Reservoirs and ricefields

Day 4 of the bird tour began as a very foggy morning, so the decision was made to go up to the Alcollarium reservoir, and then later to the lower elevation rice fields, in the hopes that some of the fog would burn off by then.   We hung out at the reservoir all morning, which got kind of chilly, so I was glad to have dressed in a "base layer," as well as three other layers of clothing.  We did see some pretty cool birds -- including a kingfisher, a spoonbill, blue-throat, and ferruginous ducks.   Almost as interesting were the many large working dogs that seemed to patrol the perimeter of every property, together with the herds of sheep and goats. These dogs were on the job and alert to any attempt to step onto their property.  Our local guide Fernando conveyed that you don't mess with them.  

As usual, by 1 pm we were more than ready for a "comfort stop" at a local cafe, where we of course had to also buy an absolutely delicious "cafe" to warm our hands and energize us until lunch.  (Our small revolt against the relentless birding schedule is to drink as slowly as possible.) A bit later we stopped to picnic at an old train station, that is now being reused as a stop on a "rail to trails" route.   No train has gone through Mardrigalejo since 1964.   (The tuna in olive oil sandwich that Belena  had packed for me was absolutely delicious, BTW.)

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the rice fields, where we were happy to bird-watch "safari" style, i.e from the van windows.  We learned that the zillions of cranes we were seeing were originally drawn to the area by the acorns, but now also found food in the rice fields that were established some 20 years ago.   We saw many other birds as well, including small flocks of little red avadavits, some moorhens, another blue-throat.  

This evening we gave Juan Pedro and Elena a break and ate in Trujillo before coming back to the hotel to complete the day's bird list.    It was fun to chat a bit more with John, Helen, Jane and Jane, our four British tour companions, who all have very interesting lives, and to get their opinions on a few things (what do you think of Mr. Trump?  Should the UK stay in the EU?....etc.) 

On to tomorrow.  We have already seen so many of the birds on the list, that we now have "target birds" now -- those we are still on the lookout for.