{ "v": 1, "theatre": "EU", "note": "Europe registry. Schema in EU-DOCTRINE.md section 8. Accession codes are append-only: never reorder, never reuse. Files run 14-28 days; tiers are EU TRIP (14), EU MEGA TRIP (21), EU GRAND QUEST (28).", "verified": "2026-08", "nextFileCode": "E12", "nextCorridorCode": "C01", "nextAccession": 1427, "corridors": [], "files": [ { "id": "ireland", "code": "E01", "name": "Ireland: The Gentle Crossing", "page": "eu-ireland.html", "days": 14, "minDays": 9, "tier": "EU TRIP", "demand": 2, "demandWord": "STEADY", "miles": [ 900, 1050 ], "countries": [ "IE" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Pembroke / Fishguard", "to": "Rosslare", "operator": "Irish Ferries / Stena Line", "hours": 4 }, "exit": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Dublin", "to": "Holyhead", "operator": "Irish Ferries / Stena Line", "hours": 3 }, "currency": [ "EUR" ], "schengen": false, "drive": "left", "tolls": { "system": "barrier + free-flow", "tag": false, "notes": "The M50 around Dublin is barrier-free and must be paid online by 8pm the following day. Every other toll takes cash or card at a booth." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [], "lat": 52.25, "lon": -6.35, "clim": "ie-west", "regions": [ "ireland-south", "ireland-west" ], "nature": [ "E001", "E002", "E003", "E004", "E005", "E006", "E007", "E008", "E009", "E010", "E011", "E012", "E013", "E014", "E015", "E016", "E017" ], "engine": { "best": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "wales", "mid", "north" ], "papers": [ "Nothing posted. Photo ID for the ferry, and that is all." ], "seasonNote": "No Schengen clock, left-hand driving, and a four-hour boat from Wales." } }, { "id": "france", "code": "E02", "name": "France: Normandy, Brittany and the Loire", "page": "eu-france.html", "days": 21, "minDays": 14, "tier": "EU MEGA TRIP", "demand": 3, "demandWord": "COMMITTING", "miles": [ 1300, 1500 ], "countries": [ "FR" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Portsmouth", "to": "Le Havre", "operator": "Brittany Ferries", "hours": 5 }, "exit": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Roscoff", "to": "Plymouth", "operator": "Brittany Ferries", "hours": 6 }, "currency": [ "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "barrier + télépéage", "tag": true, "notes": "Autoroutes are tolled by barrier. A 2.98 m van under 3.5 t is Classe 2, not Classe 1 — check the overhead sign before choosing a lane. A télépéage badge is optional but removes the reaching-out problem entirely on a right-hand-drive road." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Rouen", "Rennes", "Paris (if approached)" ], "lat": 49.49, "lon": 0.11, "clim": "fr-nw", "regions": [ "normandy", "brittany", "loire" ], "nature": [ "E018", "E019", "E020", "E021", "E022", "E023", "E024", "E025", "E026", "E027", "E028", "E029", "E030", "E031", "E032", "E033", "E034", "E035" ], "engine": { "best": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "south", "mid" ], "papers": [ "Crit’Air sticker — posted, so allow weeks.", "Télépéage badge if you want one — also posted." ], "seasonNote": "Where the continental paperwork arrives. Order the sticker before you book the boat." } }, { "id": "low-countries", "code": "E03", "name": "The Low Countries and the Rhine", "page": "eu-low-countries.html", "days": 21, "minDays": 14, "tier": "EU MEGA TRIP", "demand": 3, "demandWord": "COMMITTING", "miles": [ 1100, 1300 ], "countries": [ "NL", "BE", "DE" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Hull", "to": "Rotterdam", "operator": "P&O Ferries", "hours": 12 }, "exit": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Zeebrugge", "to": "Hull", "operator": "P&O Ferries", "hours": 13 }, "currency": [ "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "mostly free", "tag": false, "notes": "No motorway toll for a motorhome in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany. A handful of tunnels charge. The cost on this file is low-emission-zone registration, not the road." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Brussels", "Antwerp", "Ghent", "Amsterdam", "Rotterdam", "Utrecht", "Cologne", "Bonn" ], "lat": 51.92, "lon": 4.48, "clim": "nl-coast", "regions": [ "netherlands", "belgium", "rhineland" ], "nature": [ "E160", "E161", "E162", "E163", "E164", "E165", "E166", "E167", "E168", "E169", "E170", "E171", "E172", "E173", "E174", "E175", "E176", "E177", "E178", "E179", "E180", "E181", "E182", "E183", "E184", "E185", "E186", "E187", "E188", "E189", "E190", "E191", "E192", "E193", "E194", "E195", "E196", "E197", "E198", "E199", "E200", "E201", "E202", "E203", "E204", "E205", "E206", "E207", "E208", "E209", "E210", "E211", "E212", "E213", "E214", "E215", "E216", "E217", "E218", "E219", "E220", "E221", "E222", "E223", "E224", "E225", "E226", "E227", "E228", "E229", "E230", "E231", "E232", "E233", "E234", "E235", "E236", "E237", "E238", "E239", "E240", "E241", "E242", "E243", "E244", "E245", "E246", "E247", "E248", "E249", "E250", "E251", "E252", "E253", "E254", "E255" ], "engine": { "best": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "north", "mid", "scot" ], "papers": [ "German green Umweltplakette — posted, or from a testing station on arrival.", "Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent LEZ registrations — online, and each one separately." ], "seasonNote": "Free motorways and eight low-emission zones. The cost is registration, not road tax." } }, { "id": "nordics", "code": "E04", "name": "The Nordic Quest: Denmark, Norway and Sweden", "page": "eu-nordics.html", "days": 28, "minDays": 21, "tier": "EU GRAND QUEST", "demand": 5, "demandWord": "EXPEDITION", "miles": [ 2500, 2800 ], "countries": [ "DK", "NO", "SE" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Newcastle", "to": "IJmuiden", "operator": "DFDS", "hours": 17 }, "exit": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "IJmuiden", "to": "Newcastle", "operator": "DFDS", "hours": 16 }, "currency": [ "DKK", "NOK", "SEK", "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "free-flow, billed to the plate", "tag": true, "notes": "Norway and Sweden read the plate and bill it afterwards. Register the vehicle with a toll account before you travel or an administration fee follows you home. The great bridges charge separately." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Copenhagen", "Gothenburg", "Stockholm", "Bergen", "Oslo" ], "lat": 58.0, "lon": 9.0, "clim": "nordic", "regions": [ "jutland", "south-norway", "fjords", "dovrefjell", "sweden" ], "nature": [ "E256", "E257", "E258", "E259", "E260", "E261", "E262", "E263", "E264", "E265", "E266", "E267", "E268", "E269", "E270", "E271", "E272", "E273", "E274", "E275", "E276", "E277", "E278", "E279", "E280", "E281", "E282", "E283", "E284", "E285", "E286", "E287", "E288", "E289", "E290", "E291", "E292", "E293", "E294", "E295", "E296", "E297", "E298", "E299", "E300", "E301", "E302", "E303", "E304", "E305", "E306", "E307", "E308", "E309", "E310", "E311", "E312", "E313", "E314", "E315", "E316", "E317", "E318", "E319", "E320", "E321", "E322", "E323", "E324", "E325", "E326", "E327", "E328", "E329", "E330", "E331", "E332", "E333", "E334", "E335", "E336", "E337", "E338", "E339", "E340", "E341", "E342", "E343", "E344", "E345", "E346", "E347", "E348", "E349", "E350", "E351", "E352", "E353", "E354", "E355", "E356" ], "engine": { "best": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "hard": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "near": [ "north", "scot" ], "papers": [ "AutoPASS toll account registered against the plate before you drive.", "German green sticker for the transit days.", "Confirm insurance covers Norway specifically — many EU policies exclude it." ], "seasonNote": "Trollstigen and Sognefjellet are shut by snow for roughly half the year." } }, { "id": "france-south", "code": "E05", "name": "Southern France: Provence, the Camargue and the Cévennes", "page": "eu-france-south.html", "days": 21, "minDays": 14, "tier": "EU MEGA TRIP", "demand": 4, "demandWord": "DEMANDING", "miles": [ 2000, 2300 ], "countries": [ "FR" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Folkestone", "to": "Calais", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "exit": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Calais", "to": "Folkestone", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "currency": [ "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "barrier télépéage", "tag": true, "notes": "This is the file that uses the autoroute most — two long transit days each way. Classe 2 for a van over 2 m, and a télépéage badge earns its fee here more than anywhere." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Lyon", "Marseille", "Montpellier", "Nice", "Grenoble" ], "lat": 43.68, "lon": 4.62, "clim": "fr-med", "regions": [ "provence", "camargue", "cevennes", "languedoc" ], "nature": [ "E580", "E581", "E582", "E583", "E584", "E585", "E586", "E587", "E588", "E589", "E590", "E591", "E592", "E593", "E594", "E595", "E596", "E597", "E598", "E599", "E600", "E601", "E602", "E603", "E604", "E605", "E606", "E607", "E608", "E609", "E610", "E611", "E612", "E613", "E614", "E615", "E616", "E617", "E618", "E619", "E620", "E621", "E622", "E623", "E624", "E625", "E626", "E627", "E628", "E629", "E630", "E631", "E632", "E633", "E634", "E635", "E636", "E637", "E638", "E639", "E640", "E641", "E642", "E643", "E644", "E645", "E646", "E647", "E648", "E649" ], "engine": { "best": [ 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "south", "mid" ], "papers": [ "Crit’Air sticker — posted, and Lyon sits on the transit route.", "Télépéage badge — this file uses the autoroute more than any other." ], "seasonNote": "July and August are punishing heat and heavy crowds. May, June, September and October are the honest season." } }, { "id": "alps", "code": "E06", "name": "The Alps: Switzerland and Austria", "page": "eu-alps.html", "days": 21, "minDays": 14, "tier": "EU MEGA TRIP", "demand": 5, "demandWord": "EXPEDITION", "miles": [ 2300, 2600 ], "countries": [ "CH", "AT" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Folkestone", "to": "Calais", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "exit": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Calais", "to": "Folkestone", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "currency": [ "CHF", "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "two vignettes plus separate pass and tunnel tolls", "tag": false, "notes": "Switzerland sells an annual motorway vignette valid the calendar year whenever you buy it. Austria sells a time-based one — and then charges again for the Brenner, Tauern, Arlberg and the Grossglockner. Neither is optional." }, "vignette": [ "CH annual", "AT 10-day / 2-month / annual" ], "lez": [ "Basel", "Bern", "Zurich", "Vienna", "Graz" ], "lat": 46.55, "lon": 9.85, "clim": "alpine", "regions": [ "jura", "bernese-oberland", "valais", "engadine", "tyrol", "hohe-tauern", "salzkammergut" ], "nature": [ "E650", "E651", "E652", "E653", "E654", "E655", "E656", "E657", "E658", "E659", "E660", "E661", "E662", "E663", "E664", "E665", "E666", "E667", "E668", "E669", "E670", "E671", "E672", "E673", "E674", "E675", "E676", "E677", "E678", "E679", "E680", "E681", "E682", "E683", "E684", "E685", "E686", "E687", "E688", "E689", "E690", "E691", "E692", "E693", "E694", "E695", "E696", "E697", "E698", "E699", "E700", "E701", "E702", "E703", "E704", "E705", "E706", "E707", "E708", "E709", "E710", "E711", "E712", "E713", "E714", "E715", "E716", "E717", "E718", "E719", "E720", "E721", "E722", "E723", "E724", "E725", "E726", "E727", "E728", "E729", "E730", "E731", "E732", "E733", "E734", "E735", "E736", "E737", "E738", "E739", "E740", "E741", "E742", "E743", "E744", "E745", "E746", "E747", "E748", "E749", "E750", "E751", "E752", "E753", "E754", "E755", "E756", "E757", "E758", "E759", "E760", "E761", "E762", "E763", "E764", "E765", "E766", "E767", "E768", "E769", "E770", "E771", "E772", "E773", "E774", "E775", "E776", "E777", "E778", "E779", "E780", "E781", "E782", "E783", "E784", "E785", "E786", "E787", "E788", "E789" ], "engine": { "best": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "hard": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "near": [ "south", "mid" ], "papers": [ "Swiss motorway vignette — buy at the border or online, and never early.", "Austrian vignette — time-based, so match it to your dates.", "Crit’Air sticker for the French transit days.", "Confirm breakdown cover includes recovery from an alpine pass, not just a motorway." ], "seasonNote": "The high passes open around late May or June and shut in October, and the dates move every year with the snow." } }, { "id": "italy-north", "code": "E07", "name": "Northern Italy: the Lakes, the Dolomites and Tuscany", "page": "eu-italy-north.html", "days": 28, "minDays": 21, "tier": "EU GRAND QUEST", "demand": 4, "demandWord": "DEMANDING", "miles": [ 3000, 3400 ], "countries": [ "IT" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Folkestone", "to": "Calais", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "exit": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Calais", "to": "Folkestone", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "currency": [ "EUR", "CHF" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "barrier tolls, plus Alpine tunnel charges", "tag": false, "notes": "Italian autostrade take a ticket in and charge on exit by class and height. The Mont Blanc and Fréjus tunnels charge separately and heavily, and both restrict LPG." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Milan", "Turin", "Bologna", "Florence", "Genoa", "Verona" ], "lat": 45.6, "lon": 10.6, "clim": "it-north", "regions": [ "aosta", "lakes", "dolomites", "veneto", "po-delta", "tuscany", "liguria" ], "nature": [ "E790", "E791", "E792", "E793", "E794", "E795", "E796", "E797", "E798", "E799", "E800", "E801", "E802", "E803", "E804", "E805", "E806", "E807", "E808", "E809", "E810", "E811", "E812", "E813", "E814", "E815", "E816", "E817", "E818", "E819", "E820", "E821", "E822", "E823", "E824", "E825", "E826", "E827", "E828", "E829", "E830", "E831", "E832", "E833", "E834", "E835", "E836", "E837", "E838", "E839", "E840", "E841", "E842", "E843", "E844", "E845", "E846", "E847", "E848", "E849", "E850", "E851", "E852", "E853", "E854", "E855", "E856", "E857", "E858", "E859", "E860", "E861", "E862", "E863", "E864", "E865", "E866", "E867", "E868", "E869", "E870", "E871", "E872", "E873", "E874", "E875", "E876", "E877", "E878", "E879", "E880", "E881", "E882", "E883" ], "engine": { "best": [ 5, 6, 9, 10 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "south", "mid" ], "papers": [ "Crit’Air sticker for the French transit days — posted, so allow weeks.", "Swiss vignette if you route through Switzerland rather than the Mont Blanc tunnel.", "Check whether your gas installation is permitted in the Alpine tunnels before you rely on one." ], "seasonNote": "July and August are heat, crowds and Ferragosto. May, June, September and October are the honest season, and the Dolomite passes are shut in winter." } }, { "id": "iberia-north", "code": "E08", "name": "Iberia North: the Picos, Galicia and the Douro", "page": "eu-iberia-north.html", "days": 28, "minDays": 21, "tier": "EU GRAND QUEST", "demand": 4, "demandWord": "DEMANDING", "miles": [ 2000, 2300 ], "countries": [ "ES", "PT" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Portsmouth", "to": "Santander", "operator": "Brittany Ferries", "hours": 30 }, "exit": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Bilbao", "to": "Portsmouth", "operator": "Brittany Ferries", "hours": 32 }, "currency": [ "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "barrier tolls in Spain, free-flow in Portugal", "tag": true, "notes": "Many Spanish motorways are now free. Portugal has barrier-free electronic sections that bill the plate afterwards — arrange a transponder or a prepaid arrangement before you cross the border." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Madrid", "Barcelona", "Bilbao", "Pontevedra", "Lisbon" ], "lat": 43.3, "lon": -5.6, "clim": "atlantic-iberia", "regions": [ "cantabria", "picos", "asturias", "galicia", "minho", "geres", "douro", "zamora", "basque" ], "nature": [ "E884", "E885", "E886", "E887", "E888", "E889", "E890", "E891", "E892", "E893", "E894", "E895", "E896", "E897", "E898", "E899", "E900", "E901", "E902", "E903", "E904", "E905", "E906", "E907", "E908", "E909", "E910", "E911", "E912", "E913", "E914", "E915", "E916", "E917", "E918", "E919", "E920", "E921", "E922", "E923", "E924", "E925", "E926", "E927", "E928", "E929", "E930", "E931", "E932", "E933", "E934", "E935", "E936", "E937", "E938", "E939", "E940", "E941", "E942", "E943", "E944", "E945", "E946", "E947", "E948", "E949", "E950", "E951", "E952", "E953", "E954", "E955", "E956", "E957", "E958", "E959", "E960", "E961", "E962", "E963", "E964", "E965", "E966", "E967", "E968", "E969", "E970", "E971", "E972", "E973", "E974", "E975", "E976", "E977", "E978", "E979", "E980", "E981", "E982", "E983", "E984", "E985", "E986", "E987", "E988", "E989", "E990", "E991", "E992", "E993", "E994", "E995", "E996", "E997", "E998", "E999", "E1000", "E1001", "E1002", "E1003", "E1004", "E1005", "E1006", "E1007", "E1008", "E1009", "E1010", "E1011", "E1012", "E1013", "E1014", "E1015", "E1016", "E1017", "E1018", "E1019", "E1020", "E1021", "E1022", "E1023", "E1024" ], "engine": { "best": [ 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "south", "wales", "mid" ], "papers": [ "Portuguese toll arrangement — the free-flow roads bill the plate and there is no booth.", "Nothing else posted. No vignette, no emission sticker for this route.", "Confirm the ferry booking early — the Biscay sailings are few and they sell out." ], "seasonNote": "The Atlantic north is green because it rains. April to June and September to October are the honest season; July and August are hot inland and busy on the coast." } }, { "id": "germany-south", "code": "E09", "name": "Southern Germany: the Black Forest, Bavaria and the Danube", "page": "eu-germany-south.html", "days": 21, "minDays": 14, "tier": "EU MEGA TRIP", "demand": 3, "demandWord": "COMMITTING", "miles": [ 2200, 2500 ], "countries": [ "DE" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Folkestone", "to": "Calais", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "exit": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Calais", "to": "Folkestone", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "currency": [ "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "free", "tag": false, "notes": "No car or motorhome toll on the autobahn, and no vignette. The only charges are a handful of alpine toll roads and the Austrian ones if you clip the border. This is the cheapest long file in the archive to drive." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Freiburg", "Stuttgart", "Munich", "Augsburg", "Regensburg", "Nuremberg" ], "lat": 48.2, "lon": 11.1, "clim": "de-south", "regions": [ "black-forest", "kaiserstuhl", "bodensee", "allgaeu", "berchtesgaden", "danube", "franconia", "bavarian-forest" ], "nature": [ "E1025", "E1026", "E1027", "E1028", "E1029", "E1030", "E1031", "E1032", "E1033", "E1034", "E1035", "E1036", "E1037", "E1038", "E1039", "E1040", "E1041", "E1042", "E1043", "E1044", "E1045", "E1046", "E1047", "E1048", "E1049", "E1050", "E1051", "E1052", "E1053", "E1054", "E1055", "E1056", "E1057", "E1058", "E1059", "E1060", "E1061", "E1062", "E1063", "E1064", "E1065", "E1066", "E1067", "E1068", "E1069", "E1070", "E1071", "E1072", "E1073", "E1074", "E1075", "E1076", "E1077", "E1078", "E1079", "E1080", "E1081", "E1082", "E1083", "E1084", "E1085", "E1086", "E1087", "E1088", "E1089", "E1090", "E1091", "E1092", "E1093", "E1094", "E1095", "E1096", "E1097", "E1098" ], "engine": { "best": [ 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "south", "mid", "north" ], "papers": [ "German green Umweltplakette — posted before travel, or from a testing station on arrival. One sticker covers the whole country.", "Crit’Air sticker for the French transit days.", "Nothing else. No vignette, no toll account, no city registration." ], "seasonNote": "The gentlest three-week continental file. Alpine roads and gorge walks open from roughly May; the Black Forest and the Danube work almost year-round." } }, { "id": "central", "code": "E10", "name": "Central Europe: Poland, Czechia and Slovakia", "page": "eu-central.html", "days": 28, "minDays": 21, "tier": "EU GRAND QUEST", "demand": 5, "demandWord": "EXPEDITION", "miles": [ 3200, 3600 ], "countries": [ "PL", "CZ", "SK" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Folkestone", "to": "Calais", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "exit": { "mode": "tunnel", "frm": "Calais", "to": "Folkestone", "operator": "LeShuttle", "hours": 1 }, "currency": [ "PLN", "CZK", "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "three separate digital vignettes", "tag": false, "notes": "Czechia and Slovakia both sell digital vignettes bought online against the plate — nothing to display. Poland charges cars on some concession motorways and is free elsewhere. Buy each one before you cross its border." }, "vignette": [ "CZ digital", "SK digital" ], "lez": [ "Prague (limited)", "Kraków", "Warsaw" ], "lat": 50.1, "lon": 19.9, "clim": "continental", "regions": [ "bohemia", "moravia", "silesia", "bialowieza", "biebrza", "tatras", "bieszczady", "slovak-karst" ], "nature": [ "E1099", "E1100", "E1101", "E1102", "E1103", "E1104", "E1105", "E1106", "E1107", "E1108", "E1109", "E1110", "E1111", "E1112", "E1113", "E1114", "E1115", "E1116", "E1117", "E1118", "E1119", "E1120", "E1121", "E1122", "E1123", "E1124", "E1125", "E1126", "E1127", "E1128", "E1129", "E1130", "E1131", "E1132", "E1133", "E1134", "E1135", "E1136", "E1137", "E1138", "E1139", "E1140", "E1141", "E1142", "E1143", "E1144", "E1145", "E1146", "E1147", "E1148", "E1149", "E1150", "E1151", "E1152", "E1153", "E1154", "E1155", "E1156", "E1157", "E1158", "E1159", "E1160", "E1161", "E1162", "E1163", "E1164", "E1165", "E1166", "E1167", "E1168", "E1169", "E1170", "E1171", "E1172", "E1173", "E1174", "E1175", "E1176", "E1177", "E1178", "E1179", "E1180", "E1181", "E1182", "E1183", "E1184", "E1185", "E1186", "E1187", "E1188", "E1189", "E1190", "E1191", "E1192", "E1193", "E1194", "E1195", "E1196", "E1197", "E1198", "E1199", "E1200", "E1201", "E1202", "E1203", "E1204", "E1205", "E1206", "E1207", "E1208", "E1209", "E1210", "E1211", "E1212", "E1213", "E1214", "E1215", "E1216", "E1217", "E1218", "E1219", "E1220", "E1221", "E1222", "E1223", "E1224", "E1225", "E1226", "E1227", "E1228", "E1229", "E1230", "E1231", "E1232", "E1233", "E1234", "E1235", "E1236", "E1237", "E1238", "E1239", "E1240", "E1241", "E1242", "E1243", "E1244", "E1245", "E1246", "E1247", "E1248", "E1249", "E1250", "E1251", "E1252", "E1253", "E1254", "E1255", "E1256", "E1257", "E1258", "E1259", "E1260", "E1261", "E1262", "E1263", "E1264", "E1265", "E1266", "E1267", "E1268", "E1269", "E1270", "E1271", "E1272", "E1273", "E1274", "E1275", "E1276", "E1277", "E1278", "E1279", "E1280", "E1281", "E1282", "E1283", "E1284", "E1285", "E1286", "E1287", "E1288", "E1289", "E1290", "E1291", "E1292", "E1293", "E1294", "E1295", "E1296", "E1297", "E1298", "E1299", "E1300", "E1301", "E1302", "E1303", "E1304", "E1305", "E1306", "E1307", "E1308" ], "engine": { "best": [ 5, 6, 7, 9 ], "hard": [], "near": [ "south", "mid", "north" ], "papers": [ "Czech digital vignette — bought online against the plate before you cross.", "Slovak digital vignette — the same, and separate.", "German green sticker and Crit’Air for the transit days.", "Check whether your breakdown cover extends this far east — several policies stop at Germany." ], "seasonNote": "The longest file in the archive. May to September is the honest window; the Tatra and Slovak Paradise gorge routes are closed in winter and the eastern roads are hard going in snow." } }, { "id": "iberia-south", "code": "E11", "name": "Iberia South: Extremadura, Andalucía and the Algarve", "page": "eu-iberia-south.html", "days": 28, "minDays": 21, "tier": "EU GRAND QUEST", "demand": 4, "demandWord": "DEMANDING", "miles": [ 3000, 3400 ], "countries": [ "ES", "PT" ], "corridor": null, "entry": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Portsmouth", "to": "Santander", "operator": "Brittany Ferries", "hours": 30 }, "exit": { "mode": "ferry", "frm": "Santander", "to": "Portsmouth", "operator": "Brittany Ferries", "hours": 30 }, "currency": [ "EUR" ], "schengen": true, "drive": "right", "tolls": { "system": "barrier tolls in Spain, free-flow in Portugal", "tag": true, "notes": "Much of the Spanish motorway network is now free. Portugal has barrier-free electronic sections that bill the plate afterwards — arrange it before you cross." }, "vignette": null, "lez": [ "Madrid", "Seville", "Granada", "Lisbon" ], "lat": 37.4, "lon": -5.9, "clim": "mediterranean-iberia", "regions": [ "extremadura", "donana", "algarve", "alentejo", "strait", "grazalema", "sierra-nevada", "cabo-de-gata" ], "nature": [ "E1309", "E1310", "E1311", "E1312", "E1313", "E1314", "E1315", "E1316", "E1317", "E1318", "E1319", "E1320", "E1321", "E1322", "E1323", "E1324", "E1325", "E1326", "E1327", "E1328", "E1329", "E1330", "E1331", "E1332", "E1333", "E1334", "E1335", "E1336", "E1337", "E1338", "E1339", "E1340", "E1341", "E1342", "E1343", "E1344", "E1345", "E1346", "E1347", "E1348", "E1349", "E1350", "E1351", "E1352", "E1353", "E1354", "E1355", "E1356", "E1357", "E1358", "E1359", "E1360", "E1361", "E1362", "E1363", "E1364", "E1365", "E1366", "E1367", "E1368", "E1369", "E1370", "E1371", "E1372", "E1373", "E1374", "E1375", "E1376", "E1377", "E1378", "E1379", "E1380", "E1381", "E1382", "E1383", "E1384", "E1385", "E1386", "E1387", "E1388", "E1389", "E1390", "E1391", "E1392", "E1393", "E1394", "E1395", "E1396", "E1397", "E1398", "E1399", "E1400", "E1401", "E1402", "E1403", "E1404", "E1405", "E1406", "E1407", "E1408", "E1409", "E1410", "E1411", "E1412", "E1413", "E1414", "E1415", "E1416", "E1417", "E1418", "E1419", "E1420", "E1421", "E1422", "E1423", "E1424", "E1425", "E1426" ], "engine": { "best": [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 ], "hard": [ 7, 8 ], "near": [ "south", "wales", "mid" ], "papers": [ "Portuguese toll arrangement — the free-flow roads bill the plate and there is no booth.", "Confirm the Biscay ferry early; the sailings are few and they sell out.", "Nothing else posted. No vignette and no emission sticker for this route." ], "seasonNote": "The one European file best driven in winter. February to May is peak — wildflowers, migration and no heat. July and August routinely exceed forty degrees inland and the file should not be attempted then." } } ], "species": [ { "a": "E001", "n": "Killarney red deer", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland’s only herd with an unbroken native line — the rut roars across Killarney’s oakwoods through October.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E002", "n": "Skellig gannets", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Little Skellig carries one of the world’s largest gannet colonies. Boats circle it; nobody lands.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E003", "n": "Shannon dolphins", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A resident bottlenose group in the estuary — often visible from the Tarbert ferry crossing itself.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E004", "n": "Burren spring gentian", "r": "RARE", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "An impossible electric blue on bare limestone — an Alpine flower growing at sea level, and the Burren’s emblem.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E005", "n": "Kerry natterjack toads", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland’s only toad, and it lives in Kerry and nowhere else on the island. Dune pools after dark in spring.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E006", "n": "Choughs on the western cliffs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Red bill, red legs, a tumbling flight and a call like its own name. The Atlantic coast is a European stronghold.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E007", "n": "Puffins on the Skelligs", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ashore only for the breeding weeks. Landings on Skellig Michael are strictly limited and weather-dependent.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E008", "n": "Basking sharks", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "shark", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Plankton-feeding giants off the southern and western headlands — a dorsal fin and a tail, moving slowly.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E009", "n": "Humpback + fin whales off West Cork", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland’s great autumn spectacle — whales following sprat inshore off the Cork headlands. Autumn and winter, not summer.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E010", "n": "Irish hare", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A subspecies of its own, older on this island than the brown hare is on Britain. Field edges and bog margins at dawn.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E011", "n": "Kerry dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "The Iveragh peninsula holds a gold-tier International Dark Sky Reserve — one of very few in the northern hemisphere.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E012", "n": "Killarney oakwoods + strawberry tree", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Atlantic oakwood hung with moss, and the arbutus — a Mediterranean tree growing wild here and almost nowhere else north.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E013", "n": "Burren orchids", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Early purple, fly and dense-flowered orchids in the grikes, sharing ground with Arctic and Mediterranean plants at once.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E014", "n": "Common lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland’s only reptile. Sunny mornings on boardwalk edges, dune fences and warm limestone.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E015", "n": "Grey seals", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Hauled out on rocks and sandbars all round the coast, and curious about anyone in a kayak.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E016", "n": "Atlantic salmon leaping", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Autumn spates put fish over the weirs on the Blackwater and the Kerry rivers — wait at a falls and watch.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E017", "n": "Pine marten", "r": "RARE", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Recovering across the west after a long absence, and quietly bringing the red squirrel back with it. Dusk, woodland edge, mostly luck.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E018", "n": "Mont-Saint-Michel grande marée", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "crab", "m": [ 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The bay has the largest tidal range in Europe — around fourteen metres on the big equinoctial tides, and the sea returns across the sand fast enough to be worth respecting.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E019", "n": "Sept-Îles gannets", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Île Rouzic carries France’s largest gannet colony. The boat from Perros-Guirec circles it; nobody lands in the breeding season.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E020", "n": "Sept-Îles puffins", "r": "RARE", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "France’s only puffin colony, and a small and declining one. A handful of birds on a reserve island, seen from a boat at distance or not at all.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E021", "n": "Étretat cliff seabirds", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Fulmars and kittiwakes on the famous chalk arches — the same white cliff seam that surfaces in Sussex, working the updraughts.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E022", "n": "Iroise grey seals", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Brittany’s grey seal population lives in the Iroise marine park — the Molène archipelago and the rocks off the Finistère tip. Seen from the island boats, hauled out on the skerries.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E023", "n": "Iroise dolphins", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Bottlenose and common dolphins in the marine park off the Finistère tip — the crossing to Ouéssant or Sein is the best chance.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E024", "n": "Brière marsh harriers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Low, slow and V-winged over the reed of the Grande Brière — a marsh the size of a small county behind the Guérande salt pans.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E025", "n": "Loire beavers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Back on the river after near-extinction, and now widespread. Gnawed willow stumps give them away long before the animal does; dusk on a quiet bank is the only real chance.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E026", "n": "Brière white storks", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Nesting on platforms and chimneys across the marsh — a bird Britain lost centuries ago, standing in a field an hour from the ferry.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E027", "n": "European green lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Twice the size of anything at home and an implausible electric green. Sunny banks and dry stone in the Loire and the Breton south.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E028", "n": "Fire salamander", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Black and yellow, and out on damp woodland paths after rain rather than in sunshine. Huelgoat and the Norman beechwoods.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E029", "n": "Loire sandbank terns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Common and little terns nesting on the bare shingle islands of an unembanked river — the last big wild river in western Europe, and it shows.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E030", "n": "Loire otters", "r": "RARE", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Recovering along the river after a long absence, and still genuinely hard to see. A spraint on a rock or a print in the silt is the usual sighting; the animal itself is dawn, dusk and luck.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E031", "n": "Pêche à pied at low spring", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A Breton institution: the whole coast walks out at the big low tides. Size limits and closed seasons are real and enforced — read the panel at the slipway.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E032", "n": "Monts d’Arrée heather", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Brittany’s inland moor turns purple in late summer — bare, unexpected and much more Pennine than anyone expects of Finistère.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E033", "n": "Basking sharks off Brittany", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "shark", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The same Atlantic giants that pass Cornwall, working the plankton lines off the western headlands in early summer.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E034", "n": "Loire kingfishers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "kingfisher", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A blue bolt along every backwater and side channel. The Loire holds more of them than any river you have walked at home.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "a": "E035", "n": "The vendange", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The grape harvest along the Loire — Saumur and Chinon in September, and the one seasonal spectacle on this file you can also drink.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true }, { "n": "Fulmars on the sea cliffs", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Stiff-winged and unbending, riding the updraught along every Atlantic cliff on the file.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E036" }, { "n": "Guillemot and razorbill cities", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Shoulder-to-shoulder ledges on the Skelligs, Rathlin and the Cliffs of Moher — noise and smell before sight.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E037" }, { "n": "Kittiwakes calling their own name", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "The only gull that says what it is. Nesting on the sheerest ledges, gone to open ocean by winter.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E038" }, { "n": "Manx shearwaters at dusk", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Rafting offshore before dark, then coming ashore only at night. A sound before it is ever a sighting.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E039" }, { "n": "Storm petrels of the Skelligs", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Britain and Ireland hold most of the world’s population; the Skelligs are a stronghold. Smaller than a swallow, and lives on the open Atlantic.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E040" }, { "n": "Arctic terns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "The longest migration on earth, nesting on shingle within a few yards of the road.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E041" }, { "n": "Roseate terns on Rockabill", "r": "RARE", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Europe’s largest colony sits on one small island off Dublin — a genuine conservation success, and strictly no landing.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E042" }, { "n": "Greenland white-fronted geese", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Half the world population winters on the Wexford Slobs, twenty minutes from the Rosslare ramp.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E043" }, { "n": "Light-bellied brent geese", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Arriving from the Canadian Arctic to graze Irish estuaries all winter.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E044" }, { "n": "Whooper swans", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Icelandic birds on the callows and turloughs — louder and wilder than the resident mutes.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E045" }, { "n": "Little egrets", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Unknown in Ireland a generation ago and now on every estuary. A quiet, complete colonisation.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E046" }, { "n": "Oystercatchers", "r": "COMMON", "g": "wader", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Piping along every shore, and the easiest wader in Ireland to name from a moving van.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E047" }, { "n": "Black-tailed godwits", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Icelandic birds wintering on the mudflats; brick-red by the time they leave in spring.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E048" }, { "n": "Curlew calling inland", "r": "RARE", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Once the sound of every Irish bog, now down to a few hundred breeding pairs. Hearing one inland is a genuinely rare thing.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E049" }, { "n": "White-tailed eagles at Killarney", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Reintroduced from 2007 and breeding again over the lakes — barn doors on a thermal above Muckross.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E050" }, { "n": "Peregrines on the sea cliffs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Working the updraught at every headland on the file. The stoop is the giveaway.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E051" }, { "n": "Hen harrier over the forestry", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland’s upland harrier, squeezed between afforestation and open bog. The male is a grey ghost.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E052" }, { "n": "Barn owls at dusk", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Declining hard, but still hunting the field margins of the south-east at last light.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E053" }, { "n": "Long-eared owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland’s commonest owl and its least seen — a shape in a conifer, and a chick begging like a rusty gate.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E054" }, { "n": "Cuckoo in May", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Still widespread in the Irish west, and still the sound the whole island listens for.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E055" }, { "n": "Stonechats on the gorse", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A pebble-tapping call from the top of every gorse bush on every coastal path.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E056" }, { "n": "Dippers on the mountain rivers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Bobbing midstream on the Kerry and Wicklow rivers, walking underwater against the current.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E057" }, { "n": "Skylarks over the machair", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Invisible and endless above the dune grassland.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E058" }, { "n": "Red grouse on the bog", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A declining bird of the raised and blanket bogs — heard barking before it bursts out underfoot.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E059" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Holding on in the conifer forests, and quietly recovering wherever the pine marten came back first.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E060" }, { "n": "Otters on the loughs", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland has one of the healthiest otter populations in Europe. Dawn, dusk, and a falling tide.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E061" }, { "n": "Badgers on the lane", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Dusk on a quiet boreen, or a well-worn path under a hedge that nothing else would make.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E062" }, { "n": "Red fox", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Verges at dusk, bolder in winter, and entirely at home in Dublin as well as Kerry.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E063" }, { "n": "Hedgehogs", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Campsite edges after dark, from April until they turn in for the winter.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E064" }, { "n": "Sika deer in Wicklow", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Introduced to Powerscourt in 1859 and now throughout the Wicklow hills — whistling rut in October.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E065" }, { "n": "Fallow deer in the Phoenix Park", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A herd kept in the capital’s park since the seventeenth century, and completely unbothered by anyone.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E066" }, { "n": "Lesser horseshoe bats", "r": "RARE", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland holds an internationally important population in the west — old stone buildings and cave mouths at dusk.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E067" }, { "n": "Humpback and fin whales", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "West Cork’s great autumn spectacle: whales following sprat inshore. Autumn and winter, not summer.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E068" }, { "n": "Common dolphins offshore", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Big fast pods on any calm-day boat trip out of the south-west harbours.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E069" }, { "n": "Harbour porpoise", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Small dark fins in flat water close inshore — easy to miss and everywhere once you have your eye in.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E070" }, { "n": "Harbour seals", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Smaller, rounder and more nervous than the greys, hauled out on estuary sandbars.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E071" }, { "n": "Sea trout on the Kerry rivers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Night-running fish on summer spates — permits are local, cheap and worth asking about in the shop.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E072" }, { "n": "Mackerel from the pier", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Summer shoals within reach of a hand line from any harbour wall. Supper in twenty minutes.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E073" }, { "n": "Pike in the midland lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland is a European destination for them. Winter water, strong tackle, barbless hooks, big net.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E074" }, { "n": "Marsh fritillary", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A declining butterfly of damp unimproved grassland, and Ireland holds good populations of it.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E075" }, { "n": "Painted lady arrival", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Some years a handful, some years a mass arrival from North Africa across two thousand miles.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E076" }, { "n": "Common blue on the dunes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Dune slacks and machair all summer — the male is startling in low sun.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E077" }, { "n": "Four-spotted chaser", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Patrolling bog pools and turloughs, and it will land on the same perch repeatedly.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E078" }, { "n": "Six-spot burnet moth", "r": "COMMON", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A day-flying moth, red on black, clustered on dune knapweed in high summer.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E079" }, { "n": "Connemara ponies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Ireland’s own breed, out on the western commonage where it was bred to work.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E080" }, { "n": "Feral goats of the Burren", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Long-horned and long-established, keeping the limestone scrub down.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E081" }, { "n": "Bloody cranesbill on limestone", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Magenta against grey pavement — the Burren’s other signature flower, and far commoner than the gentian.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E082" }, { "n": "Mountain avens at sea level", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "An Arctic-alpine growing on bare Burren rock a few metres above the tide, which should not be possible.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E083" }, { "n": "Fuchsia hedges", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Introduced, escaped and now the defining hedgerow of the south-west. Red and purple down every boreen.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E084" }, { "n": "Gorse in full bloom", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Coconut-scented and blazing from February. The saying is that when gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E085" }, { "n": "Bluebells at Portglenone", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Irish woodland floors in full carpet through late April.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E086" }, { "n": "Autumn in the Killarney oakwoods", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Atlantic oakwood hung with moss and lichen, turning slowly and late.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E087" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "A famous flush in the western oakwoods — look, photograph, and leave it standing.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E088" }, { "n": "Crinoids in Burren limestone", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "The pavement is a Carboniferous sea floor: sea-lily stems and corals underfoot on every clint.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E089" }, { "n": "Rockpool life at low spring", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Anemones, blennies and shore crabs on every rocky shore — the best hour of any beach day.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E090" }, { "n": "Starling murmurations", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "murmur", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "Winter roosts over reedbeds and town centres — Ireland gets them as well as Somerset.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": false, "a": "E091" }, { "n": "Perseids over Kerry", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 8 ], "c": [ "IE" ], "d": "August’s reliable shower, seen from a gold-tier dark sky reserve.", "f": "eu-ireland.html", "rt": true, "a": "E092" }, { "n": "Guillemots and razorbills", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Auk ledges on the Sept-Îles reserve and the Breton stacks — France’s northern seabird cities.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E093" }, { "n": "Manx shearwaters off Brittany", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Rafting off the Finistère headlands at dusk before the night landings on the islands.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E094" }, { "n": "Sandwich terns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Harsh-voiced and shaggy-crested, fishing the shallow bays and estuaries all along the coast.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E095" }, { "n": "European shags", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "On every Breton rock, wings out to dry, greener and more punkish than a cormorant.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E096" }, { "n": "Spoonbills on the Loire estuary", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Breeding in the estuary reedbeds and feeding with that unmistakable side-to-side sweep.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E097" }, { "n": "Purple herons in the Brière", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Slimmer, darker and far shyer than a grey heron, slipping into the reed rather than flying off.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E098" }, { "n": "Bitterns booming", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The Brière’s reedbed foghorn, carrying a mile across the marsh before dawn.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E099" }, { "n": "Grey herons", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Statue-still on every ditch, dyke and river margin in the country.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E100" }, { "n": "Black-winged stilts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Absurd pink legs on the salt pans at Guérande — a bird Britain almost never gets.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E101" }, { "n": "Avocets on the salt pans", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Sweeping the brine with that upturned bill, on the worked pans behind the coast.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E102" }, { "n": "Curlews on the estuary", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Wintering flocks on the Mont-Saint-Michel bay and the Loire mudflats.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E103" }, { "n": "Ospreys on passage", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Following the Loire north in spring and south in autumn — a fishing bird over a big wild river.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E104" }, { "n": "Common buzzards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "On every second roadside pole between Normandy and Finistère.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E105" }, { "n": "Red kites", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Forked tails over the farmland of the Loire and the Norman interior.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E106" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harrier", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A summer harrier of open cereal country — lighter and more buoyant than the marsh harrier of the Brière.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E107" }, { "n": "Little owls on the walls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Far commoner in France than at home, sitting out in daylight on barn roofs and orchard posts.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E108" }, { "n": "Tawny owls in the beechwoods", "r": "COMMON", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Heard far more than seen, from the Norman woods to the Huelgoat boulders.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E109" }, { "n": "Barn owls over the marsh", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Ghost-pale along the Brière dykes and the Loire meadows at last light.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E110" }, { "n": "Nightingales in every thicket", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "What is a rarity in Kent is background noise in France. Full song, day and night, through May.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E111" }, { "n": "Golden orioles", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A fluting whistle from the poplar canopy along the Loire, and a bird you will hear ten times for every one you see.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E112" }, { "n": "Hoopoes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Improbable crest, butterfly flight and an oop-oop-oop call — open country and orchards in the Loire.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E113" }, { "n": "Cirl buntings", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Widespread in French farmland while Britain holds a few hundred pairs in Devon.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E114" }, { "n": "Black redstarts", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "On the roof of every village church and quarry wall, flicking that rusty tail.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E115" }, { "n": "Cetti’s warbler", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "An explosive shout from deep cover on every damp margin. Almost never shows itself.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E116" }, { "n": "Roe deer at the field edge", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "First and last light along every wood margin from Normandy to the Loire.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E117" }, { "n": "Red deer in the Loire forests", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The great state forests hold them; the October rut is audible a long way through the oaks.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E118" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Abundant and almost entirely nocturnal. Rootings across a forest ride are the usual evidence.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E119" }, { "n": "Coypu on the waterways", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "South American, escaped from fur farms, and now on every French canal and backwater. Orange teeth, and no attempt at concealment.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E120" }, { "n": "European hare", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Bigger than a rabbit and built like a greyhound, out in the open cereal country at dawn.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E121" }, { "n": "Pine martens in the forests", "r": "RARE", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Present through the Norman and Breton woods and very rarely seen. Dusk, woodland edge, and luck.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E122" }, { "n": "Greater horseshoe bats", "r": "RARE", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The Loire’s troglodyte caves and old quarries hold internationally important roosts — watched from outside, never entered.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E123" }, { "n": "Common dolphins off the coast", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Fast, marked and in big pods on any calm crossing to the Breton islands.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E124" }, { "n": "Harbour porpoise", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Small dark fins in the tide races off the Finistère headlands.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E125" }, { "n": "Bay seals at Mont-Saint-Michel", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A small resident group uses the sandbanks of the bay — watched from the shore, never approached across that sand.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E126" }, { "n": "Wall lizards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "On every sunlit wall, ruin and rock pile in the country. The first reptile most people meet in France.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E127" }, { "n": "Western whip snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Big, fast, harmless and entirely unwilling to be looked at. A rustle and a green-black flash on a bank.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E128" }, { "n": "Grass snakes in the marsh", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Swimming the Brière dykes and the Loire backwaters with the head held clear.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E129" }, { "n": "European pond terrapin", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Basking on a log in the Brière, and genuinely native rather than an abandoned pet.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E130" }, { "n": "Midwife toad calling", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A single pure bell note repeated after dark. The male carries the eggs wrapped round his back legs.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E131" }, { "n": "Marbled newt", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Green and black marbling, in ponds and ditches across western France, and larger than anything at home.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E132" }, { "n": "Allis shad running the Loire", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A sea fish that climbs the river in thousands to spawn — audible at night at the weirs.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E133" }, { "n": "Sea bass off the headlands", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Tide races and rock marks along the whole Breton coast — the prize fish, and size limits apply.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E134" }, { "n": "Pike and zander in the Loire", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A big slow river full of predators. Winter is the season; a French permit is required and easy to buy.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E135" }, { "n": "Grey mullet in the harbours", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Cruising the marina surface everywhere, and far harder to catch than they look.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E136" }, { "n": "Swallowtail butterflies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Britain’s rarest big butterfly is an ordinary French garden insect. Sailing over verges all summer.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E137" }, { "n": "Scarce swallowtail", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Pale, striped and even larger, drifting round orchards and hedgerows in the Loire.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E138" }, { "n": "Marbled whites on the verges", "r": "COMMON", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Chequered black and white in their thousands along uncut roadside grassland.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E139" }, { "n": "Map butterfly", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Two broods that look like different species entirely — orange in spring, black and white in summer.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E140" }, { "n": "Beautiful demoiselle", "r": "COMMON", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Metallic blue-green with dark wings, fluttering like a butterfly over every clean Breton stream.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E141" }, { "n": "Emperor dragonfly", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Patrolling the Brière dykes and every Loire backwater like a drone on station.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E142" }, { "n": "Stag beetles", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Heavy, antlered and clattering out of the Loire oakwoods on warm June evenings.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E143" }, { "n": "Glow-worms on the banks", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Green lamps in the grass of a warm still night. No torch — it defeats the entire point.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E144" }, { "n": "Praying mantis", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Further north than most people expect, in dry grassland along the Loire by late summer.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E145" }, { "n": "Pré-salé lambs on the salt marsh", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Grazing the tidal marsh of the Mont-Saint-Michel bay, and the reason the local lamb is protected by name.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E146" }, { "n": "Normandy dairy cattle", "r": "COMMON", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Brown-and-white, spectacle-eyed and standing in exactly the fields that make the cheese and the cream.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E147" }, { "n": "Breton draught horses", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Heavy, ancient and still worked in places — including hauling the oyster carts at low tide.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E148" }, { "n": "Sea holly on the dunes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Steel-blue and architectural on the Atlantic dune fronts, and protected — photograph it, leave it.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E149" }, { "n": "Broom in full flower", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Brittany turns yellow in May. Gorse first, then broom, along every embankment and heath.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E150" }, { "n": "Wild orchids on the tuffeau", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Lady, pyramidal and bee orchids on the thin chalk slopes above the Loire.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E151" }, { "n": "Water lilies in the Brière", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Whole canals of them, seen from a flat-bottomed punt at water level.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E152" }, { "n": "Sea aster on the salt marsh", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Pale purple across the tidal marsh in late summer, with samphire underfoot.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E153" }, { "n": "Loire vineyards turning", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The slopes above Saumur and Chinon in yellow and rust after the harvest is in.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E154" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in the beechwoods", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The Norman woods in a serious flush — and France takes its pharmacie mushroom identification seriously.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E155" }, { "n": "Ammonites at Villers-sur-Mer", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The Vaches Noires cliffs east of Caen are a famous Jurassic fossil coast — collect from the foreshore, never the cliff.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E156" }, { "n": "Oyster beds at Cancale", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Rows of trestles uncovering at low water, worked by tractor, with a shucking stall at the top of the beach.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E157" }, { "n": "Starling murmurations", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "murmur", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Winter roosts over the Loire poplars and the marsh reedbeds.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": false, "a": "E158" }, { "n": "Norman apple harvest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Orchards shaken for cider and calvados, and roadside stalls selling both.", "f": "eu-france.html", "rt": true, "a": "E159" }, { "n": "Oostvaardersplassen konik herds", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Semi-wild horses on a polder reclaimed from the sea and then handed back to nature — Europe’s most argued-over rewilding, and unlike anywhere else.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E160" }, { "n": "Wadden Sea seals", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Harbour and grey seals hauled out on sandbanks in the largest unbroken intertidal system on earth — a World Heritage site you can watch from a dyke.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E161" }, { "n": "Rhine Gorge peregrines", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Nesting on the castle crags and the slate cliffs above the river, hunting the gorge like a corridor.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E162" }, { "n": "Hautes Fagnes cotton grass", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "White flags across Belgium’s high peat bog — a boardwalked Arctic remnant sitting at six hundred metres.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E163" }, { "n": "Hallerbos bluebells", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Ten days a year, a beech wood south of Brussels turns entirely blue. Go on a weekday or not at all.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E164" }, { "n": "Biesbosch beavers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Reintroduced in 1988 and thriving in a freshwater tidal delta — the best beaver watching in the Low Countries, from a canoe at dusk.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E165" }, { "n": "Spoonbills on the delta", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The Netherlands holds a large share of the European population — that side-to-side sweep through shallow brackish water.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E166" }, { "n": "Black-tailed godwits over the polder", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The national bird in all but name, and its meadows are the reason Dutch grassland management is a political subject.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E167" }, { "n": "Avocets on the brackish shallows", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Upturned bill sweeping the brine on every delta and Wadden shore.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E168" }, { "n": "Ruff in spring plumage", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Absurd ruffs and ear tufts, no two males alike, on passage through the wet meadows.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E169" }, { "n": "Lapwing tumbling display", "r": "COMMON", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Wheeling and creaking over the polder in spring — far commoner here than in the British lowlands now.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E170" }, { "n": "Barnacle geese in their thousands", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Wintering flocks that turn whole polders black and white, and audible a mile off.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E171" }, { "n": "Bewick’s swans", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Siberian swans on the flooded washlands, smaller and yellower-billed than the whoopers beside them.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E172" }, { "n": "White storks on the nest", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Reintroduced from near-extinction and now on platforms across the country — clattering bills audible from the road.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E173" }, { "n": "Great white egret", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Unknown here a generation ago, now standing in every reed-fringed ditch.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E174" }, { "n": "Bluethroat in the reeds", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A robin-shaped bird with a startling blue and chestnut throat, singing from a reed stem in the marsh.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E175" }, { "n": "Bearded reedlings", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Pinging like tiny bells and bouncing across the reed tops on still mornings.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E176" }, { "n": "Black terns over the polder", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Buoyant, sooty and dipping to the water rather than diving — a marsh tern, not a sea one.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E177" }, { "n": "Marsh harriers over the reed", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Low, slow, V-winged and on every Dutch reedbed. The commonest big raptor of the file.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E178" }, { "n": "White-tailed eagles at Oostvaardersplassen", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Breeding in the Netherlands since 2006, and improbable over a polder that did not exist a century ago.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E179" }, { "n": "Common cranes on passage", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Thousands crossing the Rhineland twice a year, bugling at altitude — one of Europe’s great migration sounds.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E180" }, { "n": "Hoge Veluwe red deer", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A fenced but genuinely wild herd on heath and drift sand, with a roaring rut through September.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E181" }, { "n": "Wild boar of the Veluwe", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Common, nocturnal and destructive to a lawn. Rootings across the sand tracks are the usual evidence.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E182" }, { "n": "Mouflon on the drift sand", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Introduced wild sheep on the Veluwe’s open sand — curved horns, and completely at home.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E183" }, { "n": "Roe deer at the wood edge", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "First and last light along every Dutch forestry margin.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E184" }, { "n": "Sand lizards in the dunes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The coastal dune belt is a stronghold — males go emerald green in the breeding season.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E185" }, { "n": "Natterjack toads in the dune slacks", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Running rather than hopping, and calling loud enough to carry across a dune valley after dark.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E186" }, { "n": "Harbour porpoise in the Delta", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Small dark fins in the Oosterschelde and off the Wadden islands — recovered strongly in the North Sea.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E187" }, { "n": "Oosterschelde mussel and oyster beds", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A tidal basin farmed for centuries and now behind the world’s largest storm surge barrier.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E188" }, { "n": "Sea buckthorn on the dunes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Orange berries and silver leaves holding the dune front together the whole coast long.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E189" }, { "n": "Tulip fields in bloom", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Stripes of colour across the bulb fields for a few weeks only — agricultural, spectacular, and gone by June.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E190" }, { "n": "Otters in the Weerribben", "r": "RARE", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Extinct in the Netherlands by 1988 and reintroduced in 2002; the northern peat marshes now hold a growing population. Spraints on a jetty are the usual sighting.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E191" }, { "n": "Rockpooling on the Delta works", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Anemones, crabs and starfish on the artificial reef of the storm barrier — an accidental habitat.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E192" }, { "n": "Wadden waders at high tide", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Knot and dunlin pushed off the flats in clouds — the Dutch equivalent of Snettisham, at twice the scale.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E193" }, { "n": "Ardennes wild boar", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "The forest’s most numerous large mammal and its least visible. Dusk on a forest track, or nothing.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E194" }, { "n": "Ardennes red deer", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A proper forest herd, and the autumn rut in the Ardennes is a genuine reason to travel in October.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E195" }, { "n": "European wildcat", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Genuinely wild cats survive in the Ardennes and the Eifel. Effectively a camera-trap species — what you see by the road is somebody’s tabby.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E196" }, { "n": "Pine martens in the beechwoods", "r": "RARE", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Present throughout the Ardennes forests and very seldom seen. Dusk, woodland edge, luck.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E197" }, { "n": "Hazel dormouse", "r": "RARE", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Golden, tiny and asleep for half the year. Hazel nuts opened with a neat round hole are the honest sighting.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E198" }, { "n": "Black woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Crow-sized, entirely black with a red cap, and its call carries half a mile through the beech.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E199" }, { "n": "Middle spotted woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "An oak-forest specialist, commoner here than anywhere in Britain — which is to say, present at all.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E200" }, { "n": "Red kites over the Famenne", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Forked tails over the farmland between the Meuse and the Ardennes.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E201" }, { "n": "Black grouse on the fens", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A tiny relict population on the Hautes Fagnes, and the reason large parts of the bog are closed in spring.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E202" }, { "n": "Fire salamander after rain", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Black and yellow on wet Ardennes forest paths at dusk, and never in sunshine.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E203" }, { "n": "Alpine newts in the forest pools", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Orange-bellied and slate-blue, in every woodland puddle and wheel rut in spring.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E204" }, { "n": "Wild daffodils of the Eifel valleys", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 3, 4 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Whole valley floors yellow for a fortnight in the Belgian–German borderland — a genuine spring pilgrimage.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E205" }, { "n": "Purple emperor in the Ardennes", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "The oak-canopy king, down at ride level only on hot mornings, and only if something unspeakable is on the track.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E206" }, { "n": "Beavers on the Ourthe", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Back on the Walloon rivers after four centuries away, and reshaping side channels as they go.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E207" }, { "n": "Zwin storks and spoonbills", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A salt marsh on the Dutch border that funnels migration — and holds a stork colony you can walk under.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E208" }, { "n": "Kalmthout heath in flower", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 8, 9 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Purple heath and drift sand on the Antwerp border, and one of the largest heathlands in the Low Countries.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E209" }, { "n": "Semois valley mists", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "The river looping through wooded gorges under morning fog — the Ardennes at its most photographed.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E210" }, { "n": "North Sea harbour porpoise", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Winter is the season off the Belgian coast, watched from the beach at Nieuwpoort and De Panne.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E211" }, { "n": "Flanders poppies", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Field margins around Ypres in June. Not a coincidence of history — disturbed ground is what they need.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E212" }, { "n": "Wall lizards on the vineyard terraces", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "On every dry-stone terrace wall in the gorge, and the reason the Rhine slopes hold species found nowhere else this far north.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E213" }, { "n": "Aesculapian snake", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A relict population survives in the warm Rhine and Lahn valleys — long, harmless, a climber, and genuinely rare to meet.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E214" }, { "n": "Yellow-bellied toad", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Declining hard across Europe. In a wheel rut or a quarry puddle, and it arches to show a startling belly when alarmed.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E215" }, { "n": "Black kites over the river", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Quartering the Rhine for anything dead or dying. Commoner along a big European river than any British raptor is at home.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E216" }, { "n": "Rhine cormorants", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Lines of them on every groyne and barge mooring, wings out to dry.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E217" }, { "n": "Atlantic salmon returning to the Rhine", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Extinct in the river by 1958 and now returning through fish passes after decades of work — one of Europe’s great restoration stories.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E218" }, { "n": "Rhine barbel and chub", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Powerful fish in fast gravel water. A day permit is available almost everywhere and the paperwork is genuinely simple.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E219" }, { "n": "Vineyard grape harvest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The Riesling terraces worked by monorail and by hand on slopes too steep for anything else.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E220" }, { "n": "Rhine slopes in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Vine terraces turning gold under castles — the gorge’s best fortnight, and its busiest.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E221" }, { "n": "Eifel beech forests", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 4, 5, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Some of the oldest managed beech in Europe, and part of it now a national park left deliberately alone.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E222" }, { "n": "Black storks of the Eifel", "r": "RARE", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The shy forest cousin of the white stork — nesting deep in old woodland and almost never seen near people.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E223" }, { "n": "Wild cats of the Eifel", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Germany’s stronghold, and the subject of a long reintroduction and corridor programme. Still effectively unseeable.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E224" }, { "n": "Eifel volcanic maars", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Circular crater lakes from eruptions ten thousand years ago — among the youngest volcanic features in central Europe.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E225" }, { "n": "Middle Rhine falcons on the castles", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Nesting on Marksburg, Rheinfels and half the crags between — the gorge is a raptor corridor.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E226" }, { "n": "Dippers on the Eifel streams", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Bobbing midstream on fast clean water in the volcanic uplands.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E227" }, { "n": "Red squirrels in the Rhine woods", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "No greys anywhere on the continent, so the red is simply the squirrel — in every park and wood.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E228" }, { "n": "Nightingales along the river", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Full song from the scrub of the Rhine islands and backwaters through May.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E229" }, { "n": "Golden orioles in the poplars", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A fluting whistle from the canopy of every riverside poplar stand.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E230" }, { "n": "Swallowtails on the terraces", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Sailing along the warm vineyard walls all summer, and often the first big butterfly of the trip.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E231" }, { "n": "Scarce swallowtail", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Pale, tiger-striped and even larger, hanging around orchard blossom on the warm slopes.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E232" }, { "n": "Map butterfly", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Two annual broods that look like different insects entirely — orange in spring, black-and-white in summer.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E233" }, { "n": "Green hawker dragonfly", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Patrolling the Rhine backwaters and the maar lakes, and it will hover close enough to inspect you.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E234" }, { "n": "Banded demoiselle", "r": "COMMON", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Blue-black wings flickering over every slow side-channel.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E235" }, { "n": "Greater horseshoe bats in the slate mines", "r": "RARE", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Old workings in the gorge hold hibernation and nursery roosts — watched from outside, never entered.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E236" }, { "n": "Glow-worms on the vineyard walls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Green lamps in the terrace grass on a warm still night above the river.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E237" }, { "n": "Wine-slope orchids", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Lady, bee and lizard orchids on the dry limestone and slate between the vines.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E238" }, { "n": "Sand martins in the river banks", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Colonies drilled into the soft banks and cuttings of the Rhine and the Meuse — hundreds of birds over the water on a summer evening.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E239" }, { "n": "Starling murmurations over the reed", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "murmur", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Winter roosts over the Dutch reedbeds, in numbers that dim the light.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E240" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in the Ardennes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A serious flush in the beech and oak, and a country where foraging is taken seriously and regulated.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E241" }, { "n": "Perseid meteors over the fens", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 8 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "The Hautes Fagnes plateau is the darkest sky in Belgium, which is a low bar cleared handsomely.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E242" }, { "n": "Common blue butterflies", "r": "COMMON", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Dune slacks and grassy dykes all summer.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E243" }, { "n": "Brown hares on the polder", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Out in the open on ploughed and stubble fields, and boxing in the early spring.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E244" }, { "n": "Red foxes on the dunes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Established through the coastal dunes and increasingly bold around the campsites.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E245" }, { "n": "Badgers of the Veluwe", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Recovered strongly from a low point in the seventies — setts under the sandy woodland banks.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E246" }, { "n": "Konik and Heck cattle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Back-bred grazers standing in for the aurochs and tarpan on the reclaimed polder — and a real argument about what wildness means.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E247" }, { "n": "Little owls on the pollards", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Sitting out in daylight on old pollarded willows across the farmland.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E248" }, { "n": "Tawny owls in the estate woods", "r": "COMMON", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Heard far more than seen, from the Ardennes to the Brussels park woodland.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E249" }, { "n": "Kingfishers on the canals", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "kingfisher", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A blue bolt along every canal, ditch and backwater in the delta.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E250" }, { "n": "Grey herons in the towns", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Standing on Amsterdam canal boats waiting for a fishmonger to look away. Entirely urban, entirely wild.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E251" }, { "n": "Egyptian geese", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Introduced, established and everywhere on Dutch water. Loud, and no longer going anywhere.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E252" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes displaying", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The weed dance on every polder lake in early spring.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E253" }, { "n": "Sea aster on the salt marsh", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Purple across the Wadden and Zeeland marsh in late summer, with samphire underfoot.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E254" }, { "n": "Samphire on the tidal flats", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Picked commercially in Zeeland, and on every good restaurant plate in the province.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": true, "a": "E255" }, { "n": "Dovrefjell musk ox", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Ice-age survivors reintroduced in the 1940s and now the only free herd in Europe. Walked to, watched from two hundred metres, and never approached — they charge.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E256" }, { "n": "Hardangervidda wild reindeer", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Europe’s last genuinely wild mountain reindeer, on the largest plateau on the continent. Everything in Fennoscandia north of here is herded; these are not.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E257" }, { "n": "Sort Sol — the black sun", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "murmur", "m": [ 3, 4, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "A million starlings over the Tønder marshes at dusk in spring and autumn, thick enough to darken the sky. The Danish name is not an exaggeration.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E258" }, { "n": "Cranes at Hornborgasjön", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Up to twenty thousand cranes dancing on one Swedish lake for a few weeks each spring — the best-attended wildlife event in Scandinavia.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E259" }, { "n": "White-tailed eagles", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Norway holds the densest population on earth. Barn doors over every fjord, and genuinely hard to miss on the coastal legs.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E260" }, { "n": "The midnight sun and the aurora", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Two opposite spectacles from the same latitude: light that never leaves in high summer, and light that arrives in the dark months.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E261" }, { "n": "Moose at the forest edge", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Enormous, unhurried and mostly crepuscular. Warning triangles on the road are not decorative — a collision at speed is fatal to everyone.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E262" }, { "n": "Arctic fox on Dovrefjell", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Down to a handful of animals before a captive-breeding programme began. Blue-grey in summer, white in winter, and still genuinely scarce.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E263" }, { "n": "Wolverine", "r": "RARE", "g": "badger", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "The most improbable animal in Europe: bear-shaped, badger-sized, and capable of crossing a mountain range. Effectively a camera-trap species.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E264" }, { "n": "Lynx", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Present through the Norwegian and Swedish forests and almost never seen. A track in fresh snow is the honest sighting.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E265" }, { "n": "Norwegian beavers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Norway is the reason Europe still has beavers — a few hundred survived here and restocked the continent. Dusk on a slow river.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E266" }, { "n": "Otters on the skerries", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Coastal otters working the tideline of the fjord mouths, as in Shetland and the Hebrides.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E267" }, { "n": "Mountain hares in ermine", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "White against dark rock when the snow is late, which is now most winters.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E268" }, { "n": "Lemmings in a peak year", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Some years none at all; some years the fell is alive with them and every predator has a good season. The cycle is roughly four years and entirely real.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E269" }, { "n": "Red squirrels in the pine", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "No greys anywhere in Scandinavia, so the red is simply the squirrel — and darker-coated than the British ones.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E270" }, { "n": "Reindeer herds of the Sami", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Semi-domesticated and herded across the north for a thousand years. On the road, in the road, and with absolute right of way.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E271" }, { "n": "Runde puffins", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "A seabird island off the Møre coast holding hundreds of thousands of birds — the southernmost great colony in Norway.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E272" }, { "n": "Runde gannets", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Norway’s only mainland-accessible gannetry, on the same island as the puffins.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E273" }, { "n": "Kittiwakes on the town buildings", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Nesting on warehouse ledges in Ålesund and Tromsø because the cliffs are no longer safe from eagles. Loud, and legally protected.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E274" }, { "n": "Golden eagles over the plateau", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Quartering the fell above the tree line — commoner here than anywhere in Britain outside the Highlands.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E275" }, { "n": "Gyrfalcon", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "The largest falcon on earth, on the high fells and the northern coasts. A bird most Norwegian birders have not seen.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E276" }, { "n": "Ptarmigan on the fell", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Willow and rock ptarmigan both, white in winter and mottled in summer, and almost invisible until they burst out underfoot.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E277" }, { "n": "Dippers on the fjord rivers", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Norway’s national bird, walking underwater against glacier-fed current in the middle of winter.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E278" }, { "n": "Bluethroat in the birch", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "The mountain birch zone’s own robin, with a throat like a piece of enamel. Sings from the top of a stunted tree.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E279" }, { "n": "Snow buntings on the tops", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Arctic finches breeding on high boulder fields, and the last small bird before bare rock.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E280" }, { "n": "Ring ouzels above the treeline", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "The mountain blackbird, with a white bib, on every scree slope in the fell country.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E281" }, { "n": "Eiders in the fjords", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Cooing offshore all year, and historically farmed for down on the northern islands.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E282" }, { "n": "Great and Arctic skuas", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Piratical, fearless and prepared to dive-bomb anyone who approaches a nest. Give them the width of the headland.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E283" }, { "n": "Black guillemots", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Sooty with white wing patches and startling red feet, in every harbour and skerry channel.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E284" }, { "n": "Cormorants and shags on the skerries", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Lines of them on every rock, wings out, on the whole coastal run.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E285" }, { "n": "Orca in the fjords", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Following the herring into the northern fjords through the dark months — one of the great wildlife spectacles of Europe, and firmly a winter one.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E286" }, { "n": "Minke and humpback whales", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Feeding along the coast through the light months, and taken by boat trips from a dozen ports.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E287" }, { "n": "Harbour porpoise in the sounds", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Small dark fins in the narrows, and often visible from a coastal ferry deck.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E288" }, { "n": "Grey and harbour seals", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Hauled out on the outer skerries the whole coast long.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E289" }, { "n": "Atlantic salmon in the rivers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Norwegian salmon rivers are famous, expensive and strictly licensed. A disinfected net and rod is a legal requirement, not a courtesy.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E290" }, { "n": "Sea trout on the fjord shore", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Fished from the rocks all along the coast, and one of the cheapest permits in the country.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E291" }, { "n": "Cod and coalfish from the quay", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Deep water within a rod’s length of a harbour wall. Sea fishing needs no licence for a visitor — the rules are about quantity, not permission.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E292" }, { "n": "Arctic char in the mountain lakes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "High cold water, and the only fish in many of the tarns above the tree line.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E293" }, { "n": "Jostedalsbreen glacier tongues", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Mainland Europe’s largest ice cap, with arms reaching down into green valleys. Approach with a guide or not at all — the fronts calve.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E294" }, { "n": "Snow on the high passes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Sognefjellet and Trollstigen are closed by snow for roughly half the year, and the opening dates move each spring.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E295" }, { "n": "Cloudberries on the bog", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "apple", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Amber, tart and the most prized berry in Scandinavia. On open bog, briefly, and locals will not tell you where.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E296" }, { "n": "Bilberries and lingonberries", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Underfoot across the whole forest floor, and free to pick under the right to roam.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E297" }, { "n": "Purple saxifrage on bare rock", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "One of the first things to flower after the snow goes, on ground with almost no soil at all.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E298" }, { "n": "Glacier buttercup", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Growing higher than any other flowering plant in Norway, at the edge of permanent snow.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E299" }, { "n": "Mountain avens on the fell", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "White eight-petalled flowers across the limestone fell, tracking the sun through the day.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E300" }, { "n": "Reindeer lichen underfoot", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Pale grey-green and crunching in dry weather; it is the winter food of every reindeer on the plateau, and it takes decades to regrow.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E301" }, { "n": "Mountain birch turning", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "The birch zone goes gold for a fortnight before the first snow, and the whole country goes walking in it.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E302" }, { "n": "Brown bears in the forest", "r": "RARE", "g": "badger", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Sweden holds around three thousand and they want nothing to do with you. Tracks, scats and turned stones are the realistic sighting.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E303" }, { "n": "Wolves in the Bergslagen", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A small, controversial and closely monitored population. Heard on a still night far more often than seen — and even that is rare.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E304" }, { "n": "Swedish moose", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Around three hundred thousand of them. Dawn and dusk on forestry roads, and moose fences along the main routes for good reason.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E305" }, { "n": "Capercaillie at the lek", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A turkey-sized grouse displaying at dawn in old pine forest, and occasionally an aggressive male that has decided it owns the track.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E306" }, { "n": "Black grouse lekking", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Bubbling and sneezing on a frozen bog at first light — one of the great sounds of the northern spring.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E307" }, { "n": "Hazel grouse", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The forest’s most retiring bird. A thin whistle from dense spruce, and a bird most Swedes have never laid eyes on.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E308" }, { "n": "Great grey owl", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Enormous, flat-faced and hunting voles in daylight over clear-fell. A bird people cross Europe for.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E309" }, { "n": "Ural owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Nesting in boxes and broken stumps in old forest, and prepared to defend the nest with real violence.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E310" }, { "n": "Pygmy owl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Smaller than a starling and hunting other birds. The whistled song carries a long way through winter forest.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E311" }, { "n": "Three-toed woodpecker", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A specialist of dead standing spruce, and a good indicator that a forest has been left alone.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E312" }, { "n": "Black woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Crow-sized and entirely black bar a red cap, with a call that carries half a mile through the pines.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E313" }, { "n": "Ospreys on the lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Sweden holds one of Europe’s largest populations. Fishing every big lake on the route.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E314" }, { "n": "Whooper swans on the lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The national bird, breeding on forest lakes and audible long before it is visible.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E315" }, { "n": "Common cranes over the forest", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Bugling at altitude on passage across the whole country, spring and autumn.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E316" }, { "n": "Baltic grey seals", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Hauled out on the Bohuslän skerries, and recovered strongly from a twentieth-century collapse.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E317" }, { "n": "Harbour porpoise off Kullaberg", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The Kattegat holds a genuine population, and the Kullaberg headland is the best land-based watch point in Sweden.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E318" }, { "n": "Swedish beavers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Reintroduced from Norwegian stock in the 1920s and now everywhere. Felled aspen along a lake shore gives them away.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E319" }, { "n": "Pine martens", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Common in the forest and rarely seen. Campsite bin raiders after dark in the right places.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E320" }, { "n": "Arctic char and brown trout", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Cold clear lakes, cheap or free fishing under the right to roam on the five big waters, and permits elsewhere.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E321" }, { "n": "Pike in the reed edges", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Enormous, abundant and the fish most Swedish anglers actually target. Barbless hooks and a big net.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E322" }, { "n": "Perch on the rocks", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Striped, greedy and the classic first fish for a child anywhere on the Baltic coast.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E323" }, { "n": "Chanterelles in August", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A national obsession, picked freely under allemansrätten, and locations guarded like state secrets.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E324" }, { "n": "Lingonberries on the forest floor", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Free to pick, everywhere, and the reason every Swedish plate has a spoonful of something red on it.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E325" }, { "n": "Midsummer meadow flowers", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The hay meadows of Dalarna at the solstice, and the flowers that go into the midsummer wreaths.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E326" }, { "n": "Bohuslän granite skerries", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Ice-scoured pink and grey rock running out into the Kattegat in thousands of islands — a whole coast of it.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E327" }, { "n": "Aurora over the lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Central Sweden gets it on active nights; go north and it becomes routine.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E328" }, { "n": "Common blue damselflies", "r": "COMMON", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "In clouds over every lake margin through the short intense summer.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E329" }, { "n": "Camberwell beauty", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A large dark butterfly with a cream border — scarce in Britain, and a normal Swedish woodland insect.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E330" }, { "n": "Mosquitoes in the north", "r": "COMMON", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Not a spectacle, but the single most important fact about a Nordic summer. Head net, repellent, breezy pitches.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E331" }, { "n": "Adders on the sun-warmed rock", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Common across Sweden and entirely uninterested in you. Warm granite in the morning.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E332" }, { "n": "Sand lizards on the heath", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Emerald-flanked males on the dry sandy heaths of Skåne and the Baltic coast.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E333" }, { "n": "Moor frogs turning blue", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "For a few days at spawning the males turn genuinely blue. Then they go brown again and nobody believes you.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E334" }, { "n": "Wadden Sea seals at Ribe", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Harbour and grey seals on the sandbanks of the Danish Wadden Sea, watched from the dyke or a low-tide boat.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E335" }, { "n": "Skagen raptor migration", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Denmark funnels to a point at Grenen, and raptors pile up waiting for the crossing. Thousands of birds on a good day.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E336" }, { "n": "Grenen: where two seas meet", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "The Skagerrak and Kattegat collide on a spit of sand you can stand on with a foot in each. The waves come from both directions at once.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E337" }, { "n": "Amber on the west coast", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Washed up after westerly gales, especially in winter. Forty million years old, warm to the touch, and floats in salt water.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E338" }, { "n": "Danish white-tailed eagles", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Extinct as a breeding bird for most of the twentieth century and back since 1996 — now on lakes and coasts across the country.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E339" }, { "n": "Cranes at Lille Vildmose", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Breeding again in Denmark’s largest raised bog, alongside red deer and reintroduced elk.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E340" }, { "n": "Jutland red deer", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Denmark’s largest wild mammal, in the west Jutland plantations and on the heath, with an autumn rut worth planning around.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E341" }, { "n": "Roe deer on the field edge", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Everywhere in the farmland, first and last light.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E342" }, { "n": "Danish beavers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Reintroduced in 1999 after five hundred years away, and now well established on the west Jutland rivers.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E343" }, { "n": "Rubjerg Knude migrating dune", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "A vast sand dune walking inland at metres a year — it swallowed a lighthouse, which was then moved bodily to save it.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E344" }, { "n": "Dune heath in flower", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Purple heather across the Thy and north Jutland dune systems in late summer.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E345" }, { "n": "Barnacle and pink-footed geese", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Wintering flocks on the Wadden marshes in numbers that make the field move.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E346" }, { "n": "Eiders and common scoter", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Rafting offshore all along the Kattegat coast.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E347" }, { "n": "Sea trout from the coast", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Denmark is a European destination for coastal sea-trout fly fishing. Waders, a cheap national licence, and cold clear water.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E348" }, { "n": "Garfish in May", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Green-boned, beaked and arriving in numbers every spring — the fish every Danish child catches first.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E349" }, { "n": "Harbour porpoise in the belts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "The straits between the Danish islands hold one of the densest populations in Europe.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E350" }, { "n": "Bornholm and Baltic amber pines", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "The forests that produced the amber, in their modern descendants along the Baltic shore.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E351" }, { "n": "Storks at Ribe", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Down to a single pair nationally at the low point, and slowly returning to the nests on Ribe’s rooftops.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E352" }, { "n": "Allemansrätten — the right to roam", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Not a species but the reason this file works: a legal right to walk, camp and pick berries on almost any land, balanced by an absolute duty not to disturb.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E353" }, { "n": "Reindeer on the road", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Herded animals with total right of way, standing on tarmac because it is warm. Stop, wait, and do not sound the horn.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E354" }, { "n": "Fjord waterfalls in melt", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Every cliff runs white in the weeks after the thaw, and the fjord roads pass under several of them.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E355" }, { "n": "Midsummer bonfires", "r": "COMMON", "g": "murmur", "m": [ 6 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The whole of Scandinavia stops for a week around the solstice. Book everything, or arrive expecting nothing to be open.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": true, "a": "E356" }, { "n": "Golden jackal", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Arrived under its own steam from the south-east in the 2010s and now breeding. Europe’s quietest colonisation.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E357" }, { "n": "European elk in Lille Vildmose", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Reintroduced to the raised bog in 2016 and browsing the birch scrub. Denmark’s largest animal, back after millennia.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E358" }, { "n": "Fallow deer at Dyrehaven", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "A royal hunting park north of Copenhagen holding deer since 1669, and entirely unbothered by walkers.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E359" }, { "n": "Wild horses at Langeland", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Exmoor ponies grazing a Danish nature reserve as conservation machinery — and thriving on it.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E360" }, { "n": "European bison at Bornholm", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "A small free-ranging herd on the Baltic island since 2012, in an enclosure the size of a parish.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E361" }, { "n": "Harbour seals at Anholt", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "One of the largest colonies in the Kattegat, on a sandbank at the island’s eastern tip.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E362" }, { "n": "Grey seals returning", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Hunted out of Danish waters by 1900 and breeding again on the Baltic reefs since 2003.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E363" }, { "n": "Bottlenose dolphins in the Limfjord", "r": "RARE", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Occasional visitors that make national news when they arrive and stay for a summer.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E364" }, { "n": "Ospreys on passage", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Crossing on migration in numbers, and now nesting again in Jutland after a long absence.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E365" }, { "n": "Red kites over Jutland", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Recolonised from Germany and spreading north — forked tails over the farmland.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E366" }, { "n": "Marsh harriers on the fjords", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "Over every reedbed on the Limfjord and the Wadden marshes.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E367" }, { "n": "Common buzzards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "On roadside poles the length of every Danish road.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E368" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harrier", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "A handful of pairs in the Wadden Sea marshland, individually protected and closely watched.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E369" }, { "n": "Eagle owls", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DK" ], "d": "The largest owl in Europe, back in Jutland quarries after reintroduction. 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heathlands.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E428" }, { "n": "Great grey shrike", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A winter visitor to the open heath, impaling prey on thorns like a butcher.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E429" }, { "n": "Little owls on the pollards", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Sitting out in daylight on old willows across the Flemish farmland.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E430" }, { "n": "Long-eared owls roosting", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Winter roosts of a dozen birds in a single conifer, in village churchyards.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E431" }, { "n": "Kingfishers on the Ourthe", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "kingfisher", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A blue bolt along every clean Walloon 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feeding with that side-to-side sweep.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E436" }, { "n": "Avocets on the Ijzer", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "On the brackish creeks of the coastal polder.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E437" }, { "n": "Lapwing over the Ijzer meadows", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Wheeling and creaking over the wet grassland the country has worked hard to keep.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E438" }, { "n": "Black-tailed godwits", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A declining breeder of the coastal polder meadows.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E439" }, { "n": "Sandwich terns off the coast", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Fishing the shallow North Sea along the whole sixty-five kilometres of Belgian coast.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E440" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes on the canals", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "The weed dance on every canal and gravel pit in spring.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E441" }, { "n": "Greylag and Egyptian geese", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Established, loud and on every piece of Flemish water.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E442" }, { "n": "Common lizards on the heath", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Basking on boardwalk edges across the Kempen and the Fagnes.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E443" }, { "n": "Adders on the Fagnes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "On the warm boardwalk margins of the high peat bog on still mornings.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E444" }, { "n": "Slow-worms in the garden edges", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Legless lizards, not snakes, under any flat warm object.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E445" }, { "n": "Midwife toads calling", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "A single pure bell note after dark in the Walloon quarries and villages.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E446" }, { "n": "Great crested newts", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "In field ponds and old quarry pools, and protected wherever found.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E447" }, { "n": "Grayling in the Ourthe", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "The lady of the stream in gin-clear Ardennes winter water — a genuine fly-fishing destination.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E448" }, { "n": "Brown trout in the Semois", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "BE" ], "d": "Small wild fish in a river that loops through wooded gorges. 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Still effectively unseeable.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E463" }, { "n": "Lynx in the Eifel", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A handful of animals from the Belgian and Luxembourg reintroductions, and a track in snow is the honest sighting.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E464" }, { "n": "Daubenton’s bats over the Mosel", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Skimming the river at dusk below the vineyard terraces.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E465" }, { "n": "Red kites over the Eifel", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Germany holds over half the world population. 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The largest owl in Europe.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E470" }, { "n": "Tawny owls in the beech", "r": "COMMON", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Heard far more than seen, in every mature wood.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E471" }, { "n": "Middle spotted woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "An old-oak specialist, commoner here than anywhere in Britain — which is to say present at all.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E472" }, { "n": "Grey-headed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A descending whinnying call from riverside woodland, and a bird Britain has never had.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E473" }, { "n": "Wryneck", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A woodpecker that behaves like a songbird, in old orchards and vineyard margins. 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Genuinely startling to hook.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E491" }, { "n": "Apollo butterfly on the Mosel slate", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A large white mountain butterfly surviving on the hot Mosel terraces — a glacial relict at low altitude.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E492" }, { "n": "Purple emperor in the oakwoods", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The canopy king, down to the ride edges only on hot mornings.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E493" }, { "n": "Beech forests in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The Eifel and Hunsrück in copper and gold — and Germany takes its autumn walking seriously.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E494" }, { "n": "Wild boar on the Veluwe roads", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Fenced sections and warning signs exist for a reason — a boar at dusk on a forest road is a real hazard.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E495" }, { "n": "Badgers in the sandy banks", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Recovered strongly from a low point in the seventies, with setts through the Veluwe woodland.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E496" }, { "n": "Pine martens returning", "r": "RARE", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Back in the Veluwe and Drenthe forests after near-extinction, and almost never seen.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E497" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "In every wood and park, and no greys anywhere to compete with them.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E498" }, { "n": "Hedgehogs", "r": "COMMON", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Gardens, dune scrub and campsite edges through the warm months.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E499" }, { "n": "Daubenton’s bats over the canals", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Skimming the water at dusk in the middle of Utrecht and Amsterdam.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E500" }, { "n": "Pond bats in the Weerribben", "r": "RARE", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A European rarity with an important Dutch population in the northern peat marshes.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E501" }, { "n": "Common seals pupping", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Pups born on the Wadden sandbanks in early summer, and the sandbank is closed while they are there.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E502" }, { "n": "Peregrines on the power stations", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Nesting on industrial towers and cooling stacks across the Randstad, with public webcams.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E503" }, { "n": "Common buzzards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "On every roadside pole between the polders.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E504" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harriers on the arable", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A summer harrier of the Groningen cereal plains, individually nest-protected by volunteers.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E505" }, { "n": "Goshawks in the Veluwe pines", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "One of the densest populations in Europe, and increasingly urban.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E506" }, { "n": "Long-eared owls roosting", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Winter roosts of a dozen birds in a single village conifer.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E507" }, { "n": "Barn owls on the polder", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Ghost-pale along the dyke margins at last light, and heavily supported by nest boxes.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E508" }, { "n": "Black woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Crow-sized and entirely black bar the red cap, in the Veluwe’s older pine.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E509" }, { "n": "Nightingales in the dune scrub", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Full song from the coastal dune thickets through May.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E510" }, { "n": "Golden orioles in the poplars", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A fluting whistle from the canopy of the river floodplain woods.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E511" }, { "n": "Bluethroats in the reed", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Commoner here than anywhere in western Europe, on every marsh margin.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E512" }, { "n": "Savi’s and grasshopper warblers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Reeling insect-like songs from the reedbed at dusk — heard far more than seen.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E513" }, { "n": "Spoonbills at Texel", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The Wadden islands hold the core of the Dutch population.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E514" }, { "n": "Purple herons in the marsh", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Slimmer, darker and far shyer than a grey heron, slipping into the reed.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E515" }, { "n": "Bitterns booming", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The reedbed foghorn of the Weerribben and the Oostvaardersplassen.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E516" }, { "n": "Pied avocet chicks on the flats", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Long-legged and absurd, running the brackish mud within days of hatching.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E517" }, { "n": "Spotted redshank in eclipse", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "Coal-black in full plumage on spring passage — one of the most striking waders in Europe.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E518" }, { "n": "Sand lizards in the dunes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The coastal dune belt is a national stronghold, and males go emerald in spring.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E519" }, { "n": "Smooth snakes on the heath", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "The rarest Dutch reptile, on the dry heaths of Brabant and the Veluwe.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E520" }, { "n": "Tree frogs in the Achterhoek", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "NL" ], "d": "A green frog the size of a thumbnail with a chorus you can hear a kilometre off. Recovered from near-loss.", "f": "eu-low-countries.html", "rt": false, "a": "E521" }, { "n": "Roe deer everywhere", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The commonest deer in the country, on every field edge and forest ride.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E522" }, { "n": "Red deer in Skåne", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A native southern population, with an autumn rut in the beech woods.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E523" }, { "n": "Fallow deer in the parks", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Introduced to the southern estates centuries ago and thoroughly established.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E524" }, { "n": "Reindeer of the Sámi", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Herded across the north for a thousand years, and with absolute right of way on the road.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E525" }, { "n": "Red foxes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "From the Skåne farmland to the edge of the fell.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E526" }, { "n": "Badgers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Setts in the sandy banks of the southern woodland.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E527" }, { "n": "Mountain hares in ermine", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "White against dark forest when the snow is late.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E528" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "In every wood, and noticeably darker in winter coat.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E529" }, { "n": "Hedgehogs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Gardens and campsite edges through the short warm season.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E530" }, { "n": "Bats over the summer lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Northern bats hunting in near-daylight at midnight in June.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E531" }, { "n": "Wild boar spreading north", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Absent for centuries and now abundant in the south, moving north year on year.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E532" }, { "n": "Golden eagles over the forest", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Breeding through the northern forests and the fell edge.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E533" }, { "n": "White-tailed eagles on the Baltic", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A conservation triumph — from near-extinction in the seventies to a common coastal sight.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E534" }, { "n": "Goshawks in the spruce", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The default forest raptor, and a serious predator of everything up to a hare.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E535" }, { "n": "Rough-legged buzzards", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Arctic buzzards down for the winter, hovering over open fields.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E536" }, { "n": "Tengmalm’s owl", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A small forest owl with a hollow bouncing song on late-winter nights.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E537" }, { "n": "Hawk owl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Perched on the very top of a dead spruce in broad daylight, hunting voles like a falcon.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E538" }, { "n": "Eagle owls", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "On coastal cliffs and old quarries, and the largest owl in the world by some measures.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E539" }, { "n": "Willow and Siberian tits", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Northern forest specialists, and the Siberian tit is a genuine northern prize.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E540" }, { "n": "Waxwings in a good winter", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Irruptive flocks stripping rowan berries, and the birds that then arrive in Britain.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E541" }, { "n": "Pine grosbeak", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A large rose-pink finch of the northern forest, and one most Swedish birders travel for.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E542" }, { "n": "Redwings and fieldfares breeding", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "What Britain gets as winter thrushes breed here in every birch wood.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E543" }, { "n": "Bluethroats in the mountain birch", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "The fell zone’s own robin, with a throat like enamel.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E544" }, { "n": "Common cranes at Kvismaren", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A second great crane site after Hornborgasjön, and quieter for it.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E545" }, { "n": "Whooper swans breeding", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "On forest lakes across the country — the national bird, and audible before visible.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E546" }, { "n": "Slavonian grebes displaying", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Golden head tufts on small northern lakes in spring.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E547" }, { "n": "Black-throated divers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Wailing across a forest lake at dusk — the defining sound of a Swedish summer night.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E548" }, { "n": "Ringed seals in the Bothnian Bay", "r": "RARE", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A landlocked Baltic subspecies that pups on the ice, and one of Europe’s most threatened mammals.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E549" }, { "n": "Harbour seals on the west coast", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Hauled out on the Bohuslän skerries alongside the greys.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E550" }, { "n": "Salmon in the northern rivers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Baltic salmon running the big northern rivers, and a serious licensed fishery.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E551" }, { "n": "Grayling in the fell rivers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Clear cold water and free-rising fish under the midnight sun.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E552" }, { "n": "Zander in the southern lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "A predator of the big shallow lakes, and the fish most southern Swedes target.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E553" }, { "n": "Scarce heath and cranberry fritillary", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Bog and mire specialists, and both declining as the wet ground is drained.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E554" }, { "n": "Cloudberries on the mire", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "apple", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SE" ], "d": "Amber, tart and prized. 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[ "NO" ], "d": "Moving up the mountain as the climate warms, and squeezing the arctic fox as it goes.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E559" }, { "n": "Badgers in the south", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "At the northern limit of their European range, in the southern woodland.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E560" }, { "n": "Mountain hares", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "White in winter, blue-grey in summer, from the coast to the high fell.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E561" }, { "n": "Hedgehogs in the south", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "At the northern edge of their range, in gardens around Oslo and the south coast.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E562" }, { "n": "Bats at the fjord head", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Northern bats hunting in the half-dark of a midsummer night.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E563" }, { "n": "Eurasian otter on the coast", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Coastal otters working the tideline, as in Shetland — healthier here than almost anywhere.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E564" }, { "n": "Harbour porpoise", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "In every sound and fjord mouth, and often seen from a ferry deck.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E565" }, { "n": "White-beaked dolphins offshore", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "A cold-water dolphin of the outer coast, larger and blunter than the common.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E566" }, { "n": "Basking sharks off the west coast", "r": "RARE", "g": "shark", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Once heavily hunted here and now genuinely scarce — a fin off a headland is a real event.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E567" }, { "n": "Sea eagles at the nest", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Nest sites are known, protected and often visible from a boat at a respectful distance.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E568" }, { "n": "Rough-legged buzzards on the fell", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "A tundra buzzard that breeds well when the lemmings do and vanishes when they do not.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E569" }, { "n": "Merlins over the heath", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Europe’s smallest falcon, hunting pipits across the open fell.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E570" }, { "n": "Hawk owls on the dead spruce", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Daylight hunters perched on the highest available point, entirely unbothered by people.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E571" }, { "n": "Great grey owl", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Enormous and flat-faced, in the eastern forests near the Swedish border.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E572" }, { "n": "Capercaillie in the pinewood", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Displaying at dawn in old pine, and occasionally an aggressive male that has decided it owns the track.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E573" }, { "n": "Black grouse lekking", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Bubbling and sneezing on a frozen bog at first light.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E574" }, { "n": "Common cranes in the north", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Breeding on the northern mires and bugling across them at dawn.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E575" }, { "n": "Red-throated divers on the lochans", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Wailing over small hill tarns — a sound that carries an extraordinary distance.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E576" }, { "n": "Long-tailed ducks in winter", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Rafting offshore in the dark months, and yodelling across the water.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E577" }, { "n": "Arctic char under the ice", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Ice fishing is a national pastime, and the char is the fish it targets.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E578" }, { "n": "Halibut and cod from the boat", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "NO" ], "d": "Deep water close inshore, and sea angling needs no licence for a visitor.", "f": "eu-nordics.html", "rt": false, "a": "E579" }, { "n": "Camargue greater flamingos", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Thirty thousand birds on the salt lagoons, and the only regular breeding colony in France. Pink is the wrong word for it in low sun.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E580" }, { "n": "Camargue white horses", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Born dark and greying with age, working the marsh with the gardians. Semi-feral, ancient and entirely at home in salt water.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E581" }, { "n": "Griffon vultures over the Cévennes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Extinct in the massif by 1945 and reintroduced from 1981; hundreds now ride the thermals over the gorges. One of Europe’s great restoration stories.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E582" }, { "n": "Hermann’s tortoise in the Maures", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "France’s only wild tortoise, confined to the Massif des Maures and a corner of Corsica. Fire and collection have nearly finished it.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E583" }, { "n": "Ocellated lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Europe’s largest lizard — up to two feet including tail, green with blue eye-spots along the flank. Dry stone walls and garrigue.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E584" }, { "n": "Cicadas in the pines", "r": "COMMON", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The sound of the Midi, and it stops the instant you look. Above roughly twenty-two degrees they sing; below it, silence.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E585" }, { "n": "Camargue bulls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Black, lyre-horned and raised half-wild on the marsh for the course camarguaise — in which the bull is not killed.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E586" }, { "n": "Black-winged stilts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Absurd pink legs wading the salt pans, and one of the birds Britain almost never gets.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E587" }, { "n": "Avocets on the salins", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Sweeping the brine with that upturned bill across every worked pan.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E588" }, { "n": "Glossy ibis", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Bronze-green and curve-billed, in flocks over the marsh — a recent and rapid colonist.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E589" }, { "n": "Squacco heron", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Buff and hunched in the reed until it flies, when it turns startlingly white.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E590" }, { "n": "Cattle egrets with the horses", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Following the hooves for whatever they turn up. Golden-crowned in the breeding season.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E591" }, { "n": "Whiskered terns over the marsh", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A marsh tern that dips rather than dives, in loose flocks over the étangs.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E592" }, { "n": "Slender-billed gulls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Pale, long-necked and flushed pink on the breast in spring. A Mediterranean speciality.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E593" }, { "n": "European bee-eaters", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The most improbably coloured bird in Europe, hawking insects over the garrigue and nesting in sand banks.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E594" }, { "n": "European roller", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Electric blue on a roadside wire, and declining hard across its range.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E595" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harrier over the cereal", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A summer harrier of the Crau and the cereal plains, nests individually protected by volunteers.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E596" }, { "n": "Coypu in the ditches", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "South American, escaped and everywhere on southern French water. Orange teeth, and no attempt at concealment.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E597" }, { "n": "European pond terrapin", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Basking on a log in the marsh, and genuinely native rather than an abandoned pet.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E598" }, { "n": "Sea lavender on the salt flats", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Purple haze across the sansouire in late summer, with glasswort underfoot.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E599" }, { "n": "Seahorses in the Étang de Thau", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The lagoon holds a population of long-snouted seahorses among the oyster tables — seen by snorkellers, and easily missed.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E600" }, { "n": "Thau oyster tables", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Rows of trestles in a lagoon between the sea and the Languedoc hills, worked from flat-bottomed boats.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E601" }, { "n": "Bonelli’s eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Down to around forty pairs in France, most of them in the south-east. A garrigue specialist, and one of the country’s rarest raptors.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E602" }, { "n": "Short-toed snake eagle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Hovering over the scrub hunting snakes, pale-bellied and unmistakable once you have seen one.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E603" }, { "n": "Egyptian vulture", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Small, scruffy and yellow-faced, on a handful of southern cliffs. Uses stones to break eggs.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E604" }, { "n": "Cinereous vulture", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The black vulture, reintroduced to the Grands Causses alongside the griffons and larger than either.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E605" }, { "n": "Eagle owls on the cliffs", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Europe’s largest owl, on quarry faces and gorge walls right through the south.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E606" }, { "n": "Scops owl calling", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A single pure electronic note every two seconds, all night, from every southern village plane tree.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E607" }, { "n": "Blue rock thrush", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Slate-blue on a bare crag or a village roof, and singing from the highest available point.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E608" }, { "n": "Sardinian warbler", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Black cap, red eye-ring and a rattling scold from every scrub bush in the Midi.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E609" }, { "n": "Subalpine warbler", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A summer visitor of the garrigue, and far more retiring than its Sardinian cousin.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E610" }, { "n": "Woodchat shrike", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Chestnut-capped, on a wire or a thorn, with a larder of impaled insects nearby.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E611" }, { "n": "Crag martins on the gorge walls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Hugging the rock in the Verdon and the Ardèche, and resident where the swallows are not.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E612" }, { "n": "Alpine swifts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Twice the size of a common swift, white-bellied, screaming round the gorge cliffs.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E613" }, { "n": "Hoopoes on the tracks", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Crest up, butterfly flight, and probing the dust of every vineyard track.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E614" }, { "n": "Montpellier snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Long, fast and rear-fanged but effectively harmless to people. A garrigue hunter and quite happy to be watched at distance.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E615" }, { "n": "Ladder snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Named for the rungs of the young; adults lose them and keep two dark stripes.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E616" }, { "n": "Wall lizards everywhere", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "On every wall, ruin and rock pile in the south. The first reptile anyone meets here.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E617" }, { "n": "Western spadefoot toad", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A burrowing toad with a spade on each hind foot, in the Camargue sands. Heard underwater more than seen.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E618" }, { "n": "Praying mantis in the grass", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "On dry grassland from late summer, and far commoner in the Midi than most visitors expect.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E619" }, { "n": "Two-tailed pasha", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Europe’s most spectacular butterfly, feeding on strawberry-tree fruit and fallen figs.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E620" }, { "n": "Spanish festoon", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A zebra-striped early-spring butterfly of the garrigue, and one of the first on the wing.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E621" }, { "n": "Cleopatra butterfly", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A brimstone with an orange flush, drifting the scrub from the first warm days.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E622" }, { "n": "Scarce swallowtail", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Pale, tiger-striped and sailing round every southern orchard.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E623" }, { "n": "European beavers on the Cèze", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The Rhône tributaries are where the French beaver survived when the rest of Europe lost it. Gnawed willow at dusk.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E624" }, { "n": "Otters in the Cévennes rivers", "r": "RARE", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Recovering along the clean upland water, and still genuinely hard to see.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E625" }, { "n": "Przewalski’s horses at Le Villaret", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A conservation herd of the last true wild horse, kept on the Causse Méjean and used to restock Mongolia.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E626" }, { "n": "Mouflon on the causse", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Introduced wild sheep on the limestone plateaux, curved-horned and entirely established.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E627" }, { "n": "Red deer in the Cévennes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Reintroduced from the 1950s and now roaring across the chestnut woods each October.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E628" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Abundant, nocturnal and the reason every vineyard has a fence. Rootings are the usual evidence.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E629" }, { "n": "Cévennes dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The park is an International Dark Sky Reserve — among the largest in Europe, and the Milky Way is genuinely bright.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E630" }, { "n": "Ventoux alpine flora", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The bare white summit holds Arctic and alpine plants marooned since the ice, a thousand miles from their range.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E631" }, { "n": "Wild thyme and rosemary", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The garrigue underfoot, and the whole hillside smells of it in the heat.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E632" }, { "n": "Lavender in flower", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The Valensole and Sault plateaux in full colour for about four weeks, and the roads are busy with everyone who came for it.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E633" }, { "n": "Wild orchids of the garrigue", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Bee, tongue and lizard orchids on the thin limestone soils, and dozens of species between them.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E634" }, { "n": "Holm and cork oak", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The two evergreen oaks that define the Midi — and the cork stripped in ochre stripes down the trunk.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E635" }, { "n": "Cèpes after autumn rain", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The chestnut woods of the Cévennes, and a serious local pursuit with serious local secrecy.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E636" }, { "n": "Black truffles", "r": "RARE", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Under the oaks of the Vaucluse and the Drôme, found by dog, and the reason for the winter markets at Richerenches.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E637" }, { "n": "Striped and bottlenose dolphins", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The Pelagos Sanctuary offshore is a protected cetacean area the size of a small country.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E638" }, { "n": "Fin whales offshore", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The second largest animal on earth, feeding in the Ligurian Sea within reach of a day boat.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E639" }, { "n": "Loggerhead turtles", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Increasingly seen off the Var coast, and now occasionally nesting on French beaches for the first time in memory.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E640" }, { "n": "Ocean sunfish", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "A vast lopsided disc basking flat at the surface, and completely harmless.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E641" }, { "n": "Posidonia meadows", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Seagrass beds that oxygenate the whole Mediterranean shallows and are protected accordingly — do not anchor in them.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E642" }, { "n": "Octopus in the calanques", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "In every rock crevice of the limestone inlets, and visible with a mask from the surface.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E643" }, { "n": "Peregrines over the calanques", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Nesting on the white limestone cliffs above the sea between Marseille and Cassis.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E644" }, { "n": "Aleppo pines on the cliff", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Growing horizontally out of bare limestone above the water, and the smell of them in August is the coast itself.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E645" }, { "n": "Cherry harvest in the Luberon", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "The first of the southern harvests, and the roadside stalls appear overnight.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E646" }, { "n": "The vendange in the Rhône", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Grapes off the Châteauneuf and Gigondas slopes, and the villages smell of fermentation for a fortnight.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E647" }, { "n": "Olive harvest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 11, 12 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "Nets under the trees across Provence and the Alpilles, and the mills running day and night.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E648" }, { "n": "Perseid meteors over the causse", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 8 ], "c": [ "FR" ], "d": "August, a limestone plateau, no light for thirty miles, and warm enough to lie out all night.", "f": "eu-france-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E649" }, { "n": "Alpine ibex", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Shot out of Switzerland entirely by 1809 and rebuilt from animals smuggled out of Gran Paradiso. Now on every high ridge, and utterly unbothered by walkers.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E650" }, { "n": "Bearded vultures over the Engadine", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Extinct in the Alps by 1913 and reintroduced from 1986; the Swiss National Park is the best place in Europe to see one. Nearly three metres across, and it eats bone.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E651" }, { "n": "Grossglockner marmots", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Whistling from every slope on the High Alpine Road, and so used to people at the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe that they beg.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E652" }, { "n": "Chamois on the scree", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Smaller and far more nervous than ibex, working ground no ibex would bother with. Autumn is when they come lower.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E653" }, { "n": "Alpine salamander", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Jet black, out on wet paths after rain, and the only European amphibian that gives birth to fully formed live young after up to three years’ gestation.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E654" }, { "n": "The Aletsch glacier", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Twenty-three kilometres of ice and the largest glacier in the Alps — a UNESCO site, and visibly, measurably shorter every decade.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E655" }, { "n": "Alpine marmots", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Whistling alarm calls across every high pasture, and asleep underground from October to April.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E656" }, { "n": "Golden eagles over the ridges", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Around three hundred pairs hold the Swiss Alps, and a bird over a corrie is more often this than a buzzard.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E657" }, { "n": "Eurasian lynx", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Reintroduced from 1971 and now established in the Jura and the north-west Alps. Effectively a camera-trap animal.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E658" }, { "n": "Wolves returning", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Walked back over the Italian border in 1995 under their own steam, and now breeding in packs. Extremely controversial and almost never seen.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E659" }, { "n": "Red deer in the Engadine", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A conservation success that became a management problem — the September rut in the National Park is genuinely loud.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E660" }, { "n": "Roe deer at the wood edge", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "On every valley-floor field margin at first and last light.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E661" }, { "n": "Mountain hares in ermine", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "White against dark rock above the tree line when the snow comes late.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E662" }, { "n": "Red squirrels in the larch", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Darker-coated than the British ones, and no greys anywhere to compete with them.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E663" }, { "n": "Beavers on the Swiss rivers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Extinct here by 1820, reintroduced from 1956, and now on the Aare, the Reuss and the Rhône.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E664" }, { "n": "Alpine shrew", "r": "RARE", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A high-altitude specialist living in scree and snowbeds, and barely ever seen alive.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E665" }, { "n": "Bats in the valley barns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Over the meadows at dusk; several Alpine species roost in the old timber hay barns.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E666" }, { "n": "Wallcreeper", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "The great Alpine prize: crimson wings flicking against grey rock on a gorge face. Comes lower in winter, which is the honest time to look.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E667" }, { "n": "Alpine choughs at the summit", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Yellow-billed, acrobatic, and waiting at every cable-car station for a dropped sandwich. Recorded above eight thousand metres on Everest.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E668" }, { "n": "Red-billed choughs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Lower than the alpine chough and rarer here, with a curved red bill and a ringing call.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E669" }, { "n": "Spotted nutcracker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "It buries stone-pine seeds by the thousand and forgets enough of them to plant the forest. The whole Arve woodland exists because of this bird.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E670" }, { "n": "Snowfinch", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A sparrow of the high snowbeds and ski stations, and the highest-breeding songbird in Europe.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E671" }, { "n": "Alpine accentor", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A dunnock of the summit boulder fields, tame to the point of walking over your boots.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E672" }, { "n": "Water pipits on the pasture", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Parachuting song-flights over every alpine meadow above the tree line.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E673" }, { "n": "Citril finch", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A small green finch of the conifer treeline, and effectively an Alpine and Pyrenean endemic.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E674" }, { "n": "Ring ouzels above the treeline", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "The mountain blackbird with a white bib, on every scree slope.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E675" }, { "n": "Crossbills in the spruce", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Breeding in midwinter because that is when the cones open. Listen for falling scales.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E676" }, { "n": "Rock ptarmigan", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "White in winter and mottled in summer, and nearly invisible until it explodes from underfoot.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E677" }, { "n": "Black grouse lekking", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Bubbling and hissing on a snow patch at first light in the treeline scrub.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E678" }, { "n": "Capercaillie", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Down to a few hundred birds and declining. Lek sites are protected and unpublished for good reason.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E679" }, { "n": "Hazel grouse", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A thin whistle from dense spruce, and a bird most Swiss have never seen.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E680" }, { "n": "Rock partridge", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A southern Alpine specialist on hot dry slopes in Ticino and the Valais.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E681" }, { "n": "Tengmalm’s owl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A hollow bouncing song from old spruce on late-winter nights.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E682" }, { "n": "Pygmy owl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Smaller than a starling and hunting other birds. The whistled song carries a long way through cold air.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E683" }, { "n": "Eagle owls on the gorge walls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "On rock faces through the Jura and the lower valleys.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E684" }, { "n": "Three-toed woodpecker", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A specialist of dead standing spruce, and a good sign a forest has been left alone.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E685" }, { "n": "Black woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Crow-sized, entirely black bar the red cap, and audible half a mile off.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E686" }, { "n": "Dippers on the meltwater", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Walking underwater against glacier-fed current in the middle of winter.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E687" }, { "n": "Grey wagtails on the torrents", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "On every rock in every alpine stream in the country.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E688" }, { "n": "Common goldeneye on the lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Wintering on the big lakes with red-crested pochard and tufted duck.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E689" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes on Léman", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "The weed dance on the big lakes from February, well before the mountains thaw.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E690" }, { "n": "Asp viper", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Southern-slope rock and scree in the Valais and Ticino. Venomous, entirely avoidant, and best left alone.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E691" }, { "n": "Adders on the alp", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Higher than most people expect — well above two thousand metres on warm mornings.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E692" }, { "n": "Common wall lizard", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "On every south-facing wall and vineyard terrace in the Valais and Ticino.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E693" }, { "n": "Viviparous lizard", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Bears live young rather than laying eggs, which is how it survives at altitude.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E694" }, { "n": "Alpine newts in the tarns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Orange-bellied and slate-blue, in high pools that were frozen a fortnight earlier.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E695" }, { "n": "Fire salamander in the beech", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Lower down than its alpine cousin, out on wet forest paths after rain.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E696" }, { "n": "Brown trout in the mountain streams", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Small wild fish in gin-clear water. Permits are cantonal, well organised and easy to buy.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E697" }, { "n": "Arctic char in the deep lakes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Ice-age relicts in the cold depths of the big lakes, fished from boats in summer.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E698" }, { "n": "Lake whitefish — féra", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "The commercial fish of Léman and Neuchâtel, and on every lakeside restaurant menu.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E699" }, { "n": "Apollo butterfly", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Big, white and red-spotted, drifting slowly over flowery alpine slopes. Protected, and declining as the meadows change.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E700" }, { "n": "Alpine blues", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Several species of small blue butterfly over the short turf, and telling them apart is a lifetime’s work.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E701" }, { "n": "Rosalia longhorn beetle", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Powder-blue with black spots and long banded antennae, on old beech. A protected European flagship insect.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E702" }, { "n": "Edelweiss", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Felted white stars on limestone ledges. Protected, genuinely uncommon, and never to be picked.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E703" }, { "n": "Spring and trumpet gentians", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A blue that photographs badly and stops people in their tracks in person.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E704" }, { "n": "Alpenrose in flower", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Whole hillsides of dwarf rhododendron turning pink just above the treeline.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E705" }, { "n": "Glacier crowfoot", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A buttercup growing higher than almost any other flowering plant in Europe, at the very edge of the ice.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E706" }, { "n": "Martagon lily", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Turk’s-cap flowers in the tall-herb meadows and open woods.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E707" }, { "n": "Lady’s slipper orchid", "r": "RARE", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Europe’s most spectacular orchid, on limestone, and dug up almost to extinction in places.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E708" }, { "n": "Arnica on the pasture", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Yellow daisies across the acid alpine meadows, and the source of the ointment.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E709" }, { "n": "Stone pine woodland", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "The Arve, growing to the absolute treeline and planted almost entirely by nutcrackers.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E710" }, { "n": "Larches turning gold", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "The only European conifer that drops its needles, and the Engadine in late October is the reason people come.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E711" }, { "n": "Alpine transhumance", "r": "COMMON", "g": "cow", "m": [ 6, 9 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Cattle up to the high alps in June and down in September in flower-decked procession. A living practice, not a display.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E712" }, { "n": "Valais blacknose sheep", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Entirely absurd — black face, white curls — and a genuine working mountain breed.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E713" }, { "n": "Foehn wind", "r": "COMMON", "g": "sky", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A warm dry downslope wind that can raise the temperature ten degrees in an hour and gives half the country a headache.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E714" }, { "n": "Alpine night sky", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Above two thousand metres with no haze, and the Milky Way is genuinely bright.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E715" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in the valleys", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "A serious flush in the beech and spruce, and cantonal rules on how much you may pick.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E716" }, { "n": "Glacial erratics and moraine", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Boulders carried tens of kilometres and dumped where the ice stopped — the evidence that first proved the ice ages.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E717" }, { "n": "Ravens over the passes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Tumbling and croaking above every col, and often the only thing moving up there.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E718" }, { "n": "Alpine ibex in the Hohe Tauern", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Reintroduced to the national park and now a reliable sight on the high ground above the Grossglockner road.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E719" }, { "n": "Golden eagles of the Hohe Tauern", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Austria’s national park holds one of the densest populations in the Alps.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E720" }, { "n": "Bearded vultures", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Released into the Rauris valley from 1986 as part of the Alpine programme, and now breeding wild again.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E721" }, { "n": "Griffon vultures in Rauris", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "A summer gathering of non-breeding birds that has become one of the most reliable vulture sites in the Alps.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E722" }, { "n": "Ural owls", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Extinct in Austria by the 1950s and reintroduced from 2009 into the Wienerwald and Alpine foothills.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E723" }, { "n": "Eagle owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On quarry faces and gorge walls, and the largest owl in Europe.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E724" }, { "n": "Tengmalm’s and pygmy owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Both in the old spruce of the Tyrol, and both far more often heard than seen.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E725" }, { "n": "Black grouse at the lek", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On the treeline scrub at first light, and a protected spectacle watched from marked hides.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E726" }, { "n": "Capercaillie", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Present in the older forests and genuinely rare. Lek sites are protected and unadvertised.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E727" }, { "n": "Rock ptarmigan", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Above the treeline on the Tauern ridges, white in winter and invisible in summer.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E728" }, { "n": "Hazel grouse", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The forest’s most retiring bird, and a thin whistle from dense cover.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E729" }, { "n": "Red deer of the Tauern", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "A large managed population, and the September rut echoes down the valleys.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E730" }, { "n": "Roe deer", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On every field edge and forest ride in the country.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E731" }, { "n": "Wild boar in the lowlands", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Abundant in the eastern lowlands and moving up the valleys. Nocturnal and destructive.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E732" }, { "n": "Brown bears", "r": "RARE", "g": "badger", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "A handful of animals at most, and Austria’s reintroduction largely failed. Effectively unseeable, and honestly listed as such.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E733" }, { "n": "Lynx in the Kalkalpen", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "A fragile population in the limestone Alps, monitored by camera and rarely confirmed by eye.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E734" }, { "n": "Wolves crossing the border", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Returning naturally from Italy and Slovenia, and the subject of a great deal of argument.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E735" }, { "n": "Otters on the Danube tributaries", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Recovered strongly in the eastern rivers, and now spreading back up the alpine valleys.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E736" }, { "n": "Beavers on the Danube", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Reintroduced in the 1970s and now common along the whole eastern river system.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E737" }, { "n": "Alpine marmots on the Tauern", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Whistling from the boulder fields, and the sound of an Austrian high summer.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E738" }, { "n": "Mountain hares", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Above the treeline, white in winter, and squeezed as brown hares move up.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E739" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "In every wood and park, and often nearly black in the mountains.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E740" }, { "n": "Bats in the ice caves", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The limestone cave systems of the Salzkammergut hold important hibernation roosts.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E741" }, { "n": "Alpine choughs", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "At every summit station and mountain hut, and entirely without shame.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E742" }, { "n": "Wallcreeper on the limestone", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On the Dachstein and Kalkalpen cliffs, and easier in winter when they come down.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E743" }, { "n": "Nutcrackers in the stone pine", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Planting the Zirbenwald one buried seed at a time.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E744" }, { "n": "Alpine accentor", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On summit boulder fields, and tame enough to be irritating.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E745" }, { "n": "Snowfinch", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Around the high ski stations and snowbeds all year.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E746" }, { "n": "Ring ouzels", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On every scree slope above the treeline.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E747" }, { "n": "Crested tits", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "In every spruce plantation, while Britain holds them only in the Caledonian pines.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E748" }, { "n": "Three-toed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The Kalkalpen national park was created partly for this bird and the dead wood it needs.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E749" }, { "n": "White-backed woodpecker", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "An old-growth specialist, and one of the rarest woodpeckers in central Europe.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E750" }, { "n": "Dippers on the Salzach", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On the fast clean water of every alpine river.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E751" }, { "n": "Grey herons on the lakes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On every Salzkammergut lake shore, and increasingly urban.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E752" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The weed dance on the Attersee and the Wolfgangsee each spring.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E753" }, { "n": "Goosanders on the alpine rivers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Sawbill ducks fishing the clear fast water below the gorges.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E754" }, { "n": "Asp viper and adder", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Both occur; both are venomous, avoidant and best watched from where you already are.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E755" }, { "n": "Aesculapian snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Long, harmless and a climber — the snake on the physician’s staff, and genuinely named for it.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E756" }, { "n": "Green lizard in the east", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Electric green on warm slopes in the eastern foothills and the Wachau.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E757" }, { "n": "Fire salamander after rain", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On wet forest paths in the limestone Alps at dusk.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E758" }, { "n": "Yellow-bellied toad", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "In wheel ruts and quarry puddles, arching to show a startling belly when alarmed. Declining hard.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E759" }, { "n": "Alpine newts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "In every high pool and cattle trough in spring.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E760" }, { "n": "Huchen — the Danube salmon", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "A metre-long predatory salmonid found nowhere else on earth, and one of Europe’s most threatened fish.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E761" }, { "n": "Grayling in the Tyrolean rivers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The lady of the stream in clear cold water, and a serious fly-fishing destination.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E762" }, { "n": "Brown trout in the Salzkammergut", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Wild fish in lakes so clear the boats look suspended. Permits are local and simple.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E763" }, { "n": "Arctic char in the deep lakes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Ice-age relicts in the Traunsee and the Attersee, hundreds of metres down.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E764" }, { "n": "Apollo butterfly", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Drifting the flowery limestone slopes, protected, and an indicator that the meadow is still cut by hand.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E765" }, { "n": "Scarce and clouded apollos", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Two more members of a declining family, both tied to specific and shrinking habitats.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E766" }, { "n": "Marbled whites on the meadows", "r": "COMMON", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "In their thousands on the uncut hay meadows before the first cut.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E767" }, { "n": "Rosalia longhorn beetle", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Powder-blue on old beech in the Wienerwald and the Kalkalpen, and a protected European flagship.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E768" }, { "n": "Alpine longhorn and stag beetles", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Heavy, armoured and clattering out of the old wood on warm evenings.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E769" }, { "n": "Edelweiss on the Tauern", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Protected since 1886 in some provinces, and the national flower for good reason.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E770" }, { "n": "Gentians on the pasture", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Trumpet and spring gentians across every alp, and the root of the schnapps.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E771" }, { "n": "Alpenrose", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Pink hillsides just above the treeline through midsummer.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E772" }, { "n": "Arnica and alpine aster", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The flowering hay meadow, and the reason Austrian mountain hay smells the way it does.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E773" }, { "n": "Lady’s slipper orchid", "r": "RARE", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "On limestone in the Kalkalpen, and strictly protected.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E774" }, { "n": "Zirbenwald — stone pine forest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Growing to the treeline in the Ötztal, and the timber that scents every Tyrolean bedroom.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E775" }, { "n": "Larches in October", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Gold against black spruce the length of every Tyrolean valley.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E776" }, { "n": "Almabtrieb — the cattle descent", "r": "COMMON", "g": "cow", "m": [ 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Cattle brought down from the high alps in September wearing enormous decorated headdresses, and the village turns out for it.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E777" }, { "n": "Haflinger horses", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The Tyrol’s own breed — chestnut with a flaxen mane, bred for mountain work since the 1870s.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E778" }, { "n": "Krimml falls in melt", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Europe’s tallest waterfall at three hundred and eighty metres, and loudest in the weeks after the thaw.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E779" }, { "n": "Pasterze glacier", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Austria’s largest, below the Grossglockner — and the marker posts showing where the ice stood are genuinely sobering.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E780" }, { "n": "Ice caves at Werfen", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The largest ice cave system in the world, forty kilometres of it inside a limestone mountain.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E781" }, { "n": "Alpine dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "High valleys with the lights below you, and long clear winter nights.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E782" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in the Kalkalpen", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "A serious flush, taken seriously, and picking limits are enforced.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E783" }, { "n": "Ravens over the Grossglockner", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "Tumbling above the highest road in the country, and often the only thing above you.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E784" }, { "n": "Foehn over the Tyrol", "r": "COMMON", "g": "sky", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "AT" ], "d": "The warm dry downslope wind that clears the valley in an hour and unsettles everyone in it.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E785" }, { "n": "Ibex kids on the ledges", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Born in June on ground no predator can reach, and climbing near-vertical rock within days.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E786" }, { "n": "Swiss National Park red deer rut", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "The park was founded in 1914 and nothing has been managed since — the September rut here is as close to wild as the Alps get.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E787" }, { "n": "Alpine ringlet butterflies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "Dark, velvety and everywhere on the high turf in midsummer. A genus with dozens of near-identical species.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E788" }, { "n": "Cotton grass on the high bogs", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CH" ], "d": "White flags across the peat of the Jura and the alpine plateaux.", "f": "eu-alps.html", "rt": true, "a": "E789" }, { "n": "Gran Paradiso ibex", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The founding population. Every ibex in the Alps descends from the few hundred that survived here under royal protection when the rest of Europe shot them out.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E790" }, { "n": "The Dolomite fossil reef", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The whole range is a Triassic coral reef lifted three thousand metres. Corals, shells and sponges are in the rock you are walking on.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E791" }, { "n": "Enrosadira — the alpenglow", "r": "COMMON", "g": "sky", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The Dolomites go pink and then blood red for a few minutes at dawn and dusk. The dolomite rock itself does it, and the Ladin legend explains it better than the geology.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E792" }, { "n": "Comacchio flamingos", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Thousands of greater flamingos on the Po delta salt pans — a colony that established itself in the 1990s and never left.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E793" }, { "n": "Crested porcupine", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Africa’s largest rodent, in Italy since Roman times and now common through Tuscany. Quills on a track are the usual sighting; the animal is nocturnal.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E794" }, { "n": "Marmots on the Sella", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Whistling from every Dolomite boulder field, and the sound of a summer walk above two thousand metres.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E795" }, { "n": "Chamois in the Dolomites", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "On ground even the ibex leave alone, and lower in autumn when the weather turns.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E796" }, { "n": "Bearded vultures over the Dolomites", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Released into the Alps from 1986 and now breeding on the Italian side. Nearly three metres across.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E797" }, { "n": "Golden eagles", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Over every Dolomite corrie and the whole Aosta valley.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E798" }, { "n": "Alpine choughs at the refuges", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Yellow-billed and entirely without shame at every mountain hut table.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E799" }, { "n": "Wallcreeper on the walls", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Crimson wings against grey limestone. The Dolomite cliffs hold them and winter brings them lower.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E800" }, { "n": "Spotted nutcracker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Planting the stone pine forest one buried seed at a time.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E801" }, { "n": "Rock ptarmigan", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "White in winter, mottled in summer, and invisible until it bursts out from underfoot.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E802" }, { "n": "Black grouse lekking", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Bubbling on a snow patch at first light in the treeline scrub.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E803" }, { "n": "Capercaillie", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "In the older Alpine forests, declining, and with lek sites deliberately unpublished.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E804" }, { "n": "Alpine accentor", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "On the summit boulder fields, and tame to the point of nuisance.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E805" }, { "n": "Snowfinch", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Around the high passes and ski stations all year.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E806" }, { "n": "Alpine salamander", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Jet black on wet Dolomite paths after rain, and it gestates for up to three years.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E807" }, { "n": "Alpine newts in the tarns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "In high pools that were under ice a fortnight before.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E808" }, { "n": "Red deer in the Aosta valley", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A strong Alpine population, roaring through the larch woods each October.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E809" }, { "n": "Roe deer", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "On every valley field margin at first and last light.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E810" }, { "n": "Wolves in the Apennines", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Never quite extinct in Italy, down to around a hundred animals in the seventies, and now recolonising the Alps from the south under their own power.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E811" }, { "n": "Lynx in the eastern Alps", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A handful of animals crossing from Slovenia and Switzerland, monitored by camera and almost never confirmed by eye.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E812" }, { "n": "Edelweiss on the limestone", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Protected, genuinely uncommon, and never to be picked.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E813" }, { "n": "Dolomite gentians", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Trumpet and spring gentians across the alpine turf, in a blue that photographs badly.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E814" }, { "n": "Alpenrose", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Pink hillsides just above the treeline right through midsummer.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E815" }, { "n": "Larches turning gold", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Val Gardena and the Val di Funes in late October, and the reason to travel then rather than in August.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E816" }, { "n": "The Marmolada glacier", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The only glacier left in the Dolomites, and shrinking fast enough that its retreat is measured yearly.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E817" }, { "n": "Apollo butterfly", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Big, white and red-spotted over the flowery alpine slopes. Protected.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E818" }, { "n": "Rosalia longhorn beetle", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Powder-blue with black spots on old beech, and a protected European flagship insect.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E819" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes on Como", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The weed dance on all three great lakes from February, long before the mountains thaw.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E820" }, { "n": "Cormorants on the lake posts", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "On every mooring and breakwater, wings out to dry, and blamed by every angler on the water.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E821" }, { "n": "Carpione of Lake Garda", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A trout found in Garda and nowhere else on earth, down to a fraction of its former numbers and effectively unfishable now.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E822" }, { "n": "Agone and lavarello", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The commercial lake fish of Como and Iseo, salted and dried on the shore in the old way.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E823" }, { "n": "Pike and perch in the reeds", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "In every quiet bay of the northern lakes, and a licence is required and easy to buy.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E824" }, { "n": "Monte Baldo flora", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The ridge above Garda is called the garden of Europe — a limestone ark that escaped the ice and holds species found nowhere else.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E825" }, { "n": "Olive groves on the lake shore", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Garda grows olives further north than almost anywhere, because the lake holds the winter off.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E826" }, { "n": "Cypress and umbrella pine", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The two trees that make an Italian horizon look Italian.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E827" }, { "n": "Italian wall lizard", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "On every wall, ruin and lakeside terrace from the Alps to Tuscany.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E828" }, { "n": "Green whip snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Long, fast, harmless and completely unwilling to be looked at.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E829" }, { "n": "Aesculapian snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A climber, harmless, and the snake coiled round the physician’s staff.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E830" }, { "n": "Asp viper", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "On warm rock and scree. Venomous, avoidant, and best watched from where you already are.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E831" }, { "n": "European pond terrapin", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Basking on a log in the delta and the lake margins, and genuinely native.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E832" }, { "n": "Pygmy cormorant", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A small dark cormorant of the delta reedbeds, recovered strongly from near-loss.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E833" }, { "n": "Glossy ibis", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Bronze-green and curve-billed over the Comacchio valli.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E834" }, { "n": "Purple herons in the reed", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Slimmer and shyer than a grey heron, slipping into cover rather than flying.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E835" }, { "n": "Squacco heron", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Buff and hunched until it flies, when it turns startlingly white.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E836" }, { "n": "Little bittern", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The smallest European heron, in the reed edges and gone before you focus.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E837" }, { "n": "Black-winged stilts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Absurd pink legs across the salt pans.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E838" }, { "n": "Avocets on the valli", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Sweeping the brine on the worked lagoons of the delta.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E839" }, { "n": "Kentish plover on the lido", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Nesting on open Adriatic sand, and fenced against feet and dogs alike.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E840" }, { "n": "Penduline tit", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "It weaves a hanging purse of a nest in the delta willows, and the nest is easier to find than the bird.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E841" }, { "n": "European bee-eaters", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Hawking over the delta banks in the most improbable colours in Europe.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E842" }, { "n": "Mediterranean gulls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Pure white-winged and red-billed, on the lagoon and the Adriatic shore.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E843" }, { "n": "Sandwich and little terns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Fishing the shallow Adriatic and nesting on the lagoon shell banks.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E844" }, { "n": "Striped and bottlenose dolphins", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "In the Ligurian Sea, inside the Pelagos Sanctuary — a protected cetacean area the size of a small country.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E845" }, { "n": "Fin whales off Liguria", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The second largest animal on earth, feeding within reach of a day boat from Genoa.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E846" }, { "n": "Loggerhead turtles", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Increasingly nesting on Italian beaches, and each nest fenced and watched by volunteers.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E847" }, { "n": "Cory’s shearwaters", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Shearing the Ligurian swell on stiff wings, far offshore and worth a boat trip.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E848" }, { "n": "Seahorses in the lagoon", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The Venice lagoon holds them in the eelgrass, and their recovery is used as a measure of the lagoon’s health.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E849" }, { "n": "Wild boar in the Chianti", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Abundant, nocturnal, destructive to a vineyard, and on every Tuscan menu as a result.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E850" }, { "n": "Hoopoes on the tracks", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Crest up and butterfly-flighted along every olive terrace.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E851" }, { "n": "European roller", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Electric blue on a roadside wire, and declining across its range.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E852" }, { "n": "Scops owl calling", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "One pure electronic note every two seconds, all night, from every Tuscan village.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E853" }, { "n": "Little owls on the walls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Out in daylight on barn roofs and ruined farmhouses.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E854" }, { "n": "Barn owls over the fields", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Ghost-pale along the field margins of the Val d’Orcia at last light.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E855" }, { "n": "Short-toed snake eagle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Hovering over the scrub hunting snakes, pale-bellied and unmistakable.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E856" }, { "n": "Red kites over the Apennines", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Forked tails over the hill farmland between Florence and Siena.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E857" }, { "n": "Italian sparrow", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A species in its own right rather than a house sparrow, and found only here.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E858" }, { "n": "Zitting cisticola", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A tiny warbler bouncing over the stubble with a call like a dripping tap.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E859" }, { "n": "Cirl buntings", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Common in Italian farmland while Britain holds a few hundred pairs in Devon.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E860" }, { "n": "Beech marten in the villages", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The urban marten, and notorious for chewing car wiring overnight.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E861" }, { "n": "Hermann’s tortoise in the Maremma", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Wild in the coastal scrub, protected, and collection is one of the reasons it is scarce.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E862" }, { "n": "Spectacled salamander", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Found only in Italy — a small dark salamander with a red belly and pale marks over the eyes.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E863" }, { "n": "Italian crested newt", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "In field ponds and stone troughs through the hills.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E864" }, { "n": "Cicadas in the pines", "r": "COMMON", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The sound of an Italian August, and it stops the instant you look.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E865" }, { "n": "Praying mantis", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "On dry grassland from late summer, and commoner than most visitors expect.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E866" }, { "n": "Stag beetles in the oakwoods", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Heavy and antlered, clattering out of the chestnut and oak on warm evenings.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E867" }, { "n": "Scarce swallowtail", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Pale and tiger-striped round every orchard and olive terrace.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E868" }, { "n": "Two-tailed pasha", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Europe’s most spectacular butterfly, on strawberry-tree fruit in the Maremma scrub.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E869" }, { "n": "Italian festoon", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Zebra-striped and one of the first butterflies of the Italian spring.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E870" }, { "n": "Maremmana cattle and the butteri", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Long-horned white cattle worked from horseback by Italy’s own cowboys — a living tradition on the Tuscan coast.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E871" }, { "n": "Maremma sheepdogs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "White livestock guardians living with the flock rather than herding it, and the reason wolves and sheep coexist here.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E872" }, { "n": "Chianina cattle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Enormous, porcelain-white, among the oldest breeds in the world, and the bistecca alla fiorentina.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E873" }, { "n": "Sunflower fields", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Whole Tuscan valleys turned yellow and all facing the same way for a few weeks.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E874" }, { "n": "Poppies in the wheat", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Red through the green corn of the Val d’Orcia before the harvest.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E875" }, { "n": "Wild orchids on the limestone", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Bee, tongue and pyramidal orchids on the thin Apennine soils.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E876" }, { "n": "Chestnut woods in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "The Apennine chestnut, which fed these hills for centuries and still supplies the flour.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E877" }, { "n": "Porcini after the rain", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "A national obsession in the chestnut and beech, with permits and daily limits that are enforced.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E878" }, { "n": "White truffles of Alba", "r": "RARE", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Found by dog in the Piedmont hills, sold by the gram, and the most expensive food on earth by weight.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E879" }, { "n": "The vendemmia", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Grapes off the Chianti and Barolo slopes, and the whole hillside smells of fermentation.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E880" }, { "n": "Olive harvest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 11, 12 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Nets under the trees across Tuscany, and the mills running through the night.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E881" }, { "n": "Firefly nights", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Lucciole over the Tuscan vineyards for a fortnight in June, and no torch — it defeats the point.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E882" }, { "n": "Apennine dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "IT" ], "d": "Between the hill towns there is very little light, and the Milky Way stands up properly.", "f": "eu-italy-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E883" }, { "n": "Cantabrian brown bears", "r": "RARE", "g": "badger", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Down to around eighty animals in the nineties and now several hundred. Somiedo and Muniellos are the strongholds, and the watching is done from a road with a telescope, at distance, in silence.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E884" }, { "n": "Iberian wolves of the Culebra", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The Sierra de la Culebra holds the highest wolf density in western Europe and is the most reliable place on the continent to see one wild. Dawn, a scope, and a great deal of patience.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E885" }, { "n": "Whales of the Bay of Biscay", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The ferry crosses a submarine canyon four thousand metres deep. Fin whales, Cuvier’s beaked whales and even blue whales are recorded from the deck — the crossing is a wildlife event in itself.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E886" }, { "n": "Garrano horses of Gerês", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "An ancient Iberian breed running semi-wild in Portugal’s only national park, and depicted on cave walls in the same hills.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E887" }, { "n": "Griffon vultures of the Douro", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The Douro Internaçional gorge holds one of Iberia’s great vulture concentrations, riding the thermals off a river that is also the border.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E888" }, { "n": "Percebes on the Costa da Morte", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Goose barnacles prised off the rock between waves by percebeiros who are regularly killed doing it. The most dangerous harvest in Europe, and the most expensive shellfish in Spain.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E889" }, { "n": "Cantabrian chamois", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The rebeco, on the Picos limestone and lower in autumn. Smaller and darker than its Alpine cousin.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E890" }, { "n": "Iberian ibex in the Picos", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Recolonising the eastern massif, having been shot out of most of the range in the nineteenth century.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E891" }, { "n": "Cantabrian capercaillie", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A distinct subspecies of the Atlantic beechwoods, down to a few hundred birds and among the most threatened in Europe. Lek sites are closed and unpublished.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E892" }, { "n": "Pyrenean desman", "r": "RARE", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "An aquatic mole with a trunk and webbed feet, found only in Iberia and the Pyrenees, declining fast and almost never seen.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E893" }, { "n": "Otters on the Asturian rivers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Healthy populations on the clean northern rivers. Spraint on a boulder is the usual sighting.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E894" }, { "n": "Common genet", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Spotted, ring-tailed and cat-like, introduced from Africa centuries ago and now thoroughly at home in Iberian woodland. Strictly nocturnal.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E895" }, { "n": "Egyptian mongoose", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s only mongoose, found on the Iberian peninsula and nowhere else on the continent. Diurnal, and it trots.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E896" }, { "n": "European wildcat", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Genuinely wild cats in the Cantabrian forests, and effectively a camera-trap species.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E897" }, { "n": "Pine and beech martens", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Both present through the northern woods, and both far more often inferred than seen.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E898" }, { "n": "Red deer in the Cantabrian woods", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A strong population, and the September rut in the beech is one of the great sounds of northern Spain.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E899" }, { "n": "Roe deer at the wood edge", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On every Asturian and Galician field margin at first and last light.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E900" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Abundant, nocturnal, and on every menu in the mountains as a result.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E901" }, { "n": "Iberian hare", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Smaller than the brown hare and found only on the peninsula.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E902" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Dark-coated and often black in the northern forests, with no greys anywhere.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E903" }, { "n": "Bearded vultures over the Picos", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Reintroduced to the Picos de Europa from 2010 after eighty years absent, and now breeding again.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E904" }, { "n": "Griffon vultures", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Spain holds most of Europe’s griffons. Over every gorge and cliff on this route.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E905" }, { "n": "Egyptian vulture", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Small, scruffy and yellow-faced, and a summer visitor that winters in Africa.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E906" }, { "n": "Cinereous vulture", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The black vulture, the largest bird of prey in Europe, and recovering strongly from near-extinction.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E907" }, { "n": "Golden eagles", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Over the Picos ridges and the Zamora dehesa alike.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E908" }, { "n": "Bonelli’s eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A rocky-country specialist, scarce everywhere and declining.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E909" }, { "n": "Short-toed snake eagle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Hovering over the scrub hunting snakes, pale-bellied and unmistakable.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E910" }, { "n": "Red and black kites", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Both over the farmland and both by the dozen at a rubbish tip.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E911" }, { "n": "Iberian green woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A full species found only on the peninsula, and greyer-faced than the northern bird.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E912" }, { "n": "White-backed woodpecker", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The Cantabrian subspecies is one of the rarest birds in Spain, tied to old beech with standing dead wood.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E913" }, { "n": "Middle spotted woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "An old-oak specialist through the Atlantic woods.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E914" }, { "n": "Wallcreeper on the Picos walls", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Crimson against grey limestone in the Cares gorge, and lower in winter.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E915" }, { "n": "Alpine accentor and snowfinch", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Both on the high Picos, and both tamer than anything has a right to be.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E916" }, { "n": "Red-billed choughs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On every sea cliff and mountain crag, curved red bill and a ringing call.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E917" }, { "n": "Blue rock thrush", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Slate-blue on a bare crag, singing from the highest point available.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E918" }, { "n": "Rock bunting", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Grey-headed and striped, on dry stony slopes throughout the north.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E919" }, { "n": "Dartford and Sardinian warblers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Scolding from every gorse and scrub bush on the Atlantic heath.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E920" }, { "n": "European bee-eaters", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Nesting in sand banks inland, and the most improbable colours in Europe.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E921" }, { "n": "Hoopoes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Crest up on every track and vineyard edge.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E922" }, { "n": "White storks on the towers", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On church towers and pylons across the meseta, and increasingly resident year-round.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E923" }, { "n": "Black storks on the gorges", "r": "RARE", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The shy forest cousin, nesting on cliff ledges in the Douro and Zamora country.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E924" }, { "n": "Atlantic salmon of the Sella", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Asturian rivers still hold runs, and the first salmon of the season is auctioned for a headline price.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E925" }, { "n": "Sea trout on the northern rivers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Night-running fish on summer spates, and permits are regional and inexpensive.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E926" }, { "n": "Octopus in the rías", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Pulpo á feira is the Galician dish, and the animal itself is in every rock crevice of the rías.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E927" }, { "n": "Mussel rafts of the Rías Baixas", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Thousands of wooden bateas covering the sheltered rías — Galicia produces a large share of Europe’s mussels.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E928" }, { "n": "Common and bottlenose dolphins", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "In the rías and off the headlands, and regularly from the ferry.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E929" }, { "n": "Cory’s and Manx shearwaters", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Shearing the Atlantic swell on stiff wings, and best from a boat or a headland in a westerly.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E930" }, { "n": "European shags on the stacks", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On every Galician and Asturian sea stack, wings out to dry.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E931" }, { "n": "Storm petrels off the Ciés", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Smaller than a swallow, living on the open Atlantic and coming ashore only at night.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E932" }, { "n": "Yellow-legged gulls of the Ciés", "r": "COMMON", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The Atlantic Islands national park holds an enormous colony, and they are entirely unbothered by people.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E933" }, { "n": "Schreiber’s green lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "An Iberian endemic of damp Atlantic scrub, and startlingly green.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E934" }, { "n": "Iberian rock lizard", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On the high Picos scree, and found only in these mountains and the Pyrenees.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E935" }, { "n": "Ocellated lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s largest lizard, green with blue eye-spots, on dry walls and scrub inland.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E936" }, { "n": "Seoane’s viper", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A small north-western viper found only in Atlantic Iberia. Venomous, retiring, and best left entirely alone.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E937" }, { "n": "Iberian worm lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A legless burrowing reptile that looks like a pink worm and is neither worm nor snake.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E938" }, { "n": "Gold-striped salamander", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Found only in north-west Iberia — black with two copper stripes, on wet stone beside Atlantic streams.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E939" }, { "n": "Iberian midwife toad", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The male carries the eggs wrapped round his hind legs, and calls a single bell note after dark.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E940" }, { "n": "Sharp-ribbed newt", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s largest newt, which can push its own ribs through its skin as a defence.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E941" }, { "n": "Fire salamander after rain", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On wet Atlantic woodland paths at dusk, and the Iberian forms are exceptionally well marked.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E942" }, { "n": "Spanish moon moth", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Pale green with long tails and eye-spots, in mountain pinewoods, and one of the most beautiful insects in Europe.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E943" }, { "n": "Rosalia longhorn beetle", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Powder-blue on old Cantabrian beech, and a protected European flagship.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E944" }, { "n": "Apollo butterfly", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On the flowery limestone of the Picos, and protected.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E945" }, { "n": "Two-tailed pasha", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Feeding on strawberry-tree fruit in the coastal scrub.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E946" }, { "n": "Cantabrian beech forests", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 5, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Muniellos is among the largest oak and beech forests in Europe and entry is limited by permit each day.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E947" }, { "n": "Atlantic oakwoods and laurel", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Green Spain is genuinely green — mossy oakwood that looks far more like Devon than Andalucía.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E948" }, { "n": "Eucalyptus plantations", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Not native, planted for pulp across Galicia and Asturias, and a real part of the fire problem. Worth seeing and worth understanding.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E949" }, { "n": "Gorse and heather on the heath", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Yellow in spring and purple in late summer across the Atlantic hills.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E950" }, { "n": "Picos alpine flora", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Gentians, saxifrages and Iberian endemics on the high limestone above the Cares.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E951" }, { "n": "Chestnut woods in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The magosto — the chestnut roast — is a Galician and Asturian festival in November.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E952" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in Galicia", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A serious flush in the Atlantic woods, taken seriously, and regulated in some councils.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E953" }, { "n": "Picos dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "High limestone valleys with very little light, and long warm summer nights.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E954" }, { "n": "Iberian wolves of Peneda-Gerês", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A small, protected and closely monitored population in Portugal’s only national park. Heard far more often than seen, and even that is rare.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E955" }, { "n": "Iberian ibex, returned", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Extinct in Portugal by 1892 and back in Gerês since the 1990s by natural recolonisation from Spain.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E956" }, { "n": "Roe deer in the Gerês oakwoods", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Recovering strongly through the northern mountains.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E957" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Abundant through the north, and the reason every smallholding has a fence.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E958" }, { "n": "Otters on the Minho", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Portugal holds one of the healthiest otter populations in Europe, on clean granite rivers.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E959" }, { "n": "Common genet", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Spotted and ring-tailed in the oakwoods, and strictly nocturnal.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E960" }, { "n": "Egyptian mongoose", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Trotting across a track in daylight, and found nowhere else in Europe outside Iberia.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E961" }, { "n": "Pine marten", "r": "RARE", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Present in the northern forests and very seldom seen.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E962" }, { "n": "Iberian hare", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On the open granite uplands and the terraced farmland alike.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E963" }, { "n": "Golden eagles over Gerês", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A handful of pairs in the north, and the park is the stronghold.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E964" }, { "n": "Bonelli’s eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On the Douro gorge cliffs, scarce and declining across Iberia.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E965" }, { "n": "Egyptian vultures of the Douro", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Summer visitors to the international gorge, breeding on ledges above the river.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E966" }, { "n": "Black storks on the Douro", "r": "RARE", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Nesting on the gorge cliffs of the Douro Internacional — one of the best places in Europe for them.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E967" }, { "n": "Red-billed choughs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On the granite crags of the north and the Douro cliffs.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E968" }, { "n": "Iberian magpie", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Azure-winged, sociable and noisy — an Iberian bird whose nearest relatives are in east Asia.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E969" }, { "n": "Iberian green woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A full species, found only on the peninsula.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E970" }, { "n": "Blue rock thrush", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On the Douro terraces and the coastal cliffs.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E971" }, { "n": "Hoopoes and bee-eaters", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Both common through the Douro and the Minho in summer.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E972" }, { "n": "White storks on the chimneys", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On every church tower and pylon, and increasingly staying all year.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E973" }, { "n": "Cory’s shearwaters offshore", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Shearing the Atlantic off the Minho coast on stiff wings.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E974" }, { "n": "Sardines off the coast", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The summer fish, grilled on charcoal in the street, and the reason for the June festivals.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E975" }, { "n": "Sea lamprey in the Minho", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A jawless fish older than the dinosaurs, running up the border river each spring and served as a delicacy.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E976" }, { "n": "Allis shad — sável", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Running the Minho and the Douro to spawn, and a seasonal fixture on northern menus.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E977" }, { "n": "Brown trout in the Gerês rivers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Wild fish in granite pools, and licences are cheap and easy.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E978" }, { "n": "Percebes on the Atlantic rock", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Harvested from the same dangerous rock as in Galicia, and just as prized.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E979" }, { "n": "Gold-striped salamander", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Black with two copper stripes, on wet stone by Atlantic streams, and found only in north-west Iberia.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E980" }, { "n": "Iberian emerald lizard", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Startling green on granite walls and terrace edges in the north.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E981" }, { "n": "Ocellated lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Europe’s largest lizard, on the dry Douro slopes.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E982" }, { "n": "Seoane’s viper", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "An Atlantic-Iberian endemic. Venomous, retiring, and left alone.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E983" }, { "n": "European pond terrapin", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "In the slow water of the Minho tributaries, and genuinely native.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E984" }, { "n": "Iberian midwife toad", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A bell note after dark from every granite village wall.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E985" }, { "n": "Barrosã and Cachena cattle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Ancient northern breeds with enormous lyre horns, still worked on the terraces and protected by name.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E986" }, { "n": "Serra da Estrela dogs", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Livestock guardians living with the flock, and the reason wolves and sheep can share a mountain.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E987" }, { "n": "Douro terraces", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Schist cut into steps by hand over three centuries, a UNESCO landscape, and among the steepest vineyards worked anywhere.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E988" }, { "n": "The vindima", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The Douro harvest, still partly picked and trodden by foot, and the whole valley smells of it.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E989" }, { "n": "Vinho verde vines", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Trained high on granite posts and pergolas in the Minho so the grapes ripen slowly and the land beneath still grows food.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E990" }, { "n": "Chestnut and oak woodland", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The souto — chestnut groves that fed the north for centuries and still supply the magusto.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E991" }, { "n": "Eucalyptus and the fire question", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Planted on a vast scale for pulp, and central to Portugal’s wildfire problem. Worth understanding rather than photographing.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E992" }, { "n": "Heather and gorse on the granite", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The northern uplands go yellow in spring and purple in late summer.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E993" }, { "n": "Wild orchids in Gerês", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Dozens of species on the thin granite soils and terrace margins.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E994" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in the souto", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A serious flush under the chestnuts, and picked with local knowledge and local rules.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E995" }, { "n": "Gerês dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Granite uplands with almost no settlement, and the Milky Way stands up properly.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E996" }, { "n": "Atlantic winter swells", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The north coast takes the full Atlantic in winter, and Nazaré further south records the largest surfed waves on earth.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E997" }, { "n": "Cantabrian holly woods", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Ancient holly stands on the high pastures, cut for winter fodder for centuries and now protected.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E998" }, { "n": "Barn owls on the espigueiros", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Hunting the terraces at dusk, and roosting in the stone granaries that stand on stilts above every northern village.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E999" }, { "n": "Tawny owls in the souto", "r": "COMMON", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Heard far more than seen, from every chestnut grove in the north.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1000" }, { "n": "Little owls on the walls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Out in daylight on granite walls and ruined quintas.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1001" }, { "n": "Scops owl calling", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "One pure note every two seconds through a Douro summer night.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1002" }, { "n": "Common buzzards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On roadside poles the length of the country.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1003" }, { "n": "Booted eagles", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A small summer eagle over the northern woodland, in pale and dark forms.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1004" }, { "n": "Short-toed snake eagle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Hovering over the Douro slopes hunting snakes.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1005" }, { "n": "Red kites over the Minho", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Forked tails over the terraced farmland.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1006" }, { "n": "Griffon vultures at the roost", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Hundreds on the Douro Internacional cliffs, and best watched from the Portuguese side at dawn.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1007" }, { "n": "Dippers on the granite streams", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Bobbing midstream on the fast clean water of Gerês.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1008" }, { "n": "Grey wagtails", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On every rock in every northern stream.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1009" }, { "n": "Black redstarts", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On granite walls, quinta roofs and every village church.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1010" }, { "n": "Nightingales in the valley scrub", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Full song from the Minho thickets through May.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1011" }, { "n": "Golden orioles in the poplars", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A fluting whistle from the riverside canopy, heard ten times for every sighting.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1012" }, { "n": "Cirl buntings", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Common in the terraced farmland while Britain holds a few hundred pairs.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1013" }, { "n": "Crested larks", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On every verge and car park in the drier east.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1014" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Recolonising the north after centuries away, and darker than the British ones.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1015" }, { "n": "Badgers in the oakwoods", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Setts under granite banks, and a well-worn path nothing else would make.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1016" }, { "n": "Bats over the quintas", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Hunting the terraces at dusk, and the old schist wine lodges hold important roosts.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1017" }, { "n": "Fire salamander after rain", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Black and yellow on wet Gerês paths at dusk, never in sunshine.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1018" }, { "n": "Marbled newt", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Green and black marbling, in granite troughs and field ponds.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1019" }, { "n": "Iberian frog", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A north-western endemic of cold clean mountain streams.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1020" }, { "n": "Praying mantis on the Douro", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On dry terrace grassland from late summer.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1021" }, { "n": "Cicadas in the Douro heat", "r": "COMMON", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The sound of the valley in July, and it stops the instant you look.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1022" }, { "n": "Two-tailed pasha", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Europe’s most spectacular butterfly, on strawberry-tree fruit in the coastal scrub.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1023" }, { "n": "Spanish festoon", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Zebra-striped and among the first butterflies of the Iberian spring.", "f": "eu-iberia-north.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1024" }, { "n": "Bavarian Forest lynx", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Returned to Europe’s first national park after a century away. A track in snow or a camera-trap image is the honest sighting; people who see one by eye talk about it for years.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1025" }, { "n": "Archaeopteryx country", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The Solnhofen limestone of the Altmühltal produced the most famous fossil on earth. Working quarries let you split slabs yourself, and ammonites and feathers turn up in the same rock.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1026" }, { "n": "Danube beavers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Extinct in Bavaria by 1867 and reintroduced from 1966; the state now holds more beavers than anywhere else in central Europe, and the felled willow is unmistakable.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1027" }, { "n": "Black Forest fire salamanders", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Black and yellow on wet forest paths at dusk after rain, and the Black Forest is the classic German place to meet one.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1028" }, { "n": "The bark beetle forest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The Bavarian Forest let the beetle kill its spruce rather than fell it, and the regrowth beneath the grey skeletons is one of the most argued-over decisions in European conservation. Go and judge it.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1029" }, { "n": "Zugspitze and its glacier", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Germany’s highest point at 2,962 m, with the last of its shrinking glaciers below the summit and four countries visible on a clear day.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1030" }, { "n": "Capercaillie of the Black Forest", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A relict population down to a few hundred birds and falling. Lek areas are closed in spring and their locations are deliberately unpublished.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1031" }, { "n": "Hazel grouse", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A thin whistle from dense spruce, and one of the least-seen birds in Germany.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1032" }, { "n": "Black grouse on the high moor", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Almost gone from the Black Forest, and clinging on where the raised bog stays open.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1033" }, { "n": "Pygmy owl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Smaller than a starling and hunting other birds. Its whistle carries a long way through cold spruce.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1034" }, { "n": "Tengmalm’s owl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A hollow bouncing song on late-winter nights, from holes a black woodpecker made first.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1035" }, { "n": "Three-toed woodpecker", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A specialist of dead standing spruce, and a direct beneficiary of the bark beetle policy.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1036" }, { "n": "Black woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Crow-sized and entirely black bar the red cap, and the architect of most forest holes.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1037" }, { "n": "Ring ouzels above the treeline", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "On the Feldberg and the high Black Forest slopes.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1038" }, { "n": "Crossbills in the spruce", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Breeding in midwinter because that is when the cones open. Falling scales give them away.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1039" }, { "n": "Spotted nutcracker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Burying pine seeds by the thousand and forgetting enough to plant the next forest.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1040" }, { "n": "Red deer of the Black Forest", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Confined by law to designated areas for decades, and the September rut is loud in the high valleys.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1041" }, { "n": "Roe deer at the forest edge", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "On every clearing and field margin at first and last light.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1042" }, { "n": "Wild boar in the oakwoods", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Abundant and nocturnal, and the reason every Baden vineyard has a fence.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1043" }, { "n": "Feldberg alpine flora", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Arnica, gentians and alpine species marooned on the highest ground since the ice age, a long way from any Alp.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1044" }, { "n": "Raised bog and sundew", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Hochmoor with cotton grass and carnivorous sundew, on boardwalks that exist because the peat does not recover.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1045" }, { "n": "Alpine newts in the forest pools", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Orange-bellied and slate-blue, in every woodland puddle and wheel rut in spring.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1046" }, { "n": "Brown trout in the streams", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Small wild fish in fast clean water, and permits are local, cheap and well organised.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1047" }, { "n": "Hinterwälder cattle", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The smallest cattle breed in central Europe, bred for slopes too steep for anything larger, and still working them.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1048" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in the Schwarzwald", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A serious flush in the spruce and beech, with picking limits that are genuinely enforced.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1049" }, { "n": "Kaiserstuhl bee-eaters", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Germany’s warmest corner is a volcanic hill in the Rhine plain, and it holds the country’s main bee-eater colonies.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1050" }, { "n": "Praying mantis on the Kaiserstuhl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Far further north than most people expect, on the dry terraces among the vines.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1051" }, { "n": "Green lizard of the Kaiserstuhl", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Electric green on the loess terraces, at the northern edge of its European range.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1052" }, { "n": "Kaiserstuhl orchids", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Dozens of species on the volcanic loess, including several found almost nowhere else in Germany.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1053" }, { "n": "Hoopoes in the vineyards", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Recolonising the warm Rhine terraces, crest up on every bare patch of ground.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1054" }, { "n": "Red-crested pochards on the Bodensee", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Wintering in thousands, and the lake is internationally important for wildfowl.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1055" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes displaying", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The weed dance across the whole lake from early spring.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1056" }, { "n": "Bearded reedlings in the Wollmatinger reed", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Pinging like tiny bells and bouncing over the reed tops on still mornings.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1057" }, { "n": "Bodensee whitefish", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The Blaufelchen, netted commercially for centuries and on every lakeside menu.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1058" }, { "n": "Little ringed plover on the gravel", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Nesting on bare river shingle and gravel workings, and gone the moment you look away.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1059" }, { "n": "The Rhine Falls", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Europe’s largest waterfall by volume, at Schaffhausen just over the Swiss line, and loudest after the alpine thaw.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1060" }, { "n": "Mainau island planting", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A whole island gardened since the nineteenth century, with palms outdoors on a lake that freezes.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1061" }, { "n": "Alpine ibex in the Allgäu", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Reintroduced to the Bavarian Alps and now on the high ridges above the lakes.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1062" }, { "n": "Chamois in the Berchtesgaden", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "On the Watzmann faces and lower in autumn when the weather turns.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1063" }, { "n": "Alpine marmots", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Whistling from every Bavarian boulder field above the treeline.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1064" }, { "n": "Golden eagles over the Watzmann", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Berchtesgaden national park holds a well-studied population, and the park publishes its nest counts.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1065" }, { "n": "Alpine choughs at the summit", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "At every cable-car station and mountain hut, entirely without shame.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1066" }, { "n": "Wallcreeper on the limestone", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Crimson against grey rock on the Berchtesgaden and Wetterstein cliffs, lower in winter.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1067" }, { "n": "Rock ptarmigan", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "On the highest Bavarian ridges, white in winter and invisible in summer.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1068" }, { "n": "Alpine salamander", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Jet black on wet paths after rain, and it gestates for up to three years before live birth.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1069" }, { "n": "Edelweiss on the Bavarian limestone", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Protected in Bavaria since 1886, and genuinely uncommon.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1070" }, { "n": "Alpenrose above the treeline", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Pink hillsides through midsummer across the whole Bavarian range.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1071" }, { "n": "Königssee and the echo", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Electric boats only since 1909, and the boatman still plays a flugelhorn at the rock face to demonstrate the echo.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1072" }, { "n": "Partnach and Breitachklamm gorges", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Meltwater gorges cut so deep the path is bolted to the wall, and loudest in June.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1073" }, { "n": "White-tailed eagles on the Danube", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Recolonising Bavaria from the east after being shot out entirely, and now breeding on the river again.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1074" }, { "n": "Kingfishers on the Altmühl", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "kingfisher", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A blue bolt along every clean Bavarian river and gravel pit.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1075" }, { "n": "Huchen — the Danube salmon", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A metre-long predator found only in the Danube basin, and among the most threatened fish in Europe.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1076" }, { "n": "Nase and barbel on the gravel", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Shoaling fish of fast clean water, and an indicator that the river is in good order.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1077" }, { "n": "The Danube Gorge at Weltenburg", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The river cuts a limestone gorge below a monastery that has brewed since 1050. Reachable by boat and by nothing else.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1078" }, { "n": "Franconian cave systems", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The Fränkische Schweiz limestone is riddled with caves, several of them show caves, and cave-bear bones came out of them.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1079" }, { "n": "Ammonites in the Jura", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The Solnhofen and Altmühltal quarries let visitors split their own slabs, and finds are usually yours to keep — which is rarer than it sounds.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1080" }, { "n": "White storks in Franconia", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "On village roofs and chimneys, recovered strongly since the 1980s.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1081" }, { "n": "Red kites over the Franconian farmland", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Germany holds more than half the world population, and Franconia is thick with them.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1082" }, { "n": "Wolves of the Bavarian Forest", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Returned across the Czech border and breeding again in Bavaria since 2016. Almost never seen, and politically contentious.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1083" }, { "n": "Ural owls, reintroduced", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Extinct in Germany and released back into the Bavarian Forest from the 1970s. It will defend a nest with real violence.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1084" }, { "n": "Eurasian elk, occasionally", "r": "RARE", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Wanderers cross from Czechia and Poland from time to time, and each one makes the regional news.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1085" }, { "n": "White-backed woodpecker", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "An old-growth specialist, and one of the rarest woodpeckers in central Europe.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1086" }, { "n": "Urwald — the primeval remnants", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Small patches of forest that were never cleared, kept as a control against everything managed around them.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1087" }, { "n": "The treetop walk", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A kilometre-long walkway through the canopy at forty-four metres, and the only way most people ever see a spruce crown.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1088" }, { "n": "Lynx tracks in snow", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The realistic sighting: a line of round prints in fresh snow, walking a forest road as though it owned it.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1089" }, { "n": "Boreal forest fungi", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "A serious autumn flush in the spruce, and dead wood everywhere for it to work on.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1090" }, { "n": "Beech forests in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Southern Germany in copper and gold, and the country takes its autumn walking seriously.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1091" }, { "n": "Alpine dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "High Bavarian valleys with the lights below you and long clear winter nights.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1092" }, { "n": "Föhn over the Alps", "r": "COMMON", "g": "sky", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The warm downslope wind that clears the horizon in an hour, makes the mountains look close enough to touch, and gives half of Bavaria a headache.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1093" }, { "n": "Hop gardens of the Hallertau", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "The largest continuous hop-growing area on earth, and the reason for a great deal of what happens in Bavaria.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1094" }, { "n": "Apple and pear meadows", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Streuobstwiesen — traditional orchards grazed beneath, and among the richest habitats in Germany.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1095" }, { "n": "Bats in the church towers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Baroque roof spaces hold important maternity roosts, and several churches carry a plaque explaining it.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1096" }, { "n": "Hedgehogs in the villages", "r": "COMMON", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "Gardens and campsite edges from April until they turn in.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1097" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "DE" ], "d": "In every wood and park, often near-black in the mountains, and no greys anywhere.", "f": "eu-germany-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1098" }, { "n": "Białowieża bison", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "The last wild-living European bison died here in 1919 and every animal alive today descends from twelve zoo survivors. Several hundred now range the forest — the single greatest conservation recovery on the continent.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1099" }, { "n": "The primeval forest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Białowieża holds the last substantial lowland forest in Europe never cleared or replanted. Oaks four hundred years old, dead wood left where it falls, and a strict reserve you may only enter with a guide.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1100" }, { "n": "Tatra chamois", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A subspecies found only in these mountains, down to under two hundred animals in the nineties and now recovered. On the ridges above the treeline in both countries.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1101" }, { "n": "Brown bears of the Tatras", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Slovakia holds one of the strongest bear populations in Europe. Genuinely present, genuinely wild, and the reason food is never left outside a tent here.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1102" }, { "n": "Pravčická brána", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "The largest natural sandstone arch in Europe, twenty-six metres across, in a landscape of towers and gorges the Czechs call Bohemian Switzerland.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1103" }, { "n": "European souslik", "r": "RARE", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A ground squirrel of the south Moravian steppe, extinct across much of its former range and now confined to a handful of protected grasslands.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1104" }, { "n": "Wolves of Białowieża", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Never exterminated in the Polish east, and now a stable population. Tracks, scats and a howl at night are the realistic encounter.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1105" }, { "n": "Lynx in the eastern forests", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Present in Białowieża and the Bieszczady, and effectively a camera-trap animal.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1106" }, { "n": "Elk in the Biebrza marshes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Europe’s largest deer, and the Biebrza holds the best population in the European Union. Dawn on a marsh road is the moment.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1107" }, { "n": "Konik horses", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pony", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Back-bred to resemble the extinct tarpan and grazing the Białowieża meadows and Polish reserves.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1108" }, { "n": "Red deer of the primeval forest", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Rutting in September among four-hundred-year-old oaks, which is a different experience from a deer park.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1109" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Abundant in the eastern forests, and the reason bins in Białowieża village are bear- and boar-proofed.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1110" }, { "n": "Beavers on the Narew", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Reintroduced from the 1970s and now everywhere on the eastern rivers, reshaping whole side channels.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1111" }, { "n": "Otters on the Biebrza", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Healthy populations on the clean marsh rivers, seen at dawn from a punt more often than from a bank.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1112" }, { "n": "Raccoon dog", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "An east Asian canid introduced to the Soviet Union and now across northern Europe. Nocturnal, and an honest reminder that not every animal here belongs.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1113" }, { "n": "Pine marten", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "In every large eastern forest, and rarely seen without a hide.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1114" }, { "n": "Ten woodpecker species", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Białowieża holds all ten European woodpeckers — the only forest on the continent that does. White-backed and three-toed are the prizes.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1115" }, { "n": "White-backed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "An old-growth specialist that needs standing dead wood, and thrives here because none is tidied away.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1116" }, { "n": "Three-toed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "On dead spruce, and a direct beneficiary of a forest left alone.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1117" }, { "n": "Grey-headed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A descending whinnying call through the riverside woodland.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1118" }, { "n": "Collared flycatcher", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Black and white and startlingly crisp, and Białowieża is one of the best places in Europe to see one.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1119" }, { "n": "Red-breasted flycatcher", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A tiny robin-throated flycatcher of the old canopy, heard far more than seen.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1120" }, { "n": "Ural owls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Nesting in broken stumps in the old forest, and prepared to defend a nest with real violence.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1121" }, { "n": "Pygmy and Tengmalm’s owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Both in the eastern forests, and both far more often heard on a cold night than seen.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1122" }, { "n": "Eagle owls", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Europe’s largest owl, on quarry faces and forest edges, and scarce throughout.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1123" }, { "n": "Aquatic warbler", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A globally threatened bird of open sedge fen, and the Biebrza is its world stronghold. Singing at dusk from a marsh you cannot walk into.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1124" }, { "n": "Great snipe at the lek", "r": "RARE", "g": "wader", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Males displaying at dusk on a marsh lek, tail fanned and bill clattering. One of the strangest bird spectacles in Europe.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1125" }, { "n": "Ruff lekking on the marsh", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Absurd ruffs and ear tufts, no two males alike, on the Biebrza wet meadows.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1126" }, { "n": "Corncrake calling", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A rasping two-note call all night from the hay meadows, and Poland holds a large share of the European population.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1127" }, { "n": "Spotted crake and little crake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Whip-cracking and yelping from the reed at night, and almost never visible.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1128" }, { "n": "White storks on the poles", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Poland holds roughly a quarter of the world population. Nests on power poles in every village on this route.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1129" }, { "n": "Black storks in the forest", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "The shy forest cousin, nesting deep in old woodland and rarely seen near people.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1130" }, { "n": "White-tailed eagles", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "The national bird in all but name, on every large lake and river in the north.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1131" }, { "n": "Greater spotted eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Down to a handful of pairs in the Biebrza, and among the rarest breeding raptors in the European Union.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1132" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harriers over the fen", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Buoyant and light over the open marsh, with nests individually protected by volunteers.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1133" }, { "n": "Tatra marmots", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Whistling from the boulder fields above Zakopane, and a distinct Tatra subspecies.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1134" }, { "n": "Wallcreeper in the Tatras", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Crimson against grey limestone, and easier in winter when it comes down the valleys.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1135" }, { "n": "Alpine accentor", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "On the high Tatra boulder fields, tame to the point of nuisance.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1136" }, { "n": "Golden eagles over the Tatras", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A small, closely watched population on both sides of the range.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1137" }, { "n": "Bieszczady wolves", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "The Bieszczady holds one of the highest wolf densities in Europe, and the poloniny meadows above the treeline are where people watch for them.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1138" }, { "n": "Bison of the Bieszczady", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A second free-ranging Polish herd, established from Białowieża stock in the sixties.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1139" }, { "n": "European wildcat", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "In the Bieszczady and the Carpathian foothills, and effectively unseeable.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1140" }, { "n": "Fire-bellied toad", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A chorus of soft hooting from every field pond, and a startling orange belly when it arches.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1141" }, { "n": "European pond terrapin", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Basking on logs in the eastern oxbows, and genuinely native.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1142" }, { "n": "Aesculapian snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A climber, harmless, at the northern edge of its range in the Bieszczady.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1143" }, { "n": "Adders on the peat", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "On bog margins and forest rides, sometimes in the near-black form.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1144" }, { "n": "Sand lizards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Emerald-flanked males on every sandy bank and railway embankment.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1145" }, { "n": "Hermit beetle", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Living inside hollow veteran oaks and smelling faintly of apricots. A European flagship for old trees.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1146" }, { "n": "Rosalia longhorn beetle", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Powder-blue on old beech, and protected across the continent.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1147" }, { "n": "Large copper butterfly", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Extinct in Britain, and still present on eastern Polish fen.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1148" }, { "n": "Scarce fritillary", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A declining woodland-edge butterfly with a stronghold in eastern Poland.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1149" }, { "n": "Apollo of the Pieniny", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A relict population on the Pieniny limestone, saved from extinction by a deliberate reintroduction.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1150" }, { "n": "Białowieża oaks", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Named giants four and five hundred years old, several of them with their own signposts and their own histories.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1151" }, { "n": "Peat bogs of the north-east", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Cotton grass, sundew and cranberry across raised bog, on boardwalks that exist because peat does not recover.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1152" }, { "n": "Tatra alpine flora", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Gentians, edelweiss and Carpathian endemics on the high limestone.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1153" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Mushrooming is close to a national sport, whole families in the woods at dawn, and the roadside stalls follow.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1154" }, { "n": "Bieszczady dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A designated Starry Sky Park on the Slovak and Ukrainian border, and among the darkest in the European Union.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1155" }, { "n": "Grey seals on the Baltic", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seal", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Recovering on the Polish coast after near-extermination, with a rehabilitation station at Hel.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1156" }, { "n": "Cranes gathering in autumn", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Thousands staging on the eastern marshes before the flight south, bugling at altitude.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1157" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Often near-black in the eastern forests, and no greys anywhere.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1158" }, { "n": "Hazel grouse", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A thin whistle from dense spruce, and a bird most Poles have never seen.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1159" }, { "n": "Black grouse and capercaillie", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Both cling on in the eastern forests and the Carpathians, both declining, and both with protected lek sites.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1160" }, { "n": "Hoopoes and wrynecks", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "On the orchard margins and sandy village edges of the east.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1161" }, { "n": "Barn and little owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "In the churches and barns of the eastern villages, and both in decline.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1162" }, { "n": "Bats in the old forts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Disused nineteenth-century fortifications hold internationally important hibernation roosts — Nietoperek is among the largest in Europe.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1163" }, { "n": "Kingfishers on the Narew", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "kingfisher", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A blue bolt along a river that still braids across its own floodplain.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1164" }, { "n": "Bream, pike and zander", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "The Masurian lakes are a serious angling destination, and permits are cheap and simple.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1165" }, { "n": "Wisent tracks in snow", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "In winter the forest reads like a book — bison, wolf, lynx and elk all leave their record on the same ride.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1166" }, { "n": "Great grey and long-eared owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Winter roosts in village conifers, and occasional irruptions from the north-east.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1167" }, { "n": "Beech and hornbeam in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "The eastern forest turns copper and stays that way for weeks.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1168" }, { "n": "Lynx of the Šumava", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Reintroduced in the 1980s and now the core of the Bohemian population, shared with the Bavarian Forest across the border.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1169" }, { "n": "Elk in south Bohemia", "r": "RARE", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A small, self-established population — the westernmost breeding elk in Europe, and rarely seen.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1170" }, { "n": "European hamster", "r": "RARE", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Once an agricultural pest, now critically endangered across Europe, and clinging on in Moravian farmland.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1171" }, { "n": "White-tailed eagles at Třeboň", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "The medieval fishpond landscape holds a strong breeding population and a UNESCO biosphere designation.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1172" }, { "n": "Black storks in Bohemian Switzerland", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Nesting on the sandstone ledges, and the park closes areas around the nests each spring.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1173" }, { "n": "Peregrines on the sandstone", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Recovered from extinction in the region and now on the towers of the České Švýcarsko.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1174" }, { "n": "Eagle owls in the quarries", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On rock faces throughout the sandstone and karst country.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1175" }, { "n": "Ural owls in the Šumava", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Part of the same restored population as Bavaria and Austria, and just as defensive of a nest.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1176" }, { "n": "Capercaillie of the Šumava", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A relict Bohemian population, protected, and with lek sites closed and unpublished.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1177" }, { "n": "Black grouse on the peat", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On the open raised bogs of the Šumava plateau, and declining.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1178" }, { "n": "Three-toed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On dead spruce in the Šumava, where the bark beetle has been allowed to run as in Bavaria.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1179" }, { "n": "Ring ouzels and water pipits", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On the Krkonoše ridges, where arctic-alpine tundra survives above the treeline.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1180" }, { "n": "Krkonoše endemic flora", "r": "RARE", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Plants found on this one range and nowhere else on earth — relicts of the ice age on a Czech mountain top.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1181" }, { "n": "Bats of the Moravian Karst", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "The cave systems hold internationally important hibernation roosts, and parts are closed in winter for exactly that reason.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1182" }, { "n": "The Macocha abyss", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A hundred-and-thirty-metre collapsed sinkhole with a river running through the caves beneath it, reached by boat underground.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1183" }, { "n": "Aragonite caves", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Rare needle-like crystal formations rather than ordinary stalactites, in a handful of caves in the karst.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1184" }, { "n": "Pálava steppe flora", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Feather grass, pasqueflower and steppe species on white limestone in south Moravia — the westernmost steppe in Europe.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1185" }, { "n": "Praying mantis in Moravia", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "At the northern edge of its range on the warm Pálava slopes.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1186" }, { "n": "Bee-eaters in south Moravia", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Nesting in loess banks and sand pits, and spreading north as the climate warms.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1187" }, { "n": "Red-backed shrikes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On hedge tops in every stretch of scrubby farmland, with a larder of impaled insects nearby.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1188" }, { "n": "Carp of the Třeboň ponds", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A landscape of fishponds engineered in the sixteenth century, still harvested each autumn, and the source of the Christmas carp.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1189" }, { "n": "Huchen in the Morava", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "The Danube salmon, found only in this basin and among the most threatened fish in Europe.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1190" }, { "n": "Brown trout and grayling", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "In the Šumava and Krkonoše streams, on cheap and well-organised permits.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1191" }, { "n": "Beavers on the Morava", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Recolonised from Austria and Poland, and now common on the lowland rivers.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1192" }, { "n": "Otters in south Bohemia", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A healthy population around the fishponds, and the subject of long argument with the fishery owners.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1193" }, { "n": "Mouflon on the sandstone", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Introduced wild sheep, thoroughly established on the rocky country of north Bohemia.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1194" }, { "n": "Red and roe deer", "r": "COMMON", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Throughout the forests, with the September rut loud in the Šumava.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1195" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Abundant and nocturnal across the whole country.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1196" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "In every wood and city park, dark-coated in the uplands.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1197" }, { "n": "Hedgehogs", "r": "COMMON", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Gardens and campsite edges through the warm months.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1198" }, { "n": "Badgers and pine martens", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Both widespread in the forests, and both mostly known from tracks.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1199" }, { "n": "Fire salamander", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On wet paths in the Bohemian woods after rain, never in sunshine.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1200" }, { "n": "Alpine and crested newts", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "In forest pools and field ponds across the country in spring.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1201" }, { "n": "Aesculapian snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A relict warm-valley population in the north, isolated and closely protected.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1202" }, { "n": "Green lizard in Moravia", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Electric green on the warm Pálava and Moravian slopes.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1203" }, { "n": "Adders and smooth snakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Both on the sunny margins of the uplands.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1204" }, { "n": "Apollo, restored", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Extinct in Czechia and returned by deliberate reintroduction to the sandstone country.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1205" }, { "n": "Large blue butterflies", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Dependent on one ant species and one plant, and a flagship for old meadow management.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1206" }, { "n": "Peat bogs of the Šumava", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Raised bog, glacial lakes and sundew on the Bohemian plateau, on boardwalks throughout.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1207" }, { "n": "Boušín primeval forest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "One of the oldest forest reserves in Europe, protected since 1858 and never cleared.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1208" }, { "n": "Sandstone rock towers", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Whole cities of eroded sandstone pillars in the north, and the reason Czech climbing developed its own rules.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1209" }, { "n": "Vineyard harvest in Moravia", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "South Moravia is a serious wine region, and the burcak — part-fermented must — appears for a few weeks only.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1210" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Mushrooming is a Czech national pastime, and the roadside stalls appear the same weekend everywhere.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1211" }, { "n": "Šumava dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A dark-sky park on the Bavarian border, with almost no settlement for thirty miles.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1212" }, { "n": "Beech forests in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "The Bohemian uplands in copper, and the whole country walks in it.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1213" }, { "n": "Cranes over Bohemia", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On passage twice a year, bugling at altitude, and now breeding again in the north.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1214" }, { "n": "Storks on the village chimneys", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On nests maintained by whole villages, with ringing schemes that have run for decades.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1215" }, { "n": "Kingfishers and dippers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "kingfisher", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On every clean stream from the Šumava to the karst.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1216" }, { "n": "Wolves of the Carpathians", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A continuous population along the whole Slovak arc, and among the healthiest in Europe. Heard far more often than seen.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1217" }, { "n": "Lynx in the Slovak forests", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Never exterminated here, and the source population for several western reintroductions.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1218" }, { "n": "Tatra marmots", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Whistling from the boulder fields, and a Tatra subspecies found nowhere else.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1219" }, { "n": "Eastern imperial eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Slovakia is a European stronghold for this globally threatened eagle, with individual nests guarded through the season.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1220" }, { "n": "Saker falcon", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Nesting on pylons on the Danube plain, and the subject of a long anti-persecution programme.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1221" }, { "n": "Golden eagles over the Tatras", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A closely monitored population on both sides of the range.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1222" }, { "n": "Ural owls", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Common in the Carpathian beech, and Slovakia is where much of the European reintroduction stock came from.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1223" }, { "n": "Eagle owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On karst cliffs and quarry faces throughout.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1224" }, { "n": "Capercaillie and black grouse", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 4, 5 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both in the Tatra and Poloniny forests, both declining, and both with protected lek sites.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1225" }, { "n": "Hazel grouse", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Commoner here than almost anywhere in Europe, and still hard to see.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1226" }, { "n": "White-backed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "In the primeval beech of the Poloniny, which is exactly the habitat it needs.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1227" }, { "n": "Three-toed woodpecker", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On dead spruce in the High Tatras, where windthrow has left a great deal of it.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1228" }, { "n": "Wallcreeper on the karst", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On the Slovak Paradise and Tatra limestone, and lower in winter.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1229" }, { "n": "Alpine accentor and ptarmigan", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both on the highest Tatra ridges, above everything else.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1230" }, { "n": "Carpathian newt", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Found only in the Carpathians and nowhere else on earth, in cold mountain pools and troughs.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1231" }, { "n": "Fire salamander in the beech", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On wet Carpathian paths at dusk after rain.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1232" }, { "n": "Alpine newts in the tarns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "In high pools that were frozen a fortnight earlier.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1233" }, { "n": "Bison of the Poloniny", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "cow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Reintroduced to the far east in 2004, and now free-ranging across the Slovak-Polish border forests.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1234" }, { "n": "Red deer of the Carpathians", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A large population, and the September rut carries a long way in these valleys.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1235" }, { "n": "Chamois below the ridges", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "The Tatra subspecies, and lower down in autumn when the weather turns.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1236" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Abundant through the forests, and entirely nocturnal.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1237" }, { "n": "Otters and beavers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both recovered strongly on the Danube tributaries and the mountain rivers.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1238" }, { "n": "Bats of the Slovak Karst", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "The UNESCO cave systems hold major hibernation roosts, and access is limited accordingly.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1239" }, { "n": "Domica and the underground rivers", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Caves worked by an underground river, with boat sections, and continuously occupied by people in the Neolithic.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1240" }, { "n": "Ochtiná aragonite cave", "r": "RARE", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "One of only three aragonite caves open to the public anywhere on earth — white needle crystals rather than stalactites.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1241" }, { "n": "Ice cave at Dobsiná", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A cave that holds permanent ice year-round, open only in summer, and cold enough that you need a coat in August.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1242" }, { "n": "Slovak Paradise gorges", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Gorge routes climbed on fixed ladders and chains beside waterfalls, one-way in places, and closed in winter.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1243" }, { "n": "Primeval beech of the Poloniny", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A UNESCO World Heritage forest, never cleared, and part of a chain that runs the length of the Carpathians.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1244" }, { "n": "Tatra alpine flora", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Gentians, edelweiss and Carpathian endemics on the high limestone and granite.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1245" }, { "n": "Huchen in the Váh", "r": "RARE", "g": "fish", "m": [ 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "The Danube salmon, a metre long and found only in this basin.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1246" }, { "n": "Grayling and brown trout", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "In clear Carpathian water, and permits are regional and inexpensive.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1247" }, { "n": "Danube floodplain forest", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Willow and poplar softwood forest along the river, and among the most productive habitats in central Europe.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1248" }, { "n": "Red-footed falcons", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Colonial and insect-hunting on the southern plain, and declining across the range.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1249" }, { "n": "Great bustards on the plain", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A tiny remnant of the population that once covered the Pannonian steppe, and among the heaviest flying birds on earth.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1250" }, { "n": "European souslik", "r": "RARE", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Ground squirrels on the southern grasslands, and the imperial eagle’s main prey.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1251" }, { "n": "Sheep on the salaš", "r": "COMMON", "g": "sheep", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Summer sheep farming in the mountains, with bryndza cheese made on the spot as it has been for centuries.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1252" }, { "n": "Storks on the poles", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On village power poles across the southern lowland, with platforms provided by the electricity company.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1253" }, { "n": "Bee-eaters on the plain", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Nesting in loess banks on the Danube lowland in the most improbable colours in Europe.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1254" }, { "n": "Hoopoes and rollers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both on the southern plain, and the roller is declining hard across Europe.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1255" }, { "n": "Sand and green lizards", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On the warm southern slopes and every karst outcrop.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1256" }, { "n": "Adders and Aesculapian snakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both widespread; both entirely uninterested in you.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1257" }, { "n": "Apollo of the Slovak Karst", "r": "RARE", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On the limestone grassland, protected, and an indicator that the sward is still grazed rather than abandoned.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1258" }, { "n": "Rosalia longhorn beetle", "r": "RARE", "g": "insect", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Powder-blue on the old Carpathian beech, and a European flagship insect.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1259" }, { "n": "Autumn fungi in the Carpathians", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fungi", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A serious flush in the beech and spruce, and picking is a normal part of the year.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1260" }, { "n": "Carpathian dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Poloniny is a dark-sky park on the Polish and Ukrainian border, and among the darkest in the European Union.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1261" }, { "n": "Beech in autumn", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 10, 11 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "The Carpathian arc turns copper for a fortnight and the whole country goes walking in it.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1262" }, { "n": "Red squirrels", "r": "COMMON", "g": "squirrel", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Dark-coated in the mountain forests, and no greys anywhere.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1263" }, { "n": "Hedgehogs and dormice", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Edible and hazel dormice both occur, and both sleep through half the year.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1264" }, { "n": "Whooper swans on the Masurian lakes", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Wintering in numbers, louder and wilder than the resident mutes.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1265" }, { "n": "Black terns over the fishponds", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Sooty marsh terns dipping to the water rather than diving.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1266" }, { "n": "Bluethroats in the sedge", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "A robin-shaped bird with an enamel-blue throat, on the Biebrza margins.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1267" }, { "n": "Penduline tits on the oxbows", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PL" ], "d": "Weaving a hanging purse nest in the riverside willows, easier to find than the bird.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1268" }, { "n": "Common buzzards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On every second roadside pole in the country.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1269" }, { "n": "Red and black kites", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Both over the Moravian farmland, and both increasing.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1270" }, { "n": "Honey buzzards", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Summer visitors to the Bohemian forests, digging out wasp nests.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1271" }, { "n": "Goshawks in the spruce", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Late-winter display above the forest, and increasingly urban in Prague.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1272" }, { "n": "Tawny and long-eared owls", "r": "COMMON", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "In every mature wood and churchyard, and in winter roosts of a dozen birds.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1273" }, { "n": "Little owls on the barns", "r": "RARE", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Down to a few hundred pairs and one of the most threatened breeders in the country.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1274" }, { "n": "Black woodpeckers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Crow-sized and entirely black bar the red cap, and audible half a mile off.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1275" }, { "n": "Middle spotted woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "An old-oak specialist in the lowland floodplain forests.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1276" }, { "n": "Nightingales in the scrub", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Full song from the Moravian thickets through May.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1277" }, { "n": "Golden orioles in the poplars", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "A fluting whistle from the floodplain canopy.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1278" }, { "n": "Crested tits and firecrests", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "In every spruce plantation, and singing from February.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1279" }, { "n": "Black redstarts", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On every quarry face, church roof and factory in the country.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1280" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "The weed dance on every fishpond in early spring.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1281" }, { "n": "Greylag geese on the ponds", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Breeding on the Třeboň system and staging in thousands in autumn.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1282" }, { "n": "Grey herons and great white egrets", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "On every pond margin, and the egret unknown here a generation ago.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1283" }, { "n": "Bitterns booming", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "The reedbed foghorn of the south Bohemian ponds before dawn.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1284" }, { "n": "Brown hares on the arable", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Out in the open on the Moravian cereal plains, boxing from February.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1285" }, { "n": "Bats over Prague", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "bat", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Hunting the Vltava at dusk in the middle of the city.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1286" }, { "n": "Dragonflies of the peat pools", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Northern and moorland species on the Šumava bogs, several at their southern limit.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1287" }, { "n": "Swallowtail butterflies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "CZ" ], "d": "Sailing over the warm Moravian slopes all summer.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1288" }, { "n": "Common buzzards", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "The default raptor of every Slovak roadside.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1289" }, { "n": "Lesser spotted eagle", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A woodland eagle of the Carpathian foothills, and Slovakia holds a good share of the European population.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1290" }, { "n": "Honey buzzards", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Summer visitors to the beech forests.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1291" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harriers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Over the southern cereal plain, with nests protected by volunteers.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1292" }, { "n": "Tawny and long-eared owls", "r": "COMMON", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "In every wood and village churchyard.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1293" }, { "n": "Pygmy and Tengmalm’s owls", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both in the Tatra spruce, both heard far more than seen.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1294" }, { "n": "Black and green woodpeckers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both common through the Carpathian forests.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1295" }, { "n": "Middle spotted woodpecker", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "In the old oak of the Danube floodplain.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1296" }, { "n": "Nightingales on the plain", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Full song from the lowland scrub through May.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1297" }, { "n": "Golden orioles", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "A fluting whistle from every floodplain poplar stand.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1298" }, { "n": "Red-backed shrikes", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On hedge tops across the whole country.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1299" }, { "n": "Barred warblers", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "In scrubby grassland, and usually alongside the shrikes.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1300" }, { "n": "Crag martins on the karst", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Hugging the limestone of the Slovak Paradise gorges.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1301" }, { "n": "Dippers on the mountain rivers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Walking underwater against the current in midwinter.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1302" }, { "n": "Black storks in the Carpathians", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Nesting deep in old forest, and rarely seen near people.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1303" }, { "n": "Great crested grebes on the Danube", "r": "COMMON", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On every backwater and gravel pit along the river.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1304" }, { "n": "Brown hares", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "hare", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "On the open southern plain, and boxing in early spring.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1305" }, { "n": "Badgers and pine martens", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "badger", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both widespread in the Carpathian forests, and mostly known from tracks.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1306" }, { "n": "Dragonflies of the Danube backwaters", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dragonfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Emperor, demoiselle and clubtail species on the floodplain channels.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1307" }, { "n": "Swallowtail and scarce swallowtail", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "SK" ], "d": "Both on the warm southern slopes all summer.", "f": "eu-central.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1308" }, { "n": "Iberian lynx", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Down to ninety-four animals in 2002 and the most endangered cat on earth. Now several thousand across Iberia after the largest carnivore recovery ever attempted. Doñana and Sierra de Andújar, at dawn, with a scope.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1309" }, { "n": "Spanish imperial eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Found nowhere but Iberia, down to around thirty pairs in the sixties, and back to several hundred. Monfragüe and Doñana are the places.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1310" }, { "n": "Cinereous vultures of Monfragüe", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The largest colony of black vultures on earth sits on one Extremaduran cliff, and the Salto del Gitano viewpoint puts them at eye level.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1311" }, { "n": "Orca in the Strait", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A small, studied pod that hunts bluefin tuna in the Strait of Gibraltar each summer, and has learned to take fish directly off the lines.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1312" }, { "n": "Mediterranean chameleon", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On the Ria Formosa dunes and the Andalusian coast — Europe’s only chameleon, protected, and almost impossible to spot until it moves.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1313" }, { "n": "Great bustards of Extremadura", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Among the heaviest flying birds on earth, and the Iberian steppe holds most of the world population. The spring display has to be seen to be believed.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1314" }, { "n": "Sierra Nevada ibex", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "goat", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The Spanish ibex on the highest ground in mainland Spain, and easily seen from the Alpujarras trails.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1315" }, { "n": "Barbary macaques of Gibraltar", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s only free-living monkeys, on the Rock since at least the eighteenth century. Do not feed them, and do not carry an open bag.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1316" }, { "n": "Common genet", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Spotted and ring-tailed in the cork oak woodland, and strictly nocturnal.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1317" }, { "n": "Egyptian mongoose", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s only mongoose, trotting across a track in daylight in the southern scrub.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1318" }, { "n": "Red deer of the dehesa", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "deer", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The September rut in the cork oak parkland is one of the great sounds of the Spanish autumn.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1319" }, { "n": "Wild boar", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "pig", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Abundant through the sierras and the Doñana scrub, and entirely nocturnal.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1320" }, { "n": "Otters on the Guadalquivir", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Recovered strongly on the southern rivers, and best looked for at dawn.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1321" }, { "n": "Garden dormouse", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "hedgehog", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Bandit-masked and long-tailed, in the sierras, and declining across Europe for reasons nobody fully understands.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1322" }, { "n": "Bearded vultures of Cazorla", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Extinct in Andalucía by 1986 and reintroduced from 2006. Nearly three metres across, and it eats bone.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1323" }, { "n": "Griffon vultures", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Spain holds most of Europe’s griffons, and every southern gorge has them.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1324" }, { "n": "Egyptian vulture", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Small, scruffy and yellow-faced, and a summer visitor that winters in Africa.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1325" }, { "n": "Bonelli’s eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A rocky-country specialist, and Andalucía holds a good share of the European population.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1326" }, { "n": "Black-winged kite", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Ghost-grey with red eyes, hovering over the dehesa, and spreading north through Iberia.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1327" }, { "n": "Lesser kestrels in the towns", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Colonial, nesting in church towers and old walls in Trujillo and Cáceres, and screaming over the plaza at dusk.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1328" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harriers over the cereal", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Nests in standing crops are individually located and protected by volunteers before the harvest.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1329" }, { "n": "Booted and short-toed eagles", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Both summer visitors, and both common over the sierras and the dehesa.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1330" }, { "n": "Black kites in thousands", "r": "COMMON", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Over every rubbish tip and river, and streaming across the Strait in autumn.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1331" }, { "n": "Little bustard", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Declining fast across Iberia, and the male’s snorting display call carries a surprising distance over open ground.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1332" }, { "n": "Pin-tailed and black-bellied sandgrouse", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Steppe birds that fly miles to water each morning, and are invisible on the ground until they move.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1333" }, { "n": "Stone curlew", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Enormous yellow eyes, active at dusk, and a wailing call across the open plain at night.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1334" }, { "n": "Collared pratincole", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Hawking insects like a tern over the marisma, and nesting on bare dried mud.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1335" }, { "n": "Great spotted cuckoo", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Parasitises magpies rather than small birds, and arrives startlingly early in the year.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1336" }, { "n": "Iberian magpie", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Azure-winged, sociable and noisy in the dehesa, with its nearest relatives in east Asia.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1337" }, { "n": "Black wheatear", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "All black bar a white rump, on the driest rocky slopes, and the male builds piles of stones.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1338" }, { "n": "Blue rock thrush", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Slate-blue on a crag or a castle wall, singing from the highest point available.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1339" }, { "n": "Thekla and calandra larks", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The larks of the open steppe, and the calandra’s song flight is one of the sounds of Extremadura in spring.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1340" }, { "n": "Dupont’s lark", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "One of the most elusive birds in Europe, on flat shrub-steppe, singing before dawn and almost never seen.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1341" }, { "n": "Spectacled and Dartford warblers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Scolding from every scrub bush across the southern hills.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1342" }, { "n": "Red-necked nightjar", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "An Iberian and North African speciality, churring from a warm track after dark.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1343" }, { "n": "White-rumped swift", "r": "RARE", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Breeds in Europe only in southern Spain, and only in old red-rumped swallow nests.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1344" }, { "n": "Eagle owls in the gorges", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s largest owl, on the limestone faces of Grazalema and El Torcal.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1345" }, { "n": "Scops owl calling", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "owl", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "One pure note every two seconds, all night, from every Andalusian plaza.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1346" }, { "n": "White storks on the dehesa", "r": "COMMON", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Nesting in colonies in the cork oaks and on every tower, and increasingly resident all year.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1347" }, { "n": "Black storks in the sierras", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Nesting on cliff ledges in Monfragüe, and shy wherever it occurs.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1348" }, { "n": "Flamingos at Fuente de Piedra", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "One of Europe’s two great flamingo breeding colonies, on an inland salt lake that dries out completely in a bad year.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1349" }, { "n": "White-headed duck", "r": "RARE", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Down to twenty-two birds in 1977 and saved by one of Spain’s first modern conservation campaigns.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1350" }, { "n": "Marbled duck and crested coot", "r": "RARE", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Both globally threatened, both clinging on in southern Spanish wetlands.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1351" }, { "n": "Purple swamphen", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Enormous, blue and red-billed, stalking the reed edges of the marisma.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1352" }, { "n": "Glossy ibis and spoonbills", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Both recovered dramatically in Doñana, and both now in thousands.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1353" }, { "n": "Audouin’s gull", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "One of the rarest gulls in the world in the eighties, and now recovering along the Mediterranean coast.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1354" }, { "n": "Bluefin tuna and the almadraba", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 5, 6 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A trap fishery worked off Cádiz since Phoenician times, and the same run of fish the orca follow.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1355" }, { "n": "Pilot and sperm whales", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Resident in the Strait, where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean meet over a deep sill.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1356" }, { "n": "Common and striped dolphins", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "In the Strait year-round, and often visible from the Tarifa shore.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1357" }, { "n": "Ocellated lizard", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s largest lizard, green with blue eye-spots, and commoner here than anywhere.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1358" }, { "n": "Spiny-footed lizard", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A sand specialist of the Doñana and Cabo de Gata dunes, with red flanks when young.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1359" }, { "n": "Moorish gecko", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On every wall and ceiling in the south after dark, and entirely welcome there.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1360" }, { "n": "Montpellier and horseshoe whip snakes", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Both long, fast and harmless to people, and both gone before you have focused.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1361" }, { "n": "Lataste’s viper", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "An Iberian endemic with a small upturned snout. Venomous, retiring, and left entirely alone.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1362" }, { "n": "Spanish pond turtle", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "An Iberian and North African endemic of slow southern rivers, and declining.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1363" }, { "n": "Western spadefoot toad", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A burrowing toad with a spade on each hind foot, in the sandy Doñana country.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1364" }, { "n": "Iberian painted frog", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Found only in south-west Iberia, and breeding in winter pools after the first real rain.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1365" }, { "n": "Betic midwife toad", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Confined to the mountains of southern Spain, and the male carries the eggs on his hind legs.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1366" }, { "n": "Monarch butterflies", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 8, 9, 10, 11 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "An established population on the southern coast — the only place in Europe where they breed year-round.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1367" }, { "n": "Two-tailed pasha", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s most spectacular butterfly, on strawberry-tree fruit in the Alcornocales.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1368" }, { "n": "Spanish festoon", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "butterfly", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Zebra-striped, and among the first butterflies of an Andalusian spring — in February.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1369" }, { "n": "Praying mantis", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "insect", "m": [ 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "On dry grassland from midsummer, in several species including a stick-thin cone-head.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1370" }, { "n": "Cicadas in the cork oaks", "r": "COMMON", "g": "insect", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The sound of an Andalusian summer, and it stops the instant you look.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1371" }, { "n": "Sierra Nevada endemics", "r": "RARE", "g": "flower", "m": [ 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "More than sixty plants grow on this one mountain range and nowhere else on earth — the richest endemic flora in Europe.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1372" }, { "n": "Spanish fir — the pinsapo", "r": "RARE", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A relict fir surviving in a handful of Grazalema and Ronda valleys, left behind when the ice retreated.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1373" }, { "n": "Cork oak dehesa", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Wood pasture worked for centuries — cork stripped in ochre stripes, pigs on the acorns, and among the richest man-made habitats in Europe.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1374" }, { "n": "Dwarf fan palm", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s only native palm, on the dry hillsides of Cabo de Gata and the Alcornocales.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1375" }, { "n": "Almond blossom", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 1, 2 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Whole Andalusian hillsides in white and pink in January and February, when nothing else in Europe is flowering.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1376" }, { "n": "Orange groves in flower", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 3, 4 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The azahar — orange blossom — scents entire cities in Seville and the Guadalquivir valley for a fortnight.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1377" }, { "n": "The olive sea of Jaén", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 11, 12, 1 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Sixty million trees in one province, the largest olive forest on earth, and harvested by shaking from November.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1378" }, { "n": "El Torcal karst", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Limestone weathered into stacked plates and towers, a Jurassic seabed lifted and dissolved, and full of ammonites.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1379" }, { "n": "Cabo de Gata volcanic desert", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Europe’s driest corner — volcanic rock, dunes, salt pans and flamingos, with under two hundred millimetres of rain a year.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1380" }, { "n": "Tabernas badlands", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "The only true desert in continental Europe, and the reason a hundred westerns were filmed here.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1381" }, { "n": "Río Tinto", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "A river running deep red with dissolved iron, mined since the Bronze Age, and studied by astrobiologists as a model for Mars.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1382" }, { "n": "Sierra Nevada snow", "r": "COMMON", "g": "snow", "m": [ 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Snow on mainland Spain’s highest ground into May, forty miles from a subtropical coast.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1383" }, { "n": "Andalusian dark skies", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Sierra Nevada carries a major observatory for a reason, and the sierras below it are genuinely dark.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1384" }, { "n": "Raptor migration at Tarifa", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Half a million birds funnel across the fourteen-kilometre Strait each autumn — one of the great migration spectacles on earth.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1385" }, { "n": "Gannets through the Strait", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 ], "c": [ "ES" ], "d": "Streaming into the Mediterranean in winter, and visible in numbers from the Tarifa headland.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1386" }, { "n": "Iberian lynx of the Guadiana", "r": "RARE", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Extinct in Portugal by 2000 and reintroduced to the Vale do Guadiana from 2015. Now breeding in the wild again on the Spanish border.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1387" }, { "n": "Great bustards of Castro Verde", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The Alentejo steppe holds Portugal’s population, protected by an agri-environment scheme that pays farmers to keep the cereal rotation.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1388" }, { "n": "Little bustards", "r": "RARE", "g": "grouse", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Declining fast, and the Castro Verde plains are the stronghold.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1389" }, { "n": "Lesser kestrels", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Colonial in the Alentejo villages and on purpose-built nesting towers.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1390" }, { "n": "Black-winged kite", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Hovering over the montado, and commoner in Portugal than almost anywhere in Europe.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1391" }, { "n": "Bonelli’s eagle", "r": "RARE", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On the Guadiana and Costa Vicentina cliffs, scarce and closely monitored.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1392" }, { "n": "Montagu’s harriers", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Over the Alentejo cereal, with nests found and protected before the harvest.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1393" }, { "n": "Black storks on the Guadiana", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Nesting on the schist cliffs of the border river.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1394" }, { "n": "Sagres raptor migration", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "raptor", "m": [ 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Birds heading for the Strait pile up at the south-western corner of Europe when the wind is wrong. Thousands on a good October day.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1395" }, { "n": "Cory’s shearwaters off Sagres", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Shearing the Atlantic swell in long lines, and best from the cape in an onshore wind.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1396" }, { "n": "Balearic shearwater", "r": "RARE", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The most threatened seabird in Europe, and the Portuguese coast is a key feeding area.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1397" }, { "n": "Greater flamingos at Castro Marim", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On the salt pans of the Guadiana mouth, and increasing every year.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1398" }, { "n": "Spoonbills in the Ria Formosa", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "heron", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Feeding with that side-to-side sweep across the lagoon at low water.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1399" }, { "n": "Purple swamphen", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "waterbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Enormous and blue in the Algarve reed margins, and recovered from near-loss.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1400" }, { "n": "Little terns on the sand", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Nesting on bare Algarve beaches above the tideline, and fenced against feet and dogs.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1401" }, { "n": "Kentish plover", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "wader", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A tiny beach-nesting wader on the Ria Formosa spits, and squeezed everywhere by tourism.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1402" }, { "n": "Audouin’s gull", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "seabird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Recovering along the southern coast after being one of the world’s rarest gulls.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1403" }, { "n": "Waders of the Ria Formosa", "r": "COMMON", "g": "wader", "m": [ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Godwits, dunlin, curlew and stilts in thousands on a sixty-kilometre lagoon behind barrier islands.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1404" }, { "n": "Bee-eaters over the montado", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Nesting in sandy banks across the Alentejo in the most improbable colours in Europe.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1405" }, { "n": "Azure-winged magpies", "r": "COMMON", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Sociable and noisy through the cork oak, and an Iberian bird with its relatives in east Asia.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1406" }, { "n": "Red-necked nightjar", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Churring from a warm Alentejo track after dark.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1407" }, { "n": "Great spotted cuckoo", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "songbird", "m": [ 2, 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Arriving in February and parasitising the magpies rather than small birds.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1408" }, { "n": "Common genet and mongoose", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fox", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Both in the montado, one nocturnal and one not.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1409" }, { "n": "Otters on the Guadiana", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "otter", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Healthy populations on the southern rivers, and best at dawn.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1410" }, { "n": "Bottlenose dolphins off the Algarve", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "dolphin", "m": [ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Resident groups along the south coast, and boat trips from every harbour.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1411" }, { "n": "Ocean sunfish", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A vast lopsided disc basking flat at the surface off the Costa Vicentina.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1412" }, { "n": "Loggerhead turtles", "r": "RARE", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Increasingly recorded, and now occasionally nesting on Algarve beaches for the first time in memory.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1413" }, { "n": "Ocellated lizard", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Europe’s largest lizard, on the dry Alentejo and Algarve slopes.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1414" }, { "n": "Moorish gecko", "r": "COMMON", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "On every whitewashed wall after dark, and doing you a favour.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1415" }, { "n": "Horseshoe whip snake", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "reptile", "m": [ 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Fast, harmless and beautifully marked, and gone before you focus.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1416" }, { "n": "Iberian painted frog", "r": "RARE", "g": "frog", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Found only in south-west Iberia, breeding in winter pools after the first rain.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1417" }, { "n": "Sharp-ribbed newt", "r": "LUCKY", "g": "frog", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Europe’s largest newt, which can push its own ribs through its skin as a defence.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1418" }, { "n": "Cork oak montado", "r": "COMMON", "g": "leaf", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Portugal produces roughly half the world’s cork, stripped by hand every nine years from trees that live two centuries.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1419" }, { "n": "Almond blossom in the Algarve", "r": "COMMON", "g": "apple", "m": [ 1, 2 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Hillsides white in January, and the legend about the Nordic princess is told at every roadside stall.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1420" }, { "n": "Cistus in flower", "r": "COMMON", "g": "flower", "m": [ 3, 4, 5 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Rockrose across the whole Alentejo scrub, white and pink, and gone by noon each day.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1421" }, { "n": "Algarve wild orchids", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "flower", "m": [ 2, 3, 4 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Dozens of species on the limestone barrocal, and flowering when Britain is still frozen.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1422" }, { "n": "Costa Vicentina cliffs", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fossil", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "A wild Atlantic coast of schist and sandstone, and the only place in the world where storks nest on sea stacks.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1423" }, { "n": "Salt pans of Castro Marim", "r": "COMMON", "g": "crab", "m": [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "Hand-harvested flor de sal on the Guadiana marsh, worked the same way for centuries.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1424" }, { "n": "Alqueva dark sky", "r": "LIKELY", "g": "sky", "m": [ 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The world’s first certified Starlight Tourism Destination — a reservoir the size of a county with almost no light around it.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1425" }, { "n": "Sardines on the charcoal", "r": "COMMON", "g": "fish", "m": [ 6, 7, 8, 9 ], "c": [ "PT" ], "d": "The summer fish, grilled in the street, and the reason for the June festivals.", "f": "eu-iberia-south.html", "rt": true, "a": "E1426" } ], "retired": [] }