Thursday 23 April 2020
Wednesday 22 April 2020
17-5-2017 ALBUFERA, VALENCIA - GREY HERON (Ardea cinerea)
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Raising a nest full of baby herons is hard work! During the breeding season, some Gray Herons spend up to 23 hours per day foraging and some travel up to 38 km (24 miles) from their nest in search of food.
Gray Herons usually feed on smaller fish, 10–25 cm (4–10 inches) long, but some ambitious individuals take fish weighing up to 500 grams (1.1 pounds) and eels that are up to 60 cm (24 inches) long.
Gray Herons live in Eurasia and Africa, but rare individuals stray from their normal range to places like the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Despite the Gray Heron's similarity to Great Blue Heron, some observers have also documented this species from the Atlantic Coast of mainland North America, from Newfoundland to Virginia, and also from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
20-4-2020 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - WAVE MOTH (Idaea eugeniata)
Idaea eugeniata is a moth in the family Geometridae. It is found in Italy, France, Andorra, Spain, Portugal and North Africa.
The wingspan is 21–22 mm for males and 24–25 mm for females.
The larvae are polyphagous and have been recorded feeding on various herbaceous plants.
Tuesday 21 April 2020
Monday 20 April 2020
Sunday 19 April 2020
17-4-2016 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR, VALENCIA - COMMON SANDPIPER (Actitis hypoleucos)
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The common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos ) is a small Palearctic wader. This bird and its American sister species, the spotted sandpiper (A. macularia ), make up the genus Actitis. They are parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a basal species of the closely related shank genus Tringa.
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The adult is 18–20 cm (7.1–7.9 in) long with a 32–35 cm (13–14 in) wingspan. It has greyish-brown upperparts, white underparts, short dark-yellowish legs and feet, and a bill with a pale base and dark tip. In winter plumage, they are duller and have more conspicuous barring on the wings, though this is still only visible at close range. Juveniles are more heavily barred above and have buff edges to the wing feathers.
This species is very similar to the slightly larger spotted sandpiper (A. macularia ) in non-breeding plumage. But its darker legs and feet and the crisper wing pattern (visible in flight) tend to give it away, and of course they are only rarely found in the same location.
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The common sandpiper breeds across most of temperate and subtropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter. The eastern edge of its migration route passes by Palau in Micronesia, where hundreds of birds may gather for a stop-over. They depart the Palau region for their breeding quarters around the last week of April to the first week of May.
The common sandpiper forages by sight on the ground or in shallow water, picking up small food items such as insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates; it may even catch insects in flight.
It nests on the ground near freshwater. When threatened, the young may cling to their parent's body to be flown away to safety.
Saturday 18 April 2020
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