Detail Diary, Vol #16
Flowers, fledglings, flight
May 14 - 31, 2024
Dear friend,
I give you three weeks of May: sun on flowers, rain on flowers, fledging crows and nesting swifts, and a weekend trip to Torino.
My bird cup runneth over this month:
Watching crow parents build a nest and fledge a brood just outside my office window: a tender distraction from work, and somehow, an honor
Hearing the zinging of swifts overhead and tilting back to watch their aerobatics: my favorite thing
Tuning in to see cuddly swift couples settling in to their nest-boxes in Cambridge (hosted by the buliding where I used to work)—see the end of the newsletter for the livestream.
Cycling a bit upriver to see a colony of European Bee-eaters, a gorgeous, vivacious species I had never seen in person before (in birding terms, a lifer!). I might write a whole post about this later.
Torino: Francophones and Anglophones both generally call it Turin, but we’re so close to Italy that Torino is more often in my ears. It’s a three-and-a-half hour drive through the Alps from Grenoble, almost a straight shot thanks to a large number of tunnels, including the thirteenth-longest in the world (8 miles/13 km) boring right through the France-Italy border. Torino: one-time capital of Savoy (Grenoble’s one-time neighbor), one-time capital of united Italy.
Read on for the Details.
Here is your usual reminder that this post is best viewed on the web or in the Substack app. (From email, click on the title of the post or “Read in app.”) Clicking on a Note will also take you to the browser/app to see its full text and additional photos. For an introduction to my Detail Diary, see here, or peruse past volumes.
Some bzzbzz on video
Tilia = linden/lime/basswood
A weekend in Torino
#223 is good one to expand to full size for the sake of compositional integrity. :p Featured: Mole Antonelliana, the most iconic building in Torino (the one on all the fridge magnets).
The swifts in #224 are alpine swifts (Tachymarptis melba), a different species from the common swift (Apus apus) that is so abundant over European city streets, but also pretty common in Torino from what I could tell. Alpine swifts have white bellies and a harsher, more chittery call than common swifts.
The Cambridge swifts
Beautiful photos as always, Anne! I have to admit, earthworms have freaked me out since the time I woke to find one slithering towards me in the middle of the night. Some creatures are meant to stay outside!
Roaming through your details relaxed me for a bit. Thank you!