Autumn Passage in Catalunya (1 Viewer)

Temperature 16C and there's a light offshore wind so it feels very different today. A small falcon has just passed by heading inland. The light is still poor but almost certainly one of the kestrels.

A Grey Wagtail, local starlings, fewer pigeons than on the last three mornings.

A Grey Wagtail, about 30 finches/small larks, 6 larger larks and unusual for here, I think, a Blackbird.

A one second glimpse of a falcon over the coast was probably another Peregrine. It went behind a building and didn't reappear but seconds later a couple of dozen pigeons came from the same direction and dived for the relative safety of the trees in Plaça de la Font.

No hirundines at all so far.

The third major pigeon panic of the morning was the first that I could justify. A Booted Eagle directly overhead.

44. Booted Eagle, Hotel Plaça de la Font.

A few brief checks whilst getting ready, packing for our flights. Alpine Swifts beyond the Ajuntament and a handful of Swallows through.

Back in the UK (delightful hour's wait after midnight at Manchester Airport Passport Control).

Not much to report from Tarragona yesterday. Plenty of hirundines during the times we were there (up to about midday and then again from c17:00. I fancied a look at the Tamarit castle so we got the #12 bus from Tarragona bus station and got off at Castell de Tamarit from where it is less than a mile's walk. Lots more swallows and house martins. Afterwards we walked along the coast to the small Desembocadura del Riu Gaia reserve that we walked through to get to Altafulla. A few new species for the trip but not much that could be described as migrant.

45. Cormorant, Tamarit
46. Cetti's Warbler, Riu Gaia
47. Chiffchaff, Riu Gaia
48. Great Spotted Woodpecker, Riu Gaia
49. Great Tit, Altafulla

We came out at the roundabout at the end of Carrer dels Traginers. The conifers there had quite a lot of birds. I think we were hearing Crested Tit and possibly Goldcrest but they were hard to see and we wanted to eat before our airport trip so we didn't spend long there.

Altafulla has some decent places to eat but the Taverna del Quatre, just along the road has no pretensions. If you are lucky enough to be passing on a Tuesday the set dish of the day is estofada and it was delicious. Probably cooked for hours. €7.50 with a drink and a pudding.

We got the coach to BCN from Tarragona. Surprisingly more expensive than the train but direct and non-stop. Again lots of hirundines and thousands of starling congregating on wires. A rallid just near the entrance to T1 in a gloomy ditch must have been a Purple Gallinule but the only new species for the drive was a Little Egret in the same area.

50. Little Egret, from the B-22 (I think, entrance to BCN).

Overall, raptor passage was consistent with the last couple of years and much smaller, over Tarragona, than the few years before that. Somewhat disappointing.

We saw a couple of Brown Hares are Riu Gaia and Julie glimpsed a possible Otter at Els Muntanyans from the train. I've not been able to confirm that there are otters on that reserve but it seems possible.

We're back in the region on Saturday for two nights. We're staying in Vilanova i la Geltru. Birding opportunities are limited because we are really there for the 1st day of the Concurs de Castells in Torredembarra, but I'l see what we can squeeze in.

Back yesterday morning. Flamingos again from the plane. Right hand side is best. Julie saw egrets and ducks from the other side.

Lots of Cattle Egrets from the airport train. Two fields with 50+. The first batch were in the air and scanning around led us to a Sparrowhawk.

51. Cattle Egret, near Barcelona airport.
52. Sparrowhawk, near Barcelona airport.

I went out before sunrise and noted that there had been a fall of Blackbirds and Robins. I had a quick look around an area with mixed trees by Ribes-Roges beach but apart from plenty of bays and an early Grey Wagtail, didn't see much before scooting back to the hotel because we had to be in Torredembarra for the first part of the XVII Concurs de Castells by 9 a.m. and there weren't many trains.

With my faixa packed by the time we were back out it was fully light and a Short-toed Treecreeper inspecting a palm tree on the front was a handy year tick. Apart from that, Mediterranean Gulls were the only other new bird.

53. Short-toed Treecreeper, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
54. Mediterranean Gull, Vilanova i la Geltrù.

Some swallows over Torredembarra but I thought for a moment we'd dropped lucky whilst having a drink at a bar opposite the station when we were on our way back. A skein of large, slow moving birds tracking the coast. Cranes was my first guess but through binoculars it was clear that they were 39 cormorants. Oh well.

Back to the UK tomorrow but we have no plans so we'll see.

An hour or so stroll along the front at Vilanova i la Geltrù from about 07:30. Turns out that birdwatching is easier in daylight. We're staying at the Atenea Park which is west of the centre and I walked easy to where the trees, river and miniature rail tracks are. Fewer Blackbirds and no evidence of Robins today.

Most gulls on the beach were Mediterranean and Lesser Black-backs outnumbered Yellow-legged. Two Common Redstarts were calling in the trees (I saw one near the bridge) and looking for them put me into a Crested Tit. There were a pair of Stonechats near the river mouth.

There are lots of Monk Parakeets in Vilanova but one flock flushed by a dog contained something obviously different - a delightful pale blue Budgerigar.

Three Alpine Swifts were the main evidence of visible migration and I scanned the sea several times for terns without luck but had a last look as a fishing vessel came with an entourage of gulls and found two Sandwich Terns. These weren't with the boat and were much closer to the shore.

55. Common Redstart, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
56. Crested Tit, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
57. Lesser Black-back, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
58. Stonechat, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
59. Sandwich Tern, Vilanova i la Geltrù.

We had breakfast at our hotel and sat outside with a sky view. One swallow over. We kept hearing a call like Zitting Cisticola. The habitat was buildings, a swimming pool, lawns, ornamental trees and perhaps a couple of older pines. When it called it was always 3 notes. I don't think it was a starling doing a bit of mimicry. It was too quiet and lower down, the starlings here being permanently at rooftop height. Any guesses?

Quite a good finish to our short stay in Vilanova. We decided to take a stroll first to the Pasiphae (bull) statue that sits on an artificial headland that extends some distance into the sea from Platja d'Adarro, then continue west to the Mirador. There were lots of swallows skimming low over the same as we walked out and we soon got onto some more Sandwich Terns however checking a few terns more closely revealed that there were more Caspian Terns about, with one on nearly every buoy. Looking at the solitary gull at the end of eastern end of the platform it was clear that it was Audouin's. Looking out to sea, as well as large numbers of gulls and terns there was a constant passage of swallows - more than we had seen at any other time in the three trips.

Continuing west and passing the Mirador we reached the start of the nudist beach, Platja de l'Aguadolç. We tend to think that binoculars might not be appropriate on a naturist site so we went through the tunnel under the railway and then the unpromising looking car park thinking that we might be able to loop back into town. After a short distance we came across the entrance to a marked path, the Antic Cami d'Adarro. The first thing to mention is that this was only a couple of hundred metres long but gave access to other tracks in partly cultivated countryside and that it was alive with butterflies, in particular dozens of Cleopatras but Julie photographed a blue that we didn't recognise and a possible argus but we also saw a couple of fritillaries too. It could be some time before we have a look at the pics to ID them.

Birds included plenty of swallows and Sardinian Warblers with Crested Tit and Short-toed Treecreeper in the pine wood near the start of the path. Definitely worth a look. Time and insufficient drinking water prevented us from walking further.

More later.

Lunch beckoned and we found our way back into town easily, returning to the start of the path an continuing along the road and eventually under the railway, coming out by the Roman villa excavations and the Marejol restaurant where we stopped for a drink. continuing east we ended up at the untouristy Taverna del Port where the menu del dia for €11 each was a bargain. Julie had a huge plate of fresh mussels for the first course. The wine was unbranded so probably from a barrel and rather good.

We had a view east from our table and swallow passage was continuous (later, waiting for a taxi at the hotel I counted 18 over the pool area in two minutes) so there were thousands passing close to Vilanova during the day. I saw what I first took to be a light aircraft approaching but realised that it was a large bird of prey. It was going to go behind a tall building so I ran across the road and got quite a good view of a Short-toed Eagle.

Our taxi took us to Vilanova bus station and from there a coach to BCN was nice and easy. Mindful of last week's possible gallinule I was watchful as we approached T1 but didn't see anything similar, although a Marsh Harrier was no surprise at all.

Three days of work and then it's back for the main part of the Concurs de Castells followed by a couple of days of actual birdwatching on the Ebro Delta, which I am really looking forward to. Might add a few more to the list.

I've checked re Cleopatra and it seems that these are normally only seen until late August, after which they hibernate. With Common Blues and Small Coppers still being recorded in Shropshire it's perhaps not strange that butterflies elsewhere are also being seen later. The temperatures reach 28-29C whilst we were in Catalunya this weekend. If anyone is in the area then it would be interesting to hear their views. The male butterflies, which didn't settle for photographs, appeared very orange on the forewing so Cleopatra is most likely.

Other butterflies seen during these two visits included Apollo (?) and Southern Swallowtail.

60. Caspian Tern, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
61. Auduoin's Gull, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
62. Short-toed Eagle, Vilanova i la Geltrù.
63. Marsh Harrier, Brac de la Vilarda (probably), BCN.

I almost forgot. At the Parc Ribes Roges where the miniature train track is, a small stream enters the sea. There wasn't much here apart from a few Mallards on my two early morning visits here but at midday there were hundreds of gulls. Could be worth a look for any gull enthusiasts. There's a small interpretive sign showing a dozen or so 'possible' bird species. One is Balearic Shearwater, which could be a bit ambitious, but who knows?

Also, one I missed earlier. Should have been #45 near Tamarit ...

64. Mallard, near Castell de Tamarit.

Coming soon, 1 night in Valls, 2 in Tarragona and 2 in the Ebro Delta. With a car. We should get some birding done on Friday, l hope to be back on the Hotel Plaça de la Font balcony on Sunday morning and then we have two full days to devote to birds on Monday and Tuesday.

This weekend is the main part of the Concurs de Castells so at 10:30 we picked up a rental car from BCN and set off for lunch. We made a small diversion to the enigmatic and rather absurd Mazinger Z near El Pla de Santa Maria where we saw two butterflies from the car that we thought might have been Camberwell Beauties, although having looked at some online videos I'm not so sure, then went for a magnificent €12 menu del dia at the Restaurant Catalunya in Santes Creus. I saw an estimated 150 Hawfinches in the trees between this restaurant and the river last October but no sign of any today. We walked for a couple of hundred metres along the Riu Gaia and flushed at least one Green Sandpiper.

65. Jay, from the car en route to El Pla de Santa Maria.
66. Raven, close to Pont d'Armentera.
67. Green Sandpiper, Riu Gaia, Santes Creus.

Next stop after checking in to Hotel Class, Valls was the Ruta de Barraques de Pedraseca which is an interesting place for a bit of birding. It's probably no different to thousands of square kilometres of rural Spain but it has good access and the beehive huts are fascinating. I've seen plenty of evidence of passage during previous visits. Today was a slightly frustrating sequence of probables and might have beens. There were Linnets and a few Swallows over plus Crested Tits, Woodlarks and others. The most interesting area for birds was on the approach road either side of the "little cliff" that will be obvious if you go that way, but most of them were sticking to the little oak trees that had a dense covering of leave. There might have been Cirl Buntings, maybe Dartford Warblers, possibly Sub-Alpine warblers. It seems likely that the dozen or so birds that flushed when we parked were pipits. I doubt we'll get back there this holiday to check.

68. Nuthatch, Car Park, Ruta de Pedraseca.
69. Woodlark, Car Park, Ruta de Pedraseca.
70. Crested Lark, several heard but not seen, as above.

Might not see any new birds for the trip today. Castells galore in Tarragona. We'll keep looking, though.

One new species for the trips - a couple of Mistletoe Thrushes on wires not far from Tarragona on the road from Valls.

71. Mistle Thrush, near Tarragona.

The Diada Castellera Internacional was truly magnificent. You should look it up. I think I now want to do Govindas. Or maybe be a Muixeranga. Tomorrow is the big day at the Concurs.

It's 7:43, it's almost daylight and we're supposed to be at the Parc del Ciutat for 8:15. Must be time for a short spell on the balcony.