Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Camino de Santiago

Only a few days now before we leave to go orienteering near Burgos/Soria and then next Monday start our cycle ride on the Camino de Santiago.  After such a dry winter the rain has arrived and ha/s fallen as snow on some of the higher parts of the route.  Let´s hope that next week things improve,  the rain/snow stops and the strong winds we have been having recently abate.  Whatever the weather we are going to do the ride.

Everything is quiet

After the noise of a few weeks ago with the Cuckoos, Little Owls, Kestrels and Magpies, everything has gone quiet.  I suppose they are all now paired up and incubating their eggs.  It will be interesting to see how successful the Spotted Cuckoos were when the chicks fledge.

Sardinian Warbler

We have a male Sardinian Warbler living on our window ledge.  He hops off and on the ledge into the almond tree outside the window and flies off for a while before returning and pecking on the window.  Don´t know what it wants and why it has chosen to do this.  Will watch to see what happens.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Two weeks away and return to Totana

We have just had a couple of weeks away in the motorhome.  We had an orienteering competition near Cordoba and then two weeks later the Spanish Championships near Plasencia.  Between the two events we spent our time bike riding in Extremadura, riding on the Via Pecuarias.  These are the old drove roads and, on the ones that we rode, are very easy to follow.  We also spent some time at Los Barruecos and Monfrague to see some of the birds that are around at the moment.  My hit-list includes Rollers, Spanish Imperial Eagle and Black Shouldered Kite.  Needless to say we didn´t see any of the above, but saw many Kites, Black Storks and Marsh Harriers as well as hundreds of Griffon Vultures and White Storks.

We are now back in Totana and it seems that our Little Owls are nesting again at the bottom of the garden.

We have to keep up the biking, the trip to ride the Camino de Santiago is getting nearer.  We only have about 8 days for bike riding before we set off North, first to an orienteering competition in Burgos/Soria and then to Roncesvalles where we are going to begin the ride.