David has installed an additional anti-malware programme on our travel laptop and its obviously a powerful one but has made the simplest Google Search frustratingly slow. I think we'll end up un-installing it soon!
Anyway, apologies for not keeping up with all your Blogs, I hope to catch up when the computer is running faster.
Not a lot happening here yet - the carnival starts on Friday next week and ends on the weekend of the 22/23rd with the Grand Parade on Saturday evening and the Burning of the Sardine with fireworks etc on the Town Beach on Sunday evening ... so this is the calm before the storm. Lots of partying to come.
There are lots of young sparrows around Corralejo just now. Sparrows are such noisy little birds and they give their whereabouts away with their distinctive loud chirping. These drainage/overflow pipes are common sights on apartments which have balconies - and they are popular nesting spots for sparrows. Makes you wonder what happens when it rains (which it does through the Winter months here). Do the nests get dislodged or do the balconies flood?
Must be really noisy for the human residents in these apartments as the acoustics are excellent and magnify the chirping enormously.
Then we had a visitor to our garden. It flew in and paced around the edge of the pool trying to figure out how to get a drink. We haven't got one of those 'infinity pools' where the water just laps up to the surrounding edges, ours is the old fashioned sort with a ladder to climb in and out.
I don't like pigeons (well at least not the fat feral things that cause a nuisance and seem to be breeding out of control). But this one was obviously special as it had rings on both legs and was very sleek and elegant. But very obviously thirsty.
Pigeons don't have webbed feet so can't swim and although I believe they can float on water for a while they can't easily take off again so we didn't want this one diving in. We put a dish of water out and it took a long drink from that.
David tried to catch it afterwards so we could read the rings, but it flew off before he could do so. I've just been looking at a racing pigeon website for the Canaries and it seems there are lots of inter-island races, and from mainland Morocco, where the birds need stamina to fly across the sea and, particularly around Fuerteventura, battle against strong winds, so I guess this one may have got blown off course during the recent windy weather we had here. At least we were able to quench its thirst.
I might just email a couple of the photos to the website owners to see if they can tell me more about this particular pigeon - based on the colour of its rings and its feathers. There are lots of photos of registered racing birds on the site but it seems the birds get photographed in profile and then there is a close up of the eye colour (but not the rings) so its not easy for me to do the identification.
Anyway, apologies for not keeping up with all your Blogs, I hope to catch up when the computer is running faster.
Not a lot happening here yet - the carnival starts on Friday next week and ends on the weekend of the 22/23rd with the Grand Parade on Saturday evening and the Burning of the Sardine with fireworks etc on the Town Beach on Sunday evening ... so this is the calm before the storm. Lots of partying to come.
There are lots of young sparrows around Corralejo just now. Sparrows are such noisy little birds and they give their whereabouts away with their distinctive loud chirping. These drainage/overflow pipes are common sights on apartments which have balconies - and they are popular nesting spots for sparrows. Makes you wonder what happens when it rains (which it does through the Winter months here). Do the nests get dislodged or do the balconies flood?
Must be really noisy for the human residents in these apartments as the acoustics are excellent and magnify the chirping enormously.
Then we had a visitor to our garden. It flew in and paced around the edge of the pool trying to figure out how to get a drink. We haven't got one of those 'infinity pools' where the water just laps up to the surrounding edges, ours is the old fashioned sort with a ladder to climb in and out.
I don't like pigeons (well at least not the fat feral things that cause a nuisance and seem to be breeding out of control). But this one was obviously special as it had rings on both legs and was very sleek and elegant. But very obviously thirsty.
Pigeons don't have webbed feet so can't swim and although I believe they can float on water for a while they can't easily take off again so we didn't want this one diving in. We put a dish of water out and it took a long drink from that.
David tried to catch it afterwards so we could read the rings, but it flew off before he could do so. I've just been looking at a racing pigeon website for the Canaries and it seems there are lots of inter-island races, and from mainland Morocco, where the birds need stamina to fly across the sea and, particularly around Fuerteventura, battle against strong winds, so I guess this one may have got blown off course during the recent windy weather we had here. At least we were able to quench its thirst.
I might just email a couple of the photos to the website owners to see if they can tell me more about this particular pigeon - based on the colour of its rings and its feathers. There are lots of photos of registered racing birds on the site but it seems the birds get photographed in profile and then there is a close up of the eye colour (but not the rings) so its not easy for me to do the identification.
Hope the pigeon gets home OK.
ReplyDeleteYou have just told me something we have been wondering about. Seen an ad on TV with a kid standing by what I now realise is an infinity pool, her toes were touching the water. Never heard of them before. Don't they have steps or ladders at all?
The story about the pigeon was really interesting to me and your photos show him to be very pretty. I hope you find out more and will let us know if you do.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy Carnival!
Hi Jo
ReplyDeleteyes it was a pretty pigeon. I emailed the Racing Pigeon Breeders' site with photos but just had a response saying they can't help with identification. So just have to hope it made it 'home' safely.
These 'infinity pools' are found mostly in the bigger hotels here (and around the world) rather than private gardens but having looked at Wikipedia it seems perhaps the ones that don't give the illusion of disappearing off the edge of a cliff, or merging with the sea/sky should really be called 'perimeter overflow' pools. Quite a mouthful. They do have steps/stages leading down into the pool (rather than ladders)
hopefully the pigeon made it home safely, looks well cared for unlike the pigeons you see around here
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. The carnival sounds amazing. I'm not jealous at all that you are in the warm.
ReplyDeleteWe'll never know about the pigeon. Yep there's always lots going on during the 2 weeks of Carnival but we don't get involved until the final weekend. The theme is 'Terror' this year so there's bound to be a lot of zombies and walking dead characters in the big parade. There are usually around 40 floats and lots of ad hoc groups taking part. The burning of the sardine on the beach is always fun and the fireworks are usually spectacular.
ReplyDeleteWe'll never know about the pigeon. Yep there's always lots going on during the 2 weeks of Carnival but we don't get involved until the final weekend. The theme is 'Terror' this year so there's bound to be a lot of zombies and walking dead characters in the big parade. There are usually around 40 floats and lots of ad hoc groups taking part. The burning of the sardine on the beach is always fun and the fireworks are usually spectacular.
ReplyDeleteThat is one gorgeous pigeon! I love that minty green on its neck.
ReplyDelete