Earlier this year, when the almonds were in blossom, Heather was out walking when she noticed an eagle circling overhead. She had our cheap digital camera with her, and succeeded in snapping several small black dots in a clear blue sky.
Then she got lucky.
No one could ever call me a 'twitcher', though I am very interested in the nature around me, and I do like to know what it is that I have seen. Sadly, many of the birds I see go unrecognized, especially, the shy little brown ones hiding in bushes that fly fast and aren’t sparrows.
I am getting better though, as I am able to readily recognise the golden orioles that I surprise at the fig tree near the fuenta; the cuckoos and nightingales that announce the start of spring and the bee eaters and rollers that do the same for summer. I can now distinguish between the different wheatears and shrikes. I’ve even started to recognise one of those ‘little brown jobbies’ as a Sardinian Warbler. My finest moment in ornithology was when I was able to explain to Heather that the ‘peep’ ‘peep’ we could hear in the Barranco most summer evenings wasn’t a reversing JCB, but was in fact a scops owl.
We did have a couple of ‘twitchers’ staying with us recently. Mike and Hazel from Anglesey, who are also mad keen ‘rock and roll’ fans. This is their web site. http://angleseyrocknrollclub.synthasite.com/
Mike took all kinds of photos of the Barranco bird life which I thought some of you may like to see. So here they are. I have deliberately not labelled them, in case any of you wanted to practice your recognition skills.
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| Any one know anything about this 'zebra' ant |
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| Anyone know what insect this nest is used by? |
Hi - the nest comes from a Mason Wasp (AKA Mud-dauber), the ungainly looking wasp that flies around with dangling legs. The female will catch a spider and lay an egg inside, to close it up in one of the tombs.
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