Spain - Day Five

We began Thursday June 25th with another stop at El Planeron and waited in vain for more than an hour at a famous spot. There was no sound of any DuPont's Larks and we left the area without this one on our list

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Red-tailed Spiny-footed Lizard

We then visited the ruins of the town of Belchite, bombed during the Spanish Civil War, but we dipped for the second time that day, with Blue Rock Thrush not responding to tape. We then drove around Zaragoza and along a river valley towards the Pyrenees, with nesting White Storks being the notable sighting en route.

With the Pyrenees weather noted for its changeable nature we did not take a siesta and instead went out after my two main target birds for the second half of my trip. We were staying in precisely the right area for these birds, as indicated at our hotel entrance:

Lammergeier and Wallcreeper Sign

 We took a road, almost opposite our hotel, up to the trail that lead past the wallcreeper's wall, and immediately found a small flock of Citril Finch in the car park.

Citril Finch

Citril Finch

We hiked up the trail to the wall, and with our necks aching from staring at the wall top, a thousand feet above us, we hiked further up the trail to a nice spot to wait for a while. We saw a number of birds, as well as butterflies and orchids but then suddenly a Lammergeier came cruising past, to give me wonderful views of this fantasic bird.

Lammergeier

We stopped at the wallcreeper wall on our way down, but I was losing confidence in seeing one when Pau saw one high on the wall. The bird disappeared for a bit before reappearing and behaving the way I'd expected hovering/sitting on the sheer rock face and moving to higher spots on the wall. A second great bird for the day, and more than making up for the two dips in the morning. However the bird was far too distant even for a bad photo and I had to make do with one in the hotel's dining room!

Wallcreeper

But we weren't done for the day, after dinner we went owling, and drove to a spot that was new to Pau, but not to two British birders who were waiting at the spot when we got there.  We had lucked upon a European Quail while driving there, and as the skies began to darken I saw an Eagle Owl silhouetted against the sky and we watched as this bird and then a second flew off towards the setting sun. A Nightjar began churring just as we were leaving.

Eagle Owl