Qualla: Illa de s'Espartar https://qualla.com/illa-de-s-espartar en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:39:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/v/illa-de-s-espartar-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Illa de s'Espartar https://qualla.com/illa-de-s-espartar Illa de s'Espartar: Introduction https://qualla.com/illa-de-s-espartar/ Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. Long after the last ferry wake has flattened and the day boats have turned back toward Sant Antoni, a sound returns to this bare rock offshore - a low churring, purring call, traded between birds no larger than a swallow. European storm petrels spend nearly their whole lives over open water, coming to land only to breed, and only under cover of darkness. Illa de s'Espartar shelters the largest colony of them in the entire western Mediterranean. They arrive at night for a reason. By day, this island belongs to hunters.

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/v/illa-de-s-espartar-wp/snbv-illa-de-sespartar-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Illa de s'Espartar: The Night Shift https://qualla.com/illa-de-s-espartar/ Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. A storm petrel weighs almost nothing, and it nests in cracks and burrows where a wingtip's worth of shelter is enough. Slipping ashore in darkness lets the colony dodge the gulls that patrol the daylight and the falcons that own the summer sky. Those falcons are Eleonora's falcon...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/v/illa-de-s-espartar-wp/snbv-illa-de-sespartar-the-night-shift.mp3 0:06 2 full Illa de s'Espartar: A Lizard of Its Own https://qualla.com/illa-de-s-espartar/ Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. Sun-warmed and skittering across the stone is a creature found on this islet and almost nowhere else: a distinct subspecies of the Pityusic wall lizard, catalogued by biologists as Podarcis pityusensis kameriana. The rocks scattered off Ibiza's coast work like a natural laborator...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/v/illa-de-s-espartar-wp/snbv-illa-de-sespartar-a-lizard-of-its-own.mp3 0:06 3 full Illa de s'Espartar: Named for the Grass https://qualla.com/illa-de-s-espartar/ Photo credit Vriullop, CC BY-SA 3.0. The island's name comes from espart - esparto grass - the tough, wiry plant that once carpeted much of this land and that people across the Pityusic islands harvested for rope, mats, and baskets. Little of that trade survives, but the grass gave the rock its identity. The soil is...

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Image: Vriullop | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/v/illa-de-s-espartar-wp/snbv-illa-de-sespartar-named-for-the-grass.mp3 0:06 4 full Illa de s'Espartar: Kept Wild on Purpose https://qualla.com/illa-de-s-espartar/ Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. No one lives on Illa de s'Espartar, and that is the whole point of it. The rock lies roughly eight and a half kilometres west of Sant Antoni de Portmany, one of the cluster of western islets - the Illots de Ponent - protected together as a nature reserve. Landing is difficult and...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/v/illa-de-s-espartar-wp/snbv-illa-de-sespartar-kept-wild-on-purpose.mp3 0:06 5 full