The inspectors are tiny, not the vegetable patch. That is quite huge (over 40 square meters). It took me 1 hour to plow it all and that knocked me out for two days. Now I am breaking the dirt lumps and making the beds for the veggies which I expect to keep me busy for a week. Last year we had only one huge patch with potatoes, this year it will be split into several small ones for peas, onions, beans, and cucumbers.
And today when I had my lunch break, several small birds came to inspect my handiwork and feast on earthworms and insects brought to the surface – the redstarts are back, a sure sign that spring has really begun. These birds never come to the feeder, they are strict insectivores and they really enjoy the vegetable patches after the rain or when the surface is disturbed.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size
I assume that these are all black redstarts Phoenicurus ochruros, because those I usually see around here. But there might be some common redstarts Phoenicurus phoenicurus among these four pictures this time or even all of them. These are all females and those are hard to distinguish, species-wise, for me. Today was one of the rare instances when I have also seen male common redstart, but he, unfortunately, whooshed before I got him into focus.
There’s a farm next to my urban neighborhood, not far from the sea. Flocks of seagulls arrive every April in anticipation of the cultivation of the fields, which usually begins in late April. At night they often hang out in the artificially lit residential/campus area, sleepless, chattering loudly, shitting all over parking lots. When the breeding season begins in May, they go back to the sea.
After living here for 14 years, I’ve grown to associate seagull shrieks with spring. When I take a late night walk on quiet streets this time of the year, I often see more gulls than people. They are like tiny white ghosts in the dark, walking on the pavement, flying around street lamps and over the university experimental greenhouses, sometimes glowing red with reflected sodium light.
Aww!