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The grosbeak cocothraustes cocothraustes is the largest of the Spanish finches. A bird that mostly winters in our latitudes, it visits us very irregularly during the coldest months of the year, where the practically non-existent sedentary population of the Iberian Peninsula is joined by a significant contingent of migrant individuals from Central Europe. Stealthy and difficult to observe, it is one of the most robust and compact birds of the European avifauna, with a short tail that together with a […]
During my long walks in early spring, in any corner of the forest, I am accompanied by an unmistakable and peculiar fluted song (tiri-oliuuu), which can be heard from a long distance, alternating with harsh calls reminiscent of the squawking of corvids ( cueejj). The protagonist of these sounds that will occur in the early hours of the morning and at the end of the afternoon from the thicket, and at the top of the trees, is a very discreet, […]
The skull or death sphinx (Acherontia atropos) is a very large moth, with a wingspan of between 9 and 12 cm. It has a long, thick body, with two pairs of wings, the front ones, blackish triangular on the back with yellowish spots, and the rear ones, smaller and yellow with black serrated stripes. On its thorax we can see the drawing of a human skull, an attribute that helped this invertebrate appear in such famous works as Dracula1 or […]
The Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica is part of and heralds the good weather in our towns and fields. Insectivorous bird with a fast and acrobatic flight, delicate, graceful and aerodynamic, black in color, with metallic blue reflections above and creamy white underparts. It has a red forehead and throat and a black collar. The wings, long and pointed, show white tones on the lower front part. They build their nests, in the shape of a bowl of salivated mud, placing […]
Summer of 2012 ran when I found myself immersed in a passionate photographic project for the ‘Generalitat Valenciana’ about bats, by then I had already been applying and perfecting the “high speed” technique developed by the master Ricardo Vila for almost a decade, which consisted in introducing artificial light of flashes at very high speeds of the order of 1/20,000 per second, together with many hours of observation and patient waiting to obtain a satisfactory result. This technique allowed me […]
During the last weeks I have returned to a place that brings back intense and nostalgic memories of a wonderful time, in which I accompanied the shepherds of this mountain range for many days to document their last adventures, specifically in the ravines of El Gatillo and de la Carrasca in the Sierra de Enguera, very close to the hamlet that in its day was a Muslim farmhouse, Casas de Benali. The leafy and large forests of these last foothills […]
The sphinx hummingbird, Macroglossum stellatarum (Carolus Linnaeus, 1758) is a species of ditrisian lepidopteran in the family Sphingidae. It lives in southern Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, northern Africa and central Asia, India and Indochina. It receives its name from its flight and way of feeding, which are similar to those of the hummingbird. The wingspan is 40-45 mm. The front ones are brown with black lines and points and the rear ones are orange. The abdomen is black and […]
At this time, in any corner of our geography, in the intricate streets of our towns and cities, we can attend the Holy Week processions, some solemn acts, which to the rhythm of drums and drums, the faithful, in a mystical setting in where the smell of incense is breathed, the sacred images walk, all wrapped in a magical atmosphere of lights and shadows. Among all the elements that make up these religious manifestations, a multitude of conical figures stand […]
We are at the gates of winter, with the trees already practically devoid of their leaves, where the days are shortening and everything seems to go into absolute calm. It is during these times when certain wintering birds can be seen in our fields and gardens, such as robins, warblers, redstarts… which come from central and southern Europe to our latitudes fleeing the intense cold, and when the warmer months return again hot we will not see them again until […]
Today I have prepared to climb to the summit of the Sierra de Aitana, which with its 1558 meters, is the highest in the province of Alicante. The perfect excuse to enjoy another day in the mountains has been a tiny and elusive bird, the wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria), which wanted to try to find it near the top, because now in winter this inhabitant of the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains It usually performs an altitudinal migration looking for lower […]
