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Watching beautiful birds the easy way

Posted on 03/02/2011 | Leave a comment

I love to get out and see and photograph wildlife in a wild habitat, but I am so fortunate with the visitors I get to my own garden that I often get better views and insights into behaviour within the confines of my own garden walls. Last February I had some exceptional views of a variety of birds, without even having to venture out of the house.

Firstly, at the beginning of February, there was the very handsome male Black Redstart. I happened to catch sight of him as I walked past a downstairs window where he was literally a metre or so away, using the leg of an upturned patio table as a perch from which to spy insects that were around on the grass below him. He must have been finding some as he was there for quite some time, making frequent drops to the floor and flying up again.

4/2/10-Black Redstart in the garden

Black Redstarts are resident all over this area throughout the winter months, arriving from their breeding areas in the mountains and more northerly parts around the middle to the end of October and staying until about the third week of March. Every year we have lived here we have enjoyed the company of a female of the species, who until the territory was claimed by a Robin a couple of years ago, would be seen on various perches in the garden close to the house. Now though, as soon as she appears the ever-vigilant Robin chases her away and she is restricted to sneak visits while he attends to business elsewhere. I love to see the Robin of course, but I miss seeing the little Black Redstart perched on the garden furniture, bobbing and quivering her rusty-red tail.

Female Black Redstarts are not as striking as the males, but have a bright and alert presence

When we moved to Spain from South Wales 81/2 years ago, I brought with me a smallish aloe cactus in a plant pot. The plant has thrived here outside in the garden and is now quite large, producing its first flower spike in February of last year. It soon attracted the attentions of a female Blackcap who began to visit the flower every day and as the plant is not far from my kitchen window, I had some lovely close views through the window without disturbing her in the least.

20/2/10-Blackcap female probing an aloe flower

Blackcap – Sylvia atricapella SPANISH – Curruca capirotada

Blackcap pairs are often closely bonded and frequently seen together as they forage for food, but this time it took a few days for the male to follow suit and even then he was much more wary and stayed for shorter lengths of time.

28/2/10- The male Blackcap followed a week or so later

Some birds seem to be strongly attracted to yellow/orange coloured flowers, but I’ve never been sure what they are actually eating; I assume it’s a part of the flower itself, unless they harbour tiny insects. In Wales, every spring House Sparrows always tore my yellow crocuses and berberis flowers to shreds and then returned for the re-hot poker flowers later in the year.

A pair of Sardinian Warblers are also regular visitors to the garden, but usually stay well concealed within the hedges and shrubs. I had some lovely views of the male as he visited the ‘Dama de Noche’ shrub that I can see from the kitchen window. Although his mate was never far away, she preferred to stay out of open view, although she did join him for a bath one morning.

26JAN-Sardinian Warbler (M)

Sardinian Warbler – Sylvia melanocephala SPANISH -Curruca cabacinegra

My ‘bird bath’ is rather makeshift, being nothing more than an upturned flower pot with its saucer balanced on top, but it serves the required purpose and is very well used. I’ve noticed that small birds often bathe together and prefer quite shallow water.

Orange Season

Posted on 25/01/2011 | Leave a comment

25th January 2011

Recent gifts from friends of carrier-bags full of their organic, home-grown oranges, for turning into deliciously sweet juice, has reminded me how significant citrus trees are in the local landscape, particularly now.

Thousands of orange trees line streets, boulevards and the parks of towns, cities and villages throughout much of Spain. In the winter, from the end of December onwards, the fruits are ripe and deeply coloured, and suspended against their background of dark evergreen leaves they create a rich and colourful display. Those planted thus are known to British ex-pats as ‘Seville’ oranges, traditionally used for making marmalade and taste bitter and sour to eat; a deliberate ploy where the trees are planted for decorative purposes so the fruit is not picked by passers-by.

In many places the fruit continues to ripen and just falls to the ground, but in the larger cities such as Seville and Malaga, sometime during January or February,the local governments employ people to pick them and they are sold on a commercial scale for making into marmalade, or the extraction of their essential oil to the perfume industry.

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Out in the countryside the sweet edible oranges are also ripe and ready for harvesting. Most of the oranges grown here are sold for juicing rather than for eating; the bulk of those exported (70%), are grown in the Valencia region. Many supermarkets buy those produced locally in Spain, and some have juicing machines on the premises to press the fresh fruit for customers on demand. In our local area, in the province of Cadíz, there are many orange groves of varying sizes and growers set up displays of the fruit and other produce they may have, and sell it directly to anyone who wishes to buy it.

Sadly, there are also many groves of fruit that are untended, having been bought up by companies or individuals for the land they stand upon for future development as golf courses, or some other construction. It is sad to see them neglected and to see the fruit fall to the ground and be left to rot, but at least while they remain standing they provide habitat for a variety of small birds and other wildlife.

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Oranges – A brief History of Cultivation

The Persian orange, grown widely in southern Europe after its introduction to Italy in the 11th century, was bitter. Sweet oranges brought to Europe in the 15th century from India by Portuguese traders quickly displaced the bitter, and are now the most common variety of orange cultivated. The sweet orange will grow to different sizes and colours according to local conditions, most commonly with ten carpels, or segments, inside.

Portuguese, Spanish, Arab, and Dutch sailors planted citrus trees along trade routes to provide fruit as a source of vitamins to prevent scurvy. On his second voyage in 1493, Christopher Columbus brought the seeds of oranges, lemons and citrons to Haiti and the Caribbean. They were introduced in Florida (along with lemons) in 1513 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, to California by the Franciscans in the 18th century, and were introduced to Hawaii in 1792. (Wikipaedia)

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