A new chapter has begun

This week: A new chapter has begun; Death and destruction;

The Mediterranean heat continues almost unabated.

I am consciously drinking 3 litres (or more) of water each day to ensure that I remain hydrated.

Meanwhile outside, I have left clean cool water in several places for the felines to access.

They are feeling the heat too, retreating into cool corners shortly after breakfast and not emerging until early evening.

The 26th July is St. Anne’s day, who is the Patrol Saint of the village. So all week the bell in St Anne’s Church has been tolling and Masses have been celebrated.

As is the custom, on the 26th lunches and teas are prepared by many of the households and this year I was invited to my neighbours across the lane.

The only difference being, I had had coffee with them at the start of the week, to allow me to plan and arrange to prepare some food to take across the lane.

As much as possible I use fruits and vegetables from the garden and orchard, including bottled and preserved fruits.  In this way only the bare minimum has to be purchased.

I started with a Royal Potato Salad.  Using home grown russet potatoes, onions and my neighbours free range eggs, I added sour cream, grated Parmesan cheese, red peppers and diced gherkins, together with mayonnaise.  

The sauce was poured over the hot potatoes, then everything was left to marinate in the fridge overnight.

Also prepared the day before was Merengue for a Pavlova.  This I filled with home grown (and bottled) Apricots and strawberries.

Just before serving, I whipped vegetable cream and added some red and black currents for decoration.

At the end of the meal, there was nothing left! So I think it could be considered to be a success.

On Saturday I took friends from Abu Dhabi on a whistle stop tour of the island, before they headed for Ancona, on the opposite side of the Adriatic.

Once again, the week has flown past and I really do not know what I have done, however I have spent all week doing it….

A new chapter has begun

Floof has “flown the nest”.

I was in trouble last week receiving comments from several readers, that I hadn’t included a video of him. So here is the last video I took.

Since becoming involved in feeding him and researching Scops owls, the blog readership and my video views have almost doubled. It seems that there is a lot of interest in this topic!

Last weekend, it was becoming obvious that Floof wanted to extend his horizon from the loft which had been his home. He had flown against the glass doors and was clearly wanting to extend his horizons.

On Sunday night he flew off, landing on nearby roofs then coming back to an outhouse to roost. By dawn he was gone again.

On Monday at dusk he came back for a visit but didn’t stay. Since then he has been heard but not really seen.

Remembering these are diminutive little owls, he was only around 13 cm tall, but at the same time they are wild birds, not captive animals, even when hand reared.

The plan I developed for introducing Floof to the wild was longer and more nuanced. However when the call of the great outdoors came, he took it and was flying confidentaly.

Every night the juvenile Scops are calling all around Dol. They are calling at dusk on Saturday as I write this.

As I listen to their monotonous, metronome regular three second call, they are flying, calling and hunting for food. It is great that Floof has joined them.

What really disapoints me, but comes as absolutely no surprise, is the complete and utter lack of interest from ornithology groups here to further the knowledge of this species the Otus Scops.

They are listed as a species of least concern although numbers are, quote “thought to be declining”. Here was an opportunity to ring and GPS tag a hand reared bird to see what he (or she) actually does. There is no information on Scops owls in Croatia.

I know from my amateur observations, that they arrive in mid March and depart in September. Between those dates I hear them call every evening and night, but have only seen one in the wild once.

I have spent hours recently, on hot afternoons, searching and researching Scops Owls, and now know a lot about the species in Europe, thanks to peer reviewed academic papers published by groups in Spain, Italy, Cyprus and elsewhere.

However there are huge gaps in published knowledge.

No one has recorded nest behaviour, or the clicks and chirps of Scops Owl chicks, like I have. Are they communicating with parents? Who knows?

And what about now? How close do owlets stay to their nesting site? Do they engage with other first year owlets or with 2nd year juveniles?

Do they flock together before or at migration? And where do Croatian Scops Owl chicks migrate to?

Some of these questions could have been answered, but there was not the interest from any established ornithology group. It is now easy to “tag” small birds, like Floof, with GPS tags. However there has to be a will to do it!

There is only so much that citizen scientists can do. Here was an opportunity to extend our knowledge but it has sadly now slipped though our fingers…. 

 

Death and destruction

Every morning I am up at sunrise, so I can irrigate those plants which need it, before the heat of the day arrives.

When the air is relatively cool (only around 29°C), It is really pleasant to be out and about.

One morning this week I was surprised to see that one of my newly planted Feijoa (Pneapple Guava) trees was wilting badly.

I’ve made a practice of making sure recently planted trees and shrubs always get water until they have established. However that does not always work.

The Manuka I removed and re-potted three weeks ago because it was stressed, has not survived. I think I realised too late, together with it not having established any extensive root system.

Another casualty is one of my Apricot trees.

After blossom and fruiting, I noticed it was dying back from the ends of the branches. In a soft fruit group the suggestation is a fungal infection, but it clearly is very unhappy.

I think a radical summer prune is going to be called for.

Meanwhile everywhere which is not irrigated, the clay loam soil has cracked open like a glacier.

Irrigation will be continuing for a few more weeks… 

 

Not everything is doom and gloom though. These Pink Rain Lilies love the hot, bright summer sun. NCG