images with a message

if you like birds.....break the cages and plant trees

practising "escrache" is nazi-like, abortion is nazi-like, saying that
the catalan spoken at the "franja" is catalan is nazi-like but
giving an homage to the brotherhood of the "División Azul"
which served at the german army from 1941 to 1943... means
 exercising democracy.
Do you understand that?

I was not born to live in a cage
and you are nobody to sell my life

El hambre en el mundo está llegando al ridículo.
Hay mas fruta en el champú de un hombre rico que en el plato de un hombre pobre.

finally a little smile..
una sonrisa para cambiar..

preparing a hide in a south european "jungle"

In southern Europe and in my case in northeastern Spain, Catalunya, during summer time the problem for most birds is not to find food but water. 

Most little pools dry up and only the bigger rivers and lakes may provide enough water to drink and bath daily. For that reason, once the hardest winter is over, we stop feeding our garden birds but make sure that they always have access to clean water.

I live in a little village in Catalunya which has the big advantage that there are several dry creeks (they only show some water-flow after rain) which boast a dense and thick riverine forest which looks just like a bornean or amazon jungle. The good thing is that this forests are never logged or in anyway influenced by human beings, they are just left alone.

riverine "jungle" forest at L'Ametlla del Vallès village in Catalunya, northeastern Spain

Old trees grow and fall, rottening slowly while younger ones profit the sudden opening in the canopy and the light to grow as fast as possible. The presence of old and dry logs allows for a strong population of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and many other forest birds. It is however very difficult to spot them and even more to get a decent photography as I have learned during the last weeks. 

an improvised hide with a log to sit upon

Therefore my plan is to improvise a hide near to one of the pools which remain with water over a longer period. On the picture you can see a log which will serve as a seat during the long wait. I have bent several branches and twigs to get some cover from above and from the front without braking them as I don't want them to dry up and uncover my hide.

natural pool made by wild boars were many birds come to drink

Wild boars enjoy taking a mud bath there and while doing so they make the pool wider and waterproof as the compress and firm the muddy ground. This pool is the nearest to my home, hardly some 200 meters. 

The idea is to add water as soon as the summer dries up the creek and another pool nr.2 which is more far away down the creek. The drought should make different birds to come to drink and bath at my pool nr. 1, that's the plan at least. Right now there is no chance, this spring has been a very rainy one and the creek has enough water by itself, I will have to wait till the weather becomes more dry.

view of the hide seen from the pool

What is your opinion about this project?

(I have to apologize for the bad quality of the photos, there where made with very little light via iphone)

an electric car for a wildlife photographer ?

My doubts about getting a zero emission vehicle (ZEV) go on. 

For wildlife photography it would allow daily visits to nearby places without having to pay the gas with the meager income of my Dreamstime micro stock income. On the other hand if you would like to visit more far away places like a favorite one near the French border the range of a Nissan Leaf (my favorite choice so far) is not enough. It's 131 km to go which could be done but then you have to go back. A charging station is halfways but it's not a fast one so you don't want to stay 3-4 hours waiting at Girona city.

 Actually the range is not the problem, the problem is that there are not enough (fast) charging stations between my place and the border. Everybody expects this to change however (soon?).

electric cars used by the italian police

logo of the catalan Volttour association

It is of course also a matter of changing habits: I used to take the car to go anywhere no matter how far (well, not overseas of course..) as long as it ranged inside Europe. Actually this is a pretty expensive way of traveling, tiresome and also risky if you consider the chances of having a car accident. But you can get used to go for public transport like train, buses and even planes if your destiny is far. It should be cheaper as you can save money spend on hotels not to say on gas.

a Nissan Leaf  (2011)

When it comes to take the decision of course there is the issue of collaborating in no adding even more CO2 to the atmosphere  which is an important reason for me, I actually miss this point when I read posts, forums and other communities exchanging their point of view either in favor or against the EV's ! Isn't it important enough? There is usually a lot of talking about efficiency which is of course basic but it seems to me like people feel ashamed to say clearly that the reason they have to become EF (emission free) is simply because they want to do something..

What is your point of view?

collaboration of animal species

male african buffalo with oxpeckers

While on safari in Africa it is very common to watch the two common species of oxpeckers, the red-billed and the yellow-billed, hanging and climbing on the bigger herbivores like buffaloes, zebras, giraffes and antelopes among many more.

Most people may think that this birds just help to clean up their bodies from all type of blood-sucking bugs like ticks and mites which can become very annoying as there is not much those mammals can do except taking mud and dust baths.

It is true that the oxpeckers feed on the parasites on the skin of the buffalo but they also like to pick their open wounds which of course is no longer nice or useful for the host.


They cling at the buffaloes face and even enter his ears which is no longer funny for him so that he tries to get rid of them shaking it's head for no use of course.

little egret between elephants' legs

Elephants are huge things and when they move slowly grazing huge amounts of grass they scare and force to move a lot of the bigger insects, rodents and reptiles which would otherwise be trampled upon. The little egrets know that and just follow the elephants from close; anything which comes up will be caught and swallowed.

In that case you might think that there is no mutual collaboration between both animals. Elephants don't have many enemies likely to mess up with them (except human beings) but the cattle egrets may warn the host if any danger by taking off and shouting it's alarm. This can be useful when they accompany more vulnerable species like antelopes or zebras.


The little egret itself also enjoys from the protection given by staying close to such a powerful animal like an elephant. Any hidden predator like a serval o leopard, dangerous to the egrets, would have to give way and stay far.

yellow-spotted amazon river turtle with butterfly

While travelling on the Madre de Dios river in southern Peru I enjoyed watching the  river turtles of the species yellow-spotted amazon river turtle basking at the shore and specially on half-sunken logs.

 The pictures I made became even more interesting because of the butterflies landing on the turtles' nose. They were probably attracted by the tears on the turtles'  eyes which are salty and are very attractive for many insects apart of those butterflies.

The turtles didn't seem to mind the butterflies on their head, of course they were much more subtle and well behaved than the rude oxpeckers on the poor buffaloes.

The whole scene allowed for quite interesting and aesthetic images like the one I am presenting in this post.

bees and human survival

During the last months a new concern has risen: the massive death of bees.
Not only domestic bees but also their wild cousins are loosing their population and it seems that the reasons are not 100% known.



The EU suspects pesticides and has imposed a ban on a certain type known as neonicotinoids which seem to have an impact on the navigating capacity of bees hindering them to find their way back home to the hive. A mysterious situation which is called CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder in which bees abandon their hive massively and do not return back affected last year the USA.

Bumble bee at Plum tree

The USA however are more reticent to follow this initiative and are more in favor of  further scientific studies to find out if other factors could be responsible for this catastrophe. It has to be said that the pesticide industry is a strong business worldwide and powerful lobbies are opposing a possible ban of such pesticides.

Red Admiral at Plum tree

Most people, if asked what benefits bees suppose for human beings would think on the honey they produce, however it is mostly unknown that bees are a must for the pollination of 70 from 100 of the most valuable crops which we depend upon.

Honey bee at Plum tree

Several types of bacteria and viruses are also blamed for the problem but we have to keep in mind that quite often exposure to pesticides can affect the immune system of the bees and other insects which now could make them more sensitive to those agents.

Already Albert Schweizer said that if bees would disappear also humans would not survive for more than four years!