from desert to fields of snow in two kilometres

Collared Pratincole

Such is the great range of altitude over short distances in the Iberian Peninsula that you can go from a veritable desert to wet and lush mountain pastures in two kilometres of elevation. The drying salt marsh in the marismas is now home to Collared Pratincoles (above) and a range of larks including the Calandra (above) and the Lesser Short-toed Lark (below). These species (photos taken on the 23rd) are perfectly at home in temperatures aboce 30C in the baking sun.

...but go up into the high elevations and you enter the realm of the Skylark (above). This bird is common at low elevations in winter but these are northern birds that go back into north-western Europe in the spring. The Iberian Skylarks are mountain birds that find their home on islands of cool habitat away from the drying lowlands.

The melt water keeps the pastures lush up here where we find a community of birds more akin to northern Europe than to Iberia.

So the neighbours of the Skylark include the gorgeous Bluethroat that breeds in the high elevations in low scrub on flooded pastures, whereas the neighbours of the lowland larks include the arid-adapted Collared Pratincole (head of this post).

We will explore the mountains and the phenomenon of ecological change with altitude in the next posts.

Photographer #020: Yeondoo Jung

Korean photographer Yeondoo Jung, 1969, creates fantasy worlds by building stages and photographing them. Even though you sence that something is wrong, it takes a little while before you discover the secret. These photographs come from the series Locations.

In the series Wonderland, he has taken childrens' drawings and recreated them with real people and props. The results are impossible worlds of childrens' imagination.

Website: www.yeondoojung.com

Photographer #019: Cara Barer

Cara Barer, USA, 1956, is a photographer that changes the appearance of books and other items made of paper. Through experimentation Cara has found various ways to transform the items into stylish objects that hold a deeper layer. She hopes to raise questions about the changes in the ways we research and find our daily information.

Website: www.carabarer.com

Photographer #018: Lina Scheynius

Lina Scheynius, Sweden, 1981, is a self-taught photographer who takes pictures of her own life. Often she is not only behind the camera, but also in the frame. She photographs the people in her life and shows them as a diary. In 2008 and 2009 she published books with titles: 01 and 02. They came out in an edition of 500 and are completely sold out.

Website: www.linascheynius.com

Photographer #017: Michael Wolf

German photographer Michael Wolf, 1954 has a long list of projects behind his name. Currently he is working on a project using google streetview as his camera. The photographs of architecture in projects like Architecture in Density in Hongkong (2006) and Transparent City in Chicago (2008) are most known.

In 2009 he did a project called Tokyo Subway Dreams. As in his architectural photography, the horizon is nowhere to be found in his pictures.

Website: www.photomichaelwolf.com

With the Phoenix under the blazing sun

In Europe, the Greater Flamingo breeds in the Iberian Peninsula, southern France and Sardinia. It also breeds in Turkey and in North Africa, close by. Flamingoes are nomadic and move around sites as water levels rise and fall. Crossings between Europe and North Africa are not uncommon. These photographs were taken in the marismas of the Guadalquivir on the 23rd April.

On average around 31% of the western Mediterranean flamingoes breed in Spain but, when water levels are right, this proportion has been known to be up to 57%. That was in 2001 when 23,011 pairs bred. The lake at Fuente de Piedra in Malaga Province usually holds the largest colony by far, the number of breeding pairs having fluctuated between 2 and 20 thousand in recent years.

Flamingoes also breed in the marismas when water levels are right but these tend to be inexperienced birds and they usually have problems completing the reproduction. One year the pools in which they had raised the young dried up too soon and the young, which could not fly, had to be herded by horsemen to another pool or they would have all perished!

Fuente de Piedra lies roughly 150 kilometres east of the marismas and the breeding birds regularly commute between the lake and the marsh in search of food. Their movements to and fro offer spectacular views of these wonderful birds in flight.

The Latin name of the Greater Flamingo is Phoenicopterus ruber. Phoenicopetrus means Phoenix-winged and it has been suggested that the combination of flame colours and the rising heat currents in the inhospitable salt lakes in which they breed, inspired the Egyptian Phoenix.

Photographer #016: Dave Hill

Dave Hill, 1979, USA, is a photographer that uses all the new possibilities of computer enhancements. His photographs are often build out of uncountable photographs all put together to finally make one image. He composes everything, which must mean that he is extremely organized when doing a shoot. He lives in LA, and his images have a very hollywood feel to them.

Besides these larger than life images, he does black and white portraiture. Check the behind the scenes section on his website to see how Dave makes his photographs.

Website: www.davehillphoto.com

Elegance among the fishermen of the inland waters

Purple Heron

Now that the flood waters are receding the marshes of the Guadalquivir are looking splendid and rich in food for many aquatic birds. Among the best represented are the great fishermen of the marshes - the herons. These photographs, with two exceptions indicated, were taken on 23rd April and in March of this year. They serve to illustrate the huge biomass that these marshes are able to support in good years.

The marsh itself, with a good cover of reeds, is favourite for one of the most elegant of birds. The Purple Heron arrives in spring from tropical West Africa to breed. It spends most of its time among the reeds and is very shy, making the task of the photographer difficult. In spite of its size and colours it has an uncanny ability to stay put and fly just as you see it!

The long neck allows this bird to get an aerial view of the reeds and when a movement is detected a close-up focus takes over.

If luck is with it, as here, an unsuspecting crayfish makes a tasty meal!

gulp!

Where there is more open water, but with the safety of reeds nearby, another large heron takes over. The Great Egret has experienced a significant recovery in the last decade and is now a regular feature of the marshes. Unlike the Purple Heron, the Great Egret stays around all year.

This species also stretches its neckto survey the surroundings

and its long legs allow it to wade deep

The Grey Heron is the largest species and prefers to feed in open water, including shallow pools. It will travel great distances over the marshes to find suitable feeding opportunities.

Like its relatives, it hunts by stealth

Black-crowned Night Herons are highly sociable and are often seen flying to and from feeding grounds at dawn and dusk. They are smaller than the previous species and are sit-and-wait predators, often close to reed beds but near open water.

Night Heron (above) and the equally stunning Squacco Heron (below - archive photo) are predators of fish, crabs and crayfish, taking smaller prey than the larger herons.

There are many ponds and shallow lakes now and these are full of frogs and toads. Along with small fish they are favourite prey of the elegant Little Egret.

The least orthodox in the family is the Cattle Egret that prefers to follow sheep and cattle, often in large flocks, and take the insects they disturb than follow the family tradition of fishermen. Even so they are often seen close to water as if old habits died hard!

The smallest species, the Little Bittern (above - archive photo), is highly migratory and, like the Purple Heron, returns to these marshes after a crossing of the Sahara Desert.