It was a fantastic week last week. I visited Cabañeros to see the Berrea, or deer rut, and also Fuencaliente where the hills were alive with their bellows. At the Laguna de Navaseca there were four Ruff, one of which was in an unusual breeding to non-breeding plumage, six Black-tailed […]
BIRDS
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I´m talking about birds and people. Las Saturday I had the pleasure of a trip around las Tablas with Darío from DestinosManchegos, a tour operator in Daimiel. I was brought along to see how they give their tours as they have asked me to give one in English later in […]
Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides), a photo by Mike at Sea on Flickr. The call the Squacco Heron the Garcilla Cangrejera in Spanish, which means the Crabbing Little Heron, more or less. In the Tablas at the moment there is an abundance of fish and crustaceans which have proliferated due to […]
Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) It would appear that we are starting to be visited by a number of migrants here in La Mancha. It´s a great time of the year to see some birds you wouldn´t normally see, such as this lovely Wood Sandpiper as seen at the Laguna de […]
Female Little Bustard (Tetrax tetrax) Back in Spain I may as well keep up with some Spanish stuff also. So I went off to the steppes for a quick look to see what was going on in the terrible heat we are having here. To my delight I found a […]
Time for the second part of this story dealing with the voyage and a bit of history. We sailed from Knightstown, Valentia to Derrynane Harbour on my cousins yacht Janus. It is thus named due to having two heads (toilets in maritime speak) and Janus was a Roman god of […]
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus), a photo by Mike at Sea on Flickr. There are few places in the world that make me marvel over the abundance of wildlife more than the Skelligs off the coast of Kerry, Ireland. A trip to the rocks is both a trip back in time […]
Great War Memorial, a photo by Mike at Sea on Flickr. So let´s kick off the return to the land of digital communication and start at the beginning. It´s been a great few weeks in Ireland full of travel, activity, culture and nature. We started off by staying at my […]
At the moment the world is full of youth and promise in the world of the wild. Just in the Laguna de Navaseca alone there are juvenile Kentish Plovers, Black-winged Stilts, Avocets, Moorhens and Coots, Little and Black-eared Grebes, Flamingoes etc. Some are able to fly but others have their […]
Purple Gallinule [Swamphen] (Porphyrio porphyrio), a photo by Mike at Sea on Flickr. No, I´m not talking about Prince, Squiggle, Symbol or whatever he calls himself. I´m talking about one of the most electric coloured waterfowl, the Purple Swamphen or Gallinule. There are 13 or so subspecies of this bird […]