Almería news, blog, webpages, books, gossip, opinions, history & much more since 2001
Eating a rather superb breakfast at the hotel early the next morning, I suddenly realised that I could see my destination for that day: the isle of Mykines. Under low grey skies and an ominous sea. It’s a sliver of bright green grass that juts out of the wild sea, the westernmost island and the home to hundreds of thousands of seabirds. Just a handful of people live here, in grass roof homes. The BBC Continue reading Mykines
The Alondra Ricotí is down to just 25 examples left in the south of Spain, all in Almería province. Chresophilus duponti as it´s known scientifically is a lovely little ground bird that hides, doesn’t travel very far and is known as the Ricotí because of it’s piping call, usually heard by shepards when they herd their goats over their nests. Emilio González, a local ornithologist from the Serbal de Almería group, has given a talk Continue reading Just 25 examples of this bird left in province
Spotted this lovely little Mochuelo (little owl) out in the fields this morning. Not a common bird in this area, although you get a lot of them up in Valencia – the climate around here isn’t supposed to be conductive to them. Later: Just noticed this jpg I uploaded is a bit blurry. Click on it to make it bigger and clearer!
An nasty rook living in a roof in El Ejido has been caught by environmental police after “viciously” attacking several victims. People innocently walking down the street were attacked by the large bird, which swept down to peck and scratch at pedestrians. One victim needed medical attention for the scratches. Police were called after several attacks this week, and environmental police setup a cunning trap – they paraded up and down the street until attacked, Continue reading Evil rook from El Ejido caught
The swallows are out in force at the moment, and this year appear to be worse than the wasps, nesting in every overhanging nook and cranny. If this was not bad enough, our neighbor who doesn’t live here has some pigeons living in his chimney. His flue runs past our bedroom, and they wake up much earlier than I do. My top patio is covered in the discards of the swallows and pigeons, and sitting Continue reading Twitching, or one man watching the birds