After an 18 month drought, we had the wettest and coldest
winter and spring, which was great for the water reserves, but no so good for
business. In fact the spring happened with most of us
indoors, but on the days it stopped raining it was truly spectacular.
This year very few numbers of Harriers arrived to
breed here, we suspect that after last years’ terrible heat and drought in
which many chicks died, and possibly an equally dry and hot winter in the
Sahel, numbers have been seriously reduced.
We hope that this year’s greener crops and slower harvesting will have
helped those that did breed and weren’t found on time by our local group of
volunteers. This year we tried to locate
nests in a new area where there were both Montague and Hen harriers hunting,
but we never saw the tell-tale handover of food nor found any nests.
I’ve also been unable to drive for five weeks after an
operation for Carpal tunnel syndrome, which meant I couldn’t take part in much
of the campaign.
Here are some highlights of the past few months….
Terracing in Arribes |
Iberian shrike |
Ocelated lizard |
Short-toed lark |
Strange place for a nest |
Sangusin river |
Neighbours - Bee-eater & Rock sparrow |
Gredos Mountains |
Golden oriole |
Trapeeze artist |
Hare |
Iberian magpie |
Montagu in flight |
Flowers |
Woodlark with grub |
Cardinal Argynnis pandora |
Feeding time |
The harvest |
Wild flowers |
House sparrow |
Wren |
Young Yellow wagtail |
Black kite with prey |
Turtle doves |
Dinner time for Griffons |
Alagon river |
Batuecas Natural Park |
Stork apartments |
Young Woodchat shrike |
Badger oak |
Mantis oak |
Stone marten oak |
Turtle oak |
Me with my sculptures at the Casa del Parque Batuecas Natural Park in Sierra de Francia |
Preciosas fotos!!. Sin duda, ha sido una primavera excepcional.
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