June is here at last -

1 June

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Robinlets

On the 9 May a Robin decided to start construction of a nest on top of a ceramic container screwed to the wall of our porch just a few inches from the front door. Over the years it has been used twice by Carolina Wrens who have nested inside the pot … but Robins don’t do that. Oh no, evolution says to them try to stick the nest on the smooth, glazed rounded upper surface instead. All I can say is that Robins are better at this than I am because with the aid of some mud she glued the structure down very neatly indeed - made a pretty good job of it.

Once it was evident that there were eggs we tried to deter couriers and the mailman by providing a weather proof container down the path to the door with a notice to put mail etc inside. One courier left a parcel, all others have totally ignored it, as has the mail man. Maybe they cannot read? Well, they got plenty of abuse from the Robins - and deservedly so.

So - the Robins had read the books and on Wednesday, a couple of weeks after egg deposition, it was obvious from Mum’s movements that “something was happening’ in the nest- viewed from a distance - and the next day there was half a blue egg shell on the front steps. We have Robinlets (or are they Robinlings?) which hopefully will fledge in another couple of weeks. Defensive squawking has increased in volume and the language the parents are hurling at anyone coming near is more than somewhat profane. We will leave them to get on with things - pretty sure they know what they are about.

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Going from bad to worse …

As if Trump could not do anything worse than he has already … I opened the paper yesterday to read this. He has exceeded himself …

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canada-trump-pollution-air-water-algae/

… it’s also poised to unleash a wave of pollution the continent hasn’t seen since the 1960s, when acid rain and other ecological disasters inspired the very regulations the U.S. government now wants to dismantle. The implications are especially dire for air and water, two elements with even less regard for borders than Donald Trump.

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A not so often seen shorebird, Short-billed Dowitcher, is seen in this photo splashing around on a small St-Lawrence River island, Îlet Vert, that is owned by Bird Protection Quebec, just off the northern-eastern tip of Montreal island. It wasn’t at all concerned about our quite close presence.

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Bold Jumping Spider

I have only ever identified this fellow (Phidippus audax ) once, but June seems to be a good time for them and it seems they are quite common. They are hunting carnivores feeding on insects, centipedes etc. The designation “bold” apparently comes from the French scientist who first named the species own the C19 and noted their bold nature, sometimes even jumping onto the hand that they saw as a threat rather than running away.

… they have four pairs of eyes arranged in a semi-circle around their head, allowing them to see nearly 360° around them. The forward-facing eyes are the largest and … the retina of these eyes are able to rotate, allowing them to follow a moving target.

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Food for thought

Much of my “Out Walking” at this time of the year is between home and the Garden at Fritz, where a group of volunteers grows fresh produce for food banks as we have done for the past twelve summers. We grow on land provided by our town council … the food banks really needing what we can donate to them. Maybe other towns could do something similar, there is certainly a need out there these days. Meanwhile the volunteers are constantly serenaded from the adjacent trees by the songs of nesting birds and foxes keep the rabbit population under control.

Week 5

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Let it go, if you have to

Simply “letting go” if you can’t manage your garden is better than replacing those green spaces with low maintenance alternatives.

I hate the trend for low maintenance gardens, for people to pave, deck, plastic turf or otherwise suppress life for a reduced management regime. Why have a hedge when you could erect a fence, and not have to maintain it? Why have a lawn when you could lay paving, and not have to mow it? Why have any life at all when everything could be sterile and dead, and you could sit in your garden and… feel nothing? There’s nothing more low maintenance than letting your garden go, letting nature be exuberant. I wish more of us embraced that … If plants are allowed to grow with exuberance surely they provide habitats you don’t usually find in gardens? Surely the bramble patches are full of hedgehogs, foxes and wrens? The grasses full of caterpillars, frogs and beetles? Surely there are last year’s plant stems and tussocky growth, dead wood and ant hills – habitats rarely found in these spaces?

What if the gardener disappeared?

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An environmental disaster is happening in England right now.

Frankly this could happen anywhere. Went completely unchecked for four years despite the authorities being aware.

Stand Up and Scream: Hoads Wood Deserves Better