Sweltering Madrid

Tuesday night, I left for sunny Madrid in Spain. I did my presentations in the morning and then took the afternoon off to do some sight seeing. My god, was it hot - over 42 degrees!! Too hot to really enjoy, unfortunately. I got onto a double decker bus with open top, specially for tourists - but it was a bit like being an egg on a frying pan. Only managed an hour, then I escaped for some shade.

As you can see from this photo, movies are very popular in Madrid and their adverts dominate the billboards. The Spaniards make some good movies of their own by the way; I saw an absolute gem of a Spanish movie just last week called "Talk to Her" A touching drama set in a hospital where two men become close friends while looking after their comatose girldfriends. It had some absolutely outragous bits too - not suprising since it comes from the same director as "Tie me up, tie me down."

Art Museum

I thought I had better include at least one photo of a famous building. Here's the Museo del Prado, probably Spain's most famous art museum. Unfortunately I didn't have time to explore it - you need many, many hours to do it justice, but the building was very impressive from the outside.


Twitching in the shade

In a quest to escape the heat, I ventured into the Botanical Gardens named "Parque del Buen Retiro". "Buen Retiro" means "Royal Retreat", so named because in the 16th century the Royals used to go here for Christmas and Easter. Lots of lush plants and glorious shade to laze under. Under these particular trees I got to see two new species of bird: Coal Tits and Stock dove (I had my binoculars with me, how's that for being organised!)

My bird list has now reached 620 - only 380 to go and I'll reach my dream target. I've seen 71 new birds this year now (48 in Australia and the rest in Europe) I'm as passionate about my twitching as I've ever been...

New birds I've seen in Europe this year:
- Reed bunting
- Rook
- Shelduck
- Shoveler
- Pochard
- Tufted duck
- Gargenney
- Chaffinch
- Blacktailed godwit
- Black-headed gull
- Lesser blackback
- European marsh harrier
- Lapwing
- Whooper swan
- Mistle thrush
- Fieldfare
- Blue Tit
- Redshank
- Pied wagtail
- Green woodpecker
- Great Spotted woodpecker
- Coal tit
- Stock dove