Someone sent me the photograph below at 07:11. I am not naming him because it is his photograph, not mine, and because I have a feeling he was standing closer to the airport fence than the sign would have preferred.
His message was: “Took this about four this morning. Came in low. Not one of the usual ones.”
I do not know enough about aircraft to tell you exactly what it is. I can tell it is not the sort of thing I normally expect to see coming into Birmingham. Grey transport body, no airline markings I recognised, dropping in over the perimeter with the light still poor.
Ordinarily I would file this under one of the many niche enthusiasms other people have and I do not. The reason I am putting it here is that it seemed worth keeping. If you live in Sheldon long enough, the airport becomes background noise, and background noise is exactly the kind of thing people forget to record until later.
Maybe it is nothing more than an unusual arrival seen by the right person at the right time.
Still, it is an odd photograph for an ordinary Tuesday morning.
If we hear what it was, I will update.