Simon Bisson

Well you know that means you have to go out birding!

A small grey and yellow bird with a long tail standing in a river.

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #StandingInWater. I think I might be a little spoilt for choice living by the Wandle delta...

But maybe something a little different? Here's a grey wagtail having a bit of a paddle underneath the Wandle weir.

#birds #birding #wildlifephotography #wandle #wagtail

4pm today on BBC Radio 4 Extra it’s the repeat of my adaptation of Iain M. Banks’ The State of the Art, with Sir Antony Sher as the ship. So proud of this amazing production by @nadiamolinari.bsky.social

Saw them last summer, they opened with it…

Yeah, I suspect so...

At least you got a win out of the chaos!

One can only hope.

Can we hope that this will move it back to the political centre?

Three weeks!

A fascinating behaviour!

It's nice having a new resident on the delta.

It makes sense.

Spot the error. s/two/three/g

A white bird with a long neck and black legs and beak is standing in fast-flowing water that reflects a blue sky. It has one yellow foot out of the water.

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #SteppingOut.

Here's a little egret under the Wandle weir bridge, using its bright yellow foot to feel for food passing by in the fast-flowing river.

#birds #birding #wildlifephotography #wandle #egret

FYI anyone in Europe doing online meetings with folk in the US and Canada over the next two weeks, it's the weird three March weeks as they start daylight saving on Sunday annd we don't until the 29th...

Has anyone built an installable ARM64 Windows version of Darktable? Or at least a simpler set of instructions for building your own? I am having trouble getting it to compile myself.

By Omaha, I of course mean Omaha The Cat Dancer. Or maybe Hepcats.

Oooh. There's a sequel to Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees out in August. It was the best horror/thriller graphic novel I have read in a long while.

Its high concept pitch is "What if Dexter was an anthropomorphic bear in a world much like that of Omaha." Or maybe "Scary Richard Scarry"...

Recent Reads: Lawless Book 3 - Ashes To Ashes. Dan Abnett's neo-noir space western gets all timey-wimey as Munce bring the hammer down on Badrock. But this is a town built on a natural psychic amplifier and as secrets come out, so destinies change. Metta Lawson knows it's better to talk than shoot.

I did like it very mauch when it came out, haven't listened to it for ages, which seems an oversight I need to fix...

I have no stickers on my current laptop. I shall have to deal with that...

There is a virtual dock for Lime bikes and scooters near our house. Currently a scooter is sitting there beeping constantly; it sounds like the shower scene from Psycho.

Oh I write my own HA plugins; it just gives me a routing framework that avoids having to reverse engineer APIs!

She had a good long career teaching there - her pupils iver the years included the Slow Horses showrunner!

Of course!

My mum decided to go round the world working as a supply teacher; her first stop from her home in Northern Ireland was Jersey for a 6-month contract.

Her first night there a friend who was already on the island suggested she come along to a beach BBQ, where she met my dad. She's still on Jersey.

Isn't it a fork of HA?

But yes, having something that runs locally is great!

Oh, I don't know. Building lots of different stuff into HA is much more fun!

SONOFF SNZB-06P Zigbee Human Presence Sensor, 5.8GHz Microwave Radar Built-in Light Detector Motion Sensor, High Precision Detects, Supports Alexa, Google Home and Home Assistant Zigbee-enabled motion sensor detects movement and ambient light, automatically turning on lights when you approach and keeping them on until you leave, saving energy.

Anyway, Sonoff SNZB-06P. Needs a Zigbee hub, but the API is documented...

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CNGKFG9...

I am geting good results from low power radar presence sensors in my HA environment.

You could also cheat and use the built-in animal detecting AI model built into Reolink's £30 PTZ cameras!

A seagull is attacking a heron. It is flying above the bird, which is defensively raising its wings. The heron is standing in a river at low tide.

Today's #BirdOfTheDay them is #MixedPairs, two birds of different species in the same image.

Down on the Wandle delta a grey heron and a yellow-legged gull were having an altercation.

#birds #birding #wildlifephotography #wandle #heron #gull