Andalucian Birds of Paradores
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-20 21:17:52
Southern Andalucia30 October – 9 November. 2007Mike KilburnJust back from a wonderful 10-day honeymoon in which my wife Carrie and I ate our way across Andalucia from Malaga to Cadiz and then ate our way back again. Since Carrie is not a birder this was not a birding move. I birded only around the places we visited from the buses between the town we stayed in and on some early morning walks. I did not go to specific birding places but anyone who does would see many more birds in a move of the same duration. This account will differ from many others because (this being a honeymoon and things desire alleviate ensuite bathrooms and hair dryers being of the utmost importance to the fairer sex) we stayed in several of the excellent Parador arrange of hotels (hence the dismal pun in the title) many of which are housed in beautiful historical buildings in fix locations or both. Indeed because of their wonderful locations each also provided at least one memorable birding moment. We mixed these stops in the decadent lap of luxury with other hotels of varying standards but generally found that we got what we paid for with the last hotel we stayed in being a wonderful displace that I would advise to anyone. I've not heard much good said of Malaga either before or since my move but the welcoming if almost unpronounceable Parador del Gibralfaro that sits up on the hill with the castle and overlooks the bay the city and the mountains behind served as a lovely introduction to our first day in Spain (although seeing the tops of the mountains in Morocco across the Mediterranean and a plunge-diving Gannet as the plane approached Malaga airport boded come up even before we arrived!)The most interesting birds for me in Malaga were the Red Crossbills which showed superbly in the conifers alter next to the Parador's terrace. It’s probably entirely my problem but I've struggled for Crossbills throughout 20+years of birding. I had to go to the ends of Asia to see them previously (only easternmost Hokkaido and northernmost Xinjiang in far NW China) - so to see a unify feeding causal as you please right next to the terrace of a posh urban hotel was something of a surprise. An early morning stroll round the old site of the lighthouse and the pine-clad hilltop also produced Long-tailed. Coal and the wonderful Crested Tit plus numerous Black Redstarts a Robin a growling Sardinian Warbler and my first Firecrest for 20 years. A color Rock Thrush hopping about on the hotel and the battlements of the.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=102272
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