💾 Archived View for magda.cities.yesterweb.org › oblog › 2024-september-08.gmi captured on 2024-12-17 at 10:10:18. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-09-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A trp was planned on the 7th which eventually had to be scrapped not only due to all farmers having decided to cultivate and fertilize their fields at the same time but some guy blocking my backdoor with a straw bale. The only observation that was made were two mating P. napi in my yard.
Even though it has become apparent to me that there barely are any insects active prior to noon, I decided to go outside anyway, as the weather was said to switch to rain in the afternoon. With the sun peaking through the clouds, weak winds and temperatures of 22°C (10:09 AM), conditions were assumed to be acceptable.
+-------------------------+---------------------------------+--------+ | Species | Location | Status | +-------------------------+---------------------------------|--------+ | Aglais io | Yard | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pieris brassicae | Yard | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pieris napi | Zone I / II / III | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Pieris rapae | Zone III | Adult | |-------------------------|---------------------------------|--------| | Polyommatus icarus | Mixed Field | Adult | +-------------------------+---------------------------------+--------+
The current state of the vegetation is outright abysmal, with even chicory being a surprisingly rare sight. Since the end of August, my shoes have ended up being covered in "rusty" dust and the grassy path in Zone III now shows clear signs of overfertilization. Indeed, yesterday may have been the peak of every farmer fertilizing their fields, applying both dung and slurry (with the owner of "Mixed Field" applying slurry on his remaining alfalfa – alfalfa is considered a natural fertilizer!). What may have been collected by my shoes resembles iron(III) hydroxide, which is more common in areas known for ore mining. It can develop when ammonia falls apart but FeO(OH)3 also is a common agent to mitigate decomposing of cultivated plants. Both origins may be possible – and it actually doesn't even matter which one may be the true origin because the end result always is overfertilization in already-fertile areas like mine.
The chornic lack of nectar plants due to my municipality's overly-strict mowing regime, farmers' tendency to overfertilize their fields and current obsession with non-corn-carrying corn for biogas plants, and overall poor management that is biased towards short-term economical profits currently makes ecological observations pretty painful, as even the amount of other insects has declined drastically.