As you'll no doubt know, my last non-fiction work (to date, that is. I mean, I don't want to sound needlessly bleak or anything) was entitled "A Jay in the Jacaranda Tree," and that's because a Jacaranda that was planted soon after we moved out here finally had Jays sitting on its branches after some ten years of our being here.
The Jays don't come to the garden specifically for the Jacaranda though, they come for the mousmoulia, or, in English, the loquat tree's fruit. This year the mousmoula tree near the front gate is looking lusher than it has been for some time. Owing to the fact that it was hit badly by a particularly tenacious cold spell that we had a few winters ago, it had been set back quite badly in its development. Now, though, although still not huge, it produces better fruit every year. We don't particularly like eating the loquat fruit, but we're very happy to have it within easy sight of our French windows, because the Jays (native to the UK too) treat the fruit as a bit of a delicacy. The fruit this year is abundant, although still far from ripe, but it's evidently ready enough to tempt the local Jay population, who've already been visiting the garden to peck at them.
Thus, yesterday morning, as we were chomping on our muesli, sitting inside the French windows, we were treated to the sight of a Jay, who flew into the tree, speared a fruit and then hopped to the nearby wall to feast on it. Later on he reappeared on the wall the other side of the front gates, beak stuffed with nesting materials. I say "he," but it could have been a female. I don't think the sexes of Jays are very different from each other, as most bird species tend to be. Although my digital camera's zoom isn't marvellous, I was rather pleased with these shots...
While I'm about posting photos, here are a few I took later that morning in the village of Kalathos...
The Jays don't come to the garden specifically for the Jacaranda though, they come for the mousmoulia, or, in English, the loquat tree's fruit. This year the mousmoula tree near the front gate is looking lusher than it has been for some time. Owing to the fact that it was hit badly by a particularly tenacious cold spell that we had a few winters ago, it had been set back quite badly in its development. Now, though, although still not huge, it produces better fruit every year. We don't particularly like eating the loquat fruit, but we're very happy to have it within easy sight of our French windows, because the Jays (native to the UK too) treat the fruit as a bit of a delicacy. The fruit this year is abundant, although still far from ripe, but it's evidently ready enough to tempt the local Jay population, who've already been visiting the garden to peck at them.
Thus, yesterday morning, as we were chomping on our muesli, sitting inside the French windows, we were treated to the sight of a Jay, who flew into the tree, speared a fruit and then hopped to the nearby wall to feast on it. Later on he reappeared on the wall the other side of the front gates, beak stuffed with nesting materials. I say "he," but it could have been a female. I don't think the sexes of Jays are very different from each other, as most bird species tend to be. Although my digital camera's zoom isn't marvellous, I was rather pleased with these shots...
 |
| The loquat tree is left of shot. |
 |
| He/she's got his/her beak facing the other way, but you can easily see the nesting materials he's carrying. |
•
While I'm about posting photos, here are a few I took later that morning in the village of Kalathos...
 |
| The fig trees have just about reached full-leaf status now. Before the summer arrives and they get dusty, they're a lovely vivid colour. |
 |
| Blousy poppies like these are everywhere now. These were taken through the chainlink in someone's orchard. |
No comments:
Post a Comment