19 December 03

Critters Of Andaluca

rociohorse.jpgIn Andaluca we saw many horses roaming wild in the marshes of the Doana. During our birding excursion we had to stop at one point and drive slowly around several that were happily milling about the road. The horse at left was grazing contentedly at dawn in the marsh just by our hotel in El Roco. Apparently these are all mares, and they get rounded up at the end of June each year, just after the pilgrimage.

malagagato.jpgAt right is a kitten who was sunning herself in the courtyard next to the new Picasso museum in Mlaga. Nearby was a mime couple, dressed in statuesque white, the woman in 18th century garb, the man kneeling with a Cupidian bow and arrow. The kitten wasn’t quite sure what they were up to.

When we were driving down the canyon road leading to Mlaga, we stopped once for food, and were surprised to see a black spaniel on the roof of the house next door. I think he enjoyed the view.

Posted by at 07:22 PM in Nature and Place | Link |
  1. This reminds me of a cycle trip we did in the Jerez-Sevilla area back in August 79. We would set off early in the morning, as by midday it was too hot to cycle, and make our way to the next village. One morning we found ourselves cycling through a field of sunflowers whose heads slowly started to lift as the sun rose and there were thousands of brilliantly coloured dragonflies all around us.

    — Jennifer    20. December 2003, 00:55    Link
  2. There were also the critters we saw ON our birding excursion, such as short-toed and booted eagles, Iberian hare, a buzzard with a snake too large to be a water snake that must have been flooded out of its hibernation hole. Avocets. Lesser short-toed lark. Sardinian warbler. Fan-tailed warbler. Ubiquitous cattle egrets. Purple gallinules. Skeins of greylag geese; rafts of ducks such as pochard and wigeon. A barn owl that flew over the road at dusk, just like the ones we have here.

    Critters we didn’t see but wish we had: Imperial eagle, Iberian lynx, wild boar, spoonbill, flamingo. Dartford warbler. Regular short-toed lark. This list could go on, but the day on the marshes couldn’t have been better…

    — Pica    20. December 2003, 01:56    Link

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