Four from BF go to Spain-March 13-17 2008 (1 Viewer)

[markgrubb]

Day 1-Llobregat Delta and the Dry Plains of Lleida

Thurs am saw me fly into Barcelona airport at lunchtime to meet my 3 companions for the holiday- Helenelizabeth2, Will Bowell and Andrew Whitehouse (aka the good, the badself and the ugly-I will leave you to work out which is which) for the best part of 5 days birding.

The troops had been waiting for an hour or so and were champing at the bit by the time I arrived so we negotiated the roadworks and the strategically placed miniskirt clad young ladies looking for a lift, to arrive a short distance away at Llogrebat Delta. And rather a fine small reserve it was. At the entrance were monk parakeets, zitting cisticola, sardinian warbler and a crested tit. Stars of the show were 3 glossy ibises, one of which was only 10m or so from the hide. A couple of flamingos were present and marsh harriers were hawking the reeds. Lots of ducks with a smart close in drake garganey and pairs of red crested pochards.Waders included wood, green and common sandpiper, black winged stilt, little ringed plover & spotted redshank. Two purple gallinules were seen very well, creeping about the rushes near the hide. We went down to the beach where good numbers of balearic shearwaters were passing through. Little and mediterranean gulls and sandwich terns were amongst other birds seen.

All too soon it was time to drive on and we headed for the Drylands of Alfes. We headed off down a track toward the aerodrome and soon saw up to 5 great spotted cuckoos in a pine plantation. The scrub held good numbers of calandra and crested larks. The heat and the excitement of being in such august company must have been getting to young Will as he tried to string a red legged partridge into a little bustard. We got lost as darkness descended but this allowed us to pick up the only stone curlew and little owls of the trip, as well as two more great-spotted cuckoos.

The miracles of Satnav got us back on track and we headed for our base, Casa Marzo in Angues, not far from Huesca. We had an apartment in a village house that had been modernised in the not too distant past and it proved to be an excellent base-around 75 euros per night for the 4 of us. We ate there in the evenings-our hosts were very welcoming and pushed the boat out providing nibbles, 3 regional courses with wine and local liqueurs for only 14 euros extra

The good professor convened an evening lists commitee and we agreed to admit 79 species to the trip list. A fine start

Trip list-Little grebe, Balearic shearwater, gannet, great cormorant, cattle egret, little egret, grey heron, white stork, glossy ibis, greater flamingo, black swan, shelduck, wigeon, gadwall, teal, mallard, pintail, garganey, shoveler, red crested pochard, black kite, marsh harrier, common buzzard, common kestrel, red-legged partridge, moorhen, purple gallinule, coot, black winged stilt, stone curlew, little ringed plover, lapwing, ruff, common snipe, spotted redshank, common redshank, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, wood sandpiper, med gull, little gull, black headed gull, yellow legged gull, sandwich tern, rock dove, stock dove, wood pigeon, collared dove, monk parakeet, great spotted cuckoo, little owl, wryneck, calandra lark, crested lark, sand martin, crag martin, barn swallow, house martin, meadow pipit, white wagtail, robin, black redstart, stonechat, cettis warbler, zitting cisticola, sardinian warbler, chiffchaff, crested tit, great tit, common magpie, raven, common starling, house sparrow, serin, greenfinch, goldfinch, cirl bunting, reed bunting, corn bunting(79)

More to follow... Including hopefully some pics from Will

 

[edenwatcher]

Mark, was your role to provide medical assistance when things got particularly ugly?

Rob

 

[markgrubb]

Mark, was your role to provide medical assistance when things got particularly ugly?

Rob

I'm far too polite to comment. Though as no doubt the others will have pleasure in telling you, we nearly all needed medical assistance when I didn't see a lorry pulling out of a building site just 2 miles from the airport at the end of the break. A near miss-or as DrW commented a near hit

 

[joannec]

Nice report....sounds like you guys are having fun and seeing good birds. (bar the near hit!)

 

[StuartReeves]

I thought BF had gone a bit quiet over the past few days, now I understand why.

 

[dantheman]

And no reports of trouble/riots etc from Spain either - how strange??!!

Seriously, nice one, look forward to the rest, and the pics. And as importantly, will there be any Spanish beard pics?

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Day 2: Sierra de Guara and the Pyrenees

On our first full day in Aragon the weather was beautifully clear and bright so we headed for the mountains. We began in the Sierra de Guara to the northeast of Huesca before heading up to Pyrenees and the French border.

Embalse de Calcon
The first notable birds of the day were a group of Spotless Starlings in one of the villages near where we were staying. Then some creative use of the satnav took us not to Vadiello, our intended first stop, but to another nearby reservoir: Embalse de Calcon. We stopped at the car park above the dam and soon began finding some interesting birds. On the crag above the car park was a fine Blue Rock Thrush and there were two or three Rock Sparrows giving their distinctive metallic chirping call around the bottom of the cliff. Red-billed Choughs could be heard calling and soon we began to pick out Griffon Vultures perched on top of the hills on the opposite side of the reservoir.

Vadiello
After reorienting ourselves, we finally found our way to Vadiello. This reservoir is a well-known wintering site for Wallcreeper but repeated scans of the dam and the surrounding rock faces yielded no fabulous grey, red and black treats creeping amongst the crags. There were plenty of other birds though. The Griffon Vultures were soon soaring about as the heat of the day began to build and they were joined by two or three Egyptian Vultures. I had brief views of a Lammergeier before it slipped behind a crag. A Firecrest gave very good views in some streamside woodland and as we travelled back down towards the main road a Lesser Kestrel circled above us.

Montearagon
This impressive hilltop castle near Huesca was quite productive, the best birds being two singing male Spectacled Warblers, parachuting down into the low scrub. Two Lesser Kestrels were swooping above the turrets of the castle.

Riglos
We stopped for lunch at this village perched beneath huge crags, that one of our party described as 'phallic'. I'll leave you to guess who that was. This is another site for Wallcreeper but the groups of human wallcreepers on the cliff face seemed to curtail any activity from our most sought after bird. Will provided some compensation by finding a Black Wheatear on the lower cliffs, resulting in some industrial strength bad self checking. This was another good site for raptors, something that almost goes without saying in this part of Spain. A Peregrine caused consternation amongst the Crag Martins and a Short-toed Eagle hovered above us as it drifted amongst the dark clouds of Griffon Vultures.

San Juan de la Pena
After a long drive through wooded hills we found our way to the monastery at San Juan de la Pena. This is a site for Citril Finch but we were unable to locate any. A short wander about the woods and meadows produced a singing Short-toed Treecreeper, a couple of male Bullfinches and innumerable Black Redstarts. We heard a Black Woodpecker calling a few times and then watched a couple of Ravens, a Great-spotted Woodpecker and a Crested Tit picking about the debris from the recently departed picnickers.

Somport and Astun
Then we headed into the real mountains, following the road north of Jaca to the snow capped mountain passes of the Pyrenees. We stopped at a cafe at Somport, right next to the French border and enjoyed wonderful views of a smart male Rock Bunting. Then a huge raptor appeared below us and soon we realised we were watching a Lammergeier at heart-stoppingly close quarters. It circled over the slopes of the ravine before, much to our collective amazement, landing just a few hundred yards away. Then, as quickly as it had arrived, it took off and with just a few beats of its wings was away down the valley. Helen had been 'powdering her nose' in the cafe and was only able to catch tantalising distant views of this king of raptors before it disappeared from view. Then we headed around the corner to the ski resort of Astun, which had a distinctly 'end of term' feel to it with only patchy snow on any of the runs. We didn't find too many of the hoped for alpine birds here but had some distant views of a few Alpine Choughs sweeping across the slopes.

Canfranc Estacion
We stopped briefly on the way back down the valley at this village and saw a couple of the local dark-bellied Dippers. Then just as we were about to continue I noticed another Lammergeier was traversing the valley right above us, this time at considerable height. It wasn't as close as the previous bird but Helen was finally able to get some prolonged views. It was rather a good end to a wonderful day in the sierras.

Trip list additions: red kite, lammergeier, egyptian vulture, griffon vulture, short toed eagle, sparrowhawk,lesser kestrel, peregrine, black woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, grey wagtail, dipper, wren,black wheatear,blue rock thrush,blackbird,song thrush, mistle thrush, spectacled warbler, blackcap, goldcrest, firecrest,long tailed tit, coal tit, blue tit, short toed treecreeper, alpine chough,red billed chough,jackdaw,spotless starling, rock sparrow,chaffinch,linnet,bullfinch,rock bunting

 

[markgrubb]

Day 3-The Steppes

Friday night saw Sergeant-major HE2 barking out orders for an eye wateringly early start,the aim for us to be on site at the El Planeron reserve by first light-I could see the Professor of Listening visibly wince at the thought-despite muted protests we set off at 5.30. The trip saw us take the by now mandatory Satnav detour and inspection of Spanish roadworks around Zaragoza but we arrived more or less on schedule.

The few trees on the approach to El Planeron seemed full of the shapes of black kites. Through the day we lost count of the number we saw but it must have come to well over 100.

We more or less arrived on site just after the first photons of the day peaked over the horizon-50% light said HE2 desperately trying to justify the sleep deprivation as we bumped into each other in the gloom. We turned into the reserve and stopped at the first area of suitable looking paramo. It only took a short time to hear the slowly repeated melancholy whistle of Dupont's lark. The small patches of scrub seemed reasonably spaced on the sandy soil but the next hour produced no views of our elusive quarry-we tried waiting patiently and scanning and moving slowly round the edge of the scrub but had no luck. The singing stopped at this point and we wondered if we had missed our opportunity. Compensation came in the form of the bubbling call of black bellied sandgrouse-Andrew picked up a solitary bird in flight view. I heard their call briefly 5 or 6 more times in the morning but had no joy in locating them again. Calandra lark, lesser short toed lark and thekla larks were elusive but from time to time would pop up to give reasonable views-they were also visible in song flight. Hoopoes could be heard singing and were seen. We decided to move on and Will spotted a male merlin. We headed further in to the reserve and once again heard several singing Dupont's larks. We stopped for a good 2 hours. The best tactic seemed to be to keep still and scan and wait. Between us we were rewarded with 2 birds climbing into song flight at great altitude, and a couple of brief views in the scrub. My impression was of a surprisingly short legged tall bird with long bill that was a lot darker than I expected. It was hard, hard work requiring lots of patience to see this elusive bird but a great experience. Leaving the reserve we located our one southern grey shrike of the trip and briefly heard a pin-tailed sandgrouse.

We set off next north over the main E90 and heading for the village of Monegrillo in the Monegros. The next couple of hours would prove to be raptor heaven. First bird was an immature golden eagle, the first of 5 we would see that day. We stopped for a picnic lunch and scanning produced many griffon vultures, a couple of short toed eagles, egyptian vultures, many red kites and a couple of lesser kestrels. A pair of dartford warblers provided some passerine diversion. As we approached Monegrillo the griffon vultures that had been circling began to drift towards us. We were treated to the amazing spectacle of about 75-80 of these huge birds passing just overhead. At Monegrillo we headed for La Almolda stopping and scanning the fields, hoping for little bustards. Sadly we did not see any. At one stop Helen flushed a group of 8 black-bellied sandgrouse and we got good flight views as they disappeared into the distance. It was hot, hard work and we decided to have one final look for steppes birds south of Bujarraloz. We headed for the salt lagoon at Laguna La Playa. We were heading along the track when Will shouted stop. There in the cereal field were 6 sandgrouse feeding. We sat in the car and watched 4 Pin-tailed and 2 Black-bellied sandgrouse feeding. They were exquisitely beautiful birds with lovely colour and fine markings and we sat watching them for 10-15 minutes. The birds sat down at one point blending in with the ground and you could see how hard they could be to detect. Andrew located 2 more Pin-tailed Sandgrouse in the distance and then on the way back to Bujarraloz Helen picked up 2 more Black-bellied sandgrouse in another cereal field-annoyingly they stayed tail-on before flying away.

We all felt really buoyed by this and drove out of Bujarraloz heading for Candasnos. As we headed out of the village Andrew suggested stopping by a small roadside lagoon. This proved to be a cracking wee spot to spend half an hour. There was a smart adult Mediterranean Gull and we also picked up about 15 kentish plovers, many little ringed plovers, 5 ruff, two little stints, a green sandpiper, two or three water pipits and a yellow wagtail in addition to many black headed gulls.

On we went to our final stop, Candasnos lagoon. This was another great spot and was stuffed full of birds. Highlights were probably 8 or so summer plumage black necked grebes, several garganey, red crested and common pochards, 3 drake pintails and shovelers galore amongst the many birds.

A great days birding-the good professors evening log and sitting of the birds committee admitted 76 species for the day with the trip list rising to 131

Birds added to trip list

Black necked grebe, pintail, common pochard, tufted duck, golden eagle, merlin, kentish plover, little stint, black-bellied sandgrouse, pin-tailed sandgrouse, hoopoe, lesser short toed lark, thekla lark, yellow wagtail, dartford warbler, southern grey shrike,

 

[halftwo]

I thought BF had gone a bit quiet over the past few days, now I understand why.

You took the words right....

Look forward to more soonest.

Great place aint it though - Spain in spring. HMMM! Tapas, paella, yum.
H

 

[deboo]

Sounds wonderful. Pics please!

dave...

 

[markgrubb]

I thought BF had gone a bit quiet over the past few days, now I understand why.

Ahh, it's nice to be missed. Good to be back to the real world of giant ravens, ivory billed woodpeckers and beards

 

[Dr Manjeet Singh]

Mark did you say beards...by my beards oath.:-O..what a trip you'll had and species seen are like a role call from my dreams..keep them coming folks...but please dying for pictures you hear Andrew,Mark and the others..regards waiting for more you hear:t:B

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I did a bit of recording at El Planeron and have added a few excerpts from this below. This is what I think they call an 'exhaltation of larks'.

 

[StuartReeves]

I did a bit of recording at El Planeron and have added a few excerpts from this below. This is what I think they call an 'exhaltation of larks'.

Good, evocative stuff Professor. Could this be a first for BF - sound recordings in a trip report? Instead of photographs apparently.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Good, evocative stuff Professor. Could this be a first for BF - sound recordings in a trip report? Instead of photographs apparently.

Cheers Stuart. I believe young master Bowell is responsible for the pictures, which I look forward to seeing as much as anyone.

 

[steve west]

Interesting report Andrew. Looks like you all had a great trip, and it's nice to hear such familiar-sounding place names! Shame about the Wallcreeper and Little Bustard, the former may have been affected by the drought (lack of humidity on some rock faces), whereas the latter are still going around in flocks and are much more localised than in the breeding season.
The Mediterranean Gull is an interesting record for an inland site, will you send in the record to the Aragón Bird Report?

Steve
http://BirdingInSpain.com

 

[delia todd]

You had a great time all of you didn't you

Appears you ALL need to learn to map read though, seeing as you even get lost with Satnav:-O

Where's the piccies?

D

 

[steve west]

I did a bit of recording at El Planeron and have added a few excerpts from this below. This is what I think they call an 'exhaltation of larks'.

Listening to that left me exhuberantly exultant! Great Stuff Andy, much better than seeing boring old photos! ||

Dupont's Lark, Lesser Short-toed lark, Thekla Lark(?)...anything else there?

Steve
http://www.BirdingInSpain.com

 

[Brian Stone]

The Mediterranean Gull is an interesting record for an inland site, will you send in the record to the Aragón Bird Report?
http://BirdingInSpain.com

I noticed that one too. We also had Med Gull in the area (between Zaragoza and Heusca) exactly 2 years ago. Perhaps small numbers around at this time of year. True picture relies on people sending in records. I don't think we did. Do you have the contact details?

 

[Capercaillie71]

Great report and nice recordings Andrew. Looking forward to the photos!