BirdingInSpain

Because of rising house prices in Spain, exacerbated by last year’s mortgage crisis and the slump in the construction trade decent affordable accommodation is getting hard to find. That’s especially so in the countryside and for new arrivals attempting to make themselves a home where they can raise a family. By means of illustration take a look at this notice found hanging on an almond tree in the drylands of Bellmunt:

“Fertile adult female Roller seeking dazzling adult male Roller. Must be home owner, preferably of sizeable hole in old tree, although new nest box also accepted. Ability to catch large insects and lizards and to carry out aerial displays will also be valued, although home ownership is a pre-requisite for breeding consent. Non-territorial male Rollers, and all female Rollers, please abstain.”

Luckily Rollers can still be seen in the drylands of Bellmunt, as well as in other dryland areas around Lleida, although decent nest sites are obviously scarce. Apart from the extent of suitable habitat, this is probably the single most important factor limiting the size of the Roller populations in northeast Spain.

Birders who have visited Extremadura are probably familiar with the nest boxes located on telegraph poles by the side of the road in certain areas. These nest boxes are largely aimed at Rollers and have been very successful. Isn’t it time to follow their example and put up some nest boxes for the Rollers reaching northeast Spain every spring?

This year’s breeding season is well under way, but it’s never too late to plan ahead and prepare to set up some Roller nest boxes before the drylands get plastered with signs like the one above.

This year Mayday meant a 4-day bank holiday and so a family excursion to the Pyrenees of Aragón was hastily arranged.

Fortunately we were blessed with beautiful sunny weather for the two days of our trip. The old quarter of Aínsa was the designated drinks stop. Now Aínsa is a historical-artistic monument, which was sure to please the wife, but the main reason for stopping here was to show my family the marvellous Eco-museum that I had discovered a couple of years before.

The Ecomuseum in Aínsa was set up and is run by the Fundación para la Conservación del Quebrantahuesos (FCQ) (Lammergeier Conservation Foundation), whose main objective is to promote the conservation of the Lammergeier in the Spanish Pyrenees and beyond.

The building itself is built into the wall of the wonderfully restored old quarters of Aínsa and has a ground level annexe used as a raptor refuge (for injured birds and environmental education). But it is the museum itself, and the extremely well thought out and crafted exhibits, displays and models that impress the most.

We all really loved the mountain bioclimatic strata display (that’s not the official name!) whereby each floor represents the ecosystems of the Pyrenees at different altitudes: the ground floor is the forest floor with Capercaillie, Black Woodpecker, Tengmalm’s Owl and more; the first floor reflects life near the treeline and rock faces – stars here are Wallcreeper, Eagle Owl, Golden Eagle ……; and the upper floor represents the Alpine environment of high peaks with Snow Finch, Alpine Chough, Alpine Accentor, Ptarmigan, etc.

The models were specially commissioned, bird song sounds out as you look, and the experience should not be missed.

My eldest son was so enthused that he got me to buy him a pack of raptor identification cards which he put to very good use over the subsequent days. That in itself made the visit worthwhile.

There’s been quite an unprecedented fall of Red-footed Falcons in the drylands of Lleida over the last week or so. Reports of these little charmers in groups of from 3 to a dozen birds have come in from the drylands of Balaguer, Bellmunt and Alguaire-Almenar, and if nothing has been said about the drylands of Alfés it’s probably because the local birders are too busy counting them at other sites!

I was leading the Naturetrek Catalonia tour in the area when we unwittingly but gratefully bumped into our first Red-footed Falcon on Monday 12th May. One of the 13 participants pointed out the bird in question, “What’s that bird in the tree over there, Steve?”.

I confess that I didn’t get round to answering him (in the mode of humouring him, thinking to myself “I’d better look at his bird and tell him it’s a Kestrel before he gets narked with me”) for at least 10 minutes. Well, in my defence, it wasn’t easy coping with the barrage of birds that we encountered that morning: a dozen or so male Little Bustards calling, flying and chasing each other, a pair of Hobbys practising their aerobatic skills on a wandering Swallow, countless Calandra Larks trilling and jingling, a sentinel Southern Grey Shrike, even a couple of flyover Black-winged Stilts!

What a surprise I got when I eventually did focus his “kestrel” in my scope! “Crikey! A Red-footed Falcon! Wait a minute! Two in the same tree!”

We went on to see 6 Red-footed Falcons that morning (plus Kestrel, Lesser Kestrel and Hobby) and no fewer than 9 the following day in the drylands of Bellmunt. Adult and subadult males and females, enjoyed by all.

Such encounters are great when you’re out birding, and for me they’re even better when  you’re leading a tour and everyone gets to share in the experience.

Another good thing has also happened this week: it’s rained!

It was a hot afternoon and two bird photographers and I were sitting at a terrace bar, enjoying a cool beer.

A woman in her fifties sitting alone at the next table looked at us and said, “Anglais?”

“Sorry?” I asked.

“Oh you are English! I’m glad – I’m not very good at speaking Spanish.”

Anglais? Spanish? I thought, but magnanimously let it pass.

“Are you birdwatchers?”, she inquired.

I suspect it was the Swarovski and Leica binoculars and the Canon digital cameras with huge 500mm lenses that led her to assume we were birders.

“Yes. And bird photographers,” I answered.

“Then perhaps you can tell me what kind of eagle is it that my husband and I regularly see flying over our house?”

“Eagles? Hmm, well, the most common species around is the Short-toed Eagle. White on the undersides.”

“Oh no, these are quite dark looking. But we see them regularly you see, sometimes fifty or more together.”

“Fifty? Then they must be vultures,” I explained.

“Oh no, the end of their wings are upturned, so they aren’t vultures.”

Judging from the vigour of her reply that wasn’t a comma, but rather a full-stop. Still, I couldn’t envisage incorporating her criterion for eagle identification “upturned wings= eagle” into my raptor identification classes.

JM, one of my companions, stepped in “Eagles are solitary birds, you rarely see more than 2 or 3 eagles together. They must be vultures.”

The lady pursed her lips, and shook her head, “No, no, not vultures.”

I shrugged, “If she wants them to be eagles, let them be eagles” I said to JM in a whisper.

But JM’s Swedish soul was stirred. Reason had to prevail, “Madam, this morning we have seen 7 species of raptor, and only one of them was an eagle.”

“Oh no, we know the vultures. These were eagles,” she sentenced, shaking her head.

We looked at each other and the only way forward seemed to be to let matters lie. She had obviously decided that our judgement was not to be trusted. Was it my accent?

We bade her farewell as she got on her bicycle to cycle back home down the road towards Balaguer. Just as a dozen vultures were soaring on a thermal over a nearby hilltop. Sorry, not vultures, eagles …they had upturned wing tips.

Extract from the review by André J van Loon in Dutch Birding vol 30, nº1, 2008:

…..

This second book is a personal account of his life in Catalunya. It is divided into chapters with a story on a particular local species as a starting point, which triggers thoughts about a wide variety of subjects, such as hunting, conservation, the migration strategy of shrikes, the dancing displays of cranes in relation to finding a partner in the human world, going out birding with young children (“never, never forget the wet wipes”), memories of birding trips with his friends or as a tour leader, the Spanish Civil War, or observations of the same species as a vagrant or rare breeding bird back in England or elsewhere. ….

The book is a good, pleasant, humoristic and at times even emotional read. Since he also explains certain features or behaviour of birds (or behaviour of birdwatchers!), this book is not only fun for birdwatchers (especially those with a hunch for birds and birding in Spain) but also for their non-birding friends and partners.

Thanks André!

This morning at Sant Llorenç de Montgai near Balaguer the “Wings over Montsec” project was officially presented to an interested public of some 40 people. Those present included politicians, mayors from the villages of Montsec, hoteliers, tourism technicians and of course, BirdingInSpain.com. After all, it was our work being put on show!

The leaflet provides detailed information on two major birding routes in the Montsec area: the Eagle Route and the Lammergeier Route. The Eagle Route was designed to correspond to the general area where it is possible to see Bonelli’s Eagles, while the Lammergeier Route in the north traces a path that follows the trail of the Montsec Lammergeiers.

Each of these two major routes is divided into 7 birding itineraries named after some of the most emblematic or charismatic of the birds it is possible to see, for example Bonelli’s Eagle, Wallcreeper, Penduline Tit, Rock Thrush, etc. Accompanying each itinerary there is a map and an explanation of the itinerary and the birds that can be seen along the way.

We sincerely hope that this information will prove practical and useful and will attract a few more foreign birders to this overlooked area. We also hope that it will serve to make local people and politicians aware of the importance of protecting these special local birds and their habitats.

Will that Moustached Warbler which was singing just a moment ago please come out from the base of the reeds and show itself to us? My companion Jim has come all the way from Japan to watch birds and a reasonable glimpse of a Moustached Warbler would round off the morning nicely.

That’s one of the things about birding, above all about bird guiding. Sometimes the birds you have been checking on all week seem to get cold feet just at the time when it counts the most: when you’ve told your companion that this is a really good place for Bonelli’s Eagle, or that Wallcreepers turn up on this particular rock face with great regularity in the winter months. Then when you’re standing there waiting, waiting…

Then there are the moments when you detect a bird you didn’t expect.. Like a Moustached Warbler singing in a narrow line of reeds in the Llobregat Delta. You stop, listen and wait, knowing that the bird is there. But does it show? No, not today!

But I’m not complaining, not really. After all in just two hours in the Llobregat delta we saw a lot of key birds, like Audouin’s Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingo, Penduline Tit, Velvet Scoter and even a couple of Balearic Shearwaters at close range.

So no complaining. That’s birding!

Spring is in the air in northeast Spain (feels more like summer). The almond trees are in full bloom on the drylands near Lleida and Great Spotted Cuckoos are vociferously proclaiming their arrival.

Today a group of 3 or 4 of these early migrants begraced the tops of a small almond grove, watched suspiciously by an unusually serene party of Magpies. Perched on rocks and watching from a distance.

Saturday afternoon is probably not the best time to be out on these particular Spanish steppes as the birds are obviously flustered by the intense human leisure activity: light planes flying in wide circles around the aerodrome, a couple of model planes out and around their own particular aerodrome, the motocross youths riding inanely around the dirt tracks, the weekend farmers…

I prefer a bit more peace and quiet. I’ll have to come back during the week and see what the Great Spotted Cuckoo, Little Bustard and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse are up to.

The birding in Spain web page has just incorporated two new photo galleries. One corresponds to the Montsec Hotspot, an inland area of sierras, rivers and steppes; and the other to the well known birding area of the Ebro Delta, the second most important wetland in Spain.

Have a glance at the galleries to see landscapes which include mountain ranges, panoramas, lakes, wetlands, olive groves, dryland landscapes and more. Of course ther are photos of some of the birds of the Ebro Delta and the surrounding sierras including Audouin’s Gull, Collared Pratincole, Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Bonelli’s Eagle and Red-rumped Swallow. There is even a photo of the Red-necked Nightjar, another speciality of Spain.

The Montsec bird photos include Lammergeier, Bonelli’s Eagle, Eagle Owl, Calandra Lark and Scop’s Owl. But there’s more than just some of the birds of Spain: orchids, butterflies, fritillaries, castles, people, and some of the fabulous landscapes of this relatively unknown birding region.

Have a look – it’s free!

The meeting finished early, I had a couple of hours at my disposal, what could I do? What a stupid question! Go birding of course.

I was on the edge of Montsec, I had my binoculars and a large scale map to enable me to investigate the most out of the way tracks…the sun was shining…nothing to rush home for…heaven on earth!

So I drove here and there stopping to listen or watch, or take a photo now and then. It’s still too early in the year for there to be much in the way of breeding activity, or so I thought. However, my first stop had me listening to no less than 3 Dartford Warblers on a dry, scrubby hillside, caught in the throes of a competition which could determine the outcome of their breeding attempts, and perhaps even the continuation of their line. On a facing slope, just the other side of a sprouting wheat field, Thekla Larks were similarly engaged.

I drove on, stopping shortly after to admire the wide panorama of the Pre-pyrenees which had opened up before me. The first sound that came to my ears were was made up of a series of tinny, disjointed, whistles, clicks and chimes – a Southern Grey Shrike. Perched at the top of an almond tree and with no sense of ridicule.

A  few false turnings, as expected, and a slow but well-timed pace of unexpected encounters made for real therapeutic birding. A female Hen Harrier crossing the valley, songbirds shrieking and scattering this way and that; a Goshawk circling over a rocky outcrop and disappearing beyond the pinewoods; a Golden Eagle approaching and skirting past me, flying too low for its own safety. Fields of Calandra Larks, a solitary Hoopoe flying against the sun, 5 Griffon Vultures on a thermal updraft.

Now I was ready to go back to the fray.