The wonders of May

I have noticed of late a distinct disturbance in my garden. Every morning I go outside to assess the damage. My carefully placed leaf mulch is scattered over the footpaths. Some of my garden beds are completely devoid of the cane mulch that I had placed there only a few days earlier. Particularly rich compost mulch that I had piled at the base of newly planted trees has been pushed aside. I have worried for the last week that this destruction was due to the great unknown thumping thing that lives in the library ceiling. But today everything was revealed...and in a beautiful way... It was early morning and I was sitting in a cold kitchen looking out of the window in a dreamy unfocused way. Suddenly a movement caught my eye. When I focused I discovered many birds flitting across the garden. Tiny birds moved so fast that my ealy morning eye reflexes struggled to keep up with them. Eventually I "caught" them. I saw the food in their beaks and I watched them wait on a fence to assess danger before they plunged into a gap between the unpointed stone walls of our neighbours house. But it was the larger birds that were wreaking the havoc on my garden! They were clearly on a mission. They landed suddenly and heavily and flicked their beaks violently into my mulch, throwing it around like chooks in a pile of kitchen scraps. Having seen nature at its best, I am no longer worried about my garden. Every afternoon I will go out and replace the mulch so that every morning the birds have a new thick moist layer that they can toss off to reveal rich juicy worms and other delicious bugs. I wonder if there is anything more humbling and hopeful than being treated to a private showing of nature in Spring...