Today was damp – started foggy and spitting with rain so the guide switched our morning and afternoon plans as it was too wet to do the walk. Went a different route into the park, heading for the visitors’ centre. This route had much more water, so many more water birds including egrets (great and little) and grey herons. Even saw a group of flamigos! Also on the way in spotted something in a tree, a Bonnelli’s Eagle, which promptly flew off. In the park there are areas of dead eucalyptus trunks that have been set into circles for rabbit habitats and they also appear to be excellent for little owls as we spotted them sitting on the trunks. We had a brief stop at the Visitors’ Centre which is really lovely – huge windows looking over an area. We were also spotting a lot of kestrels and drove out to where there were several lesser kestrels sitting on a wire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lunch was at the same bar in El Rocio and while eating the weather was clearing up. After lunch we had an hour before setting off again so Joe and I walked along the waterside a bit further than the church (we didn’t go into the church though). In the large area by the church we watched a horse being trained which was interesting. Then back into the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We headed toward one of the hunting lodges (the park used to be a royal hunting park), but didn’t really get close enough to see the lodge\/palace. But we did get out for a walk. Saw hoopoe, meadow pipit, corn bunting, Thekla’s larks, lapwings, golden plovers, black redstarts, red kites, woodlarks, and crested larks among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back for another huge supper – the restaurant was closed, but they did supper for us (we ordered in advance). We did drinks before dinner and our checklist of things spotted. Then another huge meal (starter, main, and pudding for meals). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today was damp – started foggy and spitting with rain so the guide switched our morning and afternoon plans as it was too wet to do the walk. Went a different route into the park, heading for the visitors’ centre. This route had much more water, so many more water birds including egrets (great and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-16S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":167,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/27\/birds-turtles-and-frogs-oh-my\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":0},"title":"Birds, Turtles, and Frogs, oh my!","date":"Friday, 27 June 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Last day at Asa Wright and we are sitting on the veranda again watching the rain and birds. Last night was fun. After a restful afternoon, napping and taking it easy, we were collected and driven down to Matura. We parked and walked along the beach a bit while dinner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4243,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/08\/more-of-the-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":1},"title":"More of the Island","date":"Friday, 8 December 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"So had breakfast, no champagne because at 10ish we collected our rental car. Joe had mapped out a looped route to the north of the island and through Garajonay National Park. Today was more a scouting mission just to see what it was like, both driving the roads and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4183,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/26\/the-professionals\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":2},"title":"The Professionals","date":"Thursday, 26 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"For Boxing Day and the 27th Kathleen booked a land tour and boat tour. So Boxing Day was our trip around the island with a professional guide. (K: with Kangaroo Island Wilderness Tours.) We were picked up from the hotel after breakfast; while we waited for collection we watched the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4213,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/end-of-the-road-trip\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":3},"title":"End of the Road Trip","date":"Tuesday, 7 January 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"We decided to drive to Sydney via the last bit of the Coast Road that we could safely do. So we checked out of the hotel in Wollongong and made our way to the Grand Pacific Drive. Leaving Wollongong behind we had to make to sharp right turns into various\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4134,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/08\/doing-manly-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":4},"title":"Doing Manly Stuff","date":"Sunday, 8 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Going to Manly Beach - there be dragons! So Sunday we went over to Manly via the ferry, to save walking we got the train up to Circular Quay, where the ferries leave from. So we'll get a coffee while we wait for the train - no, there\u2019s one in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/06\/19\/dolphins\/","url_meta":{"origin":4270,"position":5},"title":"Dolphins!","date":"Friday, 19 June 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, for the last day I had booked a boat trip out to see the wildlife and Mull. I booked with Mara Mhor for a one day trip (Wildlife Safari) out to Mull and around the coast. So we we were up and out early to catch the boat for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4273,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions\/4273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}