It’s 5 in the morning, and my phone wakes me with an incessant noise. Was I to go out birding? No, it’s the editor-in-chief of our internationally acclaimed website. Where is your Saturday article? While he yells in inexplicable German (such a great language for shouting at people) I scroll through my e-mails. Hundreds upon hundreds of people have sent in complaints about the hiatus in their day, caused by my lack of diligence. Blaming fellow Saturday writer Luca? No point, he’s also German so well-organised and disciplined (and it is not his turn, plus he is a very nice person). This is on me, a classic “oops!”. Therefore, you will be punished with an article I hastily wrote on my balcony in the centre of Rotterdam. To make matters worse, I will add my own pictures of the garden birds. I fail, someone else suffers – that is how management works.
Sipping my coffee, I am listening to Egyptian Goose honking and Rose-ringed Parakeet screeching: ambient noises more befitting an Eastern African port rather than Rotterdam. The Common Swifts soaring overhead have only just returned from Africa. The temperature is tropical too. The temperate climate element of the birdlife is provided for by my resident Eurasian Jackdaws and a Eurasian Wren is singling loudly in the shrubs underneath the walnut tree. Gulls are flying over regularly, and at this time of year they are mostly Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
Common Woodpigeons are eating the flowers of a large Acacia tree (another African), only stopping for mating and a quick visit to my upstairs neighbour’s feeder. Seeing the pigeons doing their thing on a Sunday morning I feel the urge to follow suit. Breakfast it is.
Damn, forgot about the time change! Intended to call you at 4 am your time, not 5 am.