Yummy Almeria

About this time of year, sometimes we are lucky enough to hear and see the   bee-eater bird and to watch them flying in and out of their “nests” which they make in sandy hillsides, or in our case, the side of the dry river bed near the cortijo.

They truly are beautiful birds and you will know one when you see one by their brown and yellow upper parts, but more by their wings which are bright greeny blue.   They can reach a length of 10–11 inches, including the two elongated central tail feathers.

It is strongly migratory bird, spending the winter in tropical Africa, India and Sri Lanka so they’re not here for very long and you really know summer has arrived when you first see one around May time.

They breed in open country in warmer climates. Just as the name suggests, bee-eaters eat bees, wasps and hornets which are caught in the air by missions from an open perch.

Before eating their catch, rather brilliantly the bee-eater removes the sting by repeatedly hitting the insect on a hard surface. Astonishingly, they can eat up to 250 bees daily.

Bee-eaters are gregarious creatures and nest together in sandy banks, usually in May & June. They make a relatively long tunnel in which they lay their eggs, around the beginning of June. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs, (like the hoopoe which we also see often here), which are brooded for about 3 weeks – you can see them swooping in and out of the holes along the dry river bed from our swimming pool and you can watch them for hours.

Then as swiftly as they arrive they seem to disappear at the end of summer but it is always exciting to see the first one when they return.

The end of March is probably one of the prettiest times of year here – you can be a bit unlucky if you get 4 crummy days on the trot, and of course we do have rainy days during January and March. Now we can see the benefit of a few cold rainy days in the sudden sprouting of green and yellow carpets everywhere you look and the hills look as lush as they ever do in the region.

The weather has changed in the last week – today is like a hot summer’s day and we will see less and less rain now, making planting difficult unless you have lots of time to tend and water plants in.

The Hottentot Fig or Cat’s Claw (so called because that’s what each plant head resembles) is out in force – you see it growing all over the place and it has the most stunning bright pink flowers – and I have been transplanting it again in front of the house.

We had such a hot summer last year that it suffered a little but so hardy is it that you just snip a piece of another healthy plant in the ground and water it in.  Within a year, it should be lush again and is just no bother. So having lived here now for almost 7 years I have learned what is happy growing here and what isn’t. From now on I’m looking to achieve a low maintenance ‘garden’ that will survive the heat of the late spring and summer in the desert.  This is a good start.

Living where we do, we have a fair variety of birdlife – if you are lucky you will see an eagle or two, we once saw three all at the same time which was an amazing sight.  More frequently, though, you will see the shy hoopoe – they are very distinctive black, white and brown stripes, with a red crest on their heads, and a very long hooked beak for feeding from the ground.  I must admit they do look a bit nutty but it is always a thrill when you see one, or more usually, a pair together.

Hoopoes are monogamous or at least for one season anyway.  They are quite territorial and fights do break out with rival males.  You can hear them calling to each other (hence their name!) and they don’t seem to shut up at night either (as some of our guests have told us!).   Also they have a great way of seeing off any predators when incubating their eggs or looking after their fledglings (we frequently saw magpies trying to stick their beaks in!) – the female hoopoe secretes a liquid that smells of rotting meat which seems to deter any unwanted attention – in fact the babies can also direct streams of waste at intruders from 6 days old!

You will usually see them in pairs and they actually nest quite close to the ground in rock faces or holes in trees.  Early this summer, it became apparent that a pair were nesting behind our courtyard in one of the Cyprus trees.  We noticed them in May, going back and forth, back and forth over the roof all day long, and then heard the twittering of babies who stay in the nest for about 6 weeks.  My dad watched them for ages and managed to get some great footage on his video camera of them coming to and from the next with grubs and insects for the babies.  I knew we were going to be away when the babies flew the nest and of course the very week we were away for my birthday they did. But it was amazing to see the parents up so close for so long, as they do tend to be shy, but we are hoping that we will see more of them next Spring..