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| White Stork |
Our one stop on the way back was at Laguna de Gallocanta, a place famous for its wintering cranes - with 80,000 recorded in Februrary. Pau had been feeling bad about the lack of bustards on our second day and the area gave us one last chance of these birds. We drove around the fields for a while in considerable heat, and remarkable seeing three Quail, before we climbed a viewing tower. It took a while but eventually Pau found what had to be a Great Bustard, but a distant bird and seen through heat haze. We tried to get closer but the landscape did not allow this and so this bird gets penciled in as a lifer but one I will need to chase again.
I ended my trip with 161 species including 56 lifers. More species than I had anticipated. Pau was a true black-belt birder and knew every sound of every bird in Spain and had eyes so sharp to see a bird with the slightest movement. Not surprisingly I missed out on a few that Pau had seen - for example, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Blue Rock-thrush, Mistle Thrush and Lesser Kestrel. We had no rain, and too much hot sun. The trip was an undeniable success but I need to return someday in the winter months for Ferruginous Duck, Penduline Tit, Bluethroat and Balearic Shearwater. And I also need to find the two species of bustard that had been high on my wish list.
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