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Zumaia » Location » Natural surroundings » Artadi holm-oak wood

Artadi from Bedua

Artadi holm-oak wood covers a large part of the hillside which carries its name, at the end of the course of the Urola river on its right bank. It is a continuous mass, enclosed with holm-oaks, of something more than 20 hectares, located on one side of the steep slopes. Its location, the density of the forest and the little recent development in Artadi give it a special charm.

Flora and Fauna

Strawberry tree

The vegetation is a sample of Cantabrian holm oak woods developed on lime soil, and indicative of a past when the climate was drier and calmer. Alongside the oak are the strawberry trees, laurels, privets, buckthorns, barberry, and some oaks. The abundance of sarsaparilla and thorny-stemmed liana makes it difficult to access the interior of the forest. Artadi holm oak wood constitutes a peculiar mixture of Mediterranean and Atlantic type vegetation, and it is the last wooded area with these characteristics towards the east coast of Guipuzkoa.

Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

The limited surface area of Artadi holm oak wood might give the impression that this forest mass would not allow stable communities of birds to settle here. However, it includes small forest species, with few birds of prey. The birds that visit the salt marsh use some higher parts of Artadi as shelter.

Among the probable nesting birds in Artadi could be mentioned the scops owl, the pied wagtail, the dunnock, the black redstart, the song thrush, the garden warbler, the chiffchaff, the great tit, the blue tit, the short-toed treecreeper, the chaffinch, the serin or the linnet. Outside the period of nest-building the birds in the zone of Artadi vary according to the different seasons.

Sarsaparilla (Smilax aspera)

The lucky traveller in Artadi may see several species of small mammals, especially the weasel or the fox, which benefit from the intricacy of the vegetation to remain unobserved.

Great tit	Clouded yellow	Swallow	A song thrush's nest