We have heard a lot in the news lately (Aug 2019) about the terrible forest fires burning in the Amazon. The forests are being cleared in order to grow ‘cash crops’, things like palm oil, soy bean, cattle and eucalyptus trees. The mega-diverse rain forests are being destroyed to plant these monocultures, whch have been…
The Rio Sor or Sor Mañón is a small, tranquil river which flows between the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo, in Galicia, NW Spain.It flows north into the Bay of Biscay. The Rio Sor is about 50 km long and it is possible to walk much of it (if not all of it, I’m…
I came across a pair of large skippers (Ochlodes sylvanus) joined in copula. The female usually carries the male in skippers, as shown below. The female is on top, basking in the sunshine, whilst the male remains hanging below her. They can fly like this, but only slowly and deliberately: vulnerable to predators. Copulation times…
I came across this big blister beetle today. It was walking though the grass near the top of a local look out point called Mirador da Miranda, above the town of Carino, in Galicia, NW Spain. It is a good site for lizards as well as many hilltopping butterflies. I picked it up and put…
Ray Cannon's nature notes 