Days 5 & 6 -- views from bird towers and mountains

Day 5 of our birding began as a very rainy morning, so we started out "safari" style, looking for birds through car or van windows near Sierra Brava Reservoir, and along Campo Lugar Road.   A few highlights were seeing two Eurasian hares cavorting in the grass, and a Little Owl.   The Little Owl was sitting on top of a small rock outcrop, blending in perfectly.  But one of our guides, Mike, was nevertheless able to spot him.   The afternoon cleared up a bit, and we stopped at the reservoir, and then the bird tower, at Finca De Maya Alta.  The tower overlooks a series of terraced ponds that were great for spotting wading birds.  But the highlight here was either the hen harrier that every so often flew by, or the cute pair of black winged kites exhibiting some courting behavior that we watched through a scope.

Once again we had a lovely dinner at the Hotel Rural, including a paella-like first course of pasta and seafood, and a really wonderful white wine.

Today (day 6) was a better weather day all-round and so we headed up to the mountain in the Sierra de Guadalupe area about an hour's drive away.   Once again, we saw the stunning folded landscape, a bit like the American west in parts.   We passed the town of Guadalupe's beautiful and very old monastery, too.  At our first lookout point on the mountain, we ran into British birding celeb David Lindow ("the urban birder").   A very nice guy who showed us a Redstart through his scope.   Our guides, Fernando and Mike, were clearly happy to have encountered him.   Turns out that David has recently moved to Merida, and had much good to say about the Spanish people, landscape, and birding opportunities.  

We ate our lunch on the highest peak, Pico Villuvrces, 1603 meters or a bit under 5000 ft high, as the chilling fog and clouds rolled in.   Our search for the somewhat elusive Alpine Accentor was finally met with success, but alas, no wallcreeper, the other much sought after bird.   We also had a brief glimpse and heard the call of a green woodpecker, 

When we got back today, as it was our final evening here, we had options -- take a walk in the environs here or go for a brief shopping trip in Trujillo.   Don and I chose the latter, and picked up a little of the local acorn liquor, jambon pate, olive oil and smoked paprika.   Hope to cook a Spanish dinner on our return.

L