A new sign of spring: Common Roman squill, Bellevalia flexuosa, First bloom I've seen this season. This I found up on the wooded slopes of east valley, the west facing slope, near the tree line. (not far from where I found the autumn squill a few months ago) Early for this flower, they normally bloom February on and we found a lot last spring in gazelle field. Another member of the lily family, you can see its resemblance to asphodel though the blooms are much smaller, the spike only a few centimetres in length. A. Atwood
Range today: just over 7-13.5 degrees C, ~12 degrees at time of our walk, about quarter after 4 p.m. wind shifting around from easterlies back to north/NW, very light. Sky pretty much clear today in contrast to pretty much completely overcast yesterday afternoon. Humidity 65-70%
Two signs of spring today, the first, above, the first blooming Bellevalia of the season, the second, a great tit Parus major in song, somewhere just off valley road. Blackbird also heard singing but they've been singing on and off throughout the winter. Hooded crows about, flock of jackdaws heard from the house earlier in the afternoon.
House sparrows about the houses as usual, feral pigeon flock aloft today, graceful warbler heard in or near the garden yesterday.
No gazelle today but husband found fresh gazelle spoor on the hillside where I found the squill. Hyrax also staying 'indoors' last couple of days at time we passed colonies. Eurasian sparrowhawk spotted over east valley today by husband. Yesterday I saw a brief and dramatic encounter between hooded crow and sparrowhawk in north valley, alluvial area planted with eucalyptus. A crow, probably already staking out its breeding site on top of a tall tree there tried to dive bomb a sparrowhawk which had just flown into view. The hawk dodged and manoevred deftly between the eucalyptus at mid canopy level, the crow attempting chase with a deep gutteral 'grrawwk' call. Its attempt was clumsy relative to the hawk and it quit pretty much immediately. Then I heard a repeated 'caw', not sure if same crow or mate. Call might have been related to the hawk encounter or to tell mate that we'd arrived on the scene.
Chiffchaffs, I assume, continue to call in the pines, black redstarts and others keeping a low profile. A melodious call out in north east gazelle field- wheatear, lark? Didn't manage to find it. More pretty yellow savyon blooming along the east valley watercourse and milk thistle leaves growing all over.
People working on the cisterns turned out to be a group of five young men, not teenage boys as I'd thought from a distance. They showed up today in a pick-up truck which I hope means they'll shlep away the garbage they pulled out. They'd totally cleared the smaller cistern of rocks and done more work clearing out the larger.
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