Wildlife on Fuerteventura

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

The dove babies were nearly ready to fly but Shrek the Shrike fancied a snack   Found the remains of one on the floor and the other skewered in a tree 😭

The parents are still around, bathing daily in my dog's water bowl and then drying themselves in the sun.



I put some manky blueberries out for the birds - they didn't get a look in - the lizards got there first!



Loads of dragonflies around:



Another crop of cutworms have emerged, grrrr, out with the pesticides, nothing else works 

[Fabian]

I am sorry to hear about the dove babies, Tamara.
Hope that the parents have more luck with the next breeding.

[windermeregolfer]

Three photos from yesterday 7/12/21

This Hoopoe Bird was on our roof early yesterday.

   

These fellows were tied up opposite MacDonalds probably waiting for any left overs of the  Big Mac's their owners were probably having.

       

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Since childhood I've been interested in wildlife/nature/gardening etc so how come it wasn't until yesterday that I found out what a young ladybird looks like!

One of my large hibiscus (2.5m x 2.5m) suddenly exploded with blackfly the other day. I saw a few ladybirds on it as well and decided to give them a chance to do their thing rather than use pesticides. Checking the shrub yesterday I found some strange looking little things that I thought were more pests. At the same time I decided to look up the reproduction details of ladybirds to see how quickly they might made inroads into the blackfly.

I was amazed to see that the strange little things were ladybird larvae! Brilliant!



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this little spider made a great web in a oleander!
 

and any idea what this is?


and this?


and a kestrel (I think) keeping an eye on my garden

[windermeregolfer]

On fuerteventura Golf 

Geese by the 12th green

   

Spoonbills by the 15th

   

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Interesting transcript of an interview on Radio Sintonia. (Didn't know quite where else to place this!)

The Heartthrob of the Plain
José Juan Hernández is the most awarded nature photographer in the Canary Islands, this year he has won the first prizes of SEO / BirdLife and the Natural History Museum of London, considered the Nobel of this type of photography. In the second interview, Rayco de León, Minister of Culture of Fuerteventura, supports the archaeological prospections of Tindaya and expects new findings to expand the cultural heritage and rejects that there is an intention to promote the Chillida project.

From Jable to Malpey opens with a poem dedicated to evolution. A verse chosen by the science and culture correspondent of the program, Pura Cuenca Roy, who today introduces us to the Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu. Read "Amor", from the book "Poesía esencial", edited by Impedimenta.

Presented by Sofía Menéndez and Marusa Hernández

First interview: José Juan Hernández,naturephotographer, one of the best in Spain, this year has won the first prize of Photography of SEO BirdLife 2021. With "El galán del llano" .- as the caption explains it is a beautiful photo of a male hubara bustard, an endangered species. " Since dawn, males come to their favorite places to court. From there they run around showing their plumage in all its splendor," the text adds. Also this year he has obtained internationally, what they call "Nobel" of nature photography, from the Natural History Museum of London, for an impressive image of a fungus. And three more awards.

-How do you manage to capture this work of art?

.- In 2015 and 2016 I was in Fuerteventura working with this species and others such as the guirre. To capture this image I first chose the male I wanted to photograph, in a place that the landscape was against the sky, then I had to make a half-buried hiding place so that the bird could not detect it, then get into the night before he arrived. I waited for it to arrive and shot almost six thousand photos, more than a model, I did all kinds, capture one at low speed to show the movement of the bird when it runs with its spectacular plumage and that the eye will not be moved, in a perfect frame. With this male he already took seven prizes, so he would have to bring him a gift for Reyes, jokes Hernández.



For this photographer this hubara also has special meaning and that is why he would like to dedicate this photo to the ornithologist Joachim Hellmich who recently died of COVID. His friendship with "the German of the bustards" as he was called in the bar, he adds, was forged immediately. "Joaquin was very meticulous, I have not met anyone who spent as many hours of observation as he did, before dawn and until the sun set and darkened, pointing out each of the movements of the males and what happened in the field."

For Hernández, who has been dedicated to this profession since 1984, the ethical code of the photographer is fundamental, the first thing is the welfare of the animal and the environment. "Before photography is the care of nature, I dedicate myself to this because of my passion for it. The most important thing is to know the species, its behavior, where it goes, document well and observe, to do a good job without disturbing. Knowledge and respect is the fundamental thing. The animal is always more important than the photograph."

An important premise is to have the permits of the Administration to take photos of endangered species. To photograph a hubara -for example- it is not necessary to get out of the car, or walk through the terrain, you can admire them at a distance on some road, the drought and the lack of food makes them come to eat the insects and flowers that are in plants on the edges of the roads, emphasizes José Juan Hernández.

"I started my career taking pictures with a little camera that my uncles lent me, with a roll of film, with a friend we went out near home to take pictures of the animals and everything that moved, after watching the documentaries on TV, by Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente and Cousteau."

How do you handle the rapid and negative transformation of the landscape in the Canary Islands and specifically Fuerteventura?

For me in this case, climate change is barbaric; also for example the Llanos de Triquivijate the constructions have emerged from nowhere, before in winter they were full of flowers and there was more humidity, you could see hubaras in the field, now as I told you before you see them on the edges of the road where the water is concentrated and some vegetation survives. Of course, the circulation of all-terrain cars, quads, motorcycles and bicycles through mountains and off the slopes is very serious, people also walking in unsuspected places, a situation that threatens species that are nesting on the ground, such as the species of Fuerteventura, from the hubara, to the corridor, the alcaraván, and many other species. It also happens in the ravines causing problems for owls, buzzards, guirre, etc.

The urban chaos is for Hernández an evil of all the islands but especially of Fuerteventura, in these last 20 years the change has been terrible, before you could spend hours waiting to take a photograph and no one happened now it is impossible. Also the backgrounds of nature photographs where you have to try to avoid a turret, a house, a road, some cables, it is really complicated.

How do you perceive the touristification of the rural world in the Canary Islands?

.- It is horrible, especially in Tenerife, the overcrowding of places of nature, cars everywhere. People who want to put their signature on the walls or piles of stones, here in Fuerteventura. But above all I am fatal that it is Canarian or resident people who mess with motorcycles and quads through protected areas and everywhere believing that it is their right to do what they want.

How have you experienced the pandemic as a nature photographer?
– For me it has been terrible not to be able to go out into nature. I just hope that the current situation does not lead us to another lockdown.
(Second half of interview in Tindaya thread as it concerns the mountain and BIC.)

Edit: I saw a houbara along my lane at teatime today, first one in ages   Pic not worth posting as it was so well camouflaged.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Shrek the Shrike taking a bath today:

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Anyone know what type of snails these are? Totally different from the ones I normally see here.



They all have this truncated top, it's not just one that has a broken shell.

[Gone Fishing]

Shrek 2

Spotted on a recent visit - at Molino de el Roque 

   

   

[Gone Fishing]

Anyone know what type of snails these are? Totally different from the ones I normally see here.




They all have this truncated top, it's not just one that has a broken shell.

Hi Tamara

I'm thinking that your snail is a Decollate snail.

As they eat other snails' eggs and decaying plant matter, it's a friend rather than a foe.