Happy Thought for 22 August 2025

Have a Happy Thought: 

Things that fly are (usually) really good at avoiding crashing into other things in the air.

Sometimes, though, they are not. A few examples, to brighten your day.

1. In the middle of the Great Smog of London (1952, after which we actually get the word smog), the visibility was so low that a pigeon actually flew into a man in the street. Neither saw it coming.

2. David Attenborough is very impressed with the ability of bats to use sonar to avoid things in their path – be it other bats, obstacles, cave walls, or people. Except for the bat that smacked right into Sir David’s face!

3. If you’ve ever driven from Auckland to the Coromandel, or Tauranga, or really anywhere on the East coast, you’ve probably driven past the Bugger Cafe. And if you’ve stopped in, you’ve probably seen this photo, of a couple of humans taking a “Titanic” photo of their love story, being rudely interrupted by a gull. Alternatively, it is the story of a gull just out for a snack, enjoying the wind, being rudely interrupted by a human.

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Of course, all of these are accidental (or possibly apocryphal, in the phot in the Bugger Cafe). In New Zealand, we are coming into bird swooping season – especially for Australian Magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen). So stay safe out there.

But if you do get hit... try to get it on camera!