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.
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| Tawny Pipit |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Short-toed Eagle |
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