THE LEGENDARY WILD BOAR

If there's an animal in Old Europe that brings together admiration, respect, fear, courage, wittiness and stregth, that must be, besides the brown bear, the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa).
Present throughout Continental Europe and recently recolonizing the British Isles, this extraordinary animal has Spain as one of its paradises.
The population reaches high numbers but, in contrast to Central and Northern European populations, you seldom find them in huge sounders. This might be an adaptation to Spain's montainous surface and the huge amount of food they can find almost everywhere and all year round. This fact makes wild boars presence common throughout the Country, but the lack of a big sounder that brings safety and protection to an indvidual makes them behave slightly different from other populations.

In here, boars are tough and ready to fight if they feel in real danger. And there's a fact that makes them extremely fearfull of humans: they are hunted all across the nation. This means that almost the entire population knows that after a dog comes a human, so, if they feel they can't escape easily, they will choose the quickest way, and that is to fight.
Here in Aragón, boar hunts are very traditional, and new farming techniques have risen numbers of boars to a point of plague in some places. The good news is that wild boar's meat is a delicacy and in rural Spain is one of the most popular dishes during the hunting season.
In my opinion, as for big game species is concerned, they are the most clever ones. Only if you have a trained eye you will be aware of their presence, although you might not even see them.

It always amazes me the capacity they have to hide in the smallest places without being discovered and at the same time leave such an amount of traces!
If they have prospected an area for food, the next morning it would look like a farmer has been there working. If they have taken a mud bath, the amount of rubs you can find in certain trees, rocks or other surfaces are enormous. Images speak loder than words.

A sounder of wild boars have spent a nice mud bath last night.

Huge rub after mud baths. That slim tree will probably die after a few more rubs.

You can clearly apreciate the rubbing areas against the tree and the floor.

As you might have noticed, taking mud baths and rubbing themselves against rough surfaces atferwards is one of their biggest pleasures. They usually have their favourites trees or rocks to do so, visiting them regularly, even to the point of killing a tree after many years of trunk damaging. You can also determine how long the boars have been there by the dampness of the mud and the freshness of the footprints.

Fresh footprint.

One of the tracks you might also find are feces, but I've always found them away from these "mud spas" they have. People think boars are dirty; nothing further from the truth. They are probably one of the cleanest animals you can find in our forests, even taking their every night mud bath.

A few days old feces. 

I've had many encounters with boars in my life, and except a few times when I saw them before they saw me, the most common way was to incidentally flush them from a very close bush. You wouldn't believe their hiding skills, sometimes even having a six or seven member sounder inside a restaurant table sized bush.

Clever, strong, fierce and always alert. That is the legendary Wild Boar.

EAGLE OWLS CLOSER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK!!!

Shhhhhhh!!... wake me up when others go to sleep...

Hí again!

A short post on how close wildlife can be to our city homes without being noticed.

Through a close friend, I managed to find a couple of Eurasian Eagle Owls (Bubo bubo)... less than five minutes from the very centre of Zaragoza!!!

Of course the location isn't going to be revealed in order to avoid disturbing these awesome predators, but I couldn't resist showing you all these beauties.

You might find strange to know that animals like these do in fact live so close to urban environmets, but in the end it's just a matter of following nature's first rule: if there's food and no harasment, plus enough places to hide, virtually any animal can find spots like these perfect to live in, specially birds.

In the area where these two owls live in there's plenty of food (rats, rabbits, mice, reptiles, crows, ducks,...), proof of it is that the day I first saw them, a hen Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) was perched less than twenty metres away from one of the owls (I guess they both were unawared of each other's presence for they are true rivals and more than once owls prey on falcons). Yes!, another top predator near home!!

"I know my presence is quite evident, but it's very easy to spot me on a picture where I'm the center of it! I dare you to find me in real life!!!"

Eagle Owl population is increasing, good news for us, but let's not forget that not so long ago, authorities payed for the limbs of killed owls (among with other predator's) and they were seen as rivals for hunters and farmers. Fortunately things are changing, specially on the view hunters and farmers have on nature nowadays.

On late January, owls start to fix their boundaries through their famous "hoo-hoo-hooooo" cry. If you have the chance of listening to their cry on a cold winter night, you are never going to forget it. Few sounds have the power to transport our souls to atavistic places, and this is one of them.

I have a special weakness for these birds, hated and feared by other nocturnal species and certainly foes of diurnal raptors. I have seen a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) attacking a huge owl hen wothout serious consecuences and I could feel the great amount of hate displayed by both species, similar to the one we can see between hyenas and lions on the wildlife documentaries.

I found this video on Youtube, also posted from Spain. I don't place other people's stuff on this blog, but this scene reminds me so much of what I saw that day (and it is such a great captured moment, by the way -hats off-) that I couldn't find a better way to explain myself. Watch how the owl displays an act in order to look bigger and stronger before the lightning speed attack.

Great vid. Congratulations!

But let's go back to our couple of friends: there they were, resting on their safe and hidden places, waiting for the right moment to stretch their limbs and start searching for any animal smaller than them and turn it into a nice meal.

Who could tell thet behind those lovely looks hides a mercyless killer...

... or behind those sleepy eyes!!

We are about to enter our old friend the Old Cold Winter, a hard time for any wild animal. I can't wait to visit these wonders again and, let's knock on wood, confirm that they are still the kings of this area, at least the night time ones!

Thanks for reading!!!

PD: very special thanks to my friend Eduardo for showing me such wonders. Great guy and great bird lover!!!

TOP ENGLISH SETTERS AND WILD QUAILS

Dog handler/breeder and friend Javier Moya and his great English Setters.

Summer season is on its final phase and without a doubt quails (Coturnix coturnix) are the top hunt for Spanish hunters.
Much has been written and said about the change of habits of this species, becoming abundant where it hasn't been traditionally found and scarce where it used to be common. In my opinion, quails are like the rest of the species: give them food, tranquility and shelter and they'll feel at home.

Once you've found a spot where you suspect conditions are good, the next step is obvious but rarely done: hunt with good dogs!

I'll explain myself:

The common sentences used since modern life away from the fields has become the rule are "There are no quails any more", "These animals don't migrate any more" and others pointing that way. Yes, habits might have changed a bit, but the one thing that has changed for sure is dogs and the amount of hours spent whith them working.

Another beautyful moment. 

Years ago dogs were hunting many hours but nowadays the modern hunters want top dogs which stay in kennels for eight months and hunt like crazy the first day. Well... that doesn't work specially with quails.

Quails can trick our dogs quite easily without even flying. They keep still perfectly camouflaged with the environment and combine this attitude with what they do best: running very quickly through grass without being detected  out of the dog and hunters reach. If quails have decided that the spot where you are hunting suits them, you'll be inside the epithomy of hunting with pointers. This vid shows exactly how important well trained dogs are and why pointers are so special:

These dogs are owned by my friend Javier Moya, English Setter breeder and trainer. Good trainer and good shooter!!

He never shoots a quail that has't been pointed by the dogs, no matter how good the bag has been. Now that is respect!

Nice bag of quails.

The thrill and suspense of the moment combined with the plasticity of the English Setter speaks for itself.


Here's another one:

The first dog to point is a 8 month old bitch after her first quails. A quick translation of the vid: Javier does not even name the succesful double shoot, he greets one dog for the retrieve and job done but he is extremely happy for the young bitch.

These small phasianidae family members are a wonder of nature. Small and heavy for their size, they make a very long trip from Africa to Europe to breed. Who could tell that such a bird would travel that far? That's why we respect them and hunt them responsably, never hunting what we are not going to eat and never shooting to the ones which haven't been pointed by the other main characters of this story, the magnificent dogs.

8 month and already a superstar dog!

The latest agricultural techniques are in my pinion the biggest threat to quail population. Pesticides and herbicides clearly affect their numbers in areas qhere they used to be abundant. Also quicker growing varieties of crops which are harvested earlier, ruining nests and chicks. We should consider the fact of reducing chemicals and returning to old varietals if we still want to hear that "bit-bit-bit" singing which has been our summer companion for centuries here in Spain.


If you ever have the chance to visit Spain for a quail hunt with pointers, don't hesitate; you won't regret it.

Cheers!