Another in our irregular collections of links to interesting or amusing items you may have missed.

It is still amazing how little we know about the natural world. With the advent of very miniaturised electronics and batteries scientists are now able to track bird migrations in detail. And there are surprises, like this cuckoo going the wrong way round Africa.

Meanwhile back on dry land in our rivers there’s an increasing suggestion that bringing back beavers would reduce flooding. There are pilot releases already in place, and the beavers are doing well enough to breed regularly.

And talk of beavers reminds me of the recent story that some medieval underwear has been unearthed in an Austrian castle. There’s a second, follow-up, report here. It’ll be interesting to see if the dating evidence actually holds up.

But then the medieval male obviously needed the underwear to hold their padding as it seems erectile dysfunction was as common then as now.

Coming back to earth with another bump, this church in Fulham is in desperate need of funds to repair its 15th century clock tower — which featured i the film The Omen — and keep the bells ringing.

Which brings us nicely to a couple of London items …

Mapping various aspects of London seems to be all the rage at the moment with the recent availability of Londoners’ life expectancy plotted on the tube map and a map of the capital’s most frequent surnames (use the slider to find the first to fifteenth most common names) by area. There are lots more interesting London maps at mappinglondon.co.uk

Finally, it seems that London could well soon get a new model of black cab. If the fuel efficiency and emissions figures hold up I’m guessing it’ll pretty quickly displace the iconic TX4 taxicab.