An Early Easter Egg Hunt

Another great day in my office!

 

I hear it is predicted to be the coldest March weekend for 50 years and snowing in most of the UK at the moment? 

UK readers skip to the next paragraph immediately…. 

 

 

Wild flowers in an olive grove on the Spanish border

            ….or weep as I describe the blue skies and warm sun in Portugal; how my spring fieldwork is not on landfill sites but mostly consists of wandering in sunny fields bright with spectacular purple, yellow and white drifts of wild flowers. The blossom is out on the fruit trees, swallows skim low over the gently nodding heads of vipers burgloss, lavender, rocket, lupins, dwarf iris and chamomile; and my footsteps through the long grass send butterflies scattering in to the air: Whites, Painted Ladies, Swallowtails and Blues. Did you know that all the UK’s Painted Lady butterflies are migrants? Neither these nor most of the swallows will be arriving in the UK for quite some time yet… 

This is Portugal at its finest, before the hot summer sun browns the meadow grass.  

First prize in my Easter egg hunt: shell plus contents!

Safe to read now...

It is not all paradise though. As well as tracking the logged birds (the subject of my next blog post) I have been visiting stork nests to see how many eggs have been laid, and to collect regurgitated pellets and egg shell -2 Easter egg hunts in one! 

Despite the wild flowers, the meadow directly below a stork’s nest is not a pretty sight –covered in smelly unsavoury poo and debris that I rummage through. Hunting through brambles, wildflowers and stands of tall nettles, eggshell is usually well hidden. Is that speck of white nestled deep against the soil a fragment of eggshell? Usually it is just light reflecting off a eucalyptus leaf, or a poo splatter, litter, a white stone or a bleached snail shell…. The anticipation of the hunt keeps me interested for hours!  

Similarly viewing in to nests to see how many eggs have been laid is like sharing a secret with each stork!

How many eggs have you laid so far...?

Storks usually lay 1-6 eggs but only manage to rear 1-4 chicks. Last year bad weather resulted in very bad breeding success. Keep following my blog to see if this year is a good or bad year for the storks breeding in Portugal.

Im a bit wildflower obsessed after the long UK winter: Rocket, lupins and Cork Oak logs