THE SECRETARY BIRD

This crazy-looking creature is a large African bird of prey. At first I didn’t believe it was real so I had to check it out. It’s real and probably the weirdest land animal of any kind.

Although a member of the order Accipitriformes, which also includes many other diurnal birds of prey such as kites, hawks, vultures, and harriers, it is placed in its own family, Sagittariidae.

The bird is instantly recognisable as a large bird with an eagle-like body on crane-like legs that give the it a height of as much as 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in). Adults have a featherless red-orange face and predominantly grey plumage, with a flattened dark crest and black flight feathers and thighs. It also has very long eyelashes which I suppose helped to give it the name!

I'm listening to the late and tragic Ronnie Lane singing You Never Can Tell on BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in 1974. Ronnie was a founder member of The Small Faces, Faces (with Rod Stewart) and Slim Chance. He died far too young from multiple sclerosis. You can listen here. (It's best played as loud as you can stand!)

Some more funnies!

I have always enjoyed laughing in general and puns in particular. Five years ago I was invited to be an administrator on the Tim Vine Joke Appreciation Group on Facebook, which now has 277,000 members! Here are some of the things I have posted in the last few months.😊

I'm listening to Leonard Cohen's Sisters of Mercy. Does a song ever get any more beautiful than this? Listen here.

Artist of the Month (2): Banksy

Robin Gunningham
aka Banksy...or is he?

Banksy, commonly believed to be Robin Gunningham of Bristol, in the west of England, is the most political of artists. He started out as a graffiti artist so he wanted to keep his identity secret to avoid prosecution but he soon moved on to making clever political commentary with his paintings. They are usually painted onto the sides of buildings which has led to a debate of who actually owns them and sometimes whole walls have been sold for extremely large sums. His work is really about where it's made and what it’s saying rather than being ‘fine art’. That’s OK with me! Here are some of my favourites of his work for you to enjoy... or not!

I'm listening to Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere" from The Basement Tapes. Listen here!