Sunday, 23 April 2023
23-4-2023 RACO DE OLLA, VALENCIA - COMMON TERN (Sterna hirundo)
23-4-2023 CREU DE LONGA, VALENCIA - GREY HERON (Ardea cinerea)
23-4-2023 RACO DE OLLA, VALENCIA - BLACK HEADED GULL (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
The black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe. Small numbers also occur in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull. As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus Larus.
The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations. Some of these include removing eggshells from one's nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity. They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.
23-4-2023 RACO DE OLLA, VALENCIA - SPECKLED WOOD BUTTERFLY (Pararge aegeria)
A medium-sized butterfly, the speckled wood is on the wing in two or three broods between the end of March and October. It is a common and widespread butterfly of woodland edges and rides, where it flies in the dappled sunlight, and can also be seen in hedgerows and gardens. Adults feed on honeydew, while the caterpillars feed on a variety of grasses, including false broom and cock's-foot.
The speckled wood is dark brown with creamy yellow spots. The best way to identify the 'brown' butterflies is by looking at the eyespots on their wings. The speckled wood is the only brown butterfly with three small, cream-ringed eyespots on each hindwing and one on each forewing.
23-4-2023 MUNTANYETA DEL SANS, VALENCIA - SQUACCO HERON (Ardeola ralloides)
The squacco heron is a migrant, wintering in Africa. It is rare north of its breeding range. The species has been recorded in Fernando de Noronha islands, and more rarely in mainland South America, as a vagrant. This is a stocky species with a short neck, short thick bill and buff-brown back. In summer, adults have long neck feathers. Its appearance is transformed in flight, when it looks very white due to the colour of the wings.
The squacco heron's breeding habitat is marshy wetlands in warm countries. The birds nest in small colonies, often with other wading birds, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs. Three to four eggs are laid. They feed on fish, frogs and insects.
23-4-2023 MUNTANYETA DEL SANS, VALENCIA - EURASIAN TREE SPARROW (MALE) (Passer montanus)
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Saturday, 22 April 2023
21-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - CURVED HORN MOTH (Symmoca signatella)
Symmoca signatella is a moth of the family Autostichidae. It is known from most of western Europe, but also Lithuania, Croatia, Greece and southern Russia. It has also been recorded from California in North America.
The wingspan is 12–15 mm. The forewings are whitish cinereous (ash grey), speckled with brownish fuscous. The hindwings are greyish brown. Adults are on wing in late summer and autumn.
The larvae feed on dried vegetable matter. They have been recorded feeding on dry leaves and plant debris on the stem and branches of Rosmarinus officinalis. The accumulation of debris was connected by light webbing.
21-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - RAYMOND'S GRASSHOPPER (Omocestus raymondi)
22-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE (Streptopelia decaocto)
The Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is a dove species native to Europe and Asia; it was introduced to Japan, North America and islands in the Caribbean. Because of its vast global range and increasing population trend, it has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2014.
The Eurasian collared dove is not wary and often feeds very close to human habitation, including visiting bird tables; the largest populations are typically found around farms where spilt grain is frequent around grain stores or where livestock are fed. It is a gregarious species and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain (its main food) as well as seeds, shoots and insects. Flocks most commonly number between 10 and 50, but flocks of up to 10,000 have been recorded.
Friday, 21 April 2023
19-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SMALL BLOOD VEIN MOTH (Scopula imitaria)
Wingspan 26-29 mm.
Like the rather similar Blood-vein (Timandra griseata), this species has a cross-line which extends across all four wings when at rest, though the colour is generally less pink.
Feeding on privet (Ligustrum) and a variety of low-growing plants, the caterpillars overwinter.
The adults fly at night during July and August and occupy habitats such as waste ground, hedgerows and coastal sand-dunes.
It is fairly common in the southern half of Britain, but local further north.
19-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - POND OLIVE MAYFLY (Cloeon dipterum)
Cloeon dipterum is a species of mayfly with a Holarctic distribution. It is the most common mayfly in ponds in the British Isles and the only ovoviviparous mayfly in Europe. Males differ from females in having turbinate eyes.
Description
In common with other members of the genera Cloeon and Procloeon, C. dipterum has a single pair of wings. This is also reflected in the specific epithet dipterum, which is from the Latin di-, meaning two, and the Greek pteron, meaning wing, and in his original description, Carl Linnaeus stated Inferiores alæ vix existunt ("smaller wings hardly present").
The compound eyes of C. dipterum show a striking sexual dimorphism, whereby females have lateral apposition eyes, while the males' eyes have an additional dorsal "turban-shaped" parts that function as superposition eyes. These extra eyes are thought to enable the males to locate isolated females in the mating swarm.
Thursday, 20 April 2023
20-4-2023 EL VERGEL, VALENCIA - LITTLE EGRET (Egretta garzetta)
Little Egrets are elegant, snow-white wading birds with long legs and a long S-shaped neck. Their straight, dagger-like bill is black, and their eyes are yellow. These birds have black legs with characteristic yellow feet, although this feature is often hidden under the water.
Female Little Egrets are smaller than their male counterparts but otherwise similar. In the breeding season, both sexes develop long paired plumes on the nape of the neck and long feathers on the breast and shoulders.
Juveniles appear similar to non-breeding adults but have dull greenish bills and legs and lack yellow feet.
20-4-2023 EL VERGEL, VALENCIA - CLOUDED YELLOW BUTTERFLY (Colias croceus)
Colias croceus is one of the most-widespread species in Europe. The common clouded yellow's breeding range is North Africa and southern Europe and eastwards through Turkey into the Middle East but it occurs throughout much of Europe as a summer migrant, in good years individuals reaching Scandinavia. In Asia, its range extends into central Siberia in the north and barely into India in the south; it is not found in Central Asia.
This species is primarily an immigrant to the UK, originating from southern Europe and northern Africa. In the UK they can be seen on the south coast almost every year in varying numbers, and regularly breed there. Occurrence in the rest of the UK varies considerably from year to year, but they are increasingly observed as far north as Dumfries and Galloway. It has also been recorded in Ireland from the Raven, Co. Wexford, to Belfast, Co. Down.
A truly migratory European butterfly, this species is famous for occasional mass migrations and subsequent breeding, which are often referred to in the United Kingdom as "clouded yellow years". Notable clouded yellow years include 1877, 1947, 1983, 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2000.
20-4-2023 EL VERGEL, VALENCIA - MALLARD (MALE) (Anas platyrhynchos)
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The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia and Britain to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and South Korea. Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south.
The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 0.9 metres (3.0 ft) are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.
20-4-2023 EL VERGEL, VALENCIA - GLOSSY IBIS (Plegadis falcinellus)
20-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY (Ceratitis capitata)
19-4-2023 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - BLAIR'S MOCHA MOTH (Cyclophora puppillaria)
Cyclophora puppillaria, or Blair's mocha, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1799. It can be found in Europe and from North Africa up to the Caucasus area.
The wingspan is 28–36 mm in the first generation; the second and any subsequent generations are on average much smaller often only 19 mm. Front and hindwings have almost the same colour. This is however very variable and ranges usually from reddish brown to reddish yellow and light brown. Some specimens are sand coloured, brown or orange. Also, the pattern is very variable. The inner and outer cross lines, as well as the median band can be very well developed, but also almost completely missing. The interior cross line, but especially the outer cross line is often replaced by a row of dots. The discal spots on the front and rear wings can be large, small or completely absent. In specimens with large discal spots, these are often with white pupils. The front wing margin stains present on the hindwings, but mostly absent. The basal half of the costa is often dark. Where the inner and outer cross line reach the costal of the forewings, noticeable spots are usually developed. The fringes usually have the colour of the wings. The subspecies lilacinipes of Madeira has a dark fringe. The moths fly from June to October depending on the location.
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.
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