Rabbits

A few days ago our neighbour said that if we heard shooting early the next morning not to worry, it was only him shooting at the rabbits eating his lettuces.  Paula said to us that he wouldn´t be able to kill the rabbits, or anything else for that matter.

Today Angel arrived with a galvanised rabbit trap!  He hopes that he will be able to entice the rabbits into the trap and take them to Paula´s father for dispatch!

Watch this space!!!

Aerial display

At coffee time today we heard the Kestrel´s calling.  Both were flying around above us and we then saw a Booted Eagle.  The little Kestrel´s flew at the eagle and chased it away.  We are almost sure that the Kestrel´s have young in their nest, as they have been successful in rearing young for at least the last three years.  Sometime in the very near future we should see the young venturing out.

Biking in the area

Over the last few days we have been riding our bikes in different parts of our surrounding area.  Yesterday we took the bikes in the van to La Parroquia, a small village inland from Lorca and near the Almeria border.  We had a very good, but hard ride because of the hot temperatures.  Our route took us across a river and then up into the mountains.  On the route we saw a pair of Little Owls, a tortoise, two young Ibex (we think that´s what they were) and many Griffon Vultures.  Our return route was down a wide, white track from an Albergue in the mountains.  The track passed a quarry and when we finished our ride our legs looked as though we had been walking in flour.  We dusted ourselves off and then, for a treat, had a menu del dia in a local bar for 8 Euros each.

Golden Eagles

Well, we didn´t go to look at the eagles in the evening as Paula asked me to help her with her new sewing machine as the instruction book was only in English and Russian?  From there I helped her make some curtains and so didn´t have time to walk up into the mountains.

Two days later we went to see the eagles.   Although too far away to see clearly and too far for the camera zoom, we could make out that there were two young eagles in the nest.  One of the adults was flying around and perching in nearby trees.  We watched for about an hour and then went for a walk back to the car.

¨Golden Eagles

Yesterday we went out on the mountain bikes.  We stopped opposite some cliffs in Sierra Espuña known locally as the eagle cliffs.  We knew that the eagles were around in the area and within 10 minutes we saw an adult eagle circling in the sky and then heading into a cave in the cliffs.  Even from our viewpoint across the other side of a very deep valley we could hear the calls of young eagles as the adult bird entered the nest, but being so far away we couldn´t see anything.  Tonight we are going to walk up to the viewpoint with binoculars, camera and tripod and see if we can zoom into the cave and get a photo of the chicks and/or adult birds.

Watch this space.

Camino de Santiago and beyond

Well we are back.  We rode the Camino Frances in 12 days in some of the most awful weather we have every cycled in (see page Camino de Santiago).

From almost freezing on the Camino, this weekend we orienteered in the Albacete region in totally opposite conditions.  At the start line (in the forest) a thermometer read 34 degrees.  Many people (Spanish) struggled on their courses because of the heat.  Their bodies can normally cope with heat but because of the sudden change to summer temperatures they have not had time to acclimatise.  Hope the temperatures drop a little soon.

Because the weather was so hot during the race, in the evening when it was cool we were able to have an outside get-together.  One of our club-mates plays a guitar and sings and so does one of our friends from Barcelona.  We introduced them and they got out their guitars and we sat listening to them playing and singing until 11.15 p.m. - magical.