Counting down before the Bird Fair

Friday the 15th August is the starting date for this year’s British Bird Fair at Rutland Water. An event which every birder should attend at least once. I’ll be there again this year, representing BirdingInSpain.com on the Catalan Tourist Board stand. Take a look, not least of all to take part in the brain-teasing raptor silhouette challenge.

Preparations for such a world-shaking event must be made, but nevertheless, life goes on. Which meant that on Monday and Tuesday I was out in the field, guiding an American couple, firstly around Lleida and then down at the Ebro Delta. Not the best time of the year for a short birding trip, you may say. Indeed not. With daytime temperatures above 35ºC and the absence or scarcity of some earlier migrants, August is not the time of year that most birders choose for their visit to Spain.

However, Elliot Tramer and his patient companion, Chris, are an agreeable couple, and Elliot has a mission: to see 1,000 bird species in the space of a year. To keep in line with that target Elliot decided that he had to visit a European country, and that Spain was probably his best bet.

And how did he get on? Well, after a week in the Gredos mountains he came to me with 100 new species already on his year list. In the two days we were together I believe he added another 53.

I know that Elliot satisfied his numerical aims, although I don’t know if there was any birding moment that was a particular highlight for him. For me it was satisfaction enough that we were actually seeing the species that I knew should be there, in spite of the burden placed upon us by the “August factor”.  Personally, though, I was particularly pleased about the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse and the Red-necked Nightjar!

And to use his own words “Seeing a Red-necked Nightjar like that means that we end with a bang and not a fizzle”. Well spoken, Elliot, bon voyage and good luck in your bird quest!

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