Since
my last entry we've had very warm weather and life is springing up
everywhere: Almond and Plum trees are beginning to flower, Daffodils
and Hyacinths are out and we've seen and heard a few new arrivals.
The beautiful Hoopoe is here, brightening the side of the road and
paths and flying off butterfly style as we approach. We even heard
one singing its triple 'pupupu' song the other morning.
On
a walk by the river Tormes we saw our first Swallow, swooping low and
gorging itself on all the tiny insects hatched in the springlike
warmth. This morning we've seen Swallows in our village and a small
group of House Martins in a neighbouring village.
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| Swallow |
There
are much fewer Red Kites about, the wintering ones having flown
north, and this morning we saw our first Black Kite.
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| Black kite |
A
walk down to the vegetable plot is accompanied by the trilling of Chaffinch,
Wren, Robin, Corn Bunting, Crested Lark, Black Redstart, Serin and
Cirl Bunting.
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| Corn Bunting. |
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| Serin song |
We
had a short walk yesterday in a mainly pine forest above the town of
Bejar, and had a lovely surprise. We'd been watching groups of
Goldcrest flitting about in the treetops, with Nutchatches, Coaltits,
Long-tailed Tits and Woodpeckers in abundance. Suddenly a yellowish
bird caught my eye. As I focused my binoculars it moved from a
branch to a wall in front, and stayed to eat for a good few minutes.
Wishing I had a good reflex camera with a powerful zoom, I did the
best I could with my little Lumix. A female Crossbill: my first. I
felt like a kid with a new pair of shoes!
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Female Crossbill
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On
the hill above our village, several Griffon and a Black Vulture have
adopted some over-pruned Holm Oaks as a night-roost. I hate to see
the Holm Oaks treated so badly: there are two schools of thought
about how they should be pruned, one is to leave as few branches as
possible, hence putting a huge stress on the tree and leaving it at
the mercy of wood-eating beetle larvae such as the Cerambix which
take advantage of open wounds to lay their eggs in, and the other to
leave all the main vertical branches and clean the old growth leaving
the tree with a good crown, in good health and aesthetically much
more pleasing. The first method obviously provides large amounts of
wood used for fuel but is responsable for the deaths of a great deal
of trees. The second method is favoured by ecologists but has yet to
be implanted in the region. Still, at least something positive has
come out of this – the vultures use them to roost, and I can watch
them.
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| The tree on the right is well pruned |
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| Victim of avaricious pruning |
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Black Vulture
We
did a route to the local reservoir to see what waders and acuatic
birds may have arrived. We saw common and GreenSandpipers,
Cormorant, a gorgeous pair of Great Crested Grebe, a group of Wigeon
and a pair of Gadwall, as well as lots of Mallard. Screaming in the
air and at a distance were a group of what we assumed to be Lesser
Black-backed Gulls, but I wouldn't swear to it.
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And
then we saw something really surprising. Acuatic cows. Startled by
our presence, two adults and two calves took to the water and crossed
the reservoir. Unbelievable but true.
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| Acuatic cows |
The
cows here never cease to amaze me.
