Changed rooms and got sleep! Disappointed to see the same cloudy damp weather. Headed back to the dam on the lower area, again stopping close to the entrance where we saw otters! Spent quite a bit of time watching the otters, walking along the river to follow them. Saw a quick glimpse of a kingfisher flying over the otters. When we couldn’t see the otters any longer we headed up to the dam – which was open with lots of water flowing through. The gates to the entry and the door were also open but no tours. The water level was higher so the rocks and perches that were visible yesterday were not this morning and there were fewer birds about, so we headed to the area on the other side of the dam. This is a recreation area, with beaches for swimming and picnic areas. There were several cormorants and some smaller birds, but not as much activity as the other side of the dam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We went back to the hotel for sandwiches for lunch and then we headed out right after lunch to the upper area. There is a dam there as well (a newer one up river) and we drove up to there first. It was a good spot, though we really needed the guides scope to see things as they were just dots through the binoculars. But we saw Griffon Vultures (a pair busy making more vultures and one doing the classic vulture pose on a rock), Spanish Ibex, red billed chough, and a blue rock thrush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We then headed back to one of the viewing platforms (these were along the road up to the dam). We watched the mist and rain roll over, but in the clear times we got beautiful views of the valley. Then we spotted an imperial eagle at the top of a tree being harassed by magpies. It finally took off, pursued by magpies for a bit, before it flew right at us and by the platform so we all got a very good look. As it soared up past us another one joined it and they both soared up over the ridge. We also spotted mouflon in the distance. Driving down from the platforms we saw deer, bulls, and a red legged partridge. Stopped again for a brief walk and saw a mouflon much closer and a treecreeper. So had a very good day dispite the weather!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Changed rooms and got sleep! Disappointed to see the same cloudy damp weather. Headed back to the dam on the lower area, again stopping close to the entrance where we saw otters! Spent quite a bit of time watching the otters, walking along the river to follow them. Saw a quick glimpse of a kingfisher […]<\/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\/p4T97-170","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4276,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/04\/day-four\/","url_meta":{"origin":4278,"position":0},"title":"Day Four","date":"Thursday, 4 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"As Joe snored all night I spent the day half asleep because for some reason I didn't link having two rooms with the fact that I could have switched rooms and gotten sleep! It was an overcast, chilly, rainy sort of day. We headed into the Sierra Morena with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2225,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/03\/otters\/","url_meta":{"origin":4278,"position":1},"title":"Otters","date":"Wednesday, 3 June 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"So, long update ahead! On Sunday got together for breakfast with family - large amount of food at Cracker Barrel (this is a tradition with Joe, must have at least one Cracker Barrel breakfast in Kentucky). Then we got on the road. I64 to Blue Ridge Parkway. Got to Peaks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":385,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/15\/and-finally-slimbridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":4278,"position":2},"title":"And finally, Slimbridge","date":"Tuesday, 15 June 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Up far too early, especially as I was up most of the night thinking 'up early, must get a good night's sleep'. Got everything ready and off to Slimbridge. Got there nearly half an hour early but better early than late! A few others turned up and finally a land\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/23\/sorry-for-the-f-in-fog\/","url_meta":{"origin":4278,"position":3},"title":"Sorry for the F in fog","date":"Monday, 23 October 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Or Carl Sandburg was right. THE fog comes on little cat feet. \u00a0 It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. We decided today we'd walk to the Golden Gate Bridge so we headed out in bright sunlight and warm weather. Walked along the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":348,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/07\/dam-tourists\/","url_meta":{"origin":4278,"position":4},"title":"Dam Tourists","date":"Thursday, 7 January 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Up early again but a bit later than planned. Out to see Joshua Tree Park. We drove to the Barker Dam and did the one mile walk out. Water was way down, barely any there, and so very little wildlife. We did see a cottontail bunny and birds, but otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4179,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/25\/happy-christmas-from-kangaroo-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":4278,"position":5},"title":"Happy Christmas from Kangaroo Island","date":"Wednesday, 25 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"On Christmas Eve we left Port Noarlunga. We had a coffee and danish\/toast at the nearby bakery and then stopped at the shopping centre on the way out of town where Joe got some souvenir shirts. Google then took us a bit of a winding route back to the main\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278"}],"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=4278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4280,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4278\/revisions\/4280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}