Spain - Day Four

On Wednesday June 24th Pau met me at my Valencia Hotel and we headed towards the Pyrenees. We stopped to bird in some farmland around El Toro soon finding some Ortolan Buntings and Western Bonelli's Warblers. Subalpine Warblers took a little more effort, and we had four Golden Orioles and two Woodchat Shrikes as we wandered along one of the roads, and eventually a Cirl Bunting sat still long enough for me to see it well. We also saw some species typical of farmland in England.

Our next stop was at the Mirajes River where added Tawny Pipit and Western Orphean Warbler as well as a much better view of a Woodchat Shrike.

Tawny Pipit

Woodchat Shrike

After lunch we drove on towards Belchite, and after checking into our hotel and taking a short break we headed out to El Planeron, a bird reserve in Aragon famous for its larks and sandgrouse. A miracle occured as we found a Pin-tailed Sandgrouse standing in the road just as we turned off. This can be a very difficult bird.

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

 We added Thekla Lark and Lesser Short-toed Lark to our trip list  - our lark count now stood at 7 (Sky, Wood, Crested, Thekla, Calandra, Short-Toed and Lesser Short-Toed). There was no sign of the eight and final (and most difficult) species, and we headed back for a late dinner. En route back we first had a Red-legged Partridge, then a confiding Short-toed Eagle and then 10 Hoopoes in about 10 minutes as we drove through an olive and almond orchard.

Short-toed Eagle

Spain - Intermission

I had decided to take a short break mid-tour and after 2 hours of birding on Monday morning, June22nd, in the marshes by Gandia –where we suffered several wasp stings after disturbing a colony under the boardwalk – Pau put me on a train to Valencia.

After checking into the hotel I visited the Oceanographique, the largest aquarium in Europe. On the way there I heard parrots squawking while walking through the park to the aquarium - Monk Parakeets were taking nesting material to one of the palms near the Pulua de la Musica.

Monk Parakeet

Spain - Day Three

We began the day with Pau driving for over an hour along the coast, past Benidorm, to Alicante and we turned off to drive along a gorge with homesteads and small farms along the river bed. Before doing so Pau took me to a special place to show me his favourite bird, a Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin (or Bush Chat). This bid cocked its tail for us, and spread its tail in a lovely display. The gorge itself delivered our first Crag Martins, a Black-eared Wheatear, a Southern Grey (Iberian) Shrike, and my first Red-rumped Swallow since my Thailand bird trip in 2011.

Black-eared Wheatear

The next stop was to be the best spot of the day, El Fondo, and we had a Whiskered Tern – again my first of these since Thailand – entertain us while we had lunch. The main lagoon had stilts, Little Ringed Plover and Eurasian Coot, but also at least two Red-knobbed Coot and a Marbled Teal. The latter had been high on my wish list but did not look as beautiful as the pictures in the field guides!

Red-knobbed Coot

The back ponds held many Collared Pratincole with young, but my main target bird was missing to Pau’s surprise and after yesterday’s disappointment I had a feeling of dread! But apparently there was still hope.

Collared Pratincole

We drove a little further, seeing a European Roller on the way and made a quick stop at the Salines de Santa Polo and saw several White-headed Ducks! This is the European equivalent of the Ruddy Ducks that I enjoy so much in the U.S. But a duck that is recovering after being reduced to very small numbers in Spain and north Africa.

White-headed Duck

White-headed Ducking

By now it was getting quite late but we took a quick detour to a spot to see two Bonelli’s Eagles soaring above the cliffs.

Spain - Day Two

The day was spent in the area around Corral-Rubio in Albacete county. Another birder, John, joined Pau and I on this trip which had been advertised as a tour targeting Great Bustard. We were lucky enough to see a Little Owl en route, and as soon as we reached the area we saw a pair of Rock Petronia, a type of sparrow without much to be noticed

Rock Petronia

After that we spent 5 hours cruising the roads in the area looking for bustards. To Pau’s shock the wheat had already been harvested, failing to give nesting birds the time to fledge. There was no sign of Little Bustard at its site, not Great Bustards anywhere! This was a big disappointment after the series of good birds seen the day before.

At lunchtime we found a shady spot overlooking a lagoon, which gave us our first European Bee-Eaters (a bird high on my trip wish list), a European Marsh Harrier, ducks, grebes and flamingoes. The biggest surprise that we saw 7 Water Rail in our short stay. A pair of adult birds took their three chicks on a mad dash from one patch of reeds to another quite a distance away, and then an adult and chick peered out of the reeds nearby.

Greater Flamingos

An abandoned building along the road gave us good views of a Hoopoe and as we drove away we had a quick glimpse of a Black Wheatear.

Hoopoe

After lunch we returned to the roads, but the dry fields yielded nothing but a single Eurasian Thick-Knee and three species of lark – Crested, Short-Toed and Calandra.

Calandra Lark

Spain - Day One

Ahead of my Spain trip I arrived in London to find that I did not have a field guide for European birds there, and that many of the birds on the trip list were not on my gadget! So I headed off on a tour not as well prepared as I would have liked to have been, and also still suffering from jet lag.

At 8:30 on Friday June 19th, guide Pau of Birdwatching Spain Tours met me at my airport hotel and we spent the morning in the Albufera Natural Park and the adjacent rice fields.

Almost immediately I had my first lifer - a Sardinian Warbler – as well as my favourite bird, a Hoopoe! I had not seen one since Delhi in 1990. Our first stop was at a tern colony, with Sandwich and Common Terns and their chicks, with a few Slender-billed and Mediterranean Gulls. We also saw a pair of Elegant Terns - a rare bird for Europe but one which I had seen many of at Bolsa Chica, California - and two flying Black Terns. 

Common Terns

Sandwich Terns

Our next stop gave us Little Terns, two Kentish Plovers and a Curlew Sandpiper, as well as several Collared Pratincole - a bird that David and I had narrowly missed at Minsmere a year earlier. There were many types of heron – including a Squacco,  a Glossy Ibis and all three egrets, as well as Pied Avocets. Black-winged Stilts and Greater Flamingos.

Black-winged Stilt

A third stop at a deeper pond yielded some ducks, coot and a Common Kingfisher. Zitting Cisticolas moved around in the reeds and a Great Reed Warbler sang his song with the power of an operatic tenor. We finished the morning with a circuit of some of the rice fields adding Purple Swamphen and Gull-billed Tern to our tally. I had last seen these two birds in Australia.

After lunch near a school in Corrales housing Pallid Swifts in its vertical roof tiles we headed to the mountains above Gandia to pick up several passerine species, Coal and Crested Tits, Short-toed Treecreeper, Serin, Melodious Warbler and Alpine Swift.

The day ended with a stop at Gandia Harbour where we first found a couple of Audouin Gulls and then watched as a large flock of Yellow-billed Gulls followed a fishing boat home.