Marian’s 2008 Year List (2 Viewers)

[madamcoolpix]

Last update from the weekend.

After the exhausting day spent in Villafáfila on Saturday, we decided to take it easy next day and just stayed in Burgos City birding in La Quinta, a sort of “wild park” in the outskirts. This is a place we love to visit, even if there are many people during the weekends birds never disappoint us there: 40 species spotted during that morning. This place is very reliable for Wryneck and Bonelli’s Warbler, for example, and other species that are hard to spot, like Nightingale or Cetti’s Warbler, are quite easy to see because the place is full of them. The visit was quite productive for my Year List:

27 April 2008: La Quinta – Burgos City

152 – Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)
153 – Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)
154 – Booted Eagle (Hiaraaetus pennatus)
155 – Bonelli’s Warbler (Phylloscopus bonelli)
156 – Crested Tit (Parus cristatus)
157 – Melodious Warbler (Hippolais poliglotta)

And for the first time in my life, I got pictures of the 3 widespread Picidae of Spain during a single day:

a. The Green Woodpecker. Note the pale face of the Iberian subspecies, sharpei.
b. The little demon: the Wryneck. I managed to get quite close to it and to capture it in the open... but in the shade (we can’t have it all! |=)|)
c. The Great Spotted Woodpecker, for once not as wary as it uses to be. This was a “she”.

 

[madamcoolpix]

I’m back from a long weekend in the steppes of Zaragoza Province, in Eastern Spain. And this is the first update from this 4 days birding trip.

Last Wednesday I spent the night in Burgos and there I joined the others for this weekend in the Steppes. On Thursday (May the 1st) we travelled doing many stops for birdwatching. I got two new birds for the Year List and took some pictures.

1 May 2008: Western Zaragoza Province

158 – Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)
159 – Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)

Fancy this, getting two Shrikes in a row! |8.| And these are the birds I’ve selected to show you:

a. Bonelli’s Warbler. Their characteristic trill can be heard at every habitat with trees now in May.
b. Hoopoe. I caught this one unawares in the shade during the hottest time of the day. This is my closest shot to a Hoopoe to date. By the way… aren’t they beautiful??!! |=)|

 

[madamcoolpix]

New update from the Steppes trip:

We spent last Friday (May the 2nd) in the Steppes of Belchite area looking for the specialties of this place. We saw almost all the main birds to find there, only failed Dupont’s Lark (as usual, it was heard but never spotted) and Little Bustard. Several of these birds were new for my Year List:

2 May 2008: area of Belchite (Zaragoza Province)

160 – Stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus)
161 – Lesser Short-toed Lark (Carandrella rufescens)
162 – Black-eared Wheatear (Oenanthe hispanica)
163 – Thekla’s Lark (Galerida theklae)
164 – Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
165 – Greater Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla)
166 – Black-bellied Sandgrouse (Pterocles orientalis)
167 – Pin-tailed Snadgrouse (Pterocles alchata)

Steppe birds are terribly wary and it is almost impossible to get close enough for my camera, so I failed photographing properly this bunch of interesting species. Still, I got a few birds:

a. and b. Black-eared Wheatear. Both morphs (black and white-throated) were present in the area. Picture b. was digiscoped.
c. A group of Black-bellied Sandgrouses caught as they passed by.
d. A pair of Bee-eaters.

 

[madamcoolpix]

On last Saturday (May the 3rd) we still stayed in the steppes trying to find the remaining specialties but we had no luck. At least, I found a few more birds for the List:

3 May 2008: area of Belchite (Zaragoza Province)

168 – Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)
169 – Great Spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius)
170 – Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

And took a few pictures:

a. The Water Rail, not precisely something we were expecting to see in these dry Steppes… but appeared in a micro-oasis (|=)|).
b. Thekla’s Lark. The one on the right was too distant to be posted here. The one on left was much closer, but I’m not 100% sure it was a Thekla’s (local experts said it was though). Finally I’ve decided to post a collage with both pics.
c. A Greater Short-toed Lark trotting down a slope.

On Sunday (May the 4th) we had a very long drive back home. We didn't see anything new but we heard our first Golden Oriol of the season when we arrived to Burgos! o

 

[madamcoolpix]

Since I heard my first Golden Oriole in Burgos I’ve been obsessed with finding it! The weather has been quite unfriendly to do birdwatching during the last week, but I took advantage of the few hours without rain to try to find it. Finally, yesterday morning, I got it! It was in one of my favourite spots in the outskirts of Oviedo for birding. Some other birds of the area felt like letting me to take pictures, so I had a great morning. In summary:

13 May 2008: Las Caldas (outskirts of Oviedo), Asturias

171 – Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus)

And the pictures are:

a. Male Stonechat. I had already posted a female, but to have a look at the male is always nice… |=)|
b. A singing Chiffchaff… or Iberian Chiffchaff, if you prefer. I can’t get used to consider this a separated species!
c. This ball of fluff is a Long-tailed Tit.
d. The Golden Oriole, leaving his perch in a hurry. My first pic of Golden Oriole showing more than a yellow dot in the distance!
e. A Crag Martin keeping watch by the den where he has his nest. As soon as I found out why he was there I prefered leaving the place for not disturbing him: I hope to report lots of new little Crag Martins soon! o

 

[madamcoolpix]

The weather keeps being awful and my chances of birding almost inexistent! :-C And yesterday, in an act of desperation, I went birding under the rain, in the hopes the sky cleared up some time. Of course, it didn’t. But at least I didn’t get a cold and saw a few birds, and among them, a new one for the Year List:

18 May 2008: Gijón Botanical Garden (Asturias)

172 – Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

When I left the place, I had a little walk in the surroundings of the Botanical Gardens and shy sunshine brightened a bit the place. Then I had the opportunity to take some pictures:

a. What a lucky lady I was to get this Wood Pigeon as it passed by, low over the lawn! |=)| I've decided to illustrate this common bird with a flight-shot showing its pattern, it is more interesting than the classic view perched (I think).
b. A Melodious Warbler singing away his happiness for seeing a beam of sunshine and some blue sky... like me! :-O These guys are not as melodious as the name says, in my opinion, but the funny chattering helps to locate them when they sing among the foliage.

 

[madamcoolpix]

I’ve spent last weekend in Madrid. It was a family trip but I took advantage of my stay there to pay a couple of visits to my favourite places in the outskirts of the city. On Saturday (May the 24th) I went to El Pardo, in spite of the awful looking weather forecast. It was right, it rained cats and dogs in the afternoon but we had a few nice hours during the morning. The birding was quite good, with 2 more birds for the list:

24 May 2008: El Pardo (outskirts of Madrid)

173 – Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
174 – Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes)

It is getting hard to find images of new birds to add to this thread. The only new bird I managed was this Common Swift (My God, they are fast!!!) but I’m posting too a male Serin (although I’ve already snapped the female) because they are beautiful. I think this singing one turned out quite cute…

 

[madamcoolpix]

Another lifer!!!

I’m a bit late with the last update from the weekend because I’ve been busy and had not much time to process and select images. But here it is finally!

Last Sunday (May the 25th) we paid a new visit to Rivas-Vaciamadrid in the hopes of finding some migrant specialties that were not there yet the last time I went to Madrid: Great Reed Warbler, Little Bittern and Purple Heron, mainly. But it was much better than the expectations, we even found a lifer: a Red-necked Nightjar that flew away at noon when we almost stepped on it! A marvellous encounter! o

So, my Year List continues as follows:

25 May 2008: Rivas-Vaciamadrid (outskirts of Madrid)

175 – Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus)
176 – Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus)
177 – Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur)
178 – Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus)
179 – Red-necked Nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis) :t:
180 – Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)
181 – Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspicillata)

And these are the selected pictures for this post (all new bird images for this thread)
a. Black Kite
b. A pair of Tree Sparrows, wet and shaggy after the impressive shower we all had to stand (|=)|)
c. A view of the Purple Heron when it flew from the reedbed over the lagoon (I think it did this for me to take a picture! )
d. I doubted if uploading or not the distant shot I took of the Spectacled Warbler. Finally, I’ve decided to add it because I don’t think I’ll have another chance to take a picture of this Southern specialty.

 

[madamcoolpix]

At last, I had new opportunities to do some birdwatching! BF members Sandpiper and Damselfly came to my area to look for Birds and Butterflies and I joined them. We had a great weekend together and saw many birds! If only the weather had been better…

Last Friday, we headed for the Southern side of the Cantabrian Mountains, getting away from the rain that spoiled our initial plans. It was a very good day for Butterflies (we found about 22 species) and the birds were not bad either. I even could add some more to my list of this year:

6 June 2007: Somiedo Mountain Pass area in Leon Province

182 – Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush (Monticola saxatilis)
183 – Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio)

Although I snapped many Butterflies, I only could photograph a new bird, the Rock-Thrush, and here it is. I’ll add what happened the following days as soon as I have time to process the images.

 

[madamcoolpix]

Second episode in the “Adventures in the Mountains” series! |=)|

On Saturday (May the 7th) the weather was somehow better and we risked going up to the lakes area of the mountains in the Covadonga National Park, at 1100 m high. We didn’t try climbing up higher as it was too cloudy and misty in the surroundings… and it was interesting already there! Had a great time snapping the Alpine Chough, Water Pipit, Black Redstart, etc. I got 3 new birds to add to this thread there:

7 June 2008: Covadonga National Park (Asturias)

184 – Rock Bunting (Emberiza cia)
185 – Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus)
186 – Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta)

And here there are some of the birds I managed to capture during this visit to the mountains, all new to this thread:

a. Water Pipit. It gave as a show displaying in flight and singing. Great moments…
b. The Alpine Choughs were very cooperative. I like how this one turned out, marching in a very military way! :'D
c. A Dunnock singing away. I think you all have noticed by now I have a soft spot for snapping singing birds!
d. A Short-toed Eagle, captured manoeuvring while hovering. This encounter was another hit during the weekend!

I have more pictures taken later when we went back to the valley, but I’ll share them later because there is no place for them in this post.

 

[madamcoolpix]

And here you have a couple of new species snapped in the valley of Covadonga after leaving the mountains: the lovely Spotted Flycatcher and a female Common Redstart. I failed to capture the stunning male… well, next time! (|=)|)

 

[madamcoolpix]

Sunday, June the 8th: a dreadful morning of rain and darkness threatened our birding day in the mountains storm. Once more, we had to change the plans to save the day and crossed the Cantabrian Mountains to the plains looking for some friendly sunshine. We got some finally, and a couple of showers too… and a good bunch of great birds! o I even got a new bird of the year:

8 June 2008: Valencia de Don Juan (León Province)

187 – Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)

and got a picture of it, along with this male Red-backed Shrike nicely set among the flowers.

 

[madamcoolpix]

June the 14th, saturday, I was engaged in a family trip for lunch to Proaza, a beautiful and dreamy area not far from Oviedo. I took my binos and camera, just in case I had an opportunity of birdwatching... and I had it! I convinced the driver for a short stop in a very reliable spot for Alpine Swift, and they were there, as every year, loyal to this place! These birds and all the Butterflies flying around made this sunny Spring day complete for me! o

14 June 2008: Proaza (Asturias)

188 – Alpine Swift (Apus melba)

 

[madamcoolpix]

What a fantastic birding day we had last Saturday! We visited one of our favourite spots, the Canyon of Río Lobos. This is a wide area with varied habitats (the canyon, pine forest, river vegetation, cliffs, meadows, shrubs, etc) and in spite of a quite dull day with some rain we found 52 different birds, 21 Butterflies, 9 Dragonflies, 3 reptiles,… not bad! o This is what I love the best doing: enjoying wildlife relaxed, with no rush from one place to another and snapping away… this makes life look like beautiful!

Two specialties showed up new for my list:

21 June 2008: Cañón de Río Lobos (Soria Province)

189 – Common Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra)
190 – Eurasian Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus)

Both were too distant for a shot but the poor wretched Honey Buzzard is still recognizable, so here is the pic (1st one). I'll wait for a better chance to post the Crossbill… I'm adding this Yellow Wagtail of the iberiae subspecies (of course! ) because they are not approachable at all, this is the closest I've ever been to it with my camera. The 3rd pic is one of the emblematic birds of the area, the Azure-winged Magpie. And the last one, a Woodchat Shrike posing glamorously for the camera.

 

[madamcoolpix]

Another update from last weekend, sorry for my delay but I've been busy and selecting pictures takes time!

Last Sunday we went to this amazing place in Central Spain, a sort of canyon with breathtaking views and fantastic birding, where Vultures and other raptors soar right over your head. It is a good place for Larks too (I saw here my only Dupont's Lark a few moths ago)... and for Butterflies, we found about 20 different species. The new birds found for the year list were somehow unexpected, as it is the first time I see them here… the habitat was suitable though.

22 June 2008: Hoces del Río Duratón, near Sepúlveda (Segovia Province)

191 – Tawny Pipit (Anthus campestris)
192 – Orphean Warbler (Sylvia hortensis)
193 – Subalpine Warbler (Sylvia cantillans)

Good day to photograph small birds, particularly Larks and Warblers. New for this thread are:
a. The Tawny Pipit, too wary but the features show well in spite of being a distant shot.
b. The place was full of Calandra Larks, many of them singing, like this one in the picture.
c. This Orphean Warbler was the hit of the visit. My best view of one so far, and my very first picture of it! o
d. Another Sylvia Warbler: Dartford Warbler, giving me a lovely photographic session. Other pictures of it will appear in my gallery.

 

[madamcoolpix]

An unexpected update. Last Saturday, I went to Miraflores de la Sierra, aka Butterflyland ()… it is fantastic place for Butterflies in the mountains surrounding Madrid. We go there every summer to snap and watch the great variety you can find... we identified 30 different ones this time! :t: So, I only paid relative attention to the birds around, but still managed a shot of a Nuthatch showing its lovely undies (it is already July and still had not snapped one! :eek! and saw a Hobby too, to add to the list!

5 July 2008: Miraflores de la Sierra (Madrid)

194 – Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo)

 

[madamcoolpix]

And another unexpected update. On Saturday, during a family trip to the coast of my area, I finally spotted an inexcusable absence in my year list (and I’m not going to try to excuse it, of course, ):

26 July 2008: Gijón (Asturias)

195 – European Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis)

I confess I'm not doing much birdwatching lately, birding is too slow under the Spanish summer heat but on the contrary there are Butterflies and Dragonflies everywhere, so I'm paying much more attention to these other flying beauties. But on Friday I'll start my holidays, I'm visiting Eastern Andalucía (Jaén, Granada and Almería Provinces); I've never been there before, so it will mean an interesting change even if the birding is slow in August. I'm looking forward to know what can be seen there at this time of the year! o

 

[madamcoolpix]

I'm back from my holiday in Eastern Andalucía. Great birding there! We saw 130 different birds in 12 days, plus 50 Butterflies and 10 Dragonflies. The birding was not as slow as it would have been expected in middle August, many migrants were on its way to the south, making the variety of species more interesting.

To start with, here you have the new birds for my year list found during the two days we spent driving towards Guadix (in Granada Province), our “headquarters” to visit other places around.

1 August 2008: Alcazar de San Juan (Ciudad Real Province)

196 – Whiskered Tern (Chlidonias hybrida)

2 August 2008: Baeza (Jaén Province)

197 – Pallid Swift (Apus pallidus)

2 August 2008: along the roads towards Guadix in Granada Province.

198 – Black Weathear (Oenanthe leucura)
199 – Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)
200 – European Roller (Coracias garrulus)

And the pictures are (all birds snapped for the first time this year):

a. Cattle Egret in breeding plumage, in Alcazar de San Juan.
b. Pallid Swift in Baeza. There was a very big collony in the town, flying very low in the morning, making relatively easy to take pictures… with some patience ().
c. Booted Eagle in Sierra de Cazorla (Jaén Province).

 

[madamcoolpix]

Even if August is not the best time of the year to do birdwatching in Almería Province, we paid a visit to the acclaimed Cañada de las Norias, with no major expectations, but it turned out to be quite nice, good level of water and great variety of birds. There, I picked up a few more birds for the list, and for once, I managed to get a picture of all them!

3 August 2008: Cañada de las Norias, by El Ejido (Almería Province)

201 – White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala)
202 – Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina)
203 – Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides)
204 – Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus)

Some remarks to say:

a. A male White-headed Duck, there were several pairs, a great sighting.
b. Sadly, the Red-crested Pochards were in eclipse plumage. This is a digiscoped pic of a ruffled one.
c. There were several Squacco Herons, adults and juveniles. The adults were too far even for digiscoping, but I could take this pic of a closer juvie with the regular camera.
d. This adult and juvenile Sacred Ibis were utterly unexpected. I have no idea where they came from. They had no rings, so I'm counting the bird for my year list, but not as the lifer it should be, as I'm not sure they were really wild.

 

[madamcoolpix]

More stuff from my holidays in Andalucía. A first visit to Cabo de Gata was superb, loads of birds in the salinas, and did a lot of snapping too, although the birds were quite far away for my camera. I did some new attempts of digiscoping, but with quite deceiving results in general.

This is the update of the Year List:

5 August 2008: Cabo de Gata (Almería Province)

205 – Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)
206 – Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)
207 – Ruff (Philomachus pugnax)
208 – Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)
209 – Little Stint (Calidris minutus)
210 – Audouin’s Gull (Larus audouinii)
211 – Little Tern (Sterna albifrons)

And these are the selected pictures to illustrate the birds of this place:

a. A digiscoped Audouin’s Gull, the only decent attempt on distant birds. We spotted up to eleven in a corner of the salinas.
b. One of the birds we were expecting to see, the Greater Flamingo… actually the place was pouring with them!
c. I'm glad I didn't post the Avocet before, as these chances were a bit better than in April in Villafáfila. Plenty of them too here.
d. Just had to post this: a real, proper and closer Thekla's Lark. I was really happy with this encounter, a bird I'm quite unlucky with.