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Friday 21 August 2020

19-12-2022 BRUFUT FOREST, GAMBIA - BLACK WINGED BISHOP (FEMALE) (Euplectes hordeaceus)


The black-winged red bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus), formerly known in southern Africa as the fire-crowned bishop, is a resident breeding bird species in tropical Africa from Senegal to Sudan and south to Angola, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

This common weaver occurs in a range of open country, especially tall grassland and often near water. It builds a spherical woven nest in tall grass. 2-4 eggs are laid.

The black-winged red bishop is a stocky 13–15 cm bird. The breeding male is scarlet apart from his black face, belly and wings and brown tail. The conical bill is thick and black. He displays prominently, singing high-pitched twitters from tall grass, puffing out his feathers or performing a slow hovering display flight.

The non-breeding male is yellow-brown, streaked above and shading to whitish below. It has a whitish supercilium. It resembles non-breeding male northern red bishop, but is darker and has black wings. Females are similar, but paler. Young birds have wider pale fringes on their flight feathers.

The black-winged red bishop is a gregarious species which feeds on seed, grain and some insects.




21-8-2020 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (Muscicapa striata)

21-8-2020 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SARDINIAN WARBLER (FEMALE) (Sylvia melanocephala)

7-8-2020 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - PEARL MOTH (Dolicharthria bruguieralis)

Wednesday 19 August 2020

19-8-2020 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - BULL THISTLE (Cirsium vulgare)


It is a tall biennial or short-lived monocarpic thistle, forming a rosette of leaves and a taproot up to 70 cm long in the first year, and a flowering stem 1–1.5 m tall in the second (rarely third or fourth) year. It can grow up to 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) tall. It sometimes will function as an annual, flowering in the first year. The stem is winged, with numerous longitudinal spine-tipped wings along its full length. The leaves are stoutly spined, grey-green, deeply lobed; the basal leaves grow up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long, with smaller leaves on the upper part of the flower stem; the leaf lobes are spear-shaped (from which the English name derives). The inflorescence is 2.5–5 cm diameter, pink-purple, with all the florets of similar form (no division into disc and ray florets). The seeds are 5 mm long, with a downy pappus, which assists in wind dispersal. As in other species of Cirsium (but unlike species in the related genus Carduus), the pappus hairs are feathery with fine side hairs.

19-8-2020 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - VIOLET DROPWING DRAGONFLY (MALE) (Trithemis annulata)

19-8-2020 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - CATTLE EGRET (Bubulcus ibis)

19-8-2020 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - BROAD SCARLET DRAGONFLY (MALE) (Crocothemis erythraea)

19-8-2020 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - BROAD SCARLET DRAGONFLY (FEMALE) (Crocothemis erythraea)

19-8-2020 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (Muscicapa striata)

19-8-2020 PEGO MARJAL, ALICANTE - EUROPEAN GOLDFINCH (MALE) (Carduelis carduelis)

Sunday 16 August 2020

16-8-2020 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR, VALENCIA - BROAD SCARLET DRAGONFLY (Crocothemis erythraea)

16-8-2020 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR, VALENCIA - EPAULET SKIMMER DRAGONFLY (Orthetrum chrysostigma)

16-8-2020 VILLALONGA RESERVOIR, VALENCIA - SQUACCO HERON (Ardeola ralloides)

16-8-2020 MONTAVERNER, VALENCIA - EPAULET SKIMMER DRAGONFLY (Orthetrum chrysostigma)

16-8-2020 MONTAVERNER, VALENCIA - COPPER DEMOISELLE DAMSELFLY (MALE) (Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis)

16-8-2020 MONTAVERNER, VALENCIA - EUROPEAN BEE-EATER (Merops apiaster)

16-8-2020 MONTAVERNER, VALENCIA - WOODCHAT SHRIKE (JUVENILE)

15-8-2020 MONTE CORONA, VALENCIA - SPOTTED SULPHUR MOTH (Acontia trabealis)