Straight to intensive care
This week: It is all about your attitude; I have been Floofed; Straight to intensive care;

We are being cooked in this part of the Mediterranean at the moment.
Almost every day this week I have recorded temperatures over 36°C. Stari Grad and Vrboska have recorded over 37°C and in Jelsa on Wednesday afternoon, the temperature was 38.8°C.
These temperatures are just not normal, however we not not alone. A colleague in California was telling me he has been unable to fly the EMS helicopter because of the heat.
Hot air is less dense and when you combine heat, humidity and altitude, put very simply, there is insufficient air to enable the helicopter to take off, let alone hover.
Callie, my Arab Mau who was born in Abu Dhabi, loves heat and hates the cold, has found a cool spot to spend her days.

On the ceramic tiles which run around my kitchen above the cupboards, at roof level. I can’t say I blame her.
What is concerning though, is that the forecast for the coming week suggests that my weather station may see temperatures above 38°C on Wednesday and Thursday. That will really not be pleasant!
I have been to the vets again with Pongo for a check up. His eye has healed completely with no permanent damage.
Apart from that, I really have not done a great deal this week – it has just been far too hot.
It is all about your attitude
I went for my medical this week, for my driving licence renewal and I have to say I was impressed.
The process took about 45 minutes and I was there with a range of people from a couple of 17 year old twin boys, applying for their first licence, to middle aged ladies.
First there is a psychometric 150 question yes/no test with the usual check questions: Have you ever told a lie?; As a child were you ever cheeky to your parents?; Have you ever taken anything which didn’t belong to you?
Then a test of 40 questions about identifying shapes, colours, patterns etc.
The whole psychological test was about attitudes to others, self control, reaction to laws etc. All good stuff.
There is a technique to answering psychometric tests. You go through and quickly answer every question you know the right answer to, then go back and look in detail at the ones you are not sure of.
I had answered 30 or so of the 40 about shapes, colours and patterns, and was going through the others when the invigilator got up from her desk.
“Stop Mr. Norman. I can see you are enjoying this challenge and you are not supposed to!”.
I passed though with 32 right answers. Finally came the interview with the lady, a professor of phycology, who clearly hadn’t read my sheet where I was asked for my occupation.
“Have you ever hit anyone?”
“Yes.” Says I.
“I mean deliberately, in anger.”
“Yes.” I reply again. She had a surprised look on her face.
So I continued “I was trying to arrest a drunk driver, on my own and not only was he resisting, but he had part of my hand in his mouth and was biting me, so I hit him on the nose. Hard.”
She then looks at my paper, looks up and said, “So did you arrest him?
“Ooh yes. Because my gang was bigger than his.” I passed.
The medical examination included a “keystone” type vision test, ECG, blood pressure etc. Altogether I knew I had been properly tested.
But my certificate is only for five years. The doctor apologised, but because I wear glasses, to make sure people get regular eye tests, you can only get a 5 year, not a 10 year renewal here.
On leaving, the doctor shook hands and said, “That’s it. See you again in five years”.
Now I take everything to the police station, to get my replacement licence…
I have been Floofed
Floof is quickly becoming an adult. Almost all his grey “baby” feathers have now gone and he is practicing his flying skills.

The “flying” bit is still short hops of a just a few metres, but he is getting the idea and becoming more confident.
He still loves his “nest” and Teddy, but also is spending time exploring the world of books on the bookshelf. Maybe he is looking for an Atlas to see where it is that he should go in the autumn?
During the heat of the day I have been reading more about the Eurasian Scops owl. Last night I was listening to three probable juveniles who were calling, and after one bit of reading, I could actually hear the slightly higher pitch of a female, but I am getting in front of myself.
Floof has grown a little and has started adopting his adult stance, rather than the baby squatting posture. The rule next to floof in this picture gives an idea of his size.

I keep calling him a “he”, but again following reading a university research paper, the only definitive way to “sex” a Scops Owl is by a DNA analysis of feathers.
Once an adult, so after about two years, by measuring wing length, tail length and weight you can determine the sex with a 95% certainty. So until I know differently, Floof is a boy!
He is lively and I have been formulating a plan for a staged release back into the wild, once he can fend for himself. But any release will be determined by Floof himself.
Another bit of information I found was that in the wild Scops parents will feed chicks for up to 60 days from hatching. This is one of the longest parental feeding regimes of all avian species.
The actual number of birds across the range of Otus Scops is unknown, but is thought to be between 800,000 and 1.4 million adults.
There MUST be other examples of people hand rearing Scops Owl chicks, however I find it incredible that despite multiple searches, I cannot find any record of it happening.
There is a research paper website called ResearchGate which I use extensively when I am trying to discover information and there a a number of scientific papers available on it.
One such paper written by an Italian University starts with the sentence “The Eurasian Scops Owl is one of the least known nocturnal raptors”.
After the past three weeks, I would concour.
Another valuable source is the Academia.edu website which I am a member of, where there are large number of papers available to researchers.
One blog I found is called The Sound Approach, and the writer has some very clear and interesting recordings of Scops owls in Spain and Portugal.
He goes into great detail about the actual frequencies of the bird’s call, but also that females have a slightly higher pitch call than the males. With the windows open and a couple of owls nearby, I could clearly differentiate between the pitch of the calls.
Human summer visitors to the Mediterranean basin will have heard the almost electronic sounding calls of the Scops. However few will have seen one and fewer still will have had the privilege that I have had of having one like Floof on my hand.
I have definitely been Floofed!
This is a recording I made of one of my local Scops, which seems to have a very sore throat, recorded last year and the bird returned again this spring.
Straight to intensive care
All in the Top Orchard is not well.
A few weeks ago (Week 24), I wrote about finding Colin and friends, caterpillars of the Giant Peacock Moth, Saturnia pyri, on my Pistachio trees.

Over the following weeks I found five more. I have only ever seen a single example in a year before. But this means a very healthy population of moths too.
One of my Pistachio trees was completely stripped of leaves by a caterpillar. They have appetites to match their size.

I believed that the tree would grow new leaves to replace those which had been eaten. This week they are in evidence all over, where leaves have been stripped.

The caterpillars have all now gone, moving to their next stage in a cocoon. They will overwinter, emerging as palm size moths next spring.
When I looked, I found that there were caterpillars on my Pecan trees too. But I am happy to lose some leaves, knowing they will regrow, to ensure these beautiful moths multiply.

Despite watering regularly, I have been worried about my Mānuka myrtle, Leptospermum scoparium.

I planted it several years ago and it has grown slowly and flowered well. However this summer, I noticed the leaves going brown.
As more leaves became brown, I decided I would dig it up now rather than in the autumn as I had planned.
When I dug it out of the bed, I was surprised that the root ball was hardly any larger than when I planted it. It has not developed any long tap root, so as the soil surface has dried out, so have the roots.
I replanted it immediately in moist potting soil and I have moved it straight into my plant intensive care facility.

I have cut most of the plant off, because it was completely dead and dry.
I’m hoping that just perhaps, with moisture and humidity, the shrub may sprout again from the base.
However only time will tell. N.CG