When it's raining, might as well sing! Korimako (NZ bellbirds) seem to really like singing when it's raining and we've got at least eight male birds in our garden at the moment performing a concert for us. It's magic!
(The iNaturalist link has the longer recording. This is the shorter radio edit for Mastodon. 😀)
Christchurch Priory, Hampshire, 1928 - Valentine's Postcard
I found this nofantail yesterday. I expect it had a near miss with something wanting to eat it. It seemed happy enough without its big tail, but I hope it grows back.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/371879799
#birds #nz #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #fantail #Rhipidura #nature
More of the Christchurch shooter’s online comments have been uncovered, New Zealand researchers say. Does it change the picture?
By Ariel Bogle
The gunman’s ‘militancy and excitement’ increased as Australian far-right groups grew bolder, a new book suggests
#Christchurchshooting #CrimeAustralia #Australianews #Christchurch #NewZealand #Books #Farright #Race #USnews #Thefarright #FarrightUS #Australiansecurityandcounterterrorism #Islam #Internet #4chan #SanDiego #SouthCarolina #Charlestonshooting #Guncrime #UScrime #ArielBogle
Islamophobia
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-15/islamophobia-report-special-envoy-critical-of-government/106682474
Watermelons
https://www.deepcutnews.com/p/watermelons-deemed-an-antisemitic
The zero-sum logic that the Royal Commission’s witnesses have voiced through the IHRA definition is a colonial act of oppression. If the state succumbs to that logic, as every indication suggests it will, Muslim political solidarity with Palestine risks becoming not merely unrecognised but structurally criminalised. The full institutional protection of one community will come to be constitutively built on the misrecognition of another.
It been super to see Jupiter and Venus so close together in the western sky in the evening. I imagine it would have been the talk of the village of our hunter gather forebears.
Here are a couple of photos I took of the planets on my bike commute home this evening.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55324141633/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mollivan_jon/55323984036/
#planets #conjunction #Venus #Jupiter #Christchurch #Ōtautahi #nz
Yesterday I saw my first daffodil in flower in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ. Others have been noticing them about the city too.
This particular patch is on one of my regular biodiversity run routes so I've got reasonable records of when it has started to flower. It does seem early, although doesn't beat last year's record.
First flowering of daffodils at the Church on the corner of Macmillan Ave and Dyers Pass Road:
2020: 19 June
2021: 24 July (noted as still in bud on 25 June)
2022: 1 July
2023: 10 June
2024: 4 July
2025: 25 May
2026: 5 June
It would be a clear trend if it wasn't for whatever happened in 2024. I saw no daffodils anywhere in flower in the city before July in 2024.
Lichfield church hosting summer fete
https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/2026/06/03/lichfield-church-hosting-summer-fete/
Jon Sullivan
Cornovia Postcards
bigblen
The Guardian Feeds
Peter Riley
Lichfield Live®
Strum