Falcon watching in Barcelona
Come falcon watching at the Sagrada Família, Barcelona this Sunday 18th May. Plaça Sagrada Família with Thalassia, Galanthus and Iberianature. 10:00-13:00.
Noticias en ‘Barcelona’
May 13th, 2008Peregrines of the Sagrada Familia
Eduard Durany, of the Barcelona Peregrine Falcon Reintroduction Project, a scheme close to my heart, has sent me this photo of chicks in Guadi’s Sagrada Famila. Eduard notes that this year four chicks have hatched in the nestbox, a record for the site. In 2005, 2 chicks were hatched, in 2006, there were another 2, and in 2007 just 1 females. The father was released in Barcelona port in 2001 and the female was born on the Montjuïc cliffs in 2006. Photos here another BCN pair. + More info on Barna’s peregrines.
Thalassia and Galanthus are also organising a Peregrine Watching Day on 10th May from the Plaça del Sagrada Família, which is right in front of the nest. Telescopes will be available. I’m going. The activity starts at 10:00am.
Barcelona peregrines
Eduard Durany of the Barcelona Peregrine Reintroduction Project has kindly sent me these photos of a pair of peregrines nesting in the Port of Barcelona. The photos were taken with an automatic webcam. More photos here on the forum
Boars in Barcelona
The number of boars in Collserola has doubled in the last three years to some 65o individuals, which are increasingly moving into the city’s outskirts to feed. (El Periodico) Here below a group of 30 boars feeding next to the excellent Vall de Hebron Hospital, where I had my kidney stone removed. Thanks to Lucy on the forum for flagging this. Overfamiliarisation can bring humans dangeously close to what is a wild animal, particularly when this is a sow with young. Wild boar numbers are increasing throughout Catalonia mainly due to the recovery of forests to the detriment of farmland, but also due to proliferation of corn crops. See wild boar in Spain
Catalan sea cats
I’m re-reading Robert Hughes’ Barcelona, a fascinating history of the city from its foundation to the early 20th century. There’s a very interesting section on the Barcelonan and Catalan seafaring tradition in which he mentions the importance of ship’s cats - the bigger and blacker the better - and the custom of Shanghaiing them by tempting them on board with a bit of fish. Under 14th-century Catalan maritime law (Les Bones Costumes de la Mar), ship’s owners were penalised of they failed to provide a cat and rats infested the ship. Here’s the full quote from the law I managed to find:
If good be damaged by rats, and there is no cat on board the ship, the managing owner of the ship ought to make compensation; but it has not been declared in the case where a ship has had cats on board in the place where she was laden, and after she has sailed away the said cats have died and the rats have damaged the goods before the ship has arrived at a place where they could procure cats; if the managing owner of the ship shall buy cats and put them on board as soon as they arrive at a place, where they can find them for sale or as a gift or can get them on board in any manner, he is not bound to make good the said losses, for they have no happened through his default.
from “Les Bones Costumes de la Mar” (14th-15th c. Catalan text) from Twiss, Sir Travers, ed. Monumenta Juridica, The Black Book of the Admiralty
The 1938 aurora borealis in Barcelona
I came across this remarkable event while reading about Barcelona in the Civil War
The “aurora borealis” is a luminescent meteor, a phenomenon that frequently happens in areas close to the North Pole and which can also be seen in rather exceptional circumstances in regions of Central Europe. So the aurora borealis that could quite clearly be seen from the Pyrenees, and even from the top of the Tibidabo hill in Barcelona, on the 25th of January 1938, was an absolutely unusual occurrence. It was in fact a unique experience. There are no known accounts of any other event of that kind at such meridional latitudes. Furthermore, the phenomenon took place in the midst of war, thus causing terrible confusion and shock among the soldiers who were fighting on the Aragonese front.
From THE REPUBLICAN YEARS (www.bcn.es) by J. Fabre, J.M. Huertas and. Pradas
Barcelona guide
Here’s my new Barcelona site. Very early days yet. The idea is to look at the geography, history, culture and architecture of the city I live in and perhaps its quirkier side. When I get round to it I’ll change the design…
Alligator caught in River Besòs
A young alligator (70 cm) was caught in Barcelona in the River Besòs yesterday. The reptile was spotted by a local naturalist doing a study on birds. Experts believe the mild temperatures on the Catalan coast and the abundant presence of swamp crayfish may allow alligators to survive the winter here. This is the second alligator to be caught in just over a year near Barcelona, after the larger alligator caught in a pool in Collserola. (El Pais)
Henri Cartier-Bresson in Barcelona
Henri Cartier-Bresson in Barcelona. Barrio Chino. 1933. He wrote “The narrow street of Barcelona’s roughest quarter is the home of prostitutes, petty thieves and dope peddlers. But I saw a fruit vendor sleeping against a wall and was struck by the surprisingly gentle and articulate drawing scrawled there”
Snow in Barcelona
Snow falls on average just over once a year in Barcelona, though it sticks less than one in every ten. These photos are testament to the remarkable snowfall of 25 December 1962, the heaviest in living memory. More on Barcelona
Photos of old Barcelona
I came across this selction of photos from old Barcelona. Here’s a few from Barceloneta and the port.
http://www.juanmabcn.com/barcelona/XIX/1.htm
Barcelona’s parakeets to be culled
I received this email this morning. It’s based on this article http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/260758/0/autorizan/caza/cotorras/ . Although I have grown to love this pesky fellows I myself have no intention of signing this petition as potentially monk parakeets could cause big problems in the surrounding countryside to farming and wildlife. I hope they are only going to reduce numbers. If you don’t agree with me, please sign their petition. More on monks here: http://www.iberianature.com/material/barcelona_birds.html
“Dear Mr Lloyd,
A contact e-mailed me yesterday about the planned wild parrot hunt in Barcelona. I am based in Brooklyn and the monk parakeets live here peacefully with other wildlife. I am shocked and discouraged by this planned action and am organizing a protest. But there is not much I can do on this side of the Atlantic. What’s needed are voices in Spain that are against it.I have written about this issue and have an online petition. If you could spread the word in Europe, I’d be grateful”
Full story here:
http://www.brooklynparrots.com/2007/07/very-bad-news-from-spain.html
Thanks,
Steve Baldwin
The Brooklyn Parrot Society
Kestrels in Barcelona
An enjoyable morning out under the under the cliffs of Montjuic this morning, “helping” to ring common kestrels. In the end only one adult female fell into our talons (common practice states I am not allowed to explain legal method in a public sphere just in case anyone gets any bright ideas). It seems the population has plummeted from European-wide record colony of 20 pairs just a few years ago to possibly just 5(?) or less this year, See here for expalanation http://www.iberianature.com/material/barcelona_birds.html I must say I felt rather privileged to holding such a beautiful beast as the ring-road traffic trundled past. Anyway, here’s some nice picis - unusually for me. 
Here’s the video which was being filmed for Vilaweb.com during the ringing process. It covers peregrines and kestrels. You’ll recognise the kestrel in the second half. The balding guiri in the blue T-shirt is me.
http://www.vilaweb.tv/?video=4878
Written report here:
Plan to protect Montjuic
Despite all the changes Montjuic has suffered in recent years, the hill still has considerable biological and geological interest. Iberianature has teamed up with DEPANA, Montjuic Study Centre and Galanthus to support a move to turn part of the mountain into a nature reserve. More here.
See also http://www.iberianature.com/material/foixarda_panta.htm + http://www.iberianature.com/material/montjuic.htm
Reintroduction of peregrine falcons in Barcelona
21/01/2007 I’ve been given the enjoyable job of translating this excellent and complete webpage on the reintroduction of peregrine falcons in Barcelona. At the moment it’s only in Catalan but Spanish and English versions will be available soon. Persecution drove the peregrine to extinction in the city in 1973, but a reintroduction programme has successfully brought the bird back using hacking, and there are now four pairs of peregrines in Barcelona (Montjuic cliffs, Mouth of River Besós, Santa Maria del Mar and Sagrada Familia). A couple of interesting snips adapted from the web:
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During the hacking work in 1999 in the Church of Santa Maria del Pi, a pair of kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) nesting in the same bell tower brought food both to their chicks and the peregrine chicks inside the nest box. They almost always brought swifts (Apus apus) and house sparrows (Passer domesticus ). When the young peregrines left the nest box, they lived together with the young kestrels and could often be seen perched together. Update The person in charge of the programme had looked for suitable sites in the year in question, but hadn’t realised this one had kestrels nesting “next door”. When their own chicks had fledged - which was early, before the peregrines- the adult kestrels heard the peregrines and started to feed them - but they couldn’t see them as they were in a box. They dropped headless swifts and sparrows through the letterbox. They also continued to feed their young, now-flying birds. When the peregrines emerged both species seem to have got on fine, and were frequently seen perching together. The next year they repeated the hacking in the same site, but on this occasion the kestrels hatched and fledged later than the peregrines, and the adult kestrels did not feed the young peregrines.
This phenomenon is somewhat surprising if we consider that both kestrels and peregrines are highly territorial species which zealously and aggressively protect their offspring. Moreover, peregrines will occasionally capture and eat kestrels. -
Of particular interest in the diet of Barcelona ’s peregrines is the presence of many migratory species, some as difficult to see as Baillon’s Crake (Porzana pusilla), revealing the importance of the city as a point along the migratory routes of many species. Other species include scops owl, snipe, bar-tailed godwit and teal. A total of 29 different species of prey have been recorded since 1999, although pigeons make up 52% of their diet. Clearly, however Barcelona’s four pairs of peregrine make no dent on the city’s 180,000-strong army of doves. (Photos by Roger Sanmartà ) See also older piece on Kestrels and peregrine falcons in Barcelona
Barcelona parakeets
Parakeets in the barrio By Lucy BrzoskaÂ
No one pays the ubiquitous Monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) much attention any more in Barcelona, unless they’re unlucky to have a raucous communal nest near their window. Once considered exotic, they’re now just another noisy element of city life. The Mitred parakeets (Aratinga mitrata) , on the other hand, still turn heads. Every Christmas, in the busy San Antonio neighbourhood, shoppers look up in surprise as squadrons of up to 40 of these large green and red birds descend into the streets. They’re attracted by the round black seeds of the Celtis australis (European nettle trees, almez), plentiful in this area and more resistant to pollution than the other Barcelona staple, the plane tree. This year’s seed crop is particularly plentiful. The parakeets settle in the trees and work along the branches, stripping them methodically. From below, you hear an incessant cracking as they open up the seeds to get at the kernels and litter the pavements and parked cars with husks. They’re handsome birds, deep green with red markings on the head, and larger than the Monk parakeet. While feeding they keep up a subdued squawking, which rises to a crescendo when on a signal every member of the group takes off, instantly falling into formation. In a few seconds they’re gone, the cacophony fading away. When they regroup, they generally head in the direction of Park Ciudadella, so I suspect that’s their base. Their annual visits to the neighbourhood give the impression that their city population is stable, unlike the more invasive Monk parakeet. By Lucy Brzoska. See also Natural History of Barcelona + Blue-fronted Amazon in Barcelona
