European Heritage Days in Bakio
In conjunction with Bakio Town-Hall, BBT helped to organize two outings, one in Basque and the other in Spanish, to get to know the coastal plain, the surrounding countryside and Ana`s oasis.
On both days we enjoyed beautiful weather. Our guide on the outings was BBT member Joxean Isasi with interventions from BBT committee members Ana Lopez and David Henderson to explain the importance of growing flowers for pollinators as part of Zerynthia Association`s Oasis for Butterflies proyect. After a general explanation of the changes that have taken place in the coastal plain over the last century we then went to Ana`s organic flower and herb garden still looking beautiful in the middle of October where we saw beautiful herbs and flowers, most of which are suitable for pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
Ana has been working on her organic garden for many years and is more convinced than ever that every garden should have wildflowers that are beneficial for pollinators like bees and butterflies, a belief shared by Zerynthia butterfly association which proposes that no matter how big your garden is or even if you have only a balcony you can make room for wild, native flowers.
Next stop on the talk was Ormaza Manor-house, where some of the owners, Ana Soloaga and her aunt, took us on a tour of the garden. Once this was a magnificent garden but being so big makes it difficult to manage, regretted Ana. Nature, however, wasn`t complaining! Nor was the sparrowhawk that emerged from the garden! On the second visit we could even see the remains of a song-thrush which most probably was one of the sparrowhawk`s victims.
On the opposite side of the road of this stately home Joxean explained the function of a meadow and the typical flowers that an Atlantic coast meadow would have, red and white clover, dandelions, plantain, vetch, knapweed and chicory being some of the flowers present, all of which provide a variety of nutrients for grazing cattle. (We changed the order of visits the second day, visiting the meadow before visiting the manor-house.) On the second outing Aintzane, the daughter of the landowner, explained how her father used to work the farm based on generations of family knowledge.
We could not end the outing without mentioning the environmental impact of monoculture eucalyptus and pine-tree plantations, a policy which is incredibly led by the Foral institutions who should be encouraging growth of native trees rather than these monoculture tree plantations. As such, BBT is actively supporting the Kolore Guztietako Basoak forest diversity campaign along with other local ecological groups.
Regarding the butterflies, we saw most of them on the first day and as the second day was slightly windy at first it was difficult to see any. Over the two days we saw Lang`s Long-Tailed butterflies, Red Admirals, Meadow Browns (the most common species), Geranium butterflies, a couple of Small Heaths, a Peacock, some Clouded Yellows, a pair of blues (maybe Short-tailed Blues), a few Cabbage Whites, a Small Copper and some Green-veined Whites. As for the wild flowers, there were many to be seen, around thirty in all, including a flowering primrose!!!!
Finally, no walk is complete without “elevenses” and BBT provided some of the local products that our members can buy. As well as that, as always, we provided porcelain plates, glasses and water jugs in order to be as sustainable as possible. It`s perhaps a good moment to mention that BBT has 160 plates and 80 glasses that can be used for meals by groups. Of course, in Bakio, no meal is complete without the famous Bakio “txakolí” white wine. People often comment that the wine has improved thanks to the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides. Certainly, the wine has improved over the years but the Ados wine that we enjoyed is produced in the traditional way without any chemicals to help growth.
Just a word of thanks to everyone who helped in the organisation of the events and to all of those who took part. If you would like some more information or have any questions you can always send us an email. Remember that on Friday 20th October we have organized a roundtable discussion on the theme of living landscapes. As well as that, on 31st December we have our annual New Year`s Eve walk to Eneperi to register the number of plants and flowers in blossom!! We hope to see you then!
P.D On Friday we enjoyed a very interesting round table discussion with the participation of Jon Hidalgo from Lurgaia, Ruth Escobés and Yeray Monasterio from the Association Zerynthia, David Henderson from BBT and Aintzane and Yolanda from the association Haria from Bakio. Eskerrik asko!!
The all photos press here 😉