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