Aragon 2012

This year's return to the Aragonese Pyrenees is going amazingly well. Superb weather (the key to all things, these days!), nice folks, and all going without a hitch: the main problem seems to be dragging people away from the flowers to actually get back to the hotel before dinner!

A superb Lammergeier came overhead yesterday, followed by around 100 Griffon Vultures and a couple of Egyptian Vultures; Citril Finches feeding on the roadside this morning; Spanish Chalkhill Blues on the wing at the far northern end of their range; and, after teasing us with an hour's wait, a superb male Wallcreeper flopping his way over the cliffs and rocks in front of us, allowing everyone to get good binocular views as he fed in the crevices and pulsated his red flashes across the rock face.

But for me, it's going to be hard to beat this rather splendid Fire Salamander, of the boldly striped local subspecies Salamandra salamndra fastuosa. "Salamanders can sometimes be found resting under logs like this one..." A brilliant beast.