Spain again

We decided that we'd nip back to Spain to revisit the Nature  Reserve  north of Girona.  We had enjoyed it in September but we thought that there would be more birds to see.  We had also seen some ideas for Christmas presents in shops in Begur ... plus we needed to go to the 'Wine Emporium' for more spanish wine!  So this was to be a 'quickie'.  A leisurely drive down, with lunch in a little french town just before the border.  We settled ourselves into our hotel ... we think that we were the only guests that night, and the resort had the feel of a seaside town shut for winter.  This actually suited us fine!

The next morning we went off to the reserve thinking that we would virtually have it to ourselves.  How wrong can you be!!!

There were goodness knows how many coach-loads of school kids and at least one coach of oap's.  And of course, the children had no concept of keeping quiet so as not to disturb the birds.

However, we set off into the reserve and all of the school children went we know not where!  We can only assume that they were in the visitor's centre in a classroom, as we, and a handful of other 'twitchers', had the place to ourselves.  

And we were delighted immediately in the first hide.  Storks, all kinds of ducks and even deer.

There were about 5 or 6 deer, and then we spotted the stag.

As we walked round the reserve there were hundreds of storks, some of them using old nests as perches ...

...there were lots of hides and lots of different birds and we even saw the marsh harrier again.
It was a really good day, especially as is was bright sunshine and about 24 degrees.

 

Having had our fill of wildlife (after walking about 8 km) we managed to fit in some therapeutic shopping buying wine!  Then this morning we went into the old town of Begur to a fantastic deli to stock up with spanish goodies.  A nice little interlude.