Plains-20090609_4677, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Although up in the hills here we’re still fresh and green, down on the Plains the sun has arrived with a vengeance, the crops are coming in and the over-riding colour is brown ….. this is a view of them I took a couple of days ago on a birding trip. I was born close to the Sahara and this is the kind of countryside that rings my bell just as loud as a sylvan wooded glade …. We’re very lucky to have this wonderful countryside within reach of us here as it’s the primary habitat for all those wonderful species such as Gt Bustards, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Montagu’s Harriers, Stone Curlews, Calandra larks and many, many more - but it’s just as nice to escape from the heat of them at the end of the day and return to the cool of the hills!

Cutters-20090609_4715, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

With the heat of the summer approaching the Cork cutting season is getting under way. This is a vital economy for our deprived region and as well as providing employment it also sustains the countryside ecologically as well, so it’s imperative we try to keep it going. I’m so passionate about it that I’m going to be giving a lecture about it at the British Bird Fair in Rutland in August - Marquee 2 15.30 on the Sunday if anyone’s visiting.
These few pictures show the cork being taken off the trees - a highly skilled, uncomfortable and hard job, especially as the temperature rises through the next few months.

Cutters-20090609_4731, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

The cork oak trunk or branch is cut laterally twice about two or three feet apart and then longditudinally between the two. This is done with a very sharp, small “headsman’s axe” and the cutter has to be careful not to cut the phloem layer beneath the cork that sustains the tree. The handle of the axe is then used to pry the bark away from the tree ….

Cutters-20090609_4728, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

This job can only be done at this time of year as the cork comes away from the tree easier now when the weather is warm. It doesn’t kill the tree taking the cork off as the cork’s only removed every 9 years. However, the Cork tree is a type of oak and as such is a slow grower - the first worthwhile “crop” is about 45 years after planting - so if this industry dies this rural mainstay will probably be gone for good ….

Cork-jars-20090609_4734, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Nowadays of course there are many more things being made out of cork than just bottle stoppers; I particularly like these water bottles and drinking ladles - these ones made from the very trees they now rest underneath - but the importance of the cork oak forests, the “Montados” continues to be not just the employment they provide but the equally vital habitat for all our local species …. so keep drinking that wine and make sure it’s got a real cork in the top - every little helps!

Little-Owl-(Athena-noctua)-20090609, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Little Owls are fairly easy to see around here, but it’s still nice to find one willing to stay still long enough to get a shot ….

Quail-(Coturnix-coturnix), originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

Very rare to be able to find one of these in the open like this! They look so much like a clump of dried mud that they’re easy to overlook and I was happy as larry to get this the other day out on the Plains.

(Nearly)-Mature-Male-20090528-2, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

This was one species that took me by surprise. The Epaulet Skimmer’s main habitat is in north Africa, and though known in the Iberian Peninsula, I had no idea they’d be as abundant as they proved to be today. Every time we approached the water they seemed to be there, mostly, like the one pictured here, immature males - though this is so nearly mature it makes little difference.

Mature-male-Scarlet-Darter-20090528, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

I could only get a few shots every now and again, (unfortunately I don’t have the right lens for this sort of photography, so spent a fair proportion of my time backing away into the river so I could get them in focus!), but this is a particularly striking species that I was lucky enough to get a shot of.

Male-Goblet-marked-damselfly-20090528, originally uploaded by Paradise in Portugal.

I had with me a Dragonfly Specialist, (complete with net and inspection jar), so we had a fun time pottering around identifying the various species. The valley is braod-bottomed and the river meanders this way and that, sometimes between rocky outcrops, sometimes through shaded groves of alder and poplar, sometimes with deep pools, sometimes rustling and rushing over loose rocks, sometimes disappearing altogether only to appear again 50 mts later.