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The first dawn of spring on the Costa del Sol has been accompanied by these cranes, an image that I have captured for Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia from Fuengirola, in Malaga.
The cranes leave North Africa and the south of the Iberian Peninsula, where they spend the cold seasons, and return to the north (Germany, Sweden or Norway) to their breeding place where they will spend the whole summer.
Characterized by its long neck and legs and its straight, flat wings in mid-flight, the crane is a tall, large and bearing bird. These enormous and unmistakable birds arrive on the Peninsula around the month of October, where they normally remain until April. During these months, it is always possible to see them in large groups.
As an omnivorous species, this bird consumes a wide variety of vegetables, roots, rhizomes, tubers, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds, but also small animals such as insects, spiders, millipedes, crabs, small fish or rodents.
The crane is an animal that establishes monogamous pairs for life. Only if one of the members of the pair dies, the survivor will try to form a new pair the following year.
But not only the cranes have starred in the first sunrise of the first, but also the reflections of the first light of the first day of the new season have left their mark in the Mediterranean, where the boats anchor.
In parallel, spring is already noticeable in the fields and mountains, as can be seen in these images of nearby Mijas.
