Club San Pedro

Mother Nature....

by russian_yaz

The municipality of Artà offers a rich and varied landscape. The municipality's highest mountains - Talaia Greda (561 metres) and Puig de Ferrutx (519) - are carpeted with beautiful pine groves, Holm oak forests and scrubland with wild olive trees.

The main geographical features of the 25 kms of coastline that stretch along the artanenc shore are dunes such as Sa Canova, rugged cliffs such as those at Cape Ferrutx and coastal plains such as Colònia de Sant Pere.

The area's birdlife stands out among its fauna: blackbirds in the forests and shags, gulls, peregrine falcons and, occasionally, ospreys on the coast. This last, unique species, in danger of extinction, is called 'la foradadora d'aigua' (the water-puncterer) by fishermen because of the ingenious way it hunts fish from the air.

The torrent of Na Borges, the island's longest waterway, outlines a broad zone declared a nature area of special interest in its passage through the municipality of Artà. Among the species that make the area their habitat are the red pheasant, one of the most common species, and hares, rabbits, weasels, dormice, martens and Algerian hedgehogs.

To the south of the bay of Alcúdia is the nature area of Sa Canova d'Artà, which boasts one of Mallorca's most outstanding range of dunes, which measure almost two kilometres long from the coast towards the interior and 80 metres high. A rocky zone - Es Llop channel - divides the beach in two.

Sea lilies and sea holly, grey herons, ringed kishfisher, little grebes and European bee-eaters populate this area. Herman's tortoise also shelters on this coast.