23rd Dec 1988

According to B.W.P. the dippers here are a differ­ent race to those we see in Britain. We had not noticed any obvious differences yester­day, so this morning we have another look.

The north-west Iberian form should be dark brown on the head and have a uniform dark belly. We disagree with each other about the belly col­our, though I think the light, reflected off the water, is playing tricks on us. In flight the chocolate brown head and back contrast with the dark grey of the wings and upper body.

Although dippers are generally unsociable outside the breeding season, they will congre­gate in a good feeding area, often a stretch of rough water, and this particular stretch was occupied by at least five birds. Usually they walk into the water off a rock, having first dipped the head in several times; at other times they dive straight in from the air.

The tourist office in Arenas de Cabrales is open and the information officer gives us a few leaf­lets, including one in English about the National Game Preserves of the Picos de Europa and of Sueve. He is also able to tell us that the weather forecast for the next few days is good and there should be no problems with camping in the mountains.

We stock up with groceries then leave the main road to follow the Rio Cares upstream to the hamlet of Poncebos in the Picos. The limestone scenery becomes more spectacular as the narrow road takes us along an ever narrowing gorge. Some­where down below us a bird is singing, but we don’t recognise the song.

The Picos comprises three limestone massifs separated from one another by steep gorges. The central massif is said to be the wildest, and steepest, and the most awe‑inspiring. It includes a number of peaks over 2,600 metres, of which the star is Naranjo de Bulnes. Although not the highest point of the massif, this almost conical block of limestone seems to tower above the land­scape, it was not conquered by man until 1904.

From Poncebos we climbed up a steep footpath to the Mirador del Naranjo from where there was an excellent view of Naranjo de Bulnes in the dis­tance. The few birds around include white and grey wagtails down by the river, a few tits in the trees around the farms, and a small flock of siskin passing through. Surprisingly, there are a number of plants in bloom, unfortunately I do not have plant identi­fication books for the region and can only say that they included a gromwell and a large flowered hemp nettle type in the farmland, and a number of small flowers such as eyebright, toadflax, mountain sandwort, rock‑rose and pink in the bare rocky areas. All give testimony to the relatively shel­tered and mild climate of these gorges.

The western massifs of the Picos are divided by the most spectacular gorge in the Picos, the Gar­ganta Devina, formed by the fast‑flowing Rio Cares, and stretching for some twelve kilometres from Poncebos to Cain. Tomorrow we want to walk along the mule track that has been carved from the wall of the Garganta, high above the river. This evening we just check out where the track begins.