When Andy Paterson and I arrived at Fuente de Piedra on Saturday 12 May 2018, we were astonished to find the car park full and over-spilling to the extent that it occupied both sides of the entrance road. In addition to the wealth of birds mentioned in my previous blog, the visitor centre and the … More World migratory bird day, 12 May 2018
After several years of drought in southern Spain, the 2017-2018 winter, especially later during the season, brought huge downpours of rainfall. On my arrival on 9 May the countryside had a distinctly green hue and cereal crops already sported ears of ripening seed, with a few fields already beginning to turn brown. Many wildflowers were … More Water returns to Andalusia’s lagoons
Mid-April saw me back in Andalucía for a week. Predictably my first venture into the countryside was to Fuente de Piedra, one of my favourite birding haunts. On 18 April a vicious but warmish wind howled in from the south, piling huge clouds upon the mountain tops to the south of Antequera. The mass of … More Spring fever in Andalucía
February 8 found us back in Andalucía, with sparkling winter sun but an icy northerly wind. As usual on the first full day, we headed for Fuente de Piedra in the afternoon. On our approach from the village our first sighting of the lagoon produced disappointment because the main lagoon appeared dryer than when last … More More rain in Andalucía encourages the ducks’ return
After a prolonged drought, a deluge soaked southern Andalucía on 2-4 December 2016, in Malaga leading a bus to take on the appearance a sinking boat! For farmers and wildlife, however, this rain has been welcome. I arrived on 8 December and in the evening paid my first visit to Laguna Fuente de Piedra. I … More Rain rain come again – a plea answered (to an extent) in Andalucía
On 12 October 2016 Christine and I drove to a complex of reservoirs to the west of Antequera. In my experience these reservoirs in Spain normally attract few birds apart from gulls and the occasional Cormorant. On this occasion, however, one of the reservoirs, Embalse de Guadalhorce, held flocks of Coot and Pochards that are … More Egyptian Geese in Andalucía
Towards the end of our stay in Andalucia, and after a delightful lunch at Venta Las Delicias in Villanueva del Rosario, we drove through the village along a paved but rough road, followed by a gravelly track, for about 6 km up into the hills to a parking area and viewing point (mirador) called Alto … More More valleys and mountains
Cities, towns and villages in Andalucía abound with restaurants and tapas bars, providing a huge variety of dishes and prices. While many genres of food are available, including Chinese, Italian and Indian, tapas bars tend to have similar ranges of local foods, based especially on seafoods and pork, salads and olives. During my days as … More More good food in Andalucía – Venta Las Delicias in Rosario
As readers of my earlier blogs will know, the lagoon at Fuente de Piedra is one of my favourite birdwatching haunts, famed for its large nesting colony of Flamingos that under the right conditions can exceed 20,000 pairs. We visited on 9 October to discover a baked pan of whitish mud with no standing water. … More Only two Flamingos
Having experienced sufficient of the plastic greenhouses and the incredibly busy E-15 coastal motor way, we turned inland at Almuñécar on to explore what my ancient road map indicated as an unnumbered minor road (but which Google Maps identifies as the A-4050) heading almost due north into the interior. It was by this time mid-afternoon … More Feeling on top of a wild world
