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From the Garden to the Sea

23/7/2019

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By Robin Noble

If you are permitted to count as "garden birds" those you can see in the sky above the home patch, we are slowly amassing an impressive list of raptors; the latest, observed clearly from the terrace in front of the house, has been a circling griffon vulture, which joins the golden and short-toed eagles, buzzards, sparrow-hawks and kestrels so far observed. Not bad for a suburban garden in the well-populated Vallespir!
 
Like most of the houses here, we have thick hedges and lots of bushes in the said garden; very slowly, over the years, I have observed a few of the creatures (other than birds) we share it with. I have suspected for a few years that among those was at least one hedgehog, and again this year have observed droppings which suggested that somewhere in all the undergrowth lurked one of our prickly friends. Sadly, as is so often the case, it proved me right by venturing out through our gate and being run over by a car…
 
We have fled to the open sea on several occasions in order to avoid the heat which has so suddenly hit us this year. Here, as ever, our observations are not scientifically precise, but we are sure of some general trends. One comment has to be that the Marine Reserve off Banyuls is having a clear and beneficial effect on fish numbers, both in the protected area and elsewhere. It used to be the case that while we saw a number of fish of different species there, there was almost nothing to be seen in some of the other attractive coves beneath the great cliffs, where we anchor and swim regularly. Now, almost everywhere, the friendly saddled bream soon gather beneath our modest craft, and we are seeing more, and bigger fish on the Reserve itself.
 
There are definitely rather more gulls (still modest in number and behaviour compared to the British!), and this year we have seen larger groups of Sandwich terns, some 35 in three parties on one day. They still mystify us, as we never yet have seen them fishing; when DO they feed!?
 
And another bird seems to be doing well this year. Down towards Port Bou, there was always one part of the great black cliffs where swifts nested; there may be fewer of them there this year, but they are using a number of other cliffs this summer, including those under the lighthouse on Cap Béar.
 
There is always something to note and wonder over…

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Upland Sample

15/7/2019

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By Robin Noble      Photos by Martine Noble

Back late to PO after a muddled spring in the UK, but somehow the muddle persisted, with our beloved old campervan spending two weeks in the very friendly and competent local garage. One day, we took our old Citroen up to the upland we always simply call “the Batère”, in order to get away from the phone, and had the usual lovely day up there, watching marmots and looking at the wonderful display of spring flowers.
 
We stopped regularly to photograph them, and remarked, as ever, on the incredible diversity; wherever we stopped, there were more, and different flowers in bloom. We started wondering quite how many species, throughout the spring, summer and autumn, actually flourish up here. A comprehensive survey would be an enormous task, and one which we are far too lazy and disorganised to do!
 
We halted at the col between two of the rounded hills above the road to the old tower, and enjoyed the view of Canigou and valleys to the west and north. Below the rocky area at the col, the ground slopes away quite steeply, and is moderately wooded, with a lot of smallish pines. These may be quite young, or, as likely, limited in their growth by the altitude and strong winds. Looking, however, at a small sample of the flowers blooming on the slope, it seems probable that the small trees represent regeneration from the neighbouring densely wooded and rocky slopes, over former high-level meadowland. I wandered around looking at the flowers…
 
We had seen gentians on the way up, with one of the lovely trumpet-shaped type (Gentiana acaulis); here there were lots of those with the central white spot to the flower (Gentiana verna). There was a tiny forgetmenot, possibly Myosotis alpestris, although it looked much more compact than in the illustrations I could find, and something which looked rather like a meadow saxifrage. (This may have been Saxifraga granulata.) Reminding me of the Highlands were some beautiful mountain everlasting (Antennaria dioica), tiny and complex, but the star of those immediately around us were the big yellow anemone-like Pulsatilla alpina subspecies apiifolia, which, being in the ranunculus family, is rather closer to the buttercups. Some of them, like the gentians, looked a little wilted, due no doubt to the winds we had been having.


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Gentiana acaulis
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Forgetmenot (possibly Myosotis alpestris)
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Mountain everlasting (Antennaria dioica)
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Gentiana verna
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Saxifraga granulata (possibly)
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Pulsatilla alpina - subspecies apiifolia
Apart from all the flowers, and the fun of stalking marmots, it was quite a quiet day; not many birds, really, but one made up for all the missing others; a cuckoo called for much of the time we were up there, its evocative music blending with all the bells on the sheep, cattle and horses. Two hot weeks later, all the flowers listed above were over, but in places the big yellow gentian, Gentiana lutea, apparently one of the iconic flowers of the Pyrenees, was already coming out; it seems to have enjoyed this year’s complex weather, and is growing strongly in many places.

Picture
Gentiana lutea
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    Bruce Hyde
    Isobel Mackintosh
    Lesley McLaren
    Robin Noble

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