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... a total solar eclipse is the headline happening of the day, although for us it is only a shady 94% eclipse, the path of 100% totality being slightly further west than we are, but it will be close enough to have the eerie silence of the birds being fooled about it being dusk a bit early – although it's not happening here until around 18.00 to 19.00 BST, so although it's an early dusk, it's not really that much earlier than the unobscured and uneclipsed sunset of the day at 20.44 - but eerie silence it will be for a moment, the eerie silence not available to the unfortunate and nature disconnected city dwellers with their concrete and tarmac and busy-ness and the constant drone of motor traffic for whom the birds are silent anyway, then perhaps a return to full chat as the sun pokes out from its temporary obscurity again, and the blackbirds and robins, who would probably have quite funny confused looks if they could do facial expressions, will happily perform an encore for an hour or two – or possibly it's a confusingly short dawn to their poor little brains and although they're thinking they're early birds there are no worms – then they'll leave us to another night time silence as the sun disappears again and heads, if they thought like us, would be scratched - what was that all about?...