FNSI for February

Good to be back with Wendy and friends for a cyber Friday get together. Thank you Wendy.

I picked up a cold earlier in the week but fortunately on Friday I was feeling much better and was able to get my crochet hook moving again! I started Friday with my sampler blanket looking like this

and managed three rounds of the border - well I did do the last side on the third round this morning! One round of green crossed treble and two rounds of black trebles.

Next up I think a few rounds of pink shells would be nice. It is reasonably square considering that I have not blocked anything - a miracle I think!

Since my last post we visited the guns at Mazarron. This site was built in the early 1900's overlooking the Bay of Cartagena to protect the military arsenal at Cartagena. 7km of windy track takes you up to the site and the views are spectacular. It was a bit misty so my pictures are not as good as I would have liked.

In the first emplacement there are two huge guns - you can just see one peeping over the rocks in the picture above.

About a km further along the point there were four more guns - there are only three there now as one was moved to Almeria. These are not so big but still large.

Well worth the visit for the amazing views.

Another amazing view was of the murmerating starlings near to where we are staying - I am particularly pleased with this picture.

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.