Cap de Creus, where the Pyrenees ends, falling into the sea in a riot of schist and fantastical erosion. Last year’s sky swept clean by the Tramuntana wind, crystal clear light. Salvador’s childhood landscape, Dalí’s dreamscape.
Cap de Creus
Spanish mermaid
They write from Galicia in Spain that some fishermen lately took on that coast a sort of monster, or merman, five feet and half long from it’s foot to its head, which was like that of a goat. It has a long beard and moustaches, and black skin somewhat hairy, a very long neck, short arms, and hand longer than they ought to be in proportion to the rest of the body: long fingers like those of a man, with nails like claws, very long toes, joined like the feet of a duck, and the heels furnished with fins resembling the winged feet with which painters represent Mercury.
From Scots Magazine 1739.
Wolf range across Europe
Wolf range across Europe. While wolves have expanded massively across the continent in the last 30 years, distribution in their Spanish stronghold despite the huge amount of suitable wild land, has remained stagnant. As soon as they leave their “traditional” areas, it’s shotguns and strychnine.
An urban bus ride in Barcelona
Short video of trip of L82 bus through L”Hospitalet. On Barcelona’s western border this is among the densest cities in Europe. The old centre is nice enough and there’s a very pleasant rambla untouched by tourism. Outside stand tightly packed blocks to house several phases of migration since the 1920s.
Leucistic bat in Barcelona
This was pretty amazing. An albino (or more likely leucistic) bat in Montjuïc, Barcelona. Quite spooky and looked much bigger than in the video. Apparently very, very rare in bats as far I can understand talking to people. A few years ago with my partner Mònica Navarro.
Ice wells in Fuendetodos
Impressive ice well in Fuendetodos, birthplace of Goya. One of ~1000 in Aragón, Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia Built during the Little Ice Age (C16-19th) they were big business in Eastern Spain. Ice wae collected over winter in sierras, stored and shipped to the cities until the early C20th when technology rendered them obsolete.
It goes without saying that climate change has rendered them ultra-obsolete. So little snow falls in these places in the heating 21st century.
Frozen Ebro
The River Ebro frozen at Tortosa, Catalonia, near its mouth. 1891, at the end of the so-called Little Ice Age. You’d have thought not much chance of this happening again for the foreseeable future, although climate sciencists say with heating world in chaos such cold snaps are also very possible.
Brown bear cub
Esbardu. A lovely Asturian word meaning bear cub.
Some 370 brown bears now live in the Cantabrian mountains, on a steady path to recovery after a a nadir at the turn of the century.
Photo. @fundacion_oso_pardo
The Cantabrian bear population is distributed across the autonomous communities of Asturias, Cantabria, the Castillan regions of León and Palencia, as well as in recent years a small part of Lugo I. Galicia. Historically, the population declined until the late 20th century, but a recovery period began in the mid-1990s and continues to this day.
Cattle egret eating a frog
Cattle egret taking its time to swallow a yummy Iberian green frog in front of the spider monkey enclosure in Barcelona zoo. Several hundred grey herons, and cattle and common egrets live wild in the trees of the zoo. Whole thing took about 10 minutes.
Evania appendigaster
Meet our new neighbour Eva. She lives in our stairwell and is a blue-eyed ensign wasp (Evania appendigaster). She parasites the oothecas (egg capules) of cockroaches – a huge problem in Barcelona in the heat, humidity and so many restaurants. We love Eva.