April & August. 1999 
21 
As the aircraft approached the island, I looked 
through the window eager to catch a glimpse of 
Mallorca I could see the mountains set on a base of 
deep biue sea The sunset hitting the mountaintops was 
making them more spectacular. It had been some 20 
hours since my colleague on this project. Michael, and 
I had left home Within just a few minutes we had landed 
in Palm dc Mallorca Airport. The sun was now just 
setting. By the time the Earthwatch representative. 
Chris, managed to get us to S'Albufcra Natural Rirk. it 
was already dark. After dinner we were briefed on the 
progress of the expedition, as it had started a couple of 
days prior to our arrival We had arrived laic, due to 
our visa delays 
We both quickly settled into the programme after 
our first full day. The theme of the project was 
"monitoring for biodiversity and environmental changes 
at S Albufera Natural Park” The main fields of research 
were grouped into the following biological monitoring, 
biodiversity, human and management impact studies 
Our Principal Investigator was Nick Riddiford. We 
worked in teams with each team split into different study 
groups These in turn, were headed by a scientist 
specialising in their particular field. Each day the field 
workers were rotated, allowing everyone to participate 
in all the study areas 
I spent my first few days with Rob Stracban working 
on mice. On the first morning Rob. one other, and I 
walked to the research site Several Longworth traps 
(specialised small mammal traps) had been set 10 m 
apart in a grid pattern amongst ihc grass and reeds. 
Closed traps usually meant that there was a mouse 
inside Wc only dealt with closed traps. Each trap was 
opened with great care into a large polythene bag and 
the subject was then isolated towards the corner of the 
bag. It was then carefully handled to weigh it and then 
examined to ascertain age, sex and breeding condition 
Then it was released adjacent to the area it had been 
trapped hi New captures were marked before being 
released Each trap was then reset and laid back into its 
respective position. This process was done repeatedly 
for a number of days before the imps were then moved 
to a different site. The trapping results were used to 
determine which species arc present in a particular 
area. 
One evening wc went to some caves to look for bats. 
Wfe captured eight in total. Each bat was identified, 
weighed and then examined to determine age. sc.x and 
breeding condition. After this was done, they were 
liberated 
VJc spent some afternoons walking areas of the park 
identifying wild flowers and seeds On calm sunny 
afternoons, wc conducted butterfly and dragonfly 
transects. This involved walking on fixed routes of 
different habitats, identifying and counting individual 
species within a five-metre range on all sides Species, 
such as the painted lady butterfly Vtnessa cardui. were 
identified; this is a common migrant throughout Europe 
from Spain This exercise was more enjoyable ai the 
sand dunes because it usually ended with a long walk 
on the sandy coastal beach . 
Another area of the research study was moths. This 
involved the use of an ultra violet light trap being set 
and left overnight, to trap the moths. In the morning 
the specimens captured in the trap were identified and 
recorded on the data sheets, then the specimens were 
released while new specimens caught were mounted 
for collection reference. Several beetles were also 
attracted to these traps. 
Early each morning wc participated in bird transects, 
these were led by Nick Riddiford. Wc walked different 
set routes and identified birds by sight and by their calls. 
This was done within 25 metres on all sides of the routes 
Small birds such as Moustached, Cctti's, fan-tailed and 
other warblers and robins, finches and pipits were 
identified Among the birds of prey wore the Marsh 
Harrier and Merlin In the open waters there were 
usually the more common waterfowl such as ftxhard. 
Mallard. Coot and Moorhen. 
Reed bed vegetation monitoring was an interesting 
area of research Most of the landscape of S’Albufcra 
is covered with a thick mass of phragmiies reeds. These 
areas arc normally wet and muddy. A study of the reed 
bed vegetation was performed to establish the present 
status. This involved measuring 1 5 m transect lines in 
the reeds which we then divided into 25 cm quadrats at 
2 m intervals The total number of reeds (dead and 
allwj within the quadrat were recorded Other plant 
species occurring within the qundrat were also 
identified. All this data helped to give a full description 
of the vegetation cover of a particular area of the park 
Occasionally. Charlie Rugeroni led us on a baseline 
survey on S ’Albufera 's endemic fungus. Psaihyrella 
halophila This involved visiting those areas where the 
fungus occurs and making a simple investigation of its 
habitat preferences 
One of the more interesting parts of the research 
was on aquatic invertebrates in relation to water quality 
The aim of the study was to monitor water quality within 
S’Albufcra by identifying Uiose communities of species 
which are useful indicators of water quality. One 
morning, I joined Michelle’s (our specialist scientist) 
team and it was ilic most exciting pan of my fieldwork 
Wc had to cycle to the sample sites and each of us took 
a sample from a different wetland This was done by 
sweep-netting the water at least 25 times, to ensure that 
a variety of species was captured Wfe took the samples 
to the centre in containers. In the afternoon wc worked 
through our samples identifying them with the use of 
hand lenses W: then recorded the captured species. 
Species such as water beetles, stone flics and freshwater 
shrimps were caught. I enjoyed this study so much that 
the following day I volunteered tor Michelle’s team once 
again but this time cycling funher afield to different 
sites. 
A vital part of our expedition was discussing how 
S 'Albufera can be developed as a biodiversity model 
using already gathered ecological data This concept 
was to find a suitable criteria that would best describe 
the various components of S’Albufera using the detailed 
data already available Everyone participated by putting 
forward ideas on how the model can be developed, with 
