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| Cabo de Palos, Feb 18th 2015 |
You can see
Mar Menor on the map but you'll not see much footage from here because the gale force winds that have been blowing from the North persisted the whole time I was there. It rained all day the 17th at San
Pedro del Pinatar and the normally calm Med looked like this at
Cabo de Palos.
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| Cabo de Palos harbour |
The nice little harbour there housed some nice little and not so little yachts and boats and during a brief lull in the wind and the rain brought a much needed dash of colour to the day.
Enough was enough and I decided to drive away from the weather, into
Almeria and the semi desert areas around
Tabernas, surely it would be dry and warm there!
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| Nr Tabernas, Almeria, Feb 19th 2015 |
Nope, not really! In the shadow of the Sierra Nevada to the east I was expecting it to be cold (it was) but in a place that receives less than 250mm of rain a year I wasn't expecting light drizzle and as you can see from this pic of
Almerian heights rising towards the
Sierra Nevada, the wind was still blowing! Not nearly as strong but enough to blow those
Tamarisks around!
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| Blue Rock Thrush, Tabernas |
From the town of
Tabernas itself I got my first
Blue Rock Thrush of the trip, bit of a grainy effort due to the poor light but never seen one perched on Prickly Pear before, and speaking of cactus this is one I've not seen here before and as yet not identified.
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| Cactus sp, Tabernas, Almeria, Feb 2015 |
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| Spanish Ibex, Olula, Almeria |
Amidst the turbulence there were calmer moments and none more so than when I dragged the van up to the top of
Castro de Filabres and
Olula de Castro on the eastern edge of the
Sierra Nevada. Splendid views, hardly a soul to be seen and the only sound to disturb the silence was the clattering of hooves on rock of
Spanish Ibex
By the sixe of their horns these are surely young 'uns
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| Spanish Ibex, Olula, Almeria |
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| Olula de Castro |
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| Almerian rack and ruin, nr Tabernas. |
Further down, in the dusty foothills, this is more typical of
Almeria and whilst there are the plenty of Larks (
Thekla and
Crested mainly) and the odd
Blue Rock Thrush and
Rock Bunting nothing much stirs!
But certainly, if you want to get away from it all and have a quiet time, this is the place!
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On the edge of the Sierra Nevada, nr Olula de Castro
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| El Almendral, Almeria |
The van loved the descent from there! Back down in
Gergal and a café on the outskirts of town, a Spanish naturalist tapped me on the shoulder as I was processing some pics and despite his English being as bad as my Spanish, by the power of the photographic image I was able to establish that he was a butterfly enthusiast, but he knew his birds too, and he pointed me in the direction of a pair of
Bonelli's Eagles. I didn't see them but the trip up to said place was memorable and around the small village of
El Almendral, where they were supposed to be, was wild, weird and wonderful!
Heading further west I stopped for a day close to the
Sierra de Baza parc naturel nr
Guadix. Wind free and warm for a change, the sandy dry riverbed of the
Rambla de Finana brought me a splendidly close
Red Billed Chough, one of a pair that looked like they were nest prospecting.
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| Red Billed Chough, nr Guadix, 22nd Feb 2015 |
There are dry river beds, or
ramblas as they are known colloquially, right across the region of Almeria and the trick is to find one that still has a bit of water in it ... then you'll get wildlife. This one started off dry and barren then suddenly developed a trickle!
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| Rambla de Finana, Nr Guadix |
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| Rambla de Finana, Nr Guadix |
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| Rambla de Finana, Nr Guadix |
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| Rambla de Finana, Nr Guadix |
.... and as soon as you get water, you get life
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| Red Squirrel, Rambla de Finana |
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| Red Squirrel, Rambla de Finana |
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| Chiffchaff, Rambla de Finana |
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| Chiffchaff, Rambla de Finana |
The
Chiffchaff was one of 10 or so all within 30 metres of wet stream.
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| Black Wheatera, Rambla de Finan |
Its easy to get lost in a world of your own down in some of these
ramblas. With a bit more care and attention, not to mention focus, this could have been my best ever
Black Wheatear pic .. they're devilishly skitty!
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| Golden Eagle, imm / juv, Rambla de Finan, 22 feb 2015 |
Stepping outside the river bed in an attempt to gain some height and perspective I certainly did have to focus as 2 immature / juv
Golden Eagles sailed past!
Never easy to get a close shot, these 2 came right over my head and then kept going without flapping once!
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| Golden Eagle, imm / juv, Rambla de Finan, 22 feb 2015 |
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| Golden Eagle, imm / juv, Rambla de Finan, 22 feb 2015 |
That made my morning, the way the light was shining through these magnificent bird's wings as they sailed majestically above me was nothing short of breath taking. This last pic isn't the best by any means, this bird was a kilometre above me, but look at those wing spots ... awesome!
Without taking a ferry across to Morocco (been seriously toying with the idea), I've gone as far south as I planned to do and now kicking my heels in the Kite surfing capital of Europe .. Tarifa.
