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
The main road eastwards from Órgiva runs along valley sides of the Sierra Nevada foothills through stunning scenery, ranging from the wide gravel valley bottom, doubtless periodically a raging flood but during our visit little more than a dry river bed, to high mountain peaks. The mixture of wooded and scrubby slopes is periodically studded … More The plastic coast
The Sierra Nevada mountain range’s highest point, Mulahacen (3478 m), is also the highest point on the Spanish mainland. In winter the mountains are snow-capped and support a thriving ski centre. Our visit in October was made in clear blue skies and hot sunshine with images of snow restricted to postcards. On the high mountains … More Jamón is in the air – Trevélez
