This past Sunday, we decided to join a group from the local branch of the Sociedad Española de Ornitología (local birdwatchers). I had signed in to receive notices of their activities and there was an outing to observe raptors at this place, located Northwest of Fuengirola.
We arrived at the place at 10 am and spent the next three hours at this high lookout point from where we could spot the birds on either side of the ridge, into two valleys and with some high peaks in front.
The group is very nice and they were willing to help us and two other beginners learn to identify the birds and telling us about their regular visits to the place, so that they've been keeping records for several years now. Their enthusiasm is contagious!
For us, there is the challenge of learning the names - I'm afraid that the few we know, we know in English... So we would watch, ask for the name, look it up in the book in Spanish, then in English... a little messy but we learned some.
In the end, we were able to spot ten species, four of them raptors. It's not the Tropics, and it wasn't the best day given the direction of the wind; besides, they say that in September there will be more migrants passing though.
They also recommended a few other places for birdwatching, such as the mouth of the Guadalhorce river, a few kilometers from our place, and Tarifa, near Gibraltar, which should be the place to go and see the migrants crossing towards Africa.
It was a fun morning and we enjoyed being with such nice group. We hope to join them again in other trips.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment