Sandra (Taylor)
Well-known member
Just back from a great holiday spent with a Scottish birding company in Extremadura, Spain. Wall-to-wall sunshine; beautiful villa in the hills a few miles from Trujillo; good food; loads of birds; very knowledgeable guides etc. etc...
We saw all the birds we would have expected to except Spanish imperial eagle and the guides were more disappointed than we were about that! Some magic moments were great bustards every other day - one day 3 males seemingly turning themselves inside out as they displayed to a very disinterested female; two male little bustards going at it hammer and tongues trying to outdo each other - chasing each other, running parallel or bumping chests which was great to watch; an eagle owl chick in its nest on a crag then a couple of days later we saw an adult roosting in a nearby tree;
a couple of lifers were Savi's warbler & Dartford warbler; swifts screeching round at almost table height as we ate outside in the square below the castle in Trujillo - magic; vultures in big numbers; eagles; beautiful lesser kestrels above the bull ring in Trujillo; a dozen white stork nests in 'appartments' formed by 3 trees growing close together; otters in the river near the huge crag in Monfrague national park; good views of 20 or more pintailed sandgrouse on the plains early one morning when we set off before dark before the heat haze was established.
An unforgettable holiday indeed...... the above are just a few of the wonderful experiences during that week.
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We saw all the birds we would have expected to except Spanish imperial eagle and the guides were more disappointed than we were about that! Some magic moments were great bustards every other day - one day 3 males seemingly turning themselves inside out as they displayed to a very disinterested female; two male little bustards going at it hammer and tongues trying to outdo each other - chasing each other, running parallel or bumping chests which was great to watch; an eagle owl chick in its nest on a crag then a couple of days later we saw an adult roosting in a nearby tree;
a couple of lifers were Savi's warbler & Dartford warbler; swifts screeching round at almost table height as we ate outside in the square below the castle in Trujillo - magic; vultures in big numbers; eagles; beautiful lesser kestrels above the bull ring in Trujillo; a dozen white stork nests in 'appartments' formed by 3 trees growing close together; otters in the river near the huge crag in Monfrague national park; good views of 20 or more pintailed sandgrouse on the plains early one morning when we set off before dark before the heat haze was established.
An unforgettable holiday indeed...... the above are just a few of the wonderful experiences during that week.
|:d|||
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