Day 143: Spain Day 36

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

We woke up at 8:30 and slowly got ready for the day.  We ate some delicious free breakfast, then chilled until 1.  It was gray and drizzly outside--not great for birding.

We went to El Rocio via bus and birded at the dry lake.  We had noticed a middle-aged couple birding the day before, and were happily surprised to see them out again.  We quickly realized that they were English, and began to talk about what birds we had been seeing.  They were taking a private tour on Thursday like we were planning to do too.  They were headed for La Rocina, the visitors' center we went to yesterday, so we parted ways.  Chris and Linda recommended a landfill area at the other end of the lake, where they had seen some waterfowl in the area where there was water.  Vanessa and I headed there, stopping to watch a Kestrel hovering over unseen prey, diving, failing to catch its meal, and looking for another rodent.

We reached the end of the lake an hour later, where we saw a huge group of deer in the shady side.  They were laying down, occasionally mooing (?), and standing and grazing.  A huge field was to our left (the lake and deer on our right), and from that we could see a very dark storm cloud, complete with rain column.  Well, until it was on top of us, we were fine.  We proceeded to look at the Wheatear and Crested Larks calling and playing.  Then, the rain came.

We ran back to town on that dirt road, covering our binoculars (we were so smart we didn't bring umbrellas), frantically looking for an open restaurant.  We walked into a nice, bright bar, cold and dripping, and asked the guy at the bar if they had cafe con leche.  The nice waiter smiled and said, "For you, yes."  We received some wonderful coffee and vegan pastries, and asked if they had a dinner menu.  The waiter explained that the kitchen was closed at this hour, but he could bring out some shrimp, jamon serrano, olives, bread.  It was fabulous.

Hi rain!

A deer foraging

The inside of the bar