Whoopee, a hoopoe

Back blipped on 9th Jan.  Still no wifi in our apartment 

We steeled ourselves for the drive down to the south coast today.  What a lot of cyclists there were on the road, not all of them particularly considerate.

We parked the car in a municipal car park in Maspalonas, and after some discussion about the correct direction (settled with the use of Google Maps) we started to walk towards the sea, and also towards a lagoon just off the sea.  I had read about La Charca lagoon as a good place to spot birds.

Before we even reached the lagoon, we came across a group of folk with their camera phones out, and on investigation, discovered this rather tame seeming hoopoe.  It's a pity he was surrounded by cigarette buts, but he was demonstrating beautifully the use of his long beak to dig for insects in the sand.  He showed no worry regarding the crowds, and came quite close.  Such a beautiful bird.

We then walked up the lagoon side to the beach, where we found a restaurant for a drink and some bread, and to use the WiFi – I to catch up with my blips, W to check on the cricket score, and read the soccer news.  The beach is a lovely sandy one, but we weren't tempted to stop – it was rather windy, and I thought sand under a plaster cast might be quite irritating!  But we did admire some sand sculpture. 

On the way back, we stopped for some time watching the birds on the lagoon – at one point there were 4 grey heron in close proximity, but that didn't last, as some were “seen off” by the others.  There was also an abundance of little egret, and a smaller white bird – perhaps a cattle egret.

We then set off back to Soria, planning to stop en route and get a meal, but everywhere was shut.  Even our local cafe was just closing up as we got there at about 5.30.  So we've had a scratch meal of bread and cheese, and fruit cake (see blip of 28th Dec), all washed down with a bottle of red wine.