Quinta wildlife #11
Saturday, November 6th, 2010A Common toad (Bufo bufo) hanging out in a pile of ex-floorboards. Pictures by Ema.
Archive for the ‘Ecology’ Category
Lunch
Friday, October 22nd, 2010One of the disadvantages of being busy with building at this time of year is that it doesn’t leave much time for fungus forays.
Going nuts!
Monday, October 18th, 2010
With so many simultaneous building projects on the go, it’s been easy to overlook the harvesting on the quinta needing done. Thanks to daily reminders though from some of our Portuguese neighbours further along the track, we were in no danger of overlooking the chestnut harvest. Over the last 2 days I’ve collected some 20 kilos or more.
The trouble with voles …
Saturday, October 9th, 2010… is that they seem inordinately fond of our root vegetables. These beetroots are the latest victims.
Quinta wildlife #10
Monday, August 23rd, 2010The boozing butterfly is a Two-tailed Pasha or Foxy Emperor (Charaxes jasius). Not seen in the UK as its range is too far south. Its feed plant is the Strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, which is part of the original flora of this region.
Quinta wildlife #9
Sunday, June 6th, 2010Butterflies again! The profusion and variety of them here is a continual delight. I’ve been trying to capture this one (on camera) for a few weeks now. Today one obligingly posed for me on a grapevine. The Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius), so called because it is in the UK, though apparently not here as I’ve spotted several.
Quinta wildlife #8
Sunday, April 4th, 2010The number and variety of butterflies on the quinta is growing every day.
Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera).
Quinta wildlife #7
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Discovered by Helen while digging up the middle terrace to prepare vegetable beds for planting. A Marbled Newt (Triturus marmoratus). These mainly terrestrial members of the Salamander family apparently navigate by the stars to find their way back to their breeding pools. Here it must be right at the southernmost extent of its range.
I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK
Monday, December 21st, 2009Went over to Benfeita today to do some more work on installing the stove. It took me easily half an hour to get along the 1km of our track. Last night’s winds and rain had brought down some trees and I had to shift no less than 3 trees across the track to get to the quinta, each one progressively larger than the last. Just as well I happened to have a hand saw in the back of the van. (Mental note to self: keep one there at all times.) And just as well they were all relatively small pines that my girly muscles were capable of shifting. (Mental note to self: keep a tow rope in the back of the van for occasions when girly muscles aren’t enough.)
Modern farming methods and human health
Monday, August 3rd, 2009Amidst all the furore over CO2 emissions and global warming, an equally serious and every bit as deadly a consequence of our modern lifestyle is escaping almost unnoticed.
As the 1999 publication from the World Resources Institute Critical Consumption Trends and Implications: Degrading Earth’s Ecosystems by Emily Matthews and Allen Hammond states, “What emerges from this analysis is that fundamental changes are taking place in global biological processes. Our attention has perhaps been focused too much at the local and regional level – on specific polluting emissions, or loss of specific habitats and species – and too little on whole ecosystems. Our understanding of how complex ecosystems function remains relatively limited, but the evidence of serious disruption is now widespread. Chronic, human-induced imbalances in major biological systems – for example, nutrient cycling, inter-species relationships and food chains – are more insidious than acute incidents of pollution or other damage. Their consequences, however, may be much harder to reverse, and more serious for the developmental and security prospects of every country.â€
