Guide to Spain CO-CU (original) (raw)

dam; presa; represa

damselfly : caballito del diablo

Daubenton's bat : murciélago ratonero ribereño : (Myotis daubentoni). Not threatened. Throughout Peninsula. More common in the north and rare in arid south-east. absent from the Islands

deer : ciervo; red deer : ciervo rojo : cèrvol (Cat); cervo (Gal); orein (Eus.) (Cervus elaphus)

Spanish red deer are considerably smaller than their Central European counterparts, and within the Peninsula , moving southwards, Andalusian deer are smaller than Cantabrian deer (male average at 140 kg in the Cordillera Cantábrica and just 80 in Doñana). They inhabit diverse habitats from the cool woods and heathlands of the Cantabrian mountains, pine plantations (Montes Universales, Sierra de la Culebra), the sparse dehesa woodland (Montfragüe, El Pardo) and Mediterranean forests, and are expanding everywhere across their range. The red deer once occupied the whole of the Peninsula , but by the end of the 19th century hunting had reduced its distribution to the Sierra Morena, Montes de Toledo, Sierra de San Pedro and Las Villuercas. Consequent reintroductions by game estates have hugely re-extended their range. On occasions, these reintroductions, in an attempt to maximise profits of this prized piece, have led to incredibly dense deer populations and consequently severe degradation of forests such as in Saja in Cantabría. Wolves are its principal predator in Zamora , Somiedo and Riaño. Not threatened.

dehesa : Sparse wood pasture made up principally of holm and evergreen cork oak, grazed by livestock, and without scrub undergrowth. Unique to Iberia and Morocco.

Huge forests of holm oak or encina, believed to be the climax species of the true Mediterranean forest_,_ once stretched over great swathes of Spain. This virgin forest has long-since disappeared through grazing, charcoal-burning and felling. A few patches of something approaching this vast primeval forest survive on isolated higher slopes and particularly in the Sierra de Guara on the edge of the Aragonese Pyrenees and in the Sierra Morena in Andalucia. Many of these forests grew on poor and arid soils, and when felled these could not support agriculture for long and were soon abandoned to be taken over by maquis and garrigue, which covers much of Spain and the Mediterranean in general today. However, elsewhere in Spain and parts of the Maghreb , instead being felled, huge forests of holm oak were thinned out, creating the sparse pasture parkland known as dehesa, which together with evergreen cork form a unique man-made, managed and bio-diverse ecosystem. These are grazed on by the classic Iberian pigs and to a lesser extent by cows and sheep. Dehesa often combines holm oak with evergreen cork trees, as the latter bears its acorns in winter, providing a staged supply of animal food. A hybrid between the two trees (known as a mesto) bears acorns between the two peaks, giving a constant supply.

Dehesa landscape with free-range Iberian pigs

The holm oak and the dehesa system play an essential role in European bird migration. Dehesa is also vital to the survival of many Spanish bird populations, such as the incredibly endangered Spanish imperial eagle.

The dehesa was beautifully depictured in Mario Camus' "Los Santos Inocentes". The film, set on a cortijo in Alburquerque in Badajoz , is a harrowing indictment of the semi-feudal relations of absentee landowners, estate managers and peasants in 1960's rural Spain . Although we may indeed praise the dehesa as a production system, there should be no nostalgia felt towards the retrograde social system that all too often in the past operated around it. Essential viewing for any dangerous nostagics for the "Real Spain".

Paco Rabal as Zacarías in "Los Santos Inocentes" with his pet 'Milana' - a female kite. The bird is actually an eagle owl.

delta : delta

Delta de Ebro MORE TO COME

Delta de Llobregat

The tiny, much-maligned yet remarkable Delta de Llobregat Delta de Llobregat lies barely 20km from Barcelona and right under the pathway of Barcelona Airport. It is home to grey, night, squacco and imperial herons, egrets, kingfishers, marsh harriers and 140 odd birds beside. Most notably, several bitterns - there are only 30-40 pairs in the whole of Spain- have been wintering here since 2000, after an absence of 45 years. The Delta's future is uncertain. On the one hand, the reorganisation of space has recently created new natural areas and more hectares of wetland, with the Llobregat River being rerouted from its industries outlet to the edge of the marshes. On the negative side, the current expansion of Barcelona airport seriously threatens some of the most pristine spots of the reserve. The jury is out. MORE TO COME.

den : guarida

depression (geol): depresión, as in Depresión del Ebro; hoya, as in Hoya de Baza; cuenca

desert : desierto MORE TO COME

Deva

The River Deva rises at Fuente Dé in the heart of the Picos de Europa. Fuente Dé is a classic glacial cirque. The ancient tarn has long since filled in and mountain cattle now graze the pasture. The cirque is surrounded on three sides by sheer 700m-high cliffs. A photograph could never do justice to the immensity and oppression of the cliffs. In August, Fuente Dé swarms with tourists, lured by the cable car which will take you from 1,094 metres to 1,847 metres in five terrifying minutes. The river takes its name from a Celtic God of water. Deva has travelled a long way. The word is Sanskrit in origin. To this day, in Hinduism, devas are celestial beings that control forces of nature such as fire, air, and water. The river swells in the spring from the thaw of the Picos. After cutting its way through gorges and ravines it reaches the Atlantic (or the Cantabrian as they call it here) at the Ria de Tinamayor. The estuary serves as the borderline between Asturias and Cantabria. The Deva is 62 kilometres long.

dew : rocío

dipper : mirlo acuático; m erla d'aigua (Cat) (Cinclus cinclus)

ditch : zanja

diver : colimbo

doline : dolina ; celada (Arag.)

Doñana: MORE TO COME

External links

dormouse : lirón ; muscadino;

dotterel : chorlito carambolo; corriol pit-roig (Cat) ( Charadrius morinellus)

dow : cierva; cérvola (Cat)

downpour : chaparrón; tromba de agua; gotellada (Cat)

dragonfly : libélula; libèl·lula (Cat)

drinking hole : aguadero

drinking trough/pool/tank : abrevadero

drizzle : llovizna

drone (insect) : zángano; abellot (Cat)

dropping : cagarruta

drought : sequía MORE TO COME

Cañadas Reales : the network of drover's paths across Spain. Also known as Vías Pecuarias MORE TO COME

External links:

dry-stone wall : pared seca, for example in Menorca

duck : pato; ànec (Cat) MORE TO COME

Ducks in Spain

Duero

The River Duero (Durius-Latin, Douro-Portuguese) is the third longest and second largest river in the Iberian Peninsula at 765 km . Its source is at "Fuentes del Duero" in the Picos de Urbión in the Sístema Ibérico (Soria, near the border with Burgos and la Rioja). After cutting south-eastwards some 50km and passing through Soria, it turns west and slowly heads through the Northern Meseta , flowing through Almazán, Aranda de Duero, Tordesillas, and Zamora , and into Portugal, where after passing throrough a sparsely populated stretch of narrow canyons, finally empties into the Atlantic at Porto . The Duero watershed in Spain covers 78,954 square km, around 16% of the country, second to the Ebro. MORE TO COME

Strabo on the Duero

The Duero as it passed through Arribes de Duero in Salamanca

Tributaries of the Duero in Spain

River Source Outlet Km
Adaja Between la Serrota and S. de Avila Valdestillas 163
Tormes Fuente Tormella Villarino de los Aires 247
Pisuerga Sierra Albas , Puntas Luengas and Peña Labra Cerca de Simancas 275
Esla Peña Prieta Villalcampo 275

dune : duna; médano : dune ridge : cordón dunar

dung : estiércol; fem (Cat); fems (Cat); cuchu (Ast.)

dung beetle : escarabajo pelotero; escarabat piloter (Cat) (Ateuchus sacer)

dunlin : correlimos común; tèrrit variant (Cat) ( Calidris alpine)

dupont's lark : alondra de Dupont; alosa becuda (Cat) (Chersophilus duponti)

dyke : dique