Apart from mosquito bites, which are heading towards twenty, I'm having a good time. Saturday had to be the most successful day, when we managed to get into the back of the El Hondo reserve (near Elche) and met up with some birders we saw last year. I doubt we would have seen some of the species without the extra eyes and expertise.

The list was quite impressive with black-winged kite, golden eagle, booted eagle, marsh harrier, peregrine and several kestrel who were mobbing the kite and which later turned their attention to the golden eagle. We missed the osprey, but weren't complaining and watched wood sandpiper and blue throat as compensation.

Sunday, was less impressive, very warm loads of people about but very few birds though we did manage a marsh harrier and some black necked grebes at the reserve near Torrevijeca and swallow tailed butterfly as we wandered back to the car. Monday was very hot and we did some shopping and had a play in the pool.

Today we returned to Torrevijeca and the reserve where it was once again rather warm. We watched a young female marsh harrier trying to catch fish, squabbling with a couple of herons and generally causing mayhem before it got bored and flew off. Walking near some vineyards where we've seen stone curlew before, we saw a southern grey shrike and a kestrel and small canal absolutely teeming with fish. In the bushes we saw a cone headed grasshopper, which has to be one of the weirdest insects I've ever seen and then tonight before we went out for a meal we watched a pair of (probably) buzzards causing alarm amongst the local bird population.

Acrida ungarica or common cone-headed grasshopper

Tomorrow or Thursday we're going to try our luck up a mountain which might provide some more eagles among other things.