Joseph Bouvier
"No, that was a pigeon, not an eagle".
I had an enjoyable outing today with my family. We drove about 20 mins out of my hometown to go to a small-ish man-made reservoir called 'El embalse de Beninar'. I went yesterday for a short period, but it got too dark to see anything very good (apart from a Spanish ibex on the way home). Anyway, upon arriving I inmediately saw a pair of great crested grebes through my scope slowly drifting through the water. I was very pleased with this as it was a year tick.
Soon after several linnets perched on a fence just down the hill, and a couple wintering black redstarts were seen resting on a wall. There wasn't much more regarding waterbirds, apart from 2 mallards and 7 great cormorants. Several red-legged partridges were heard in the distance.
A nice surprise was when a eurasian hoopoe jumped out of the undergrowth, flashing it's wonderful pied wings. I tried to photograph it but they are always very jumpy round here so it promptly flew away, leaving me rather dissatisfied.
After a cup of tea we decided to move to the other side of the reservoir, and whilst packing up the car a nearby iberian green woodpecker was heard calling it's loud and agitated burst of notes. On the other side of the reservoir we got a better look at a grebe and several of the cormorants, as well as spotting 2 blue rock thrush (one of which was a female feeding on the ground) and a black wheatear, which came surprisingly close.
And that was it! On the drive home I saw a stonechat and a magpie and about 5 rabbits.
Thanks for reading!
J.B.
Soon after several linnets perched on a fence just down the hill, and a couple wintering black redstarts were seen resting on a wall. There wasn't much more regarding waterbirds, apart from 2 mallards and 7 great cormorants. Several red-legged partridges were heard in the distance.
A nice surprise was when a eurasian hoopoe jumped out of the undergrowth, flashing it's wonderful pied wings. I tried to photograph it but they are always very jumpy round here so it promptly flew away, leaving me rather dissatisfied.
After a cup of tea we decided to move to the other side of the reservoir, and whilst packing up the car a nearby iberian green woodpecker was heard calling it's loud and agitated burst of notes. On the other side of the reservoir we got a better look at a grebe and several of the cormorants, as well as spotting 2 blue rock thrush (one of which was a female feeding on the ground) and a black wheatear, which came surprisingly close.
And that was it! On the drive home I saw a stonechat and a magpie and about 5 rabbits.
Thanks for reading!
J.B.
