and - sadly - not drinking). Not strictly about volcanoes, but there's an interesting bit on the Beeb's site about a v. ancient bit of seafloor (like 3.8 billion years old) in Greenland that shows that plate tectonics started even when the Earth was still very, very hot. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6479289.stm

It's even more confusing given that from Wednesday 14 March the mainstream forecasts on BBC1 were flagging up a severe cold snap. Watching Darren B on the lunchtime forecasts the last couple of days has been a joy - he's not been able to use the M word at all, and is not a happy bunny!!!!!!!!!

AGW scientists have never claimed that melting floating ice will contribute to sea-level changes; it's a media misunderstanding/hype/distortion. Their concern is for the vast amounts of water stored in ice sheets on land, glaciers, tundra, etc.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/...icle2355956.ece

There's also this one from Today's Grauniad. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/st...2032575,00.html

Good grief. Is there any way of telling the magnitude of the tremors from those seismographs?

It's not strictly about volcanoes, but there's an interesting article on the Beeb's website about research on an area between the Cape Verdes and the mid-Atlantic Ridge that doesn't appear to have proper crust. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6405667.stm This is the team's own website. It's aimed at children, but might have some interesting information. http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/gg/classroom@sea/JC007/

It seems to have calmed down suddenly. The trace is almost flatlining now.

It certainly looks as if there is magma on the move on that side of the crater: it's presumably fairly localised because the seismometer on the other side of the crater (the first link on that page) is showing little or no activity (so far).

Interestingly, the Australian government has announced today that it's going to ban incandescent bulbs by 2012, which makes them the first government to do so. Perhaps it's a sign of a change of mind on their part about global warming.

Perhaps we could forgive Everton for that last forecast: apparently he's leaving for Al-Jazeera. Hopefully it will be mild enough for him in Doha.

It has now. And guess what: 19-25 Feb: mild with rain at times 26 Feb - 4 March staying unsettled and mild 5 - 18 March: still mild with more rain footnote: Is that is now for snow as we move into spring or will winter weather bite back? Watch this space.

Must have been. It wasn't on the English version.

Scotland has Landward while England and Wales get Countryfile, and there are separate forecasts.

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html The EIT images (top line) are beginning to show the loops in the magnetic field associated with the sunspot coming over the left edge. They look very complex. There's also a beautiful prominence on the right in the EIT 304 image.

Just noticed, next Friday's Timewatch (9 pm, BBC 2) is about the the 1783 volcanic eruption on Iceland and its disastrous effects on the population of Europe. On a happier note, hope it's not too late to say "Happy Birthday Viking" and that you've all coped with the frankly amazing weather conditions up there today. CR

If anyone's interested, this Equinox special is being repeated on Channel 4 at 6.40 on Sunday evening. CR

The screaming exaggeration about the damage caused by the tornado in Kensal Rise shows how little they are to be believed: "the tornado that destroyed hundreds of homes ... last month". Um, about 150 were damaged, ranging from the end-of-terrace house which lost a wall (which is going to be repaired) to those which lost their entire roof and that lost just a few tiles or some windows. Most people seem to have moved back in - at least there were lots of lights on when I went past yesterday evening. It was interesting to read Jonathan Powell's un-hyped version of what he said to the Express, to get a clearer idea of what they're up to. Bring back the Princess Diana front page exclusives!