PUFFINS ONLY FLY TOGETHER IN A CIRCUS

I’m a keen birdwatcher – said nobody during a speed dating night, but I am. I became hooked at the age of 9 when on a school trip to a local estuary where I saw tens of thousands of a wading bird called Dunlin. My teacher, Mr Parry referred to them as ‘a fling of Dunlin’ which at the time I thought nothing of. Dunlin “Dunlin” by Sergey Yellseev is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Years later I discovered that many birds have unique collective nouns, many dating back hundreds of years. Here are a few of my favourites:- A murder of crows A worm of robins A circus of puffins A charm of goldfinches A murmuration of starlings Why am I telling you all this on the Analox blog? Well we’ve recruited a lot of people in the past 18 months in line with our record growth and it has resulted in a number of staff sharing the same first name. This of course, causes some confusion in the office like in this classic Simpsons clip. We now employ:- 2 x Craigs 2 x Kerrys 3 x Marks 4 x Pauls 2 x Davids 2 x Julies 2 x Ians (albeit spelled differently) Paul Branton Paul Oliver Paul Willis Introducing three of our four Pauls. Last week I asked “The Kerrys” what they thought the collective noun for more than one Kerry should be – particularly as our pair of Kerrys sit next to one another. Their modest response was ‘an awesomeness’. Who am I to argue?! So if you have any (polite) suggestions for your own name or for any of the above we’d love to hear them. I’m off to speak a ‘deceit of Johns’ at the garage about my car…. Author: Simon Lunt, Director of Sales and Marketing