apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 2, 2006 22:56:08 GMT
River and forest:
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 3, 2006 1:18:24 GMT
Then we went to higher places at about 1700 meters above sea level. We just stopped for some minutes on a place to see the landscape: We saw this sleeping dog enjoying the freshness of the stone and shade. This kind of dog has it´s origin on these big mountains and it´s called Serra da Estrela. It was used by shepperds to protect the sheep from the wolves and bears and to guide the sheep on the correct way and even nowadays is still used for those purposes. But as this dog is friendly and nice too is also used as a normal pet. Mountain lizard that was near the dog. It´s a Lacerta sp.
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apple
Archachatina degneri
Posts: 1,078
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Post by apple on Dec 3, 2006 1:32:15 GMT
On the same place exists a lake: Then we went even higher at about 1990 meters but then we moved down staying on a place at 1900 meter above sea level to just take some pictures, here:
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gabi
Achatina tincta
Posts: 616
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Post by gabi on Dec 3, 2006 9:34:54 GMT
Seems it´s time to do soon my already since 10 years planned journey to Portugal! ;D What incredible beautiful pictures. I like them very much! kind regards, Gabi
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 3, 2006 20:30:46 GMT
Thank you Gabi. You are welcome!
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 9, 2006 21:59:25 GMT
Then we went to a bit higher place at about 1500 meters that is surrounded by rocky mountains, on which the rain washed away minerals from the stones of the mountains and deposited it on the valley turning the soil soft and very fertile. Then a forest started to grew here. This forest looks like an oasis surrounded by rocky and dry landscapes. We found this on the path access: Here it´s on the end of the valley, where the both rocky mountains meet again.
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 9, 2006 22:38:07 GMT
Camping place on the valley:
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Arno
Archachatina puylaerti
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Post by Arno on Dec 10, 2006 0:08:06 GMT
Great pictures and wonderful animals,did you look for snails as well?
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 10, 2006 0:09:12 GMT
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Post by hic on Dec 10, 2006 0:11:13 GMT
beautiful scenery
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apple
Archachatina degneri
Posts: 1,078
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Post by apple on Dec 10, 2006 0:17:36 GMT
Great pictures and wonderful animals,did you look for snails as well? Thanks Arno.I didn´t saw any snails at all, because I made that trip on the end of june and on the beginning of July, so the weather was dry and hot even on mountains. However I saw on the previous camping place ( that on which it ocurred a big forest fire) some big black slugs at night near a small lake on a wet place faced to the north. On this place some fireflies ( with constant, non flashing green light) landed on my t-shirt, when I was moving my firefly trap ( I used also that light that people use to catch fish) to another place and when I tried to catch one he flew away with this light open like a flying torch. lool
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 10, 2006 0:24:02 GMT
beautiful scenery Thanks Eric
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 10, 2006 0:41:22 GMT
A better view of the end of the valley Higher on the mountains( photo took during the car drive lool). Doesn´t have a big quality.
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apple
Archachatina degneri
Posts: 1,078
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Post by apple on Dec 11, 2006 0:24:05 GMT
Then we went to a place further north near again to the spanish border, called Montesinho ( in english means little mountain) but it can reach about 1500 meters above sea level. It has a nice range of microclimates and microhabitats, from the mediterranean to the high mountain influence. It is a big natural park, that has a big biodiversity, and rare species like Golden eagle, iberian imperial eagle, Bonelli eagle, Snake eagle, 3 different vultures and a lot of other animals like the iberian wolf that here has a big population, some types of deer,loads of mushrooms, beetles, butterflies, etc...lool We made our camping place on a village that an half of it is spanish and the other half is portuguese lol. We can see this from the camping place:
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 11, 2006 0:28:10 GMT
Here is the camping place: some wildlife pics
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apple
Archachatina degneri
Posts: 1,078
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Post by apple on Dec 11, 2006 0:43:43 GMT
These toads make beautifull songs it looks like bells with different sounds, they were singing altogether at night turning the warm nights even more nice. And guess what lool. This one was near the door of the camping place! ;D
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 11, 2006 0:46:05 GMT
Then we put a bit of flash and... It was male near her. I already showed a picture of both here but with different aspect on the first page.
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Dec 11, 2006 0:48:07 GMT
This is me lool, I was looking at the firefly samples. The back is of susana, she was working on her mobile computer lool.
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apple
Archachatina degneri
Posts: 1,078
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Post by apple on Dec 11, 2006 0:54:58 GMT
On this trip I made some fieldwork near those mountains. At night I was a bit frightened because the big animals are known to come down from the mountains to the valleys to eat and drink. I hear the bushes moving and being smashed but the animals usually went away from me... Maybe they were boars,deers or wild sheep, I guess that they weren´t wolves because wolves don´t make all those sounds,because they are quite silent making noises only sometimes. In fact here in Portugal boars, deers, snakes and tarantulas can be more dangerous than wolves or lynxes. Wolves usually don´t atack people.
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apple
Archachatina degneri
Posts: 1,078
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Post by apple on Jan 2, 2007 1:00:52 GMT
Finnaly on this tour, we went to another mountain group, nearer to the sea but still near the spanish border, on the north limit of continental Portugal. This place is called Peneda Geres National Park. We here usually call it simply Geres. This place has a great variety of different landscapes: big waterfalls, rivers, dams, humid cloud forest, mediterranean forest, rocky habitats, silviculture and agriculture fields. Here is where it rains more in continental Portugal ( not in Portugal overall), on which the year average reaches more than 3 meters of rain (3000 mm) and so it´s one of the places that has an humid forest, with huge trees, ferns and huge moss carpets that grow even on the trees branches. I made some field work on this kind of habitat, and here you can hear many sounds of insects and other animals, so the air is so full of sounds that sometimes you only can distinguish a continuous sound lool... The iberian wolf had a great influence on the local populations here, because they were known to atack the cattle and to visit the villages on the winter nights. The problem is that people killed too many wolf wild prey ( mainly hoofed animals) and so the poor animal was forced to kill unusual prey, like cows, horses and sheep to survive. So the local made a stone trap to catch and kill wolves, that exist for many centuries and consists mainly on a «V» shape trap, built with stone walls, first, is large and then when you advance inside it the walls approach each other in distance, and join the end, on which the wolf is forced to jump to a big hole and there he can´t go outside and so it´s killed with guns by the hunters. People play drums and shout, in big groups on the forest, to make wolves afraid and run, guiding the poor animals to the trap....The trap is still there, surviving on the time, but the most people left villages and now live on the city. The wolves are now a protected specie and their wild prey have restricted hunt laws for the hunters, so things are getting better. The iberian bear disappeared from this big mountains, but the wild goat ( Capra pyrenaica) is back again. They were extincted recently but then appeared again coming from Spain. The interesting thing is that Spaniards refused to offer some individuals to be reintroduced in Portugal because they wanted to keep their hunt trophies intact for hunters that come from far places to hunt them and pay for that, but the animals came by their own back to Portugal, on which they are protected... We stayed on a camping place, inside an humid forest near a beautifull waterfall. The problem is that the cam already hadn´t any battery available so it was impossible to take photos. Huge beetle species were quite abundant here. I´ll pick some from the web regarding this place. The camping place stayed above 1000 meters above the sea level. People keep their cereals inside these local type buildings, to avoid atacks from rodents. Here it´s a view inside. Local type of cow landscape very ancient human house. People live here for thousands of years. It´s possible to see Roman influence in bridges and monuments. lake
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apple
Archachatina degneri
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Post by apple on Jan 2, 2007 2:11:49 GMT
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apple
Archachatina degneri
Posts: 1,078
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Post by apple on Jan 2, 2007 23:18:58 GMT
Thanks Arno for fixing it. Moss on the trees Clear water
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Post by deadmansfinger on Jan 2, 2007 23:30:03 GMT
phenominal pics as usual apple.
really loved the ones of Peneda Geres National Park.
Brian.
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