This is a photo taken in Jaca
after one of the first snowfalls this winter.
Today really looks like spring; not long till it's official, but you never know. There have been snowy days at Easter before now!
Life in Jaca, in the Spanish Pyrenees. Nature, including the amazing birds, sport, culture, books, history......
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Friday, 13 March 2009
Jaca weather
It's nearly spring, only a week to go, and it's beginning to look like it too. This has been an exceptionally snowy winter. There hasn't been snow on the ground all the time, but since the end of October there have been about ten occasions of heavy snowfalls. Several times I've had to shovel snow to clear the way to our front door. One day the thick layer of snow from the roof fell onto the front garden and flattened the middle of the box hedges of the whole row of houses.
Jaca is 820 metres above sea level, and has a pleasant climate on the whole. Just sometimes we have this inconvenience of snow on the roads.
The last time we went up to the cross-country ski resort of Somport, just across the French border, we found it really changed, because the snow-cover was 1.5 metres instead of 10 or 20 centimetres. The trees looked shorter because we were higher up!
It's been a brilliant season for winter sports; snow from November onwards.
Jaca is 820 metres above sea level, and has a pleasant climate on the whole. Just sometimes we have this inconvenience of snow on the roads.
The last time we went up to the cross-country ski resort of Somport, just across the French border, we found it really changed, because the snow-cover was 1.5 metres instead of 10 or 20 centimetres. The trees looked shorter because we were higher up!
It's been a brilliant season for winter sports; snow from November onwards.
Birds in Jaca
I am constantly amazed by the size and variety of birds we see here; even in the city centre. Red kites fly over the rooftops, and there are a great number of griffon vultures which must live near us; twenty, thirty, I don't know how many. They say they have been causing problems in Aragón because there isn't enough carrion for them to eat, and there were reports a while ago that they attacked livestock. whatever. They are very spectacular.
Then there are the cranes. Every year in February we hear a sound like a lot of doors creaking in the distance, and see people start to look up at the sky. Skein after skein of cranes making their journey north.
I've seen Egyptian vultures not far from Jaca, and that rarest of birds, the bearded vulture.
This week I saw a bird which is dead common in Spain, but there are never any here; it's too cold. A stork! It must have lost its way.
Then there are the cranes. Every year in February we hear a sound like a lot of doors creaking in the distance, and see people start to look up at the sky. Skein after skein of cranes making their journey north.
I've seen Egyptian vultures not far from Jaca, and that rarest of birds, the bearded vulture.
This week I saw a bird which is dead common in Spain, but there are never any here; it's too cold. A stork! It must have lost its way.
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