WORDS: SARAH BARRELL
We’re chasing raptors. Soaring somewhere above our car is a predator that’s casting a mighty big shadow on the ground. I bob my head out of the window trying to train binoculars on the mystery bird, but it keeps swooping out of sight. I fancy this avian car chase must look like a scene from a Bond movie, albeit a rather tame one. Plus I’ve got no ID on my target: falcon, kestrel, eagle… or vulture? They’re all plentiful in these parts. But before I can even utter the question, my guide, Luis, who’s barely taken his eyes off the road, answers: marsh harrier.
If you want a special ops ornithologist, Luis Alberto Rodríguez is your man. This Málaga native is lightning-quick at identifying birds at impossibly long distances, even while driving a car. And if he can’t see them, he’ll recognise their call and, once located, aid and abet the seriously slow spotter (me) by zooming his to-the-moon-and-backpowerful telescope on the bird for you — usually whipped out of the car and assembled before I’ve managed to remove the lens cap of my binoculars. And what’s more, he’s utterly graceful in the face of such ineptitude.