Getting bored yet? Thought I would finally post some pictures of the Mediterranean from my hotel balcony...
The beach didn't have any seashells, but it had beautiful smooth and round rocks. I brought three back.
Lisa noticed these birds as she was jogging one morning. She was explaining that she had seen a flock of green birds flying. I was baffled. Flock of GREEN birds? She said she thought they were parrots, but I wasn't sure. While the three of went walking on the beach, Lisa pointed toward the brush and said, "There they are!" A huge flock had descended and began to feed. We crept close so I could take some pictures. I'm a huge bird enthusiast (much to another's dismay), but I haven't had time to research these birds. Char Char? Becky? Can you give any help? Sorry the pictures are grainy. I had to crop them and enlarge them so you could see a close-up.
This is a view of our hotel from the beach on the way back from our walk.
We went into the city center again for dinner that night. Tapas! My first experience, and it was a good one. I loved the spicy potatoes and garlic shrimp. Yum!
Friday, November 10, 2006
Spain Day 4
Posted by SP at 5:19 PM
7 worthy responses:
DANG! That took me FOREVER to figure out, bit I'm glad I took the time, because it's pretty interesting. The bird is a Monk Parakeet. There are many feral flocks living in Spain due to intentional releases by bored pet owners. They are native of South America, but have reinhabited themselves in Spain and also in the U.S. You can read about it here:
http://invasions.bio.utk.edu/invaders/monk.html
or there's a small blurb on the parrot page on Wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot
look under the Feral Populations heading.
Good challenge, Shan!
I also experienced a "flock of green" while we were in Belize. We just assumed it was a flock of parrots.......might be the same bird.
Spain looks amazing. I'm glad you had a nice break.
Beautiful pictues, Shannon, and another wonderful experience. I just read about the green birds and was going to the "books" to look it up but Becky beat me on this one. I hope you are keeping a journal of all these experiences. TQM
amazing! i am just going to live vicariously through you, okay, shan? as i am cleaning up my son's pee pee from the kitchen floor....this potty training thing is not going well...i think i'll wear a shirt today that says, "I'd rather be in Spain...." hehe!
i agree with mandy. birds freak me out too. i do not have much of an affinity towards them. however, i do like the beach...it looks beautiful. i'm glad you had a good time.
Thanks, Becky!!!
Would you believe, parakeets would descend upon the lowly (and I mean low) mesquite trees of Seminary in Fort Worth, TX the same time every year. Very cool.
Also very cool that you had your first tapas experience in Espana no doubt!
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