Highly recommended if you get chance to visit - the scenery is spectacular and there's lots of wildlife. Early July is probably best for the butterflies.
Hello David.... lovely video. I do have one beef with it however. For some reason English birdwatchers insist upon calling Bearded Vultures, Lammegeiers. This is a German name for the bird and not the accepted German name. In fact it is a discredited old peasant's name. Geier means vulture and Lammer means lambing or lamb killing.... thus the word means Lambing or lamb killing vulture and refers to the old shepherds' erroneous belief that the vultures killed their lambs. Lambs of course die for all sorts of reasons and naturally a vulture will feed on the carcase but there are no verified instances of Bearded Vultures deliberately attacking live lambs. It was this ignorant prejudice however that caused the Bearded Vulture to be hunted to extinction in the Alps and reduced the European population to a handful of pairs in Spain and the Balkans. I joined the efforts to reintroduce Bearded Vultures from captive populations back into the wild and saw the release of a number of birds in the Swiss National Park. At this time it became an absolute no-no to call them Lammergeiers and no respectable German speaking naturalist would do so. Only the English persist in using this archaic and unacceptable slur although I'm sure they would take exception were somebody to call a Goshawk a pheasant killing vermin. If you MUST use a German name then use the correct one which is Bartgeier... where Bart means beard and thus translates as Bearded Vulture... the same as the correct English name and more close to the Latin name for the species Gypaetus barbatus.
Hello again Michaela and thanks for your input. I don't profess to be an expert on these matters. I was on a Naturetrek holiday focusing mainly on butterflies and moths, but was thrilled to see the various birds of prey. As for their names, I just took those we were given by the tour leader at face value! Well done on your contribution to the reintroduction of Bearded Vultures and I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thank you. I'm sorry if I was being such an anorak regarding nomenclature. Normally I'm not so fussy although in the case of the Bearded Vulture does irritate me somewhat having had a vested interest in the survival of the species. Otherwise I don't mind as long as the identification is accurate. For instance I presume that by "Iberian water frog" you simply mean Iberian Frog (Rana iberica) a montane species endemic to North west Spain and Portugal. Other observations... your burnet moth was the species Zygaena occitanica with a distribution confined to southern France, South and Eastern Spain and the Pyrenees. The butterfly you identify as "Spanish Swallowtail" is actually a sub-species of Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius feisthamelii). You photographed a beautiful Alpine Columbine at 15.25 (Aquilegia alpina) although you didn't identify it in the audio. Another notable flower species... was that Pyrenean Eryngo at 26.53? I've seen Alpine Eryngo or "Queen of the Alps" but not that species. Michaela x
Unfortunately there might be a few mistaken identifications in some of my videos. I didn't even attempt the Pyrenees wildflowers because I couldn't remember their names, but thanks for putting me right on a couple. In my defence, I'm just an amateur with a £200 camcorder!
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Dear David, great holiday pics. Why not be on the lookout for ponderous terms/cliches ie spectacular/wildlife-rich?
Thanks for uploading. Interesting to see this area.
Highly recommended if you get chance to visit - the scenery is spectacular and there's lots of wildlife. Early July is probably best for the butterflies.
Thanks David. It does look amazing! Thanks for the info on the best time too, I wasn't sure when to go as its high up.
Gran vídeo.
Hello David.... lovely video. I do have one beef with it however. For some reason English birdwatchers insist upon calling Bearded Vultures, Lammegeiers. This is a German name for the bird and not the accepted German name. In fact it is a discredited old peasant's name. Geier means vulture and Lammer means lambing or lamb killing.... thus the word means Lambing or lamb killing vulture and refers to the old shepherds' erroneous belief that the vultures killed their lambs. Lambs of course die for all sorts of reasons and naturally a vulture will feed on the carcase but there are no verified instances of Bearded Vultures deliberately attacking live lambs. It was this ignorant prejudice however that caused the Bearded Vulture to be hunted to extinction in the Alps and reduced the European population to a handful of pairs in Spain and the Balkans. I joined the efforts to reintroduce Bearded Vultures from captive populations back into the wild and saw the release of a number of birds in the Swiss National Park. At this time it became an absolute no-no to call them Lammergeiers and no respectable German speaking naturalist would do so. Only the English persist in using this archaic and unacceptable slur although I'm sure they would take exception were somebody to call a Goshawk a pheasant killing vermin. If you MUST use a German name then use the correct one which is Bartgeier... where Bart means beard and thus translates as Bearded Vulture... the same as the correct English name and more close to the Latin name for the species Gypaetus barbatus.
Hello again Michaela and thanks for your input. I don't profess to be an expert on these matters. I was on a Naturetrek holiday focusing mainly on butterflies and moths, but was thrilled to see the various birds of prey. As for their names, I just took those we were given by the tour leader at face value! Well done on your contribution to the reintroduction of Bearded Vultures and I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Thank you. I'm sorry if I was being such an anorak regarding nomenclature. Normally I'm not so fussy although in the case of the Bearded Vulture does irritate me somewhat having had a vested interest in the survival of the species. Otherwise I don't mind as long as the identification is accurate. For instance I presume that by "Iberian water frog" you simply mean Iberian Frog (Rana iberica) a montane species endemic to North west Spain and Portugal.
Other observations... your burnet moth was the species Zygaena occitanica with a distribution confined to southern France, South and Eastern Spain and the Pyrenees.
The butterfly you identify as "Spanish Swallowtail" is actually a sub-species of Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius feisthamelii).
You photographed a beautiful Alpine Columbine at 15.25 (Aquilegia alpina) although you didn't identify it in the audio.
Another notable flower species... was that Pyrenean Eryngo at 26.53? I've seen Alpine Eryngo or "Queen of the Alps" but not that species.
Michaela x
Unfortunately there might be a few mistaken identifications in some of my videos. I didn't even attempt the Pyrenees wildflowers because I couldn't remember their names, but thanks for putting me right on a couple. In my defence, I'm just an amateur with a £200 camcorder!
I'm sorry... I wasn't criticising and there is no need to defend yourself. I enjoyed the video and I just like talking about these things.