Wandering around the countryside in the Grados mountains, we were following a track alongside a river hoping to find a Dipper (unsucessfully) and/or a Grey Wagtail (sucessfully). A couple of Golden Orioles were heard, but not seen, a Robin, Blackcap and Long Tailed Tits provided interest until this:
Above: A Rock Bunting (Escribano montesino). We only saw the one but had decent views of it for about a minute.
Above: An Otter (Nutria). Standing on a dam, looking across the panorama which had been graced by a Black Kite (see previous post for picture) and 2 Kingfishers, my feet were turning to walk back to the car when something on a rock caught my eye - this Otter. We watched it for about 10 minutes as it ate (2 meals), dived down, swam around and played in the water.
We checked out several short sections of mountain river as we were passing in the car. On the last day it worked out and we found one. I also saw 2 Coal Tits at this location, completing the species seen list for the holiday.
Above: A Dipper (Mirlo acuático).
Above: This is how a Dipper feeds -dipping under the water so as to be able to see its prey. It needs rocky streams and rivers where the water is shallow enough to stand in and 'dip.'
Above: A Crested Lark (Cogujada común). This species was the first 'never seen before' species for the holiday (a bird in a service station car park). The one in the photograph was seen near Trujillo and was collecting food for youngsters.
Above: The same Crested Lark hopping on the rocks. I thought by cropping the photograph in this way, it would make a good bookmark!
Many were seen throughout the holiday but this one, in Merida, kept on feeding as I approached - if I had got any closer, the whole bird wouldn't have fit into the frame!
I'm just really enjoying the idea of making bookmarks out of some of these photographs!
