Wednesday, 19 April 2023
19-4-2023 LA YESA, VALENCIA - WOODCHAT SHRIKE (Lanius senator)
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19-4-2023 LA YESA, VALENCIA - CORN BUNTING (Emberiza calandra)
The corn bunting (Emberiza calandra) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. This is a large bunting with heavily streaked buff-brown plumage. The sexes are similar but the male is slightly larger than the female. Its range extends from Western Europe and North Africa across to northwestern China.
It breeds across southern and central Europe, north Africa and Asia across to Kazakhstan. It is mainly resident, but some birds from colder regions of central Europe and Asia migrate southwards in winter.
The corn bunting is a bird of open country with trees, such as farmland and weedy wasteland. It has declined greatly in north-west Europe due to intensive agricultural practices depriving it of its food supply of weed seeds and insects, the latter especially vital when feeding the young. It has recently become extinct in Wales and Ireland, where it was previously common.
19-4-2023 LA YESA, VALENCIA - CARRION CROW (Corvus corone)
The rook is generally gregarious and the crow largely solitary, but rooks occasionally nest in isolated trees, and crows may feed with rooks; moreover, crows are often sociable in winter roosts. The most distinctive feature is the voice. The rook has a high-pitched kaaa, but the crow's guttural, slightly vibrant, deeper croaked kraa is distinct from any note of the rook.
The carrion crow is noisy, perching on a vantage point such as a building or the top of a tree and calling three or four times in quick succession, with a slight pause between each series of croaks. During each series of calls, a crow may perform an accompanying gesture, raising its shoulders and bowing its head and neck downwards with each caw. The wing-beats are slower, more deliberate than those of the rook.
Carrion crows can become tame near humans, and can often be found near areas of human activity or habitation including cities, moors, woodland, sea cliffs and farmland where they compete with other social birds such as gulls, other corvids, and ducks for food in parks and gardens.
Like other species of corvid, carrion crows will actively harass predators and competitors that enter their territory or threaten them or their offspring, and will engage in group mobbing behaviour as a method to defend themselves.
19-4-2023 LA YESA, VALENCIA - RED BILLED CHOUGH (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
The red-billed chough, Cornish chough or simply chough , is a bird in the crow family, one of only two species in the genus Pyrrhocorax. Its eight subspecies breed on mountains and coastal cliffs from the western coasts of Ireland and Britain east through southern Europe and North Africa to Central Asia, India and China.
This bird has glossy black plumage, a long curved red bill, red legs, and a loud, ringing call. It has a buoyant acrobatic flight with widely spread primaries. The red-billed chough pairs for life and displays fidelity to its breeding site, which is usually a cave or crevice in a cliff face. It builds a wool-lined stick nest and lays three eggs. It feeds, often in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey.
Although it is subject to predation and parasitism, the main threat to this species is changes in agricultural practices, which have led to population decline, some local extirpation, and range fragmentation in Europe; however, it is not threatened globally. The red-billed chough, which derived its common name from the jackdaw, was formerly associated with fire-raising, and has links with Saint Thomas Becket and Cornwall. The red-billed chough has been depicted on postage stamps of a few countries, including the Isle of Man, with four different stamps, and the Gambia, where the bird does not occur.
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
18-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SNAKE MILLIPEDE (Ommatoiulus rutilans)
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Ommatoiulus is a genus of millipedes in the family Julidae.
The taxonomy of the genus has had a complicated history. As it stands now, there are approximately 60 described species, but this is likely to change. At least 10 new species were described in 2012, and those just from Spain. Six new species were described from Portugal in 2017. There are many millipedes known to belong to this genus that do not yet have official names.
18-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - HORSE CHESTNUT MOTH (Pachycnemia hippocastanaria)
Larva
The wingspan is 28–32 mm. Adults are on wing from April to May, and again in a partial second generation in August, usually with fewer and smaller moths.
The larvae feed on common heather (Calluna vulgaris), although both the English and Latin names refer to the horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum).
Monday, 17 April 2023
17-4-2023 CASTELLONET DE CONQUESTA, VALENCIA - LADDER SNAKE (Zamenis scalaris)
The ladder snake (Zamenis scalaris) is a species of non-venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to southwestern Europe.
The geographic range of the ladder snake includes Portugal, Spain, southern France and just into Italy, also Menorca and the Iles d'Hyères off Provence, but it is absent from northern Iberia including much of the Pyrenees, Galicia (although the species is found on Ons Island, in the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park, Cantabria and the Basque Country. The population on Menorca may stem from an introduction by humans.
The Ladder Snake enjoys scrub bushy cover, including orchards, vineyards, hedges and overgrown dry-stone walls; it is common in the maquis. Habitats with stones and boulders and low shade are preferred. Although known at altitudes over 2,000 metres (6,600 ft), this is a species which prefers altitudes from sea level to 700 metres (2,300 ft).
17-4-2023 CASTELLONET DE CONQUESTA, VALENCIA - BROAD LEAVED SWEET PEA (Lathyrus latifolius)
Lathyrus latifolius, the perennial peavine, perennial pea, broad-leaved everlasting-pea, or just everlasting pea, is a robust, sprawling herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae. It is native to Europe but is present on other continents, such as North America and Australia, where it is most often seen along roadsides.
Lathyrus latifolius can reproduce vegetatively from its taproot and rhizomes, or by reseeding.
It requires partial to full sun, and loam or clay-loam soil that is moist, mesic, or slightly dry. Unlike the related annual sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus, with which it may be confused, it has no scent. While grown as a garden plant it may be pervasive and difficult to remove. Because of this, this species is often considered to be a weed despite its attractive appearance.
18-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - THERESIAN MOTH (Lamoria anella)
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It is found in most of Europe (except Ireland, Great Britain, Fennoscandia, Denmark, the Baltic region and Slovenia), the Canary Islands, as well as North Africa (including Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt), South Africa, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.
The first confirmed British record was recorded in a garden at Hartford, Huntingdonshire on 5 October 2018, possibly as a migrant.
17-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - WAVE MOTH (Scopula minorata)
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Scopula minorata is a moth of the family Geometridae. It was described by Jean Baptiste Boisduval in 1833. It is found in Africa south of the Sahara, the Arabian Peninsula and on the islands of the Indian Ocean. Furthermore, it is found in southern Europe. It can be distinguished from Scopula lactaria only by examination of its genitalia.
The wingspan is 15–20 millimetres (0.59–0.79 in).
17-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - PEARL MOTH (Udea numeralis)
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Udea numeralis is a species of moth in the family Crambidae described by Jacob Hübner in 1796. It is found in Southern Europe and North Africa.
The wingspan is about 26 mm.
Sunday, 16 April 2023
16-4-2023 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - IBERIAN BLUE DAMSELFLY (Ischnura graellsii)
The Iberian Bluetail ( Ischnura graellsii ) is a slightly smaller counterpart to the Common Bluetail – Blue-tailed Damselfly ( Ischnura elegans ) and is confined to Iberia and North Africa where it is again abundant on all types of water. Females of the former hybridise with males of the latter in northern Spain.
Males have a slightly shorter abdomen than the Common Bluetail – Ischnura elegans and also may have smaller (or even non-existant) postocular spots and antehumeral stripes.
Females again come in three colour forms with the immature thorax being greeny- yellow in Type A, pale lilac in Type B and orange in Type C.
16-4-2023 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - COLLARED PRATINCOLE (Glareola pratincola)
The collared pratincole (Glareola pratincola), also known as the common pratincole or red-winged pratincole, is a wader in the pratincole family, Glareolidae. As with other pratincoles, it is native to the Old World.
The collared pratincole is a bird of open country, and is often seen near water in the evening, hawking for insects. It is found in the warmer parts of Europe, southwest Asia and Africa. It is migratory, wintering in tropical Africa, and is rare north of the breeding range.
Pratincoles are unusual among waders in that they typically hunt their insect prey on the wing like swallows, although they can also feed on the ground.
16-4-2023 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - WOOD SANDPIPER (Tringa glareola)
The wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola) is a small wader. This Eurasian species is the smallest of the shanks, which are mid-sized long-legged waders of the family Scolopacidae. The genus name Tringa is the Neo-Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle.
The wood sandpiper breeds in subarctic wetlands from the Scottish Highlands across Europe and then east across the Palearctic. They migrate to Africa, Southern Asia, particularly India, and Australia. Vagrant birds have been seen as far into the Pacific as the Hawaiian Islands. In Micronesia it is a regular visitor to the Mariana Islands (where flocks of up to 32 birds are reported) and Palau; it is recorded on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands about once per decade. This species is encountered in the western Pacific region between mid-October and mid-May. A slight westward expansion saw the establishment of a small but permanent breeding population in Scotland since the 1950s.
This bird is usually found on freshwater during migration and wintering. They forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud, and mainly eat insects and similar small prey. T. glareola nests on the ground or uses an abandoned old tree nest of another bird, such as the fieldfare (Turdus pilaris). Four pale green eggs are laid between March and May.
Adult wood sandpipers moult all their primary feathers between August and December, whilst immature birds moult varying number of outer primaries between December and April, much closer to their departure from Africa. Immatures are also much more flexible than adults in the timing and rate of their moult and refueling. Adults and immatures which accumulate fuel loads of c.50% of their lean body mass can potentially cross distances of 2397–4490 km in one non-stop flight.
16-4-2023 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - EUROPEAN STONECHAT (MALE)
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The European stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a subspecies of the common stonechat. Long considered a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, genetic evidence has placed it and its relatives in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae.
European stonechats breed in heathland, coastal dunes and rough grassland with scattered small shrubs and bramble, open gorse, tussocks or heather. They are short-distance migrants or non-migratory, with part of the population (particularly from northeastern parts of the range, where winters are colder) moving south to winter further south in Europe and more widely in north Africa.
European stonechats first breed when they are one year old. They are monogamous during the breeding season but do not pair for life. The nest is built entirely by the female and is placed in dense vegetation close to the ground. It is a loose unwoven cup of dried grass lined with hair and feathers. The eggs are laid in early morning at daily intervals. The clutch is typically 4–6 eggs, which are pale blue to greenish-blue with red-brown freckles that are more numerous at the larger end. The average size of an egg is 18.7 mm × 14.4 mm (0.74 in × 0.57 in) with a weight of 2.0 g (0.071 oz). They are incubated for 13–14 days by the female beginning after the last egg is laid. Both parents care for and feed the chicks. They are brooded by the female. The nestlings fledge 12–16 days after hatching but continue to be fed by both parents for a further 4–5 days after which the female begins building a new nest for another brood while the male continues to feed the young for another 5–10 days. The parents raise two or three broods in a season.
Saturday, 15 April 2023
15-4-2023 RIO SERPIS, GANDIA - CRETAN TREE MALLOW (Malva multiflora)
This distinctive mallow with pale pink or whitish flowers is one of the few wildflowers of the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean region to survive the heat past May, which may be due to its ability to form deep roots that gain access to what little water remains in the soil once the summer temperatures soar.
This annual or biennial plant usually grows to between 0.3 and 1.5m in height but can sometimes reach 2m. Small Tree Mallow is also known as Cretan Mallow. Lavatera cretica is a synonym of Malva multiflora.
Small Tree Mallow, or Cretan Mallow, can be found throughout the Mediterranean region. This wildflower is also native to Britain, where is a rare find.
This member of the Mallow family of plants occurs mainly on cultivated and disturbed ground, along waysides and in waste ground.
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15-4-2023 RIO SERPIS, GANDIA - GREY HERON (Ardea cinerea)
15-4-2023 RIO SERPIS, GANDIA - EUROPEAN GOLDFINCH (Carduelis carduelis)
15-4-2023 RIO SERPIS, GANDIA - YELLOW LEGGED GULL (Larus michahellis)
The breeding range is centred on the Mediterranean Sea. In North Africa, it is common in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and increasing in places. Recent breeding has occurred in Libya and Egypt. In the Middle East, a few breed in IsraelPalestine and Syria with larger numbers in Cyprus and Turkey. In Europe, there are colonies all along the Mediterranean coast, and also on the Atlantic islands and coasts north to Brittany and west to the Azores. It also breeds on the western side of the Black Sea; here it overlaps with the Caspian gull but there is a difference in habitat, with the yellow-legged gull preferring sea cliffs and the Caspian gull flatter shores. In recent decades birds have spread north into central and western Europe. One to four pairs have attempted to breed in southern England since 1995 (sometimes hybrid pairs with lesser black-backed gulls), though colonisation has been very slow.
Many birds remain in the same area all year round, but others migrate to spend the winter in mild areas of western Europe or head south as far as Senegal, Gambia and the Red Sea. There is also extensive northward post-breeding dispersal in the late summer, with numbers in southern England high from July to October.
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