19 September, Arboleas Bird Group and a cautionary tale

Dave and Gilly Elliott-Binns have sent the below. The birding was pretty good and through this blog two Spanish birders have joined the Arboleas Bird Group, which is ¡jolly good news as I am certain that all involved profit. However, what ended their day was very much less than pleasant and should be treated as a warning.

I have been robbed three times in my time here, once from the car and twice directly, the last at least 17 years ago, but the experience is not nice. I was advised to give them all rather than end up with extra orifices in the body. If anything similar happens to any of you, dear readers, please get straight on to the Guardia Civil and let them handle it. Their emergency number is 062.

Dear Andy and members of the Group,
The journey down to Las Norias didn't look to hopeful with quite a lot of rain, but by the time we'd had a cup of coffee and met up with one of our new Spanish birders, Juanjo, we, Norman, Gilly, Jenny and myself went down to our first stop, which is the causeway at the other end from the plastics factory. Lots of Yellow Wagtails around. A good view of a Purple Gallinule. We then moved round to the heronry stop-off. Juanjo had heard but never seen a Great Reed Warbler. I spotted one in an isolated area of reed/scrub whilst having a stroll a few metres down the road. We managed to get Juanjo a quick view of it with the use of my MP3 player. Yes, cheating I know! He also got another lifer there, a Whinchat. There were also 4 late Collared Pratincoles and maybe the last of the Pallid Swifts.
We then moved round to the causeway near to the factory, where we chanced upon a birder called Les from Turre. We told him about the group and that he had other birders living in his home town. From there we saw Marbled Teal, Squacco and Night Heron and Little Bittern. As we were waiting for the second Spanish birder, Juan, to meet up with us, we strolled down a track. We were surprised to see a small flock of a dozen or so Northern Starlings fly over, we usually see them only in winter.

Then we walked back to the locked and secured cars, or so we thought. Somehow, my car had been entered. The box containing my camera, lens's and MP3 player had gone together with Jenny's Mobile and a rucksack of Normans containing his bird book and glasses. How they got into the rear of my truck I'll never know. Juan and Juanjo got onto the Guardia Civil. Thank god they were with us. Gilly phoned to Jens' mobile and got a short reply. About 5 minutes later "they" phoned and said for €700 we could have the stuff back.

Well, to cut a long story short, which involved lots of phone calls, undercover Guardia Civil, guns being fired, foot chases, me being thumped, and the two offenders being lost by the Guardia. However there is very slight hope of some sort of recovery. Jens' mobile was recovered from the vehicle the Guardia stopped. They believe they know at least one of the thieves, and plans are afoot for arrests. They (los bastardos) had no intention of returning the stuff if I handed over money and the Guardia Civil said that they were going to rob me and run. I was okay at the time, but now reality's hit me of what could have happened. Things can be replaced. We then spent 4 hours at police station making statements. Juan, his wife Maria, and Juanjo were wonderful.