Articles in ‘Barcelona’
After considerable procrastination,
Collserola, often described as Barcelona’s lung, has been officially declared a natural park. With an estimated 2 million visitors a year, Collserola becomes Spain’s second most visited natural park, after the Teide in the Canary Islands. Maybe it’s also the most unusual, as its
wildness exists among ubiquitous electricity pylons, a motorway, a cemetery, and the houses of 15,000 inhabitants.
What changes will this new status bring? An increased budget and size, as the park area is due to be extended by 700 hectares to a total of 8,295. New rules for the metropolitan urbanites who escape to Collserola’s woods will be announced shortly. Whooping, hollering, silence-shattering kamikaze mountain bikers, the bane of hikers, will apparently be subjected to stricter control.
It will be interesting to see if the urbanising tentacles of the various municipalities that share Collserola will also be brought under control.
Barcelona, Collserola | Tags: Collserola gets natural park status, natural park of Barcelona, Spain's most unusual natural park, Spain's most visited natural parks|
Montjuic, fragmented into a hundred spaces, often comes up with the unexpected. One of its disused quarries was landscaped into a steeply sloping garden, with carefully tended ornamental flower beds and terraced brick ponds. Layered with water lilies, these harbour an apparently vast number of Iberian Water frogs (Rana perezi or Pelophylax perezi)), whose massed choruses used to compete with the roar of Espanyol fans when their team still played in the Olympic stadium.
One of the ponds is thick with ribbon-like rushes, and a tall aquatic plant with large flat leaves. On one of these I noticed a small green blob, about half the size of my thumb nail, and realised there was a colony of Tree Frogs here too.
The species found in Catalunya is Hyla meridionalis, the Stripeless Mediterranean Tree Frog, but the pronounced black stripes in evidence here were confusing. Could this be an introduced Hyla arborea population? The distribution of the European or Common Tree Frog in Iberia is generally given as the north, north west and centre.
In fact, the juveniles of both species can have strong black markings, which shrink in adult Stripeless Tree Frogs. The Common Tree Frog is also fatter.
Feet tucked out of sight, they were clinging to stems and leaves, smooth, pea-green mounds. Unlike the Water frogs, which come in an infinite variety of green-brown combinations, Tree Frogs are quite uniformly coloured (though a rare blue morph crops up). The main variation is their size.
They’re inscrutable, with black stripes masking their eyes, like shadows permanently lying across them. The Water frogs leap almost as soon as you look at one, but these are easier to photograph, trusting in camouflage. When they do move, they reveal elastic-looking legs, and long toes tipped with round sticky pads.
With Tree Frogs imprinted on my mind, I began spotting them everywhere. Including one snoozing in the sun, camouflaged on a matching leaf, protruding right out of the park’s railings. You can see how the black stripe has faded away on this adult.
The season can betray them, though.
amphibians, Barcelona, Montjuic | Tags: common frog species in Spain, frogs in Barcelona parks, Hyla meridionalis in Barcelona, Hyla meridionalis in Montjuic, Mediterranean amphibians, Tree frogs in Spain, unusual sights in Barcelona, urban amphibians|
The areas of Barcelona nearest to the Collserola hills are now quite used to visits from the natural park’s thriving boar population, particularly at the end of summer when the ground is rock-hard and food supplies scarce. But on Saturday night a family of boars was seen trotting through Gràcia, a central
barrio of the city, accessible only after crossing an extremely busy ring road. The same family has been observed this August exploring Gaudí’s Güell Park. There’s a
video from TV3 showing the police herding the ungulates through the streets back to the hills. The photo shows a not-so-wild boar of Collserola.
Barcelona, Mammals | Tags: boars in Barcelona, boars of Collserola, boars visit Gracia|
In July the shadowy halls of Collserola’s shallow, trickling streams are filled with a spooky, fluttering presence. Groups of dark insects flicker in the half-light, or perch on isolated vantage points.
These are the male Copper Demoiselles, staking a claim for a stretch of stream. Their wings are black, and their bodies darkly iridescent, tinged purple like blackberries. When impressing the females, they kink their abdomens, revealing a red under-tip. This has saddled the species with the Latin name Calopteryx haemorrhoidalis
The common name, though, is inspired by the rich coppery tones of the female. She signals from a distance with white spots on sepia-coloured wings.
When a male, from his prominent lookout post, sees a female enter his zone, he’s immediately in attendance, serenading her in semaphore. The hovering wings form a cross, a performance being repeated up and down the stream.
After a successful courtship, the female is whisked up to a twig.
Eggs are deposited in a tangle of pink roots at the water’s edge.
Barcelona, Collserola, Insects, Odonata - dragonflies and damselflies | Tags: calopteryx haemorrhoidalis collserola, calopteryx mating, copper demoiselles in spain, gothic insects, Mediterranean damselfies, Mediterranean odonata, private life of damselflies, woodland insects|
With parallel worlds evolving in the park, it’s amazing what can be happening by your elbow, unnoticed.
I’ve seen squirrels hanging upside down on the tree trunks, looking down at oblivious heads only inches away. Or Black rats bursting out of the hedge, flying straight into a litter bin, while people chat or have lunch nearby, none the wiser. And the other day it was the Black-tailed Skimmers.
A pair were trying to mate in the wide expanse of the palace forecourt, getting pestered by a lone marauding male. The couple finally found some peace and quiet on the stone balustrade that runs behind the semi circle of benches.
You could clearly see the way the male folds the darkened tip of his flexible abdomen over the head of the female, to secure her in position. Or the way the female uses four legs to hold onto her partner, while the third pair gets tucked right back, neatly out of the way.
Perhaps I disturbed them, because the Skimmers flew over to a flowering bush, next to a woman absorbed in her newspaper. The dragonflies, their green eyes like aviator goggles, held on tight, as the twig swung in the breeze.
After separating, the female rested on the ground for a while. Female Black-tailed Skimmers emerge into the world bright yellow, but with age can change colour. This one had an indeterminate grey green shimmer.
I saw her zipping over the ornamental fountain, dropping off eggs at a terrific speed. The only pity is it wasn’t the pond, where chances of hatching are significantly higher.
Barcelona, Insects, Odonata - dragonflies and damselflies, Palau de Pedralbes park | Tags: Black-tailed Skimmer in Barcelona, dragonflies in Palau de Pedralbes park, insect sex in Barcelona park, interesting insects in Barcelona, mating dragonflies, Mediterranean dragonflies, odonata en Barcelona, odonats de catalunya, Orthetrum cancellatum en Cataluña, wildlife in Barcelona parks|
All round the pond, firmly stuck to the low concrete wall, were quantities of papery husks. I immediately suspected what they might be, remembering the concentration of mating Western Willow Spreadwings (Lestes viridis) in the park last autumn. It must have been a spectacular sight to see the nymphs emerge from the pond in such numbers and burst out of their unravelling skins.
One damselfly was still clinging to an exuvia, much smaller than itself. How could it fit inside? Reading up, I found that once half out, they pause and inflate their wings and abdomen into shape with hemolymph, the insect equivalent of blood.
Looking closely at one of the exuvia, it appears like a Mutoid Waste sculpture. The long “snout” is the labial mask, or lower lip, which the nymph flips open to grab passing prey.
The nymphs do their work well. The two biology students who volunteer to keep algae levels at a level acceptable for park authorities found no mosquito larvae in the pond at all.
After the mass metamorphosis, the damselflies had dispersed, but I did find one pristine young female clinging to a leaf. Her wings had a pink shimmer and were still held close together, not at the 45 degree angle that gives the species its name. With any luck, in a few weeks she would be laying eggs in the bamboo grove by the water’s edge.
Barcelona, Insects, Odonata - dragonflies and damselflies, Palau de Pedralbes park | Tags: damselfly metamorphosis, insectos de Barcelona, Lestes viridis in Spain, Mediterranean damselfies, odonata en Barcelona, odonats de catalunya, Western willow spreadwings in Spain, wild Barcelona parks, wildlife in Barcelona parks, wildlife in palau de pedralbes|
“Off with their heads!” Parcs y jardins on Montjuic share the Red Queen’s mantra, waging war on the wild flowers that dare to approach the castle. It’s a losing battle in spring though, their scythes and sprays can’t keep up.
From a distance, the pasitos (Anacyclus valentinus) appear like dense yellow spots. Close up, the geometric intricacy of unopened florets makes your eyes whirr.
At the edge of the pine wood, a cluster of Reseda lutea – Wild Mignonette – look printed on the grass: an abstract pattern of toppling cones.
Further along the road, there was a surprise half-hidden in the grass. The Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) is always a marvel, but its appearance at the edge of this scrap of woodland, on an over-used, over-developed patchwork hill, with a 100 different functions (a dogs home is to be squeezed in next), seemed like a miracle. Its utter strangeness was brought into sharp relief.
As you approach, the impression of a bumble bee disappears altogether, taken over by a laughing homunculus. It was like coming face to face with one of the bizarre characters from Doctor Slump. You can see the waxy pollen clusters, the pollinia, dangling form the duck head helmet.
The green-veined sepals on this plant were a very pale pink. The side lobes of the labellum are like welcoming furry arms.
In the end someone got there before Parcs i Jardins. Within a week, both orchid plants had been dug out.
Barcelona, Montjuic, Plants | Tags: Mediterranean flora, Mediterranean wildflowers, ophrys apifera in Catalonia, orchids in Barcelona, orquideas en Barcelona, unusual flowers on Montjuic, wild flowers in Barcelona|
The horticultural guides aren’t exaggerating when they describe Common Borage as a very easily grown plant that likes plenty of sun.
This year, after an abnormally wet winter, it’s even sprouting from the walls of Montjuic castle, having swarmed the slopes below. As borage flowers droop quite heavily, standing underneath them is a perfect way to appreciate their heavenly colour. People add them to salads for a surreal touch of blue.
The flowers have prominent black stamen that form a pointed cage. Like other members of the Borage family, their colour can hover between pink and blue, changing with age as cell sap turns alkaline.
The old walls are ringing with house sparrow chatter, now the breeding season is underway. This male was taking a short break outside his particularly noisy nesting hole, out of which issued an endless stream of chirping.
Round the corner, a familiar flat-topped silhouette appeared on the barbed wire. Generations of hoopoes have been raised in the wall cavity there.
Barcelona, Birds, Montjuic, Plants | Tags: barcelona in the spring, birds in Barcelona, Borago offinalis, Common borage, hoopoes in Barcelona, House sparrows in Spain, Mediterranean wild flowers, spring on Montjuic, wild flowers in Barcelona|
There was a strange crackling sound coming from above. The lime trees were filled with parakeets crunching on crusty pieces of bread, which they held securely in their claws. They were releasing a fine shower of crumbs, which the pigeons below waddled after.
Magpies observed the scene, frustrated by their own innate caution, which won’t allow them to approach people scattering food for birds. Instead, they resorted to chasing the smug-looking parakeets to make them drop their booty.
But magpies have their own tricks. They dare to disappear right inside the litter bins in their search for discarded sandwiches, throwing silver foil about. They also keep a close eye on occupants of park benches. The second someone gets up, they parachute down, tails held high, and quickly scour the area.
A long, shimmering tail is a sign of a healthy bird and a desirable mate. Magpies with the most resplendent tails breed earlier and are more successful at rearing young, studies have found. Unusually, this magpie was using its tail as a handy prop while exploring holes in the wall. In this case, a few worn and dishevelled feathers would only betray its owner’s resourcefulness.
Barcelona, Birds, Palau de Pedralbes park | Tags: intelligence of magpies, magpie behaviour, monk parakeet behaviour, monk parakeets in Barcelona, monk parakeets lose fear of people, urban birds|
The wind cuts like a knife and few brave the park. Benches stand empty and no one picnics on the grass. And strangely, there’s no sound coming out of the pine and cypress trees. It turns out that the Monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) have come to ground en masse and are foraging on the deserted lawns.
Sometimes you can glimpse a Black rat (Rattus rattus) deep in an ornamental hedge, nibbling on berries. But when the coast was clear, one cautiously ventured into the open, carefully reading the air for information.
Without the lunch time regulars the litter bins offer lean pickings, but this triumphant Red squirrel had managed to procure a large wedge of bread. It zipped up the tree before the magpies noticed.
Even in winter, life flickers in an old stone wall, as lizards (Podarcis hispanica) in a variety of sizes and shades come out to catch the noon rays.
When a frayed Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) settled on one of the last leaves, it seemed to be surfing a wave.
Barcelona, butterflies, Mammals, Palau de Pedralbes park | Tags: Barcelona in the winter, Black rat living in the park, large flock of monk parakeets, Pararge aegeria, red squirrel in Barcelona park, Speckled wood butterfly in December, Wall lizards in the winter|
It’s the time of year for unusual sightings in unexpected places. Recent observations recorded on 
Shortly after being born, this year’s brood of Peregrine falcon chicks were stolen from their nest in one of the Sagrada Familia towers. The robbery took place out of range of the web cam installed. Visitors have no access to this tower, but there are always plenty of workers milling around, since the Sagrada Familia is still under construction. Eduard Durany, responsible for monitoring Barcelona’s Peregrine falcons, emphasises the need for better security. Last year suspicious individuals were spotted trying to take food up to the falcons, who fetch a high price on the black market. After the theft, two chicks born in a wildlife recuperation centre were placed in the nest, but sadly the intended foster parents rejected them. See also the report on the ringing of 
