{"id":14016,"date":"2024-04-20T14:31:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T14:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=14016"},"modified":"2024-04-21T10:18:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T10:18:16","slug":"getting-to-know-the-neighbours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=14016","title":{"rendered":"Avian neighbours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your ‘umble scribe is spending a few days beyond the confines of HM Open Prison United Kingdom staying with family in the Campo de Gibraltar<\/a>. It’s his first time in the country for a few decades and a good chance to brush up on rusty spoken Spanish, as well as get some much-needed sun after a long, wet English winter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Being out in the countryside, your correspondent has been amazed by the local birdlife, which features species that are never or rarely seen back home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Firstly, let’s introduce the biggest of the local avian species, the Eurasian Griffon Vulture<\/a>. These are described by my trusty half a century old Collins bird book as having a flight outline like a “tea tray in the sky<\/em>“, stand as high as 1.22 metres high and have a wingspan up to 2.8 metres.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

They are spotted throughout the day on the crags behind the house, as well as riding the thermals in large flocks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"Three
Three vultures perched on crags. Very easy photographic subjects at rest, but testing the phone camera’s technical limits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n
\r\n

It’s rather difficult to get a decent photo of them on a phone, so here’s a close-up from elsewhere.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"Griffon
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n
\r\n

The other 2 very impressive local birds are more colourful but slightly smaller: the golden oriole<\/a> and the European bee-eater<\/a> respectively.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"Golden
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
\r\n\r\n

Orioles are truly spectacular, flitting across the valley in a flash of gold and black. Although they do migrate to Britain, their distribution is rather limited, whilst your ‘umble scribe had four sightings in a couple of hours one afternoon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Where the oriole impresses with its two-tone plumage, the bea-eater has colourful plumage reminiscent of a member of a 1970s psychedelic rock band.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"Bee-eater
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
\r\n\r\n

These birds are not regular migrants to Britain, but have bred on several occasions in recent years, according to the RSPB<\/a>. Down in southern Spain, it can sound as if there’s one in just about every shrub at times!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your ‘umble scribe is spending a few days beyond the confines of HM Open Prison United Kingdom staying with family in the Campo de Gibraltar. It’s his first time in the country for a few decades and a good chance to brush up on rusty spoken Spanish, as well as get some much-needed sun after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[36,22],"class_list":["post-14016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-oddities","tag-comment","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14016"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14033,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016\/revisions\/14033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}