Warble Gloaming is here
Things seem to be a little arse over tit here in the hills.
Normally frogs go into an orgy of frenzied passion in mid February [strangely, usually on Valentine’s Day/Night] but the lake is full of frog-spawn and It’s still January. Well, only just, but still they’re early.
This morning I glanced out the window and there was fierce activity out on the lawns. There were four Magpies, or to be more accurate, there were two pairs of Magpies. Now I’m no expert in these matters and can barely distinguish one end of a bird from the other and am certainly at the back of the class when it comes to determining gender, but it looked to me as if each pair was shagging the arse off one another. Of course I may be wrong and it might have been a coincidental argument between the four of them but it certainly looked like a gang-bang to me. Aren’t they supposed to build a nest first? Or do they “repurpose” [horrible fucking word] old ones? Or are they just going to join the throngs of the homeless who wander our cities’ streets? I’ll leave that to the ornathol ornitholi bird fanciers out there.
The Snowflowers are snowflowering and the Daffodils are shooting up. The Birch by the lake is showing a distinct haze which means the sap is rising. No jokes there please, especially as this is The Anniversary. [46 years? Fuck!]
It’s actually a little chilly here for the first time in a while. It has been unseasonably mild all winter, come to think of it. Apparently the Jet Stream or the Polar Front or whatever you want to call it has a static wiggle in it which means America and Central Europe are getting all the shit while we bask [?] in autumn/spring mildness. Am I supposed to apologise? No fucking way. We have had our doses of crap winters thank you very much. Though I do remember one year when I saw a Horse Chestnut coming into leaf in the first week in January. And that was long before they invented this Climate lark.
Of course now that I have scribbled this we are bound to get a blizzard next week.
C’est la vie…
Here in Scotchland this has happened in several recent years.
Birds start nest building, buds come out, etc.. All the signs of Spring springing.
Then the Weather Gods give a great guffaw and later on in February or March miserable Winter returns with a vengeance.
There was the famous one a few years back where daffodils were in full bloom when there was an almighty blizzard [by Irish standards] that brought the entire country to a halt. They called it “The Beast from the East” or some-such tacky name. That was late March or April?
I can tell you what the yard looks like over here as soon as the fog lifts and a few more inches of snow melts off.
Magpies? You got vampires, my friend. At least according to Sir Terry Pratchett (mayherestinpeace) you do. I envy your weather, sir.
The static wiggle is the North Atlantic Oscillation! I learned that during the first lockdown when I had feck all else to do.
Magpies are the ones that repurpose other birds nests by throwing out that birds eggs and laying their own so that bird brings up the Magpies young. So no need to build any nests at all.
I thought that was Cuckoos?
That’s immigration for you.
There you have it in black and white.