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Monday 6 February 2017

Spanish Update

Greetings from sunny Spain!

We have now been here just over a week and enjoying every minute. The weather has mostly been good - even the very high winds yesterday were accompanied by sunshine.

The day we arrived we called in to a supermarket after dark on the way to visit a friend for supper. The first thing we heard as we opened the car door was the sound of roosting starlings in the reeds opposite the car park. So the next evening we were there with binoculars and camera just before sunset hoping to see murmerating starlings and were well rewarded. We soon moved from the supermarket carpark to a better vantage point and were able to watch thousands of starlings coming in to roost.

Here you can see some of the early arrivals dropping into the reeds.

The dark swathe across the middle of this picture is roosting starlings.


Here they are jostling for position


The sunset was beautiful that night - here are some of the later arrivals.


The sight has been spectacular although we have not had the huge dark clouds of swirling birds that we have seen pictures of. We keep going back in hopes though!

On Friday we visited the Cabo de Gata lighthouse at the far south eastern tip of Almeria province.


We have been there many times in the past as it is a stunning spot but mainly in search of the Trumpeter Finch. It is a North African bird with a small colony in the Cabo de Gata National park. We have seen Trumpeters on three or four ocassions  but this time we saw several and very close to the car. This one was just a couple of metres from the car.


 A perfect view. And they really do trumpet!

Have a great week.





16 comments:

  1. Amazing photos of the starlings! Thanks for sharing. Happy holiday! Lynne.

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  2. Wow Lin, the starlings are incredible... your pics are so good too! And a bonus to get such a good shot of the Finch... enjoy Spain x

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  3. The starlings put on a great show, don't they!

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  4. Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful pictures. As you surely know, I love birds, so I really enjoyed this post. Hope the rest of the trip is just as lovely. Enjoy! ;^)

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  5. Amazing seeing all those starlings... lovely to be in Spain ....
    Hugz

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  6. Hello Lin, so incredible to see all those starlings flocking - what a sight.
    Your trip sounds so enjoyable.
    The Trumpeter Finch is such a sweet looking bird - and must sound so cute with the trumpet!!
    Lovely scenic photographs too. Cheers :D)

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  7. wow, looks amazing Lin.....enjoy every second....lovely to see what the rest of the world holds! xox

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  8. Love the pictures of the starlings. Have seen that in Africa. It is an amazing sight - and the way they fly is like poetry in motion. The Trumpeting bird looks pretty. Will have to look on Google to hear what they sound like.

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  9. Hi Lin It looks fab. I bet it was quite a sight all those Strlings. X:)

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  10. Wonderful piccies....must be an awesome sight to see it first hand. Continued enjoyments x

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  11. What a sight and what a great closeup too! Do you do a lot of bird watching? Wonderful start to your month in Spain!

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  12. Fantastic! We are birders as well and we have done some great bird watching here. I'll post some photos one of these days. I would love to hear the trumpeting!

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  13. Oh what a beautiful sight - and I'm so jealous that you have sunshine, lol! Send it my way please!

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  14. Oh, you have taught me a new word. I've always been fascinated by waves of birds overhead. I did not know it was called murmurating. What a great word! That must have been breathtaking.

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  15. Great photos Lin and beautiful Finch.

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