Just like St Margaret's?

Although it is only mid-February several migrant species were already in evidence in the South of Spain. There was a continual stream of Swallows and lesser numbers of House, Crag and Sand Martins. Below are a few photos from day 2 of our trip (Saturday 14th Feb).

This and the next two species have all been seen at St Margaret's in the last few years, but of course they are strays when they get here, but at home in Spain. We saw a few Black Storks, including one coming in off the sea, a strange sight, as you are looking for Shearwaters!

There were a few Black Kites about at the beginning of the week, but by the last day they were more numerous, when we counted 111, including one group of over 60.

White Storks were numerous, this one had a white ring on that read C WP. I don't know if it is to do with how they feed, but many White Storks look grubby, with just a few pristine black and white.

There were quite a few of these orchids in the Stone Pine wood at Barbate. Thanks to Dave Johnson I now know that these are Sawfly Orchids (Ophrys tenthredinifera). They're not Early Spiders, but it is still a reminder of the orchids of our area.

The sunset from the balcony of John's house is still fantastic, but the view is slowly changing, with large wind generators beginning to come into view on the left. It was 21 months since I was last in the area and the number of these intrusive monsters in the area has increased hugely. Mind you, if the ones at East Langdon get planning permission the evening view from our top windows will include some of these horrors.

Food for thought.

Autumn is the traditional time for collecting wild food, and if you have confidence in your identification there are plenty of edible fungi about. I must admit that field mushrooms are probably the only species that I'm capable of being certain about.

I think that these two beauties are parasol mushrooms (according to Jack that is.) However when I looked them up I came across this statement

"Although parasol mushrooms are edible, many fungi of the Lepiota family to which it belongs may be very similar in appearance and can cause stomach upsets. Some are very poisonous." That's enough to limit my fungi to ones sold in the shops! In Italy you can get your mushrooms checked at the local market to try and help prevent accidental poisoning, but there are still quite a few deaths each year from eating the wrong toadstool.

Sweet Chestnuts are also in season. I used to enjoy buying a bag of chestnuts from someone selling them on a cold winters night. Here's a recipe for 1kg of Sweet Chestnuts from the BBC site:

Method
1. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

2. Using a small, sharp knife, cut a cross into the skin of each nut. Put in a roasting tin and bake until the skins open and the insides are tender, about 30 minutes.

3. Serve in paper bags, if you like. To eat, peel away the tough outer skin and the pithy white inner skin to get to the sweet kernel.

This is just about simple enough for me to manage, but I'd need to get some paper bags to do it properly.

I had a total of just six moths from last nights trapping, four Feathered Ranunculus and single Large and Lesser Yellow Underwings, a poor return in October.