[Animals] Sparrows and grasshoppers: other victims of the drought in the Lleida region

[Draeno]

 

New members continue to join the platform of animals affected by the drought, in the regions crossed by the Canal d'Urgell. From sparrows to Montagu's harriers to grasshoppers, the list of examples is endless.

The sparrows and wild buntings (the name already indicates it) are birds that constantly look for grains of wheat in the area, a scarce and highly prized treasure these days.

Grasshoppers and other insects, some of them pollinators, do not find the vegetation of each spring in the margins of the fields. It is likely that there will be fewer than other years, experts warn. And many of these animals are food for others. In other words, part of the ecosystem can be broken. Rabbits, given the aridity of agricultural margins, invade crops more frequently.

"Terreras, larks and larks find it difficult to build their nests if the fields are mowed prematurely, although lately there is a little more fallow and they have possibilities", details Enric Morera, responsible for the Natural Areas of the West. "The nests built in full fallow will have been lucky, the others may be destroyed by agricultural machinery," he says.

bird of the year
Something similar happens to the Montagu's harrier, an elegant raptor that adapted its life to agriculture and that the SEO organization BirdLife proclaimed "bird of the year" to help conserve it. This greyish glider needs the cereals to be high in order to lay eggs and protect the chicks. It is increasingly difficult to find one in these fields.

The lack of development of the crops derived from the drought causes worse habitat conditions, warns SEO, so a bad breeding season for the species is expected. From the entity they demand conservation measures for agro-steppe systems (those that combine rainfed crops with unsown plots).

"Do you know what Urgell and Pla d'Urgell were called before the arrival of the irrigation channels?", asks Rafel Rocaspana. "The 'clot del dimoni' (hell tunnel), because of the heat and the little rain that fell," he answers himself. Everything changed with the irrigation infrastructure, which transformed the natural landscape of the area. For just over a year, Rocaspana has been in charge of directing the Estany d'Ivars i Vila-plana.

 

 

eutrophicized pond
This lake, almost three meters deep, is fed by the Canal d'Urgell. The endowment depends on irrigation, so now the pond does not receive water. "In a few months, eutrophication [loss of oxygen and excess organic nutrients] can be worse than other summers and can harm some of the aquatic species of the Estany d'Ivars" details the technical director of the space.

What is in danger, explains Rocaspana, are small ponds in which various animals drink. The Ondara river, for example, has a practically non-existent flow for these dates. In general, as is happening in other areas of Spain, the drought threatens biodiversity, since depending on which species they will not have an easy time resisting.

Morera speaks directly of the desertification of the territory, a phenomenon that not only occurs in the regions near Lleida, but also in many other places on the peninsula. What remains to be seen is whether, with the arrival of some rains, the scenario changes for some of the species.

The ones that will encounter the most difficulties are those that depend on agricultural environments, to which they have adapted over the centuries, to such an extent that now they have become essential for their lives.

 

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/sociedad/20230513/gorriones-aguilucho-cenizo-saltamontes-amenaza-sequia-animales-lleida-87270815