Tuesday 2 June 2015

Market day and Rio stroll

I went to the mercadillo to shop for veggies this morning, and for the amazingly small sum of €4.60 bought 4 avocados, 3 bananas, 3 nectarines, 4 large garlic heads, a half kilo box of cherry tomatoes, and 600 grams of French beans. The only disaster was the 60 cents worth of avocados which weren't up to scratch, as they'd not ripened properly, insufficiently watered.

Then, I walked down the rio Chillar to the sea, keeping an eye out for interesting birds. Yet again I saw a flock of goldfinches, but they rise and fly so quickly that snapping them is impossible when you're out strolling. I caught a swallow dipping over a river ford a few times, terrible small in the vast expanse, but so noticeable from their fast and gracious movement.
Further down the river, beneath the old town bridge, a got several good photos of a bird I couldn't identify, with a call that suggested to me that it could be a straying shore bird.
When I checked the RSPB website, the best match was the little ringed plover, a wading bird that isn't confined to the shore at all.

There was a tow truck on the beach, extricating a car that had driven quite a way on to the sand and was stuck up to its axels, heaven knows why.
At the moment, there's little or no water running over the surface as the rio Chillar approaches the sea. Possibly, at wetter times of year, the saturated sand is firm enough to prevent a car from sinking right it. If the driver was familiar with this, an expensive error of judgement had been made.


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