As you are aware, I spend the first part of my morning mousing. I get half an hour before they retire for the day and after that I concentrate on the olive grove as I feel that is the most likely place for some action and the valley, with its scrubland leading down to the lakes.
I can recognise a few birds from their calls, but most are a mystery to me, so I downloaded a birdsong recognition app to my phone. The other morning, I heard what sounded like a grouse or partridge, so I quickly turned the app on and that is when the bulldozer started up. Sound travels wonderfully up the valley and about half a mile away is a cement works, but they might as well be behind the next tree. The bulldozer worked for about quarter of an hour and then mercifully stopped. Luckily, the bird decided to call again, and the app analysed it and said it was certainly a chukar, a species of partridge. At home, later I checked the bible (Collins Bird Guide 2nd Edition), and it said that if it was a chukar, it was a long way from home, so it was more likely a rock partridge. I was discussing this with Simone, who was feigning interest, and as I was showing her the app, I pressed the analyse button just as she was laughing. The app said my wife was almost certainly a long-eared owl!
Getting back to the morning’s fun, I had heard the rock partridge and I was scanning the valley hoping to see it when I spotted a grey blur to my right. Banking tightly around an olive tree was a sparrowhawk. It flew closely past me and darted through the trees and out over the fields beyond the copse. Being the great wildlife photographer, I just watched with my mouth open and my camera hanging uselessly around my neck. The sparrowhawk was a beautiful female and I look forward to seeing her again and maybe even getting a photo.
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