Hi,
This doesn’t much resemble the serins we see around here. Their breasts a streaky, and they have a lot less yellow. It does resemble a canary, which has a wild form that is known as the canary island serin. And I don’t know the African species well enough to hazard a guess in that direction, but you are not far from Africa so maybe? But I’m with Scott on its beak being finch-like and not oriole-like.
Cheers,
Keith

I’m glad you made it in safely, but it’s a shame you didn’t find a quieter and safer route. The one we took was paved the entire way and virtually empty: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/iberia2019/sevilla-seville/

Well, there’s an adventure and a half. I can’t decide which story I like best - trying to get your bikes out of the garage or trying to cross that highway. Glad you made it in safely.

That is such an amazing story. This guy must be a biker himself.

Groan!!

Great shot. I was hoping you’d get a better one eventually. I puzzled quite over the first one, convincing myself it wasn’t a canary (they’re found in the Canary Islands, but not mainland Spain) but only able to speculate on what it could be otherwise.

It’s not an oriole though. Notice it’s short, heavy bill like a finch. Orioles have longer, more pointed bills. I’m pretty sure this is a European serin.

To see the Grampies GO!

Both are appropriate, Steve. One person’s noise is another person’s rudeness. Do you agree?

And, clean..It seems as if Dodie is about ready to be “sent”, too..

Lovely shadow of palm tree, too!

I wonder if any lynxes there might fit your chain... :-)

New one for me!

Ex-Catholic here. If you go into a mass, you get what you get, the Catholic ritual, just like any other house of worship. One can be befuddled or beguiled, but you made the choice to crash a Catholic mass, so I'm not sure why the intelligence of the faithful needs to be questioned here. You're the guest. That being said, personally, I'm offended by the stolen gold and stupid pomp of most cathedrals, but the impaling of infants AS A BACKDROP TO THE ALTAR was a new level of hypocrisy for me. It is impressive to see what edifices humans were able to erect with the limited technology of past centuries. But the content of their sacred imagery is often so counter to the message of their guy (as I choose to interpret it, anyway) that it is nearly as stunning in its horror. I can hold these two thoughts in my head at the same time. In the end, it all seems so stupid, and yesterday's cathedrals basically taught today's evangelicals how to turn religion into entertainment, with the premise that enough glitter/high production values will bring people into the fold. I am pretty much over the temples in Thailand for the same reason. They just keep building bigger and gold-er Buddhas, which really, really, really seem to miss the point.

My background being a bit different than yours, I was exposed to the Southern Baptist religion as a young child. I have long said that taking children into a Baptist church and having them told that if they do not accept Christian beliefs, they will burn in hell forever is very real child abuse. I find it horrible to teach such things to children. It's also a pretty horrible thing to say to adults.

Thank you.