A Griffon Vulture, which most unusually has been hanging around Barcelona harbour for the last few days, has finally been captured by wildlife agents, and is now recovering in a rescue centre. I’ve never heard of vulture landing in the city before, though apparantly a black vulture was spotted a few weeks ago above L’Hospitalet.
Remarkable and beautiful photos by Laurent Godel of Alpine swifts flying over the skies of Barcelona. More here on his website.
The Common Swift leaves Barcelona in late July / early August, but the larger Alpines will stay on till October before heading off for its African winter home.
We came on this very young horseshoe whipsnake this morning on the stone steps of Guadi’s Bodega Güell in El Garraf built as a winery for the slave-enriched Catalan industrialist Güell. Albert, our toddler, was very excited by his first snake. Not venomous but this one was certainly feisty.
Very much enjoyed the peregrine falcon watch this morning in front of the Sagrada Familia. Highlight was watching close-up with a telescope a female devour with gusto a pigeon as feathers were pulled out and floated in the air around Gaudi’s spires, but must missed spectacular mid-air kill as was on swing-seesaw-slide duty at that moment. Thanks to Eduard Durany and Sergi Garcia for organsing the do. Image from Falconsbarcelona.net
Remarkably, four bottlenosed dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were spotted inside Barcelona harbour (Moll de Barcelona) last month by wildlife experts, the first sighting in recent times in the port itself, though the animal is reasonably common in waters off Barcelona. Loved to have seen them! More here in Catalan
Two wolves escaped today from Barcelona Zoo, causing a minor panic among the authorities, and leading to the zoo being temporarily closed. They were caught an hour later. Video here
A remarkable story. A family of wild boar have been spotted wandering around Gràcia, deep into urban Barcelona. More from Lucy’s blog here on iberianature.
The Barcelona Photographic Archive has just released a hundred or so photos taken between 1907 and 1908. They were taken by Frederic Ballell, one of the pioneers of Catalan photojournalism, who delighted in documenting the daily life of the city. Above a goat herder passes by Palau Moja, below a puppy seller. From La Rambla, hace un siglo
See also History of Les Rambles
I love the idiosyncrasy of many of the small shops in Barcelona. One of my recent favourites is a lovely little shop selling dairy products in the centre of Gràcia, in Carrer Torrijos, just up from the market. The establishment was last functioning dairy (vaquería) in Barcelona. Changes in public health laws took away the cows some 25 years ago, but the old livestock stalls can still be seen today amongst the clutter of the shopkeeper’s storeroom. Many Barcelonans over thirty odd can still remember going with their mothers to buy milk fresh from the udder right in the centre of the city. In my mind, the place should be protected as part of the city’s heritage, but is under threat from the owners of the building.
Barcelona is failing to reduce its superpopulation of 256,000 pigeons in the city. Hordes of elderly protectors feeding them bread have ensured that despite large figuers being spent on their erradiction, the number of pigeons has increased from 180,000 in 1991. There is currently no city bylaw against feeding them.
Read in La Vanguardia
