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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Bristol to Ruppell's Vulture (1 Viewer)

Its now nearly 12 and have had a hard day.

The easiest bird of the day was Duponts! Started off Belcite at 8am in the end. 5 mins bird signing and up on a bush! On to Planeron and again within minutes bird showing - sounds like where you were Larry....

No Sandgrouse was disappointment.....
 
Snow Finch. Again.

Thanks for the comments folks. Nice to meet you today Rosbifs! We´re still way behind with the posting but here´s the next bit....

We had figured that it might take a few days to see Dupont's Lark, so figured we could fit in something else. We had planned to next head east for a Barcelona city break, but a brief look at the map set an alarming ball rolling. We were actually not that far from the Pyrenees, and the closest we were going to be to a site that I knew about for the barely mentionable abomination that bird books insist on including under the name Snowfinch or Snow Finch. We decided to detour north to Candanchu. What dark madness overcometh me? We'd been to this site before, but a bit later in the year, and guess what happened? That's right.

The weather this time was dreadful, cloud and rain. We saw the 2nd Red Kite of he trip somewhere near Jaca on our way in. When we got to the top of the pass at Col de Somport, we first went to Astun ski station. Most of the area was covered in snow, including Candanchu, so maybe we'd be lucky? Astun was like a ghost town, and there were some Yellowhammers, Water Pipits, Black Redstarts and Mistle Thrushes knocking about, but certainly no Sn... no, sorry I can't type it. The Yellowhammers were the first we'd seen since Dorset. Lovely in the snow.

At the border crossing we had a nice surprise, because I'd forgotten this bird existed: a Lammergeier circled and sailed over fairly low. The 5th species of vulture of the trip. Candanchu was up and running as a ski resort, but only one or two slopes were operating, and the cafe was shut. No Thingies appeared to be around, but again there were Water Pipits and Yellowhammers, and also some Choughs and Alpine Choughs. It started absoloutely pissing it down, and we sat miserably in the van in the car park for ages and ages. Nicky was in the front scanning about a bit, and taking the mick out of me, who was lying in bed grumpy waiting for the rain to stop, saying I wouldn't see a Thingy in there. I was prepared to get up if I heard tiny hopping feet on the roof. We have had House Buntings on a van roof before while we've been in bed, so you never know. When it stopped raining I headed out into the snow covered hills and aimed for the bare rocky stuff behind the resort. I read a trip report a long time ago where someone saw a Thingy by doing this when there were no Thingies at the resort. After a while my feet were soaked and had been icy for too long and they actually started to go worryingly numb, so I headed back to the van. Thingyless.

We spent the night in a parking area lower down, just below Canfranc, and broke out the hot water bottles. Next morning it was a brighter day, so it was ding ding Larry Vs Thingy, round sixteen zillion. None around the ski station, so wahey in I went. This time with plastic bags between my boots and socks for health and safety. We agreed a time that I'd be back by before Nicky phoned International Rescue, and off I went. It took about an hour or more to get to anything like proper Thingyscape, but it was actually quite nice being up there. I had my best ever views of Chamois, and could hear them making hmpf noises. There were a lot of Wheatears about too. Sadly I couldn't stay out there all day, and it was pretty hard work trudging up through some deep snow and occasionally sinking a whole leg in an invisible hole in it. While sitting with my frozen ass on a frozen rock and scanning, I was able to contemplate stuff, including how overjoyed I was for the retired couple that we'd recently met at Tablas De Daimiel, who came across as novice birders, one of whom was unable to walk, who just happened to bump into Thingies on the road when they crossed over through Andorra.

Needless to say, by the time we headed back down hill, I'd seen no Thingies, or Pegasi, Mermaids or Leprechauns. But if I look for Thingies unsuccessfully many more times I might just start seeing the latter. At least we didn't see any Snow Buntings.

Heading east we had a dazzling male Golden Oriole fly out into the road in front of us on the edge of Lleida, and we stopped for the night just west of Montserrat, at a lovely spot called Coll del Bruc. There were quite a few singing Western Bonelli's Warblers here, and we had a nice party of birds pass close to our window before we got out of bed the next day, providing fab views of Western Bonelli's, Willow and Subalpine Warblers, and Crested, Coal and Blue Tits. There was also a Short-toed Eagle here.

As we headed towards Barcelona, Common Starlings and Robins started appearing again, and Barcelona a itself and the beach to the west of the airport produced a male Common Redstart, a male Pied Flycatcher, several Alpine Swifts, a Little Ringed Plover,some Balearic Shearwaters and Audouin's Gulls. Also lots of Monk Parakeets.

We found that the campsites were too overpriced, and were wondering what we were going to do as Barcelona has a bit of a rep as a hotbed of van crime, but then we struck lucky. We chatted to some Lithuanians in a van at a garage, and it turned out that they lived here in their van. They told us where we could park safely near a metro station, so that we could explore the city, and they even gave us a great city map and told us about some good bars. Barcelona is currently overrun with Chelsea fans and London Accents.

If anyone knows of anywhere in the eastern half of the Pyrenees where we might be able to miss Thingies again (Spain France or Andorra), that would be great. Or anywhere we can play “Where's Wolly?” in northeast Spain. We looked into seeing if we could do a side trip on the boat to Mallorca and have a pop at Balearic Warbler, while leaving the van for a few days in Barcelona, but the ferry is too pricey for us.

240. Lammergeier
241. Golden Oriole
242. Western Bonelli's Warbler
243. Redstart
244. Pied Flycatcher
 
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I was in that area a few years back a bit earlier in the year and had no luck at Candanchu. but they were at Portalet, the next pass the east, around the border post. No idea if they are generally more reliable there though.

Thingies are very easy in Mürren in Switzerland (in February 2010 at least, when they were visiting feeders on the houses) and they are no bother at the higher stations: e.g. First and Männlichen. All require a cable car or some energetic hiking to get at.
 
I was in that area a few years back a bit earlier in the year and had no luck at Candanchu. but they were at Portalet, the next pass the east, around the border post. No idea if they are generally more reliable there though.
I've also had Snowfinch at Portalet, in mid-March 2000 - on the north (French) side of the Col du Pourtalet - after drawing a blank at other regular sites in previous days. We had to trudge quite a distance uphill through deep snow to the west of the road, but eventually found a small flock.
 
Larry I have no recent info, but El Portalet has also been highlighted as a possibility in April when Astun/Candanchu fail for Snowfinch. Apparently at the main car park there, go behind the shops and walk about half a mile, checking scree slope. If there is snow on peaks (plenty of it), there can sometimes be Snowfinch there (I renamed them "Nofinch").

But indeed it is a lottery mate with this "impossible" bird species!
 
Aiguamolls

We're about to spend our 4th night at Aiguamolls de L'Emporda, and I'm knocking this up on the laptop, hopefully to post soon. This is a superb coastal wetland area not far from the border with France, and is popular with birdwatchers.

The weather has mostly been dull, but today we had our first decent sun for a while, and hurray, finally our first dragonflies of the trip, with 3 species being identified. The best for me was the one that caused lots of excited twitchy fuss last year in the UK (though I didn't see any) Vagrant Emperor. We saw at least 2 here, along with a few Red-veined Darters and a couple of Iberian Blue-tailed Damselflies. The latter we only identified thanks to Nicky's digital camera, which enabled us to zoom in on their anal appendages.

During our first evening here we stumbled across a real rarity. An actual pretty much full-plumaged French punk rocker, free camping in his van, who knew that the Tringa stagnatilis in our scopes was one and was called one. This was obviously an excellent excuse to park up together, break out the weapons-grade hooch, and talk rubbish till the wee small hours, until one of us (I won't mention any names in order to preserve her dignity) signalled it was time to call it a night by falling into a ditch to the point of being completely submerged and blowing bubbles. Next morning we were woken by the parkies because we had (stupidly) blocked a track that was almost never used. And we must have looked a right mess, especially with lots of wet clothes hanging out to dry on the reserve's fencing. Oh dear. So we humbly moved, and most of the day was written off with crushing hangovers. Hmmm.

Anyway, we've spent most of our time here birding with our new French friend Arnaud, mostly at the south end of the El Cortalet section of the reserve, but also around the area known as Three Bridges and Estany de Vilaut.
Highlights in the El Cortalet area have included a Marsh Sandpiper, a rather sorry-looking White-fronted Goose, 2 Temminck's Stints, at last 2 Rollers, 50+ Wood Sandpipers, 15+ Ruff, calling Scops Owl and Golden Oriole, lots of Great Reed and Reed Warblers, a few Melodious, Willow and Garden Warblers, Common, Pallid and Alpine Swifts, 8+ Glossy Ibis, c10 Squacco Herons, lots of Purple Herons, a Black Stork, a few Whiskered Terns, lots of Black-winged Stilts, a few Flamingos, maybe 6 Great Egrets, 2 Collared Pratincoles, 20+ Spotted Redshanks, Garganey, Marsh Harriers, Short-toed Eagle, Water Rail, Whimbrel, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Pied Flycatchers, more tame Nightingales and Cetti's Warblers than I've seen anywhere else by miles, etc.

The Vilaut 3 Bridges area also produced 4 Red-rumped Swallows with the huge hirundine flocks, 10+ Turtle Doves, a Whinchat, Woodchat Shrikes, an amazing dense ball of 170+ bubbling Bee-eaters, Hoopoes, calling Quail, (probably reintroduced) Lesser Kestrel, etc.

I also figured that there was a chance that the only reason why Wolly was rarely seen here was the comparative lack of knobheads playing “where's wolly?” by trawling all the available tamarisk with a recording of their call. So I gave it a go. And that's absoloutely right. I didn't see any.

A particularly nice surprise was meeting BF's Rosbifs here, and his dad. They'd apparently been just behind us at El Planeron, and they worked out that it must be us and our van in the car park here. They've been gripping us off round here right left and centre with would be trip-ticks of course, so far including Spotted Crake, Red-backed Shrike and Bonelli's Eagle! Hope the rest of your trip goes well if you read this guys, and thanks for your hot gen on the Thingies too! :t:

It's now the next day and we're leaving the area, and have got WIFI in Roses. Today we popped into the Estany Europa and had great views of what was presumably Rosbifs' Spotted Crake in front of the furthest hide (Miloques?), if it was even the same lake!! Also saw a Purple Swamphen, Golden Oriole and a couple of Red-crested Pochard there.

245. Ruff
246. Wood Sandpiper
247. Great Reed Warbler
248. White-fronted Goose
249. Marsh Sandpiper
250. Temminck's Stint
251. Scops Owl
252. Roller
253. Spotted Crake

1.Iberian Blue-tailed Damselfly
2.Red-veined Darter
3.Vagrant Emperor
 
Good to see you at aiguamolls! Top place.

Stayed an extra day also. Mainly because the weather in france was reportedly soooo bad. The place was massively busy but still produced 4 lifers. Chuffed that you got the spotted crake. Finally got a Red Rumped Swallow this morning. We drove past to say bye but things looked closed up. Went to 'el mata' and got rr swallow then on way back you'd gone.

Anyway, hope the rest of trip goes well and i'll scope out a snowfinch nest in case you get to me.

Following a tip off about good area took the coastal route to france. Managed to get Pallid Harrier. Subject to massive strutiny on photos when i get back home and download to here. Anything less than full adult male gets the eye!!

Looking at your list i think you picked the area apart! I like it because its fairly compact with pretty good access etc. The spannish guys are all pretty happy to help - our map is covered in pen....

Anyway, got a blinding Ortolan in france near gruissan. Hope there is less wind in the morning to attack the marshes.

Good luck again with trip and hopefully catch up here one day.

Ps miloques was the hide.
 
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Hey Larry,

good to hear u r on the rd again. Nice van, i treated myself to a VW trannie a while back = blissful wanderings.

I am not sure which way you are intending to leave spain / france but I had snow finch (10+) in Fuenta de in the picos mountains. I got a cable car up and walked down, It was in May but the weather had been really bad the week before, pushing birds back down the mountain.

A great area with loads of stuff inc apollo butterfly.

good luck with the rest of yr trip.
 
Attacked the marshes and things pretty quiet this side (france). Not one Nightingale or Great Read!!! Unbelievable the difference.

Managed to get Moustached Warbler though.

Car broke mucking about on beach! Dad not too happy. Meant an extra night though....
 
Thingies

Great to hear from you all. Glad you caught up with Red-rumped Swallow Rosbifs :t:

Our next plan was to visit our friend Johnny Lightning who currently lives on the French side of the Pyrenees, just north of Andorra, and has a bath!! We always seem to bother him on foreign trips, having squatted him in Australia and India too, poor bloke. This of course meant that we were going to have to traverse the land of the dreaded Thingy in order to get this long-awaited bath.

We stopped for the night on the way, just past Ripoll, where we had our first Marsh Tits for a long time, and entertaining pairs of Dippers and Grey Wagtails on the river. Next day we headed up towards Andorra. At Colada De Toses we bumped into a pair of birds near the summit, that I was hoping would adorn the trip list, but was under no illusions of them being a cert to find. Citril Finch B :).

We then continued, and put our long-suffering third crew-member (the van) through it a bit, by ascending to the ski station of Arcalis in NW Andorra. BF's Vipers had suggested this as a possible Thingy spot on our "Help!" thread in the information wanted section (thanks Vipers :t:). The ski station was indeed snowbound, and we did find an Alpine Accentor and another pair of Citril Finch here, but unfortunately no sign of any Thingies. But could that have been a Unicorn I glimpsed briefly on that summit??

After returning to the main road we also had to mount the pass before descending into France. This took us to over 2000m, and was snowbound to way below. We made several thingystops, but no luck,

We're now in France and nearing the time when we'll have to get our ferry back to the UK. I wish the weather would improve so that the butterflies and dragonflies can start putting on a show. That side of things has been a bit disappointing of late I must say, especially after such a great early start to the butterflies in Portugal.

Rosbifs, if you could really scope out a pretty much dead cert Thingy for us, please let us know. Especially if we can get reasonably close to them so the views wouldn't be just very distant scope views (prepared to trudge a bit through snow if not too dangerous). It would be a bit too much of a detour for us to make it that far west on spec otherwise. This Time round anyway.

254. Citril Finch
 
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Just arrived back. Will get up their tomorrow to find the area - pylon number!

It doesnt get more dead cert in birding terms but.....

The place you marked on your map is called Super Bareges. You get to it from Tarbes and then Lourdes then my village Luz st Sauveur. From Lourdes its about 45 minutes in your van. Lourdes is about 2 hours from Toulouse (your van and depending on whther youre on tolls or not).

I had some birders up there last year and i laid some bird seed a bit lower down. Will do the same......
 
No scope required!!! Pictures taken this morning.

Give me a shout when near Luz because might be easier to head up in the car rather than van.....
 
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Ax area

There are no words or icons with which to respond to that last post Rosbifs! Hopefully see you at the weekend.

We have managed a couple of walks in the hills around Ax les Thermes. Yesterday produced a nice party of 5 Whinchats. Today 3 Tree Pipits was a nice surprise, and a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was, as always, good too.

The weather's been sunnier and we've been seeing a few butterflies, the most exciting for me being a fair few Maps. There are also Orange-tips, singles of Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Holly Blue, Small Heath, and Queen of Spain Fritillary, and still plenty of Speckled Woods. There was also a wood white sp (Real's are within range here I believe so specific ID wasn't possible.) I've got so used to the orange version of Speckled Wood that it will be strange seeing the cream ones when we get back to the UK.

255. Tree Pipit

30. Map
 
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