A Recipe for Lizard!

Flowers aren't the only wildlife here in abundance; we've seen (and heard!) many bullfrogs croaking to attract a mate; a small black snake slithered at speed in front of us, across the dirt road to El Playazo; and a lizard was basking in the sun in a sheltered ravine leading down to one of the isolated coves. He's lucky he is small and alive today - in the 1950s, when Juan Goytisolo was here, large lizards were eaten.

While Juan is travelling away from Rodalquilar, in the truck taking the workers home from the mine, they see a lizard half a metre long.  One of the miners comments that if the truck stopped, they would catch the lizard: "'We cook them with tomato and a spot of garlic and parsley.  They're very tasty.'"
 Juan tells him that in Catalonia "the farmworkers like them roasted."

I doubt anyone eats lizards here now, although the locals do often go foraging for food on the hillsides.  Besides the multitude of herbs, at this time of year wild asparagus grows everywhere and we've seen many people gathering it.  Our favourite bar in Rodalquilar, Casa Pintau, serves a wonderful soup with wild asparagus from the "campo."

In the ravines leading down to the hidden coves, and in the valleys among the volcanic hills above Rodalquilar, we have seen the tracks of wild boar, usually near great patches of churned up earth where they have been rooting:

I'm thankful we haven't met one - although judging from the freshness of the tracks, we have come close - as the wild boar in Spain can be large!

Then there are great numbers of birds here. Hundreds of swallows, come south like the camper vans in search of warmth, swoop about the village after insects; also, to my surprise, they fly about the clifftops.  I've never associated swallows with the seashore.  In fact, I always thought swallows migrated to Africa, but I suppose these must be tough northern swallows, from Scandinavia or the far north of Scotland!  And we aren't very far from North Africa here - the Cabo de Gata only lies about 350kms across the Alboran sea from Melilla and the Moroccan coast.

Flocks of crested larks hop about the hillsides, and the fields and scrub, taking off into the air when we approach with their characteristic fluty song.

We've seen siskins on the hills and by the side of footpaths.  Here is a male siskin in his bright plumage for the mating season:

There are hoopoes in Rodalquilar but although I've seen them at least four times, they have evaded my attempts to photograph them so far, and the eagles and buzzards that soar above the valleys, riding the thermal air currents, have proved equally as difficult to capture!
Most exotic of all are the flamingos on the salt lake at Las Salinas, near Cabo de Gata village, picking their way on long, delicate legs through the saline water.