Iberianature

On Spain

• British isles nature
  

  Totally unrelated to Spain, but yes with nature and geography, I've been busy working on the new britainnature section, a guide to the geography and wildlife of the British Isles.

  Visit britainnnature

• 14 killer whales spotted in the Canaries
  

  
  14 killer whales were observed yesterday for almost eight hours by scientists in the Canaries off Tenerife.
  El Pais

• Rufous Bush Robin display
  

  
  I very much enjoyed these photos by Mark of a male Rufous Bush Robin (Cercotrichas galactotes) showing off to a female by Mark on the forum.
  Read forum post
  See all photos on his site

• Los Llanos de Libar
  

  Steve has this very nice post on his Cornish Nature web with some lovely photos of a field trip to Los Llanos de Libar on the edge of the Sierra de Grazalema. Check out his embedded recording of Perezi's frog calls.
  Los Llanos de Libar - A Land of Reptiles, Amphibians & Mole Crickets

• Osprey breeds in Spain
  

  

  Ospreys (águila pescadora in Spanish) have bred in mainland Spain for the first time in 80 years. Three chicks have been born in the Marismas del Odiel, in Huelva and two in Cadiz. Since 2003, 108 chicks have been released in Cádiz and Huelva from Germany (68 birds), Finland (20) and Scotland (20).  The young ospreys released in Andalusia have shown normal migratory behaviour of birds raised in their own nests in the region, and have begun to fly south to areas typical osprey areas. Radio-tracking has detected them on the West African coast along the rivers in Senegal and Gambia .The presence of huge expanses of water in Andalusia in the form of reservoirs built since then bodes well for the species future. The osprey never became extinct in the Balearics where they have clung on with 20 pairs and the Canaries with 12 pairs.

  El País

• Shark fishing in Spain
  

  

  The Shark Alliance has denounced the overfishing of sharks for their fins by Spanish ships. 60,000 tons were docked in Spanish ports last year.
  “A new TNS Demoscopia poll, commissioned by the Shark Alliance, has revealed that people in Spain are unwittingly eating shark meat. Although 96% of those polled said that they did not eat shark, 76.4% were not aware that “cazón” and “marrajo” are sharks and nearly 33% said that they consumed these products.  The results were released in conjunction with a new report from SUBMON, titled Spain: A driving force in shark fishing around the world, that documents serious fishery problems including mislabelling sharks at market.”

  Read Spanish unwittingly eat shark (Shark Alliance)

  For more than a decade, Spain has been one of the top five world powers with respect to the fishing and marketing of sharks.  Spain’s fishing fleets, employing various gears,  span the globe, taking sharks as targeted and incidental catch.  Approximately 50% of the EU catch of “sharks” (all cartilaginous fishes: sharks, rays and chimaeras) is taken by Spain.

• Iberian lynxes for Portugal
  

  The Spanish government has agreed to “cede” (what a horrible word!) several lynxes to Portugal as part of the reintroduction programme. More, no doubt, on this soon.
  EuropaPressAnd also in the areas earmarked for lynx reintroduction (Hornachuelos and Guadalmellato (Córdoba) and Guarrizas) Jaen), a questionnaire has found 68% of persons believe that the presence of the lynx in their counties will boost tourism.
  Diario de Córdoba