ELS ALUMNES DE 6È VAN AL DELTA DEL LLOBREGAT

1. Les Acàcies school
NATURE TRAIL
ALUMNES DE 6è de l’escola LES ACÀCIES.

2. DELTA DEL LLOBREGAT

3. ∗ THE SIXTH GRADE STUDENTS OF LES ACÀCIES
SCHOOL , HAVE BEEN IN “EL DELTA DEL LLOBREGAT”
TO LEARN ABOUT IT.
∗ THERE ARE SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
WETLANDS IN THE SOUTH OF EUROPE BECAUSE OF
THE MIGRATORY BIRDS.
BIRDS OF DELTA del LLOBREGAT

4. WE WERE ABLE TO OBSERVE DIFFERENT
SPECIES OF BIRDS AND PLANTS FROM VARIOUS
SIDEVIEWS

5. ∗ WE TOOK LOTS OF PHOTOS AND WE USED
BINOCULARS TO LOOK AT THE BIRDS
Students have a mission

6. ∗ LOTS OF BIRDS HAVE THEIR CHICKS HERE
MIGRATORY BIRDS

7. MALLARD
Males have blue green head, dun or brown chest, white neck, grey body and black tail. As distinctive
treats have dark orange beak and blue and white spectacles in their wings. Females have duller colors in
dark dun. Mallard inhabits in all kind of wetlands (natural or man-made) regardless of their area, depth or
humanization scale. It nests away from farm lands. It can breed on trees too. It occupies riverbeds
perfectly.
Mallards are herbivorous. At breeding, females lay from 3 to 12 eggs that are going to hatch out in a
period of 15 to 27 days. Females take care of their chicks alone. Chicks are yellow with brown patches.
Their almost independents from the very first day, they feed themselves and in 2 or 3 months they are
completely ready to fly.

8. GEESE
They belong to the family of Anserini, where geese, ducks and swans are classified. These animals are
aquatic birds and, depending on the species, are divers or swimmers and, generally, migratory. They
possess a flatten beak covered by thin skin with a hornic blotch in the spot.
The plumage that cover their bodies is protected thanks to a grease segregation expelled by his uropigial
layer, located on the top of their tails. Geese possess a size inferior to swans and superior to ducks. They
tend to concentrate in grain or forage areas. Males and females are equal in coloration, so we can only
identify them for their size and weight.
Geese offer differences with the rest of anseriform birds, like the fact that they are more terrestrial than
swans, so their legs are adapted to walk for a longer time. They are, together with swans, the heavier flying
birds, but they can go over longer distances on high altitudes, being able of migrate during the different
stages of the year.

10. A SMALL CAGE
WHERE THE
INSECTS HIDE THEIR
FOOD
A BIRD WELL HIDDEN

11. AUDOUIN’S GULL
Audouin’s gull is a limited species, it breeds spread in islets of the Mediterranean and it’s similar to the
European herring gull.
Of unknown habits, because it doesn’t get close to shores. It nests in rocky islets. One of the best studied
colonies is the one discovered in Columbretes Islands (Castellón), breeding 40 couples approx. It also
nests in the Balearic Islands, the Chafarinas, etc. Is relatively sedentary, but with spread movements. Is an
endangered species.
Adults have pale grey dorsal feathers and the rest of the feathers are white. In their wings stands out the
black tips whith white ends. The beak is red with a transverse black patch and a yellow tip. The legs are
dark green.
Nesting: It nests in colonies over the ground. The nest is used to be made of dry algae and hidden in the
limited vegetation of the islets; It lay from 2 to 3 ochre eggs with some dull spots. This is between the end of
April and May; the incubation is made by both parents for about 23 days. The chicks are nidifugous.
Diet: Fish and molluscs; some scraps.
Habitat: Rocky islets and sea-cliffs.

12. RUFF (Philomachus Pugnax)
Long-legged bird, slender neck, small head and beak of medium length. Males are considerably bigger than
females. Male summer plumage is composed by plumes in ears and flashy collars of various colors. It has
whitey patches in the rump that forms a V form visible during flying.
Size: Length 31-34 cm (males), 25-26 cm (females), reach of wings 52-60 cm (males), 46-50 cm (females),
Weight 168-242g (males), 85-126 (females).
Nesting: In depressions between the vegetation, covered by dry grass. It constructs a cover over the nest,
similar to a roof, made of growing grass.
Reproduction: It lays 4 eggs from May to June, incubated by the female during 21 to 24 days. Chicks
abandon the nest just after and they learn rapidly to search food. They learn to fly in around 23 days.
Presence: They nest in marshes and swamps. The amount of reproductive birds is decreasing in the south
and in the centre of Finland. The reproductive population is estimated in 5000 to 8000 couples.
Migration: Males fly to the south in June or July, females and younger birds migrate later, from July to
September. Birds of both genders come back from April to May, after passing winter around the
Mediterranean and Africa.
Diet: Small invertebrates and vegetative substances.

13. SIDEVIEWS

14. Mediterranean Orchids

15. DELTA DEL LLOBREGAT ORCHIDS
The name orchid comes from the Greek “orchis”, that means testicle, for its big similarity that represent its
pseudo-tubercles of some genders with male atributes. Orchids are vigorous plants- its sub-terranean part it
keeps alive during years, while the aerial part renews annually. Most of the orchids use insects as pollinator
agents - entomofil pollination- although some species and flowers not visited can liberate their pollins over
the stigmatic surface consuming the auto-reproduction.
Comparing with the tropical species, most of the Mediterranean orchids are small plants, hard to observe in
their natural environment, but, once discovered, their beauty make them an object of contemplation and
admiration.

17. THE TOUR WAS VERY
INTERESTING AND WE LEARNT
LOTS OF THINGS