SUBZERO IN MAY
We spent last weekend in Gredos, the high mountain range (2600 m) behind our house. On the first day (Saturday) we walked up from the car park at La Plataforma (1800) to the mountain pass called Puerto de Candeleda (c. 2000 m). The weather was bad at the start of the walk, with wind and driving rain, but then bucked up and we were able to see and hear Bluethroats on the way up to the pass (better was to come the next day). A calling flock of Choughs flew over our head.
Lots of Wheatears, Alpine Pipits and some lovely Yellow Wagtails, like this one perched atop the broom.
Lots of mountain goats, as usual, and a few Cinereous Vultures among the Griffons.
One the Sunday we left the hotel at 5.30 in the morning with the temperature at -2 degrees and a strong ground frost on the way up the mountain!!!!! The first Bluethroats were all puffed up against the cold.
Maybe because of the low temperatures we saw few Rock Thrushes, but when the day warmed up a bit we saw this lovely pair at the top of the climb near Circo de Gredos, quite a long way off, together with two Alpine Accentors that stayed outside camera range. Here are two photos of the male and female Rock Thrush.
Skylarks were up in the air singing nearly all the time but this bird came down to the broom scrub to sing from atop a bush.
The ubiquitous Dunnocks are also worth a snapshot.
On the way down, with the temperatures now much higher, we found that the Bluethroats had sleeked down a lot.
We're used to seeing Bluethroats singing and displaying with their tails cocked upright but this bird did a strange little strutting dance with his head pointed skywards too. Really curious to watch.
The Bluethroats of Gredos either have a white spot on their blue breasts or none at all, but this bird seemed to have a reddish spot like the northern European race
