WAITING FOR PLUSMA 2011

Although it’s still bloody cold here in Villanueva de la Vera we are already looking forward to the arrival of the first Nightingale some time this month. In recent years the first one has turned up two days earlier every time. First of all the record holder arrived on 28 March, then 26, then 24 and last year on 22. We nicknamed this new recordholder “Plusma” (short for “recordholder” in Spanish) and he even made the newspapers. Extrapolating this trend, this year’s first bird should arrive on the 20th!  I post below a couple of photos of Plusma taken last year when I was still digiscoping. I hope to get a good snap of him with my SLR this year.

Meanwhile, today we saw the first Short-Toed Eagle. The village is now full of Swallows and House Martins, so the summer visitors are arriving . . . despite the weather . . . .