the effects of the drought

[gavilan]

after the heat and humidity of July and August, the day temps have been a delight here recently ... high 20s with a gentle breeze ... this afternoon I was sitting on the patio enjoying the peace and quiet ... no chain saws or strimmers to disturb ... I had just fed the birds .... so there half a dozen or so sparrows enjoying the seeds I had provided ... I got to thinking ... before this drought of the last few years, we had not only sparrows ...but black-caps, red-starts,cliff martins, siskin,, gold finch, occasionally blue *beep* ... there was a kingfisher around the stream ... and a heron flapped along it ... I havent seen either for several years ... cos so few fishes left in the trickle of a stream ... and no swallows nested here this year ... as they had done every year before ... also noted very few honey or wild bees this year ...nor wasps or hornets ... I assume the lack of these small creatures is because both garden and wild flowers are scarce and so havent produced the nectar or seeds they need to survive ... ?anyone else noticing the lack of such wild life?

[Wicksey]

We've had loads of wasps and biting insects, which is usual here. However, we've had less Sardinian Warblers (the black capped birds) and far fewer Martins and hardly any Great T1ts, I gather you can't write the proper name as you've beeped it! We've a fair number of sparrows, and have seen the Nightjar a few times and heard it at night in spring. What was missing in spring was the Hoopoes. I'd seen a couple but we used to frequently hear their calls but barely heard it more than a few times this year. The Bee eaters came past last month to gather on the electricity lines which seemed early. I thought it was usually September that they started to fly off to Africa. We heard the Golden Oriel a few times this spring which was more than last year. Very elusive with a distinctive call, and I've only ever seen it once.

We've seen hardly any chameleons in the past few years. We used to have a number living in the garden and saw them fairly regularly. Sadly this year most of the ones we've seen have been squashed on the road. We have stopped the car, jumped out and rescued them if we see them walking on the track. Very few lizards too.

People often say that they don't get the insects splattered on their car windscreen like the old days when driving in the countryside. Maybe cars are more aerodynamic, but on our drive to western Portugal in April, once we hit Extremadura we had to clean the windscreen every few hours as we couldn't see for the dead insects. When we got home it took my OH some considerable time to fully clean the car. It's been a long time since we've experience that.

We've got a rich seam of rats living in the garden. Perhaps they've been killing the birds? One of our cats kills a fair number of rats and eats them (despite lack of teeth) but otherwise we don't worry about having them. Not sure if they do kill other wildife. They seem very fond of the almonds, although they are the bitter ones and inedible to us. Our cats rarely catch a bird, so it's not them eating them all.

[Enrique]

Hi,

Inland it was Spring/Summer for the birds as usual ........... even had a pair of Hopoos pecking round my ankles when they came over the house and I was standing still.
Plenty of Gekkos around too. As the farmers hadn't sprayed Herbicides the wild flowers everywhere gave a great display.

[gavilan]

Enrique wrote 'wild flowers everywhere gave a great display' ... havent seen such for several years here ...I obviously live the wrong side of the mountains! ...

[olive]

We travel around quite a bit. It is refreshing to see wildlife elsewhere.

Back home however , less and less. Ongoing drought, continued loss of habitat ( pile of stones makes way for another olive, more verges gone) . My belief is that creatures that can have moved elsewhere. We havent seen a vulture here for maybe ten years. Maybe cooncidence with the introduction of the same cow vacine that decimated vulture numbers in India. Who knows

Hunting must play a part. This year stricterrules on what and how muchcan be shot. Who actually polices that? ( Seprona caught some hunters with a bag of 70 turtle doves) . The idiots ( my friends and fellow villagers still shoot anything that moves and are proud of it)

[gavilan]

and I just wonder when people/farmers/hunters will finally 'see the error of their ways' ??? ...probably only when there are no more animals to hunt or space/water for new olive trees ... here when there is absolutely no more water to drain from the stream ... locals here have installed at least 700 m of thick black plastic piping (2 pipes side by side, each 10cm wide) start where the stream is running and diverts water into the pipes ... down the valley to groves of avocado trees ... they will do anything but think/plant less water hungry crops!

and here is another stupid, money wasting project our wonderful Town Hall has undertaken ... months ago they announced, with pride, that new caopies would be installed over the bus shelters ... including the one in our tiny hamlet ... there has never been a bus through Loss Cortijillos in the 25 years I have lived here ... I wrote to TH asking why this new shelter ?... was told it was for the school bus ... no school bus through here in 25 years either ... why? ...cos the lane that goes through the centre of this hamlet runs between houses and is too narrow for any vehicle except cars!!!

[olive]

Apparently a 350 gm avocado takes 350.5 litres to grow.

[gavilan]

farmers down here are not getting that amount of water ... I live beside an avocado orchard ... there are many many fruits that have already fallen off the trees and are tiny ... and those left on the trees are much smaller than ones in previous years .... the last 4 years of drought are really having a serious effect now ...

[Wicksey]

Our farmer neighbour, Paco, is who we buy our water from. His 350m3 tank used to serve just us and the German house next door and we both have a contract to receive 17,500m3 a week. Obviously this is far beyond what we ever use. I think we use about 250m3 a year. I always thought that a full tank would last both houses a year. However, Paco then planted up a small field with about 200 mangos and he turns on his water every night and leaves it on for goodness knows how long. He also has a field of about 6000m2 and he has used that for courgettes and once drained the entire tank in 5 weeks. His meter is now locked by the agricultural water company as he has taken too much, so they are keeping tabs more on usage. That's been on since July. Other areas around us have been terraced this year and thousands of trees are in the process of being planted.

When we were talking on another thread about moving away from here, our concerns about running out of water is one reason. There was an article the other day about the much needed desalination plant for Axarquia. It is still in the draft stage, and will need the licences etc to be completed, then actually built. In Nerja they are just starting the new health centre that has been in the planning stages for at least 20 years, and their water treatment plant took even longer. Things don't seem to be done very quickly in our experience here, so we're not expecting anything to happen in the next year or two.

I'm sure the drought, and perhaps warmer than usual temperatures, are affecting the wildlife. Our winters have been mild lately, when 10 or 15 years ago we have had frost at our house and regular snow on the mountains. It's rare now to see a dusting of snow on Maroma.

[gavilan]

Wicksey ...your comments re 'thousands of trees are in the process of being planted' ... just leaves me speechless! ... and thinking of mangos ... my daugher lives in SE UK ... has a regular delivery of fruit and veg including mangos ... she told me recently, the mangos used to be listed as coming from Trapiche (near Velez-Malaga) ... they are now listed as coming from Peru!

[El Cid]

n Nerja they are just starting the new health centre that has been in the planning stages for at least 20 years, and their water treatment plant took even longer.

The wonderful new treatment plant does not have a tertiary treatment facility, so unlike almost all the others, the waste water is not used for agricultural purposes.

We are supposed to get our water from the Rules dam on the way to Granada. After almost 20 years, they have finally got around to putting in pipes to distribute the water! It's the equivalent of building a nuclear power station and neglecting to connect it to the grid!

Sid

[Wicksey]

Wicksey ...your comments re 'thousands of trees are in the process of being planted' ... just leaves me speechless! ... and thinking of mangos ... my daugher lives in SE UK ... has a regular delivery of fruit and veg including mangos ... she told me recently, the mangos used to be listed as coming from Trapiche (near Velez-Malaga) ... they are now listed as coming from Peru!

The mangos in the shops here are expensive, about 3.39€ a kilo in Mercadona the other day. Considering I am surrounded by thousands of the things, it's a shame I don't get a few freebies. It is tempting, but I cannot be seen helping myself to the neighbours' fruit . As we are mean with our irrigation, we've hardly ever had any fruit from our trees, perhaps about 5 mangos from two trees in 13 years and they're no bigger than when we first planted them.

An entire hillside has been worked on with bulldozers and other machines for about a year which must have cost a fortune in itself, and has just been planted up. Knowing that the tiny field next door to us has about 200 on it, it really must be thousands. Another area opposite us was being planted when we moved here 13 years ago and that also is another vast area going down into a valley and up the other side. I can't imagine how much water they use.

[gavilan]

Wicksey ... your side of the Axarquia either has had more rain than over here (Axarquia Alta) ... or has farmers even crazier than here!

[olive]

I am reminded of a meme.

It concerned farmer industrial action in America.

In the comments section “ we don’t need the farmers planting stuff when we can just go to the store and buy it”

[gavilan]

brilliant comment, olive!

[Wicksey]

Wicksey ... your side of the Axarquia either has had more rain than over here (Axarquia Alta) ... or has farmers even crazier than here!

We get less rain than most places. There was something in the paper the other week about heavy showers in Nerja when we had barely more than a few spots. When coming from the west the rain clouds pass behind the mountains to the north of us from Algarrobo, then back down to the coast in Nerja, bypassing us completely. It's when the rain comes up from the south we usually get it. We've been saying for some time that they are mad to plant all these trees. (Equally mad in England is the decision to allow solar panels on Grade One agricultural land. Who needs to grow food when you can make a living from solar panels (only when the sun shines of course) )

[gavilan]

Wicksey ...I know what you mean about rain bypassing us ... I too saw Nerja had had some good rain... nowt here!

[El Cid]

I think you will find that the rain showers you are talking about were the result of thunderstorms. These behave totally differently to “normal” rain. Normal rain usually crosses southern Spain from west to east and local topographical effects can divert it from its normal path. As Wicksey says, it often goes inland over the mountains as it moves east. We notice that a lot. However, thunderstorms just occur very quickly in fairly random spots and are not normally part of a fast moving rain frontal system. As a result you could easily get floods in Nerja but virtually no rain even 10 km away. If you watch the rain on any of the various weather sites that have weather radar you can see that the thunder showers just pop up out of thin(wet) air. The normal rain will slowly pass along the coast.

Met lesson over!!

Sid

[Wicksey]

https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/axa ... 06-nt.html

[gavilan]

very good article Wicksey ... thanks for posting ... we know what we should be doing ... but we dont do it!

“It is necessary to diversify crops, promote dry farming in these areas, improve irrigation efficiency through techniques such as underground irrigation, use varieties with low water demand, forest the slopes of crops with native shrubs and ensure the ecological flow corresponding to the rivers.”