Garrano - II

Profile of a dominant male Garrano.

Horse, Garrano breed; Cavalo, da raça Garrano – Equus caballus L.

Vieira do Minho, Portugal
2017, April

Garrano - I

Whenever you walk in Cabreira Mountains, they are always there. Their grasslands, their hills and their mountains.

Horse, Garrano breed; Cavalo, da raça Garrano – Equus caballus L.

Vieira do Minho, Portugal
2017, April

Wind painting

A water stream falling under an oak tree. Sometimes you just have to let the natural elements do all the artistic work for you.

Serra da Cabreira, Portugal
2017, April

Mountain Shelters - III

The shelter of Cabana de Bouças de Areias, in the higher altitudes of Cabreira Mountain Range, stands as a memory of ancient and far harder lives than those we can enjoy nowadays. It has served and still shelters shepherds, hunters and any mountaineer seeking a refuge from the mountain’s harsh weather conditions. It is also a good example of culture preservation, as the local municipality of Vieira do Minho has taken efforts to restore it while preserving its authenticity

Serra da Cabreira, Portugal
2017, Março

Death…

Distant from the closest woods, a lonely and decaying tree remains erect over the surrounding scenery. While the tree is dead, its trunk still holds life, as birds of prey may use its cavities for nesting or use it as a watch tower

Serra da Cabreira, Portugal
2017, March

Spring as arrived series - III

Coming back to the Spring series… and the different perspectives I took from the same subject: an Armenian plum tree in full blossom.

 Armenian plum, damasqueiro – Prunos armeniaca

Vieira do Minho, Portugal
2017, Março

Vanishing point

The moment you know where you’re heading…

Serra do Gerês, Portugal
2017, March

Solitude

One of the things I, truly, miss in some regions of Gêres are forests. With some exceptions, like Mata da Albergaria, you can walk long distances without observing a single mature tree. While trees do not thrive in higher altitudes, the truth is that Gerês was once far more forested that it is nowadays. The exploration of woodlands for building, coal and fire without replanting (sustaining) forests, and, particularly, the devastating fires in the last decades left these mountains deprived of true forests patches. Sometimes, deep in the valleys, especially along streams, you can still see several species of autochthones trees, offering a glimpse of the forests that may have once stood here.
In this trail, I found a young cork tree, isolated in a mountain side. Its organic shape stands out from the rocky landscape. It was alone, truly alone, in the sense that I haven’t seen anything but rocks, bushes and grass for kilometres.

Cork oak / Sobreiro - Quercus suber

Serra do Gerês, Portugal
2017, March

A dangerous procession in my path

With the trail passing by woodland, I saw an interesting behavioural manifestation of a group of small but quite deadly creatures. Adult pine processionary caterpillars leave their nests up in the pine trees and crawl in large groups, forming a single line. They actually travel for lengthy distances, until finding soft ground to burying themselves, forming cocoons and, later, emerging as moths.

It is also in this later adult stage that they can become deadly as their only defence against predators is their hairy spikes. These, upon contact, can cause severe rashes and even allergic reactions. Moreover, when under stress, these caterpillars eject their hairs which cling to the predator’s skin, eyes and respiratory airways. Dogs, with their curiosity, easily fall severely ill and may perish from just sniffing these caterpillars. Fortunately, this deadly procession only lasts a couple days a year, commonly occurring in the first warm days of spring.

These caterpillars are a devastating plague for pine woodlands. However, they have become a plague because of former agricultural policies which replaced autochthones forests with monocultures of their preferred habitat: the pine tree. Moreover, the natural predators of these caterpillars, crickets, bats and several birds’ species, fail on having natural environments to successfully breed in sufficient numbers to control the population. One major issue of forest farming is that trees are taken down without aging enough to provide natural shelters, i.e. small cavities, for birds to nest. One possible contribution would be to provide, in the affected regions, artificial nests for predators such as the great tit.

Pine processionary / Lagarta processionária do pinheiro - Thaumetopoea pityocampa Schiff. 

Serra do Gerês, Portugal
2017, March

Awakening Giant

Alto da Surreira do Meio Dia, a southeast mountain of Gerês, becomes illuminated by the sunrise. Facing it, the very small village of Fontainho still hangs in the darkness. What an amazing sight must be to have this rocky giant as your daily background when you open the windows.
[PT]Alto da Surreira do Meio Dia, na zona sudoeste do Gerês, iluminada pelo nascer do Sol. À sua frente, a aldeia de Fontainho permanece ainda na escuridão. Que bela imagem deve ser acordar diariamente perante o cenário deste gigante rochoso.

Serra do Gerês, Cabril, Portugal
2017, Março