Whilst out in the fields yesterday, we spotted a bird which I later thought was a Kestrel flying off nearby and so went to investigate. We then found this:
It’s a local snake, which I have identified as a Culebra lisa meridional, known commonly as the Coronella girondica or in English, Riccioli’s Snake, missing its head. It’s non venemous. Don’t ask me what the Spanish call it – the common local name for anything small and nonedible is “bicho”.
Now, the Common Kestrel (the Spanish call them Cernícalos, or, locally, “jo’, vaya pajarrrrraco”) actually eat snakes, amongst other things. They fly around, and when they spot an snake innocently sunbathing, they swoop down, snip off their head before they can react, and then get scared away by two ramblers blundering through the undergrowth.
Nature, eh?