Autumn Passage in Catalunya (1 Viewer)

A few hundred starlings and a similar number of Alpine Swifts.

I've heard Black Redstart a couple of times but haven't seen one yet. Probably hundreds on the Delta tomorrow.

72. Black Redstart, Hotel Plaça de la Font.

A long and physically demanding day at the Concurs de Castells. The arena roof was only part open and we noticed a few swallows over. Back to the hotel and a peerless blue sky but so far nothing but pigeons.

A single Alpine Swift at just above rooftop height.

It's close to sunset. The drums and grallers of Xiquets de Tarragona are celebrating in the square and two Sparrowhawks just flew by together.

A Swallow and I few Greenfinches. Off to the Ebro Delta in a short while. Rain forecast.

Not much access to WiFi today so it might be back to England before I can make many more updates but I think the calling Scop's Owl that was outside the window of our room in the excellent Delta Hotel just before midnight was our 100th species in Catalunya this year. In a few minutes we'll be off out for some delta birding. Soon after that it should get light.

I'll finish this off shortly. I've not had much time to listen to my field notes for the Ebro Delta since getting back to the UK.

pandachris said:

Not much access to WiFi today so it might be back to England before I can make many more updates but I think the calling Scop's Owl that was outside the window of our room in the excellent Delta Hotel just before midnight was our 100th species in Catalunya this year. In a few minutes we'll be off out for some delta birding. Soon after that it should get light.

Click to expand...

Be aware that one toad sounds like thé scops Owl

Which road?

We've heard a lot of Scop's Owls over the years, so I'm fairly confident. Plus it was high in a tree, though clearly some amphibians can climb.

I've worked out playback on the voice recorder app we were using (I'm not incompetent, we've been busy since getting home) so I'll make a start on finishing off the list. I wish I'd thought to record the Scop's Owl. It would have been easy.

I was wrong about the Black Redstarts. We saw none on the delta. On about 23rd October 2017 I saw hundreds.

73. Squacco Heron, 3 just after leaving Ampolla were the only ones we saw.
74. Great White Egret, numerous
75. Osprey, 7 sightings over two days
76. Little Grebe, Migjorn tower hide
77. Purple Heron, quite common
78. Glossy Ibis, very common
79. Redshank, quite common
80. Lapwing, quite common
81. Zitting Cisticola, several seen.

After an unsuccessful search for the PGP we went to Riet Vell which always seems to be worth a look. Nothing special from the car park but we did speak to some Belgian birders who recommended the drive along the sand spit to Punta de Banya. No sign of Bluethroat near the hide, either.

82. Sand Martin, lots at Riet Vell with other hirundine.
83. Avocet, 2 at Riet Vell were the only ones we saw.
84. Purple Swamphen, Riet Vell and several other locations
85. Moustached Warbler, Riet Vell, Migjorn tower hide and a few other places
86. Kingfisher, Riet Vell and perhaps 30-40 sightings over two days.

Looks like the toad (not road) that sounds like Scops Owl is the Common Midwife Toad. A.o. almogavarii and A.o pertinax both look possible in the delta. There might be other species of Midwife toad as well. We're convinced that what we heard was Scops, but I'll try to find some recordings of the toad/s to listen to in the next few days, just in case. We did see quite a lot of American Crayfish which are a known predator on toad tadpoles, so it might be a good thing if it turns out to be a toad.

I've listened to a few recordings of Midwife Toad calls and whilst they are quite similar to Scops Owl, I feel that I could tell the difference quite easily. What we heard was definitely a Scops Owl. I suppose there's a chance that it could have been a recording - perhaps someone from the guided group of birders that were also in the hotel - but they would still have needed to get the device they were playing it on up the tree.

We had an excellent (as usual) meal at the restaurant at Casa de Fusta and then went across the road to the tower hide. The sunlight was against us, so most birds were in silhouette.

87. Great Crested Grebe, Casa de Fusta hide
88. Water Rail, Casa de Fusta hide
89. Willow Warbler, Casa de Fusta hide.

We also saw, quite close but mainly in outline, a bird that looked very like a Red-necked Grebe. I suspect that this would be very unusual here at this time of year, so it was probably a non-breeding GCG.


We moved on to the Mirador l'Embut which has been quite productive previously. There was a distant eagle that had put everything up over the lake. Ducks, herons, gulls, cormorants - I don't think there was anything on the water and there were hundreds, probably thousands of birds in the air. It was too far away to even guess at the ID, though. From the hide on Cami del Traves


90. Red-crested Pochard
91. Gadwall
92. Shoveler

Our next stop was the new Observatorio de la Tancada, near Mon Natura. There was more water than we're used to here but with a little patience it was possible to find a few waders.


93. Greenshank, Observatorio de la Tancada
94. Kentish Plover, Observatorio de la Tancada
95. Mute Swan, Observatorio de la Tancada
96. Little Stint, Observatorio de la Tancada

Without a 'scope some of the waders here are tricky because they are quite distant. We felt that there was at least a Spotted Redshank.

We thought it might be worth returning to the Migjorn area as our last proper stop of the day.

97. Reed Warbler, Migjorn tower hide
98. Snipe, Migjorn tower hide

We met a couple of experienced Dutch birders/ringers who had been doing quite well. They'd heard Great Reed Warbler that morning, just down the road and had seen multiple Bonelli's Eagles including a group of nine in the hills adjoining the delta.

99. Slender-billed Gulls, not numerous but at various locations seen whilst driving around.
100. Common Sandpiper, close to the track to the Migjorn grassfields.

We decided not to walk the track to the grassfields because
1. We were unsure of access.
2. There was a closable barrier and a sign indicating that it was a private road.
3. There were a lot of biting flies and
4. We thought that if the work being done was moving the birds away from the fields our appearance on foot probably wouldn't help.

There were lots of crayfish in the irrigation canals in this area. Unfortunately they all looked like the invasive American Crayfish although I'll happily admit that my crayfish ID skills are limited.

As it was getting late and close to sunset we drove to our hotel, the Delta Hotel which is just east of Deltebre. A few metres before pulling into the hotel car park and in the dying light we saw a Pied Flycatcher in the trees on the right as it darted out over the road and back.

101. Pied Flycatcher, Delta Hotel
102. Scop's Owl, Delta Hotel.

We were out before sunrise. At 07:30 exactly we saw a very large bird flying over the flooded fields across from the hotel. Our immediate reaction was that it was an owl and the only possibility, other than an escape from a collection, was European Eagle Owl. Now we've seen various Eagle Owls around the world (and even a Bengal Eagle Owl around the corner from my house in Shrewsbury - the cat was very lucky to escape!) but we've only definitely heard European Eagle Owl. We bumped into the guided birding tour later in the day and asked one of the guides about the possibility, because the habitat was not exactly what we'd expect. The response was a bit dismissive (only two records a year in the delta, no food for them), although he backed off later with "I wasn't there. I didn't see the bird." and confirmed that they are in the hills quite close by. He suggested that it might have been a Long-eared Owl, which nests in the hotel grounds but we're familiar enough with this much smaller bird to be comfortable that in terms of size alone it was not a LEE (or a Tawny, or a Barn Owl). Anyway I guess it's my list and having watched several videos of Eagle Owl and LEE I'm satisfied that we saw an Eagle Owl.

103. European Eagle Owl, Delta Hotel.

It's good to have a bit of controversy.

We had a quick look in the trees where we'd seen the flycatcher last night but no sign of any birds.

Our pre-breakfast destination was Riumar. I went there in later October 2017 and started the day with an Osprey and then saw thousands of birds (egrets, ibis, gulls) in the fields and sky around the village and on the tracks around Canal Vell. Not so much doing in Riumar, though we did have a rather nice coffee (and a donut for me) in a bakery that was nearly open when we passed (I think it was Mfrequet on Carrer de Flamenc). We walked to the hide in the Garxal reserve but there was not much to see, with the only new bird for the trip being

104. Shelduck, Garxal reserve, Riumar

so we moved on. There were signs that I followed last year to a tower hide at Canal Vell, only to find that access to the hide was blocked, somewhat annoying after a short walk with lots of mosquitos, however there were plenty of birds in the area, so we had a drive around. There were lots (hundreds) of Common Sandpipers in just about every field we passed on the drive north, possibly on Sequia Bombita, with a few Greenshanks and a supporting cast of herons, gulls and ibis. At a point where the road turned right to cross an irrigation canal there was a small area of dry open grass and sand and we were delighted to find two Hoopoes here (our Dutch informants from yesterday had seen lots).

105. Hoopoe, Canal Vell area.

We'd paid for breakfast at the hotel, so we went back for it. It was ok.

After breakfast and check-out we set off for Punt del Fangar where there were lots of Sanderlings on the beach but we didn't find much else of interest.

106. Sanderling, Punt del Fangar
107. Lesser Kestrel, 2, somewhere on the road between Sant Jaume d'Enveja and Els Muntells.

Having been convinced by the Dutch birders that the drive along the sand spit towards Punta de la Banya would not result in the loss of our rental vehicle, we decided to do it. Lots of common waders on both sides, visible at close quarters if you use the car as a hide.

108. Ringed Plover, sand spit towards Punta de la Banya
109. Grey Plover, sand spit towards Punta de la Banya
110. Turnstone, sand spit towards Punta de la Banya
111. Northern Wheatear, sand spit towards Punta de la Banya

We had a late and excellent lunch at the Ida Can Machino restaurant in Els Muntells which was considerably more upscale than we'd expected.

With a little time left we wanted to explore the tracks leading south from the Sant Carles de la Rapita to El Poblenou del Delta road. Not much around here although we did manage to find a single Curlew.

112. Curlew, fields near Sant Carles de la Rapita.

A Twitter notification (@rarebirdscat) had come through about a Lesser Flamingo having been seen in the Punta de la Banya area. We were pretty certain that there were no flamingos visible there when we were there, although there is no public access to the western end, where presumably salt production is taking place. We had time to look at the flamingo flocks from the hides that we'd visited yesterday and quite quickly found an individual that was smaller than any of those around it. However it was way too distant for us to get a proper look at its bill, which was the clincher. Of course there were no other birders around so no telescopes for us to borrow. We stopped along the road at a point where we thought we might get a closer view, but although we'd made a mental note of some markers we couldn't relocate either the bird or more worryingly the place where we'd seen it.

After that it was time to start towards the airport and our flight home (which was delayed by over two hours meaning we finally got home after 3 a.m., with work the next day

In summary, although raptors migrating over Tarragona were down in numbers from several years ago, it seems that anywhere along the coast south of Barcelona there is a chance of seeing something with patience. Birding on the delta remains very entertaining. I've really only mentioned first sightings of most species but over two days we saw Ospreys on at least seven different occasions and kingfishers perhaps 40 times. Three flew in front of the car in the space of about 15 seconds on one track we drove down. We always found Moustached Warblers difficult in the area but this time we had a couple of sightings and heard them several times. A few eagle species got away because of poor/brief views, distance or bad light.

I'm sure that we'll be back and the Delta Hotel is likely to figure if we decide to overnight.