We said goodbye to our house in Cortes de la Frontera, Spain and drove to Seville, one of Spain's major cities. We only stayed 1 night there and the best part was going to Maria Luisa Park. There was a pond in the park and was filled with ducks and geese. Sadly, these ducks are domesticated ducks and they are not countable on my life list. My favorite was a BARNACLE GOOSE. We got around the park using a 4 person bicycle with a steering wheel, not handlebars. It was incredibly fun to drive. After that we checked into our apartment and went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. The next day we drove to Madrid, Spain's capital city. The first full day there we went to The Prado, one of the most famous art museums in the world. The Prado was filled with old masterpieces. One of my favorite paintings was one called The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. Its a triptych that has a painting of heaven, earth, and hell.
The next day we woke up and went to Madrid Rio Park in the afternoon. We were kind of lost and ended up in the wrong park. But I was glad about this because did pick up some good bird in this park. One of them was this cool looking MONK PARAKEET, an escaped species and lifer 293! This is lifer 293 not 292 because my lifer 292 was a EURASIAN SISKIN, which I did not blog about. Escaped species are countable, right? Here is a great shot of the Monk Parakeet below.
Later we went to get chocolate and churros at a famous place called San Gines. We ordered our churros, and dipped them in extremely chocolate-y hot chocolate. My parents told me your supposed to eat 6 churros each one foot long. I thought the churros were fairly skinny. I still think its kind of gross to eat 6 of them though. After chocolate and churros we went to go see the Real Madrid Soccer Statium. It was actually really cool, there was a trophy room, a room showing the players stats, the soccer balls they used in their games, etc After that we were able to see the field and sit in the same chairs that the team sits in! Real Madrid has one of the world's best soccer players on the team, Ronaldo, who also plays for the Portuguese national team. Here are some of the trophies in the Real Madrid stadium.
After lunch we walked back to the car to find Madrid Rio Park since we got lost. On the way back, I spotted this really cool woodpecker, but im not 100% sure but I think this is a GREEN WOODPECKER. Any help?
We left Madrid and then drove to Bilbao, a city that used to be a manufacturing town until Frank Gary built the Guggenheim art museum and then people started to visit Bilbao more often, and the city was put on the map. We came to Bilbao primarily to see the museum, a contemporary art museum, unlike the Prado in Madrid. After Bilbao we left Spain and we drove to Porto, Portugal, Portugal's second largest city. We stayed 2 nights in Porto, and walked around the city most of the time. Porto is also on the coast, so sea gulls were abundant there. Unfortunately, the weather was bad the whole time. After that we went to Evora, Portugal. The hotel was awesome! It was in a wine vineyard, which attracted lots of good birds. There was a reservoir there and it was filled with LITTLE GREBES. I did pick up 1 wader on the edge of the reservoir, a nice COMMON SANDPIPER. My dad saw Red Legged Partridges run across the road and into the vineyard, but I never saw them. Bummer!
After Evora we drove to Lisbon where we caught a flight to Morocco. Unfortunately our flight was delayed 2 hours and 20 minutes. We flew to Casablanca where we had a 3 hour layover. After a second, shorter flight we finally arrived in Marrakech around 9:30. We did not arrive at the house where we were to stay until 10:00. Luckily, Sabah, the housekeeper, had a tasty chicken tagine ready for us (thanks, Sabah!).
When I woke up the next day I went straight up to the rooftop terrace to see if there were any birds. I managed to photograph this species of bunting. House bunting? Marrakech is called The Red City because it is made of red clay. The tower in the background is one of many prayer towers. The call to prayer begins around 5:30 in the morning. 5:30!
When I woke up the next day I went straight up to the rooftop terrace to see if there were any birds. I managed to photograph this species of bunting. House bunting? Marrakech is called The Red City because it is made of red clay. The tower in the background is one of many prayer towers. The call to prayer begins around 5:30 in the morning. 5:30!
The second day we went to lunch at Café Chez ZaZa, just off Jemaa el Fna square, where I practiced pouring tea the Moroccan way. Here's a quick video.
Today we got a day pass at a very nice hotel called La Mamounia and spent the day there. On the way, I spotted this WHITE STORK sitting on its nest.
The hotel gardens provided great birding and the coolest one of all was this EURASIAN HOOPOE, a lifer! Not only is this a cool bird, but it is one of the coolest ones I have ever seen in my life.
On the grounds I also had a few LAUGHING DOVE, probably the most interesting dove I have ever seen and lifer! (See photo below).
One of the men that works in the outdoor pool area told me that everyday a falcon shows up at about 3:00 PM. I was lucky to see 3 of them, here is one of them below. There are also 2 types of kestrel here Lesser Kestrel and Eurasian Kestrel. They are both very similar. When I looked in my field guide, I could not positively ID it.
Life List 295 (3 life birds in the past few days) + Eurasian Siskin (seen recently at a different time)
Bird List For The Past Few Days
White Stork 2
Monk Parakeet X Life Bird!
Eurasian Collared Dove 10
Laughing Dove 3 Life Bird!
Eurasian Hoopoe 1 Life Bird!
Rock Pigeon X
Little Egret 6
Blackcap 2
Bird List For The Past Few Days
White Stork 2
Monk Parakeet X Life Bird!
Eurasian Collared Dove 10
Laughing Dove 3 Life Bird!
Eurasian Hoopoe 1 Life Bird!
Rock Pigeon X
Little Egret 6
Blackcap 2
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