Saturday, September 12, 2015

Bear watching in Somiedo National Park, Spain

The first two days were thick fog, low cloud and drizzle !  Looking for bears was impossible.




El Principe Mirador at La Peral 


Happy times with a few cups of coffee in Somiedo 


There was a massive cattle market in the next village while we were there. Plenty of 'cowboys' rounding up all the local horses for buying and selling. These were returning up to La Peral late afternoon to their new homes, all in excellent condition. It was amazing to see whole herds of cows strolling down the main road to their new homes. They even knew which side of the road to walk on ! The 'cowboys' were all in our local pub with their whips and spurs on and 12 horses tied up to the pub fence!

The weather finally changed on the third day and the temperature reached scorchio ! 



The scenery was absolutely stunning. These small meadows were covered in clover and flowers. Would like to visit again in spring when they are in full bloom. Not a bit of pesticide or even a mower has touched these fields. All were covered in insects and butterflies, fabulous. 









We looked at this area within the Cantabrian Mountain range for a full week, but afraid no bears. This was the area that the trips and locals visit and is the main area for sightings of the bears - but not this week.



By tea-time each day a full 'bear twitch' had assembled. All went home disappointed.

The only bear we saw !! 


'Team Bear' dipping every day for a week, but we still managed to smile ! 












 Plenty of Chamois on the mountains





Hummingbird Hawk Moths 




 Pied Flycatcher

Plenty of pied flycatchers and black redstarts. We saw about 60 species of birds. The highlights being 3 black vultures that drifted over, a few golden eagles and a family of red-backed shrikes that we only saw on the first morning. We were too busy climbing to the the view point that we walked straight past them, hoping to see bears. We didn't see any bears and the shrikes had all gone the following morning. That was how the week went really. 

 Garlic man in the town car park every day.






Stoat 

Stonechat

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