The week of the flies

The amount of aerial wildlife is one of the lovely things about living in Tortosa, a regional town so close to the Delta Ebro wildlife reserve. I’m not saying I’m a twitcher, but in the immortal words of The Eels, I like…birds.

Pigeons, sparrows and swallows are ubiquitous of course, occupying the nooks and crannies in the old and abandoned buildings here. We’ve even started calling old, derelict structures ‘pigeon houses’, because they seem so at home. At sunset, swarms of swallows practise their flying acrobatics over the river, catching bugs, pulling shapes and generally having a wonderful time.

Additionally, we have regular visits from water birds that travel up the Ebro from the Delta region. There is a white egret that greets me most days on my walk to work, as well as the occasional purple heron (I think), and tern. H even saw a kingfisher once! Two giant yellow-legged seagulls rule over a broken jetty near the university. These guys seem to be pure evil – I have seen them with the bloody corpses of at least four pigeons, and last week I watched one of them eat a whole snake! Maybe not ideal neighbours but they certainly make me walk faster.

Apart from feather friends, occasionally I also spy tiny microbats flitting about near dusk, looking for dinner bugs. They are magical little mammals, about the same size as swallows, and are apparently crucial for keeping insect numbers down. Butterflies and flies also buzz about, as you would expect, and yesterday I saw my first Catalonian dragonfly.

But not all flying things are fun, and not all wildlife is welcome. This week we met another member of the flying Tortosa family: the mosca negra, or black fly. These tiny little beasties have been around since about the mid 1990s, and have been ruining vueltas and sleeping with the window open ever since.

This article has a great quote comparing the mosca negra with a mosquito:

“If the mosquito is a neurosurgeon that bites with a probe, the black fly is a butcher that scratches the skin and makes you bleed,” said Raul Escosa, member of an Ebro river environmental board.

They love hanging around the river at dusk during the warm summer months, which is a real shame because going to the river at dusk is an official pastime here. Their bites are nasty and can cause very serious reactions in some people: swelling, days and days of itching, and general annoyance. Just writing about it makes me itch!

Recently there have been some chemicals dropped over the river to reduce the number of black flies, but I don’t know what effect it will have on the population (or the water quality for that matter).

The past week has seen record temperatures in the Tortosa region (subject to data verification of course, this is a science blog). As our apartment has no air conditioning and limited circulation, we are facing a nightly decision to sleep in suffocating heat with the windows closed, or sleep in constant fear of black fly attack with the windows open.

A les 12:00 UT el termòmetre de màxima marcava 35.4 ºC que és el màxim absolut per un 8 de juny. Dades provisionals subjectes a revisió.

— Obs. de l’Ebre (@obsebre) June 8, 2015

Fortunately, we have been let in on the secret solution to these nasty little flying hatchets. Natural Honey. Yep, this unassuming moisturiser contains traces of citronella, and keeps the black flies at bay while leaving your skin supple. This combined with some citronella candles at home have kept us relatively bite-free so far, which means more sunset bird-watching for me!