Christine's walking & birds blog

We drove to Glasgow through a snowy Scotland. Greger was in high spirits, pleased to be escaping the northern winter for a couple of weeks and saying how he saw everything - even the travelling - as part of the holiday. He's always loved flying, and takes great interest in it all - not least the views from the window.

So it was with great disappointment as we boarded the following day that he realised he'd booked the only flaming window-seat in the aircraft that didn't actually have a window!


Not only that, but he'd booked the exact same seats for the journey home! At least he saw the funny side. Eventually.

We paid an early visit to the Maspalomas lagoon, where we found our first adult Audouin's gull together with two immature birds, plus several yellow-legged and black-headed gulls.





We'd planned to get up into the hills and do some walking, but this didn't quite work out. The day we hired the car, the weather turned wet and windy and the few trails we saw were too rough and muddy to do in trainers. Also, the winding roads and hairpin bends made the driving take longer than we'd thought. Finally, the minor road east we'd wanted to take from Ayacata to some of the best pinewood trails was closed, with a barrier across and a couple of sullen-looking police officers sitting behind it in their car. The problem was probably rain; even on the main route, stones were being brought down onto the road from the crumbling cliff-faces, and gangs of men were sweeping them into the verges or gutters.

So in the end, for the four days we had the car, we just enjoyed the drives and the viewpoints. This is looking towards the Pico de la Cogella; buses and coaches drove slowly along this stretch of road, sounding their horns at each bend.



With regard to birds, both in the mountains and on the coast, it was mostly a case of consolidating previous sightings, such as the ubiquitous Berthelot's pipit.


And the African blue tit - which, at a picnic site on the Embalse de la Cueva de las Niñas, cavorted at our feet, hoping for crumbs which we didn't have.


While a male spectacled warbler in the dunes gave us good views.


But ravens, buzzards, and a great spotted woodpecker gave us new birds for Gran Canaria; while on a sliver of a reservoir far below, a pair of ruddy shelduck made arrows across the greenish water before sailing under the cliff and out of sight.


In the end, we did more walking in the days when we stayed around the hotel than we did in the hills. Fleeces were needed morning and evening, when it was really quite chilly; but our last two days saw a return to blue skies and sunshine, so that we could enjoy some sunbathing and swimming after our morning walks.

Once again the return flight landed fairly late. However, we'd decided against driving home through the night as we'd previously done, because of the more wintry conditions; and we enjoyed a meal, a night, and a breakfast in the Holiday Inn at the airport before setting off mid-morning. This worked well because it was a sunny day and the scenery was wonderful. A red grouse went flying high across the A9 near the Drumochter summit. The hills looked inviting, and there were plenty of cars parked in lay-bys with ski-holders on the roofs.

    
These snowy hills provided quite a contrast with the brown arid mountains we'd left behind. We'd enjoyed our holiday, although by the time we reached home Greger had the start of a bad cold - and now I've got it!