BirdingInSpain

A splendid slim volume

Hi Steve

Just thought I should drop you a line to let you know how much I’m enjoying your book. Although perhaps a reluctant purchaser (having experienced some rather dull ornithological offerings previously), I must confess that your mix of personal anecdote interwoven with some interesting interaction with some unusual avian species has got me absolutely enthralled. It helps, of course, that we have met and that now, having participated in the recent tour and been uplifted by seeing some of the species under discussion, I can put at least some of the memoirs in context. It did also cross my mind that, if I had read the book before the tour, we might have had some more interesting discussions over breakfast and dinner!

Anyway, congratulations on a splendid slim volume and thanks again for leading us on an excellent tour.

Peter 

Here Peter is referring to “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains”. Most of you haven’t read this “splendid slim volume”. That’s easy to rectify:

Subbuteo Natural History Books  

Popularity: 1%

Our Facebook group “Friends of the Lammergeier” is fast approaching 1,000 members. Many are the bird and wildlife photographers who are sharing their photographs, comments and references about this splendid bird with a growing Facebook community.

For example, Jari Peltomaki left this little appetizer for us all:

Magnificent work, Jari!

Although he’s not the only one….

Popularity: 4%

Cliquea aqui para bajar:

Hombres de hielo y quebrantahuesos

Hace tiempo que hice traducir este capítulo de mi libro “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains” al castellano. Y desde entonces ha estado todo solito en mi ordenador.

Pues, ahora a ver si sirve de algo, y que a lo mejor guste a algún lector que se encuentre más a gusto leyendo en castellano que en el idioma de Su Majestad la Reina de Inglaterra.

¡Disfrutadlo!

Popularity: 2%

 Artist José’s impression of Steve West during the “Marine Birds of Catalunya” course held at Vila-seca

Many thanks for your drawings José! You’re an artist. I don’t know how you got my knees right without ever seeing them!

Popularity: 3%

Part of the autumn maintenance of the BirdingInSpain.com website is the renovation of links to our many recommended hotels. This is the time when the professional establishments that collaborate with BirdingInSpain.com decide if they want to extend their relationship with us for another year, or to say farewell to the birding community.

It should be said that we at BirdingInSpain.com don’t just recommend any old hotel, because if we did we’d be putting our reputation on the line for a very poor return. We either select hotels that we know personally, or hotels which our clients or friends recommend to us. We also apply desirable criteria like an attractive rural setting (with good birding on the doorstep if possible), personal treatment, quality service at a reasonable price and an inclination to understanding a birder’s needs.  

These following hotels have decided to continue their relationship with BirdingInSpain.com and to welcome birders from all over the world:

Delta Hotel, Ebro Delta

Rincón Del Cierzo, Belchite

Allucant, Gallocanta

Castellsdelleida, Montsec

Monestir de les Avellanes, Montsec

Hotel Usón, Hecho Valley

Hospedería Loarre, Sierra de Guara West

Hostería Sierra de Guara, Sierra de Guara East

Hotel Roca Blanca, Aigüestortes East

Hospital de Benasque, Benasque

Hotel Mediodía, Aínsa to Gistaín

Hotel la Garbinada, Drylands of Lleida

Can Navata, Aiguamolls de l’Empordà

Mas del Joncar, Aiguamolls de l’Empordà

La Farinera, Els Ports

Hotel Santa Cruz de la Serós, Hecho Valley

Xalet de Prades, Montsant and Prades

Some others have only just joined us, and are keen to receive birders. Let’s not disappoint them: 

Les Eres, Serra del Cadí

Metsola, Irati and Roncal Valley

Hotel Secaiza, Gallocanta

Casagran, Cardó Massif

Font del Pas, Els Ports

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Words from the author himself, Franck Renard:

The title of my new book is Photographier les oiseaux sauvage (Photographing wild birds)

It is a guide for beginners in which I give some information and advice to improve the quality of its images of birds in the nature.

Naturally there are some pictures of lammergeiers and Birdinginspain.com is quoted in the practical information !

The book is available on the site of the publisher in France, at this address : www.image-nature.com/objet_126.html

Franck was with us in the Lammergeier hides in February.

I hope your book sells out, Franck. I’ll be ordering mine very soon (and with it the opportunity to practice my secondary school French reading comprehension).

Popularity: 3%

 Spplllppp!

Aquest dilluns 17 d’agost en TV3 va emetre el programa “Quin país!” presentat per en Llucià Ferrer. El programa va presentar el poble de Montsonís, a prop d’Artesa de Segre. Els televidents vam tindre la oportunitat de veure el castell, alguna de les coves i alguns personatges interessants del poble, a més de sentir explicacions sobre regals inútils, visites al castell, un itinerari de tir amb arc i sortides per observar ocells portades a terme en anglés. 

Per aquest últim em van demanar que vingués a una entrevista amb en Llucià Ferrer, antic presentador de ràdio de RAC 105.

Vam passar una estona força distesa,  i a en Llucià no li va costar massa demanar coses que en una entrevista formal no s’acostuma a demanar: imitacions de les veus d’alguns ocells. Vam acabar fent l’oriol i el puput (fàcils), i al final, la piece de resistance, el sisó Tetrax tetrax.

Voleu veure com vam plasmar la parada nupcial del sisó? Cliqueu en el següent enllaç per veure el programa:

El sisó segons en Steve i en Llucià Ferrer

Darrere de les escenes

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 Little Owl by Brutus Östling

The renowned Swedish nature photographer Brutus Östling was with us recently. He came for a few days to photograph Lammergeiers and vultures from the hide and also found time to take this splendid shot of a Little Owl from one of our hides on the plains of Lleida, in Catalonia.

See more about him and his work at Brutus Östling’s website here.

Brutus Östling is the only nature photographer to have won the World Wildlife Fund’s Panda Book of the Year prize twice.

The first prize was for ”Life on the Wing“

And more recently he won the prize the second time with “The Kingdom of the Eagle“ 

He was also Nature Photographer of the year in 2006.

Hopefully he’ll be thinking about how to portray some of the birds of northeast Spain in his next work of art. 

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Listening is an intrinsic part of birding - hearing is one of the senses that should not be ignored. The listening birder can often make interesting discoveries: try doing a nighttime census, and you’ll be surprised at how far a dog’s bark will carry, how noisy the local motorway really is, and what strange sounds the Long-eared Owl makes!

Eloïsa Matheu has dedicated decades to listening to and recording wildlife sounds, mostly birds but not exlusively so. She has recordings of most of the bird species of the Iberian Peninsula as well as others from both the European and African continents. Hers are the CDs that the Catalan Institute for Ornithology (ICO) distributes to its members to help them identify the calls of the birds they may encounter while doing their Common Bird Counts. Hers are the wonderfully atmospheric wildlife sounds that grace the best pages of the BirdingInSpain.com website. I could go on, but I’m sure most of you get the idea…Eloïsa is THE bird sound recorder in Spain.

Eloïsa and I met up recently on a rather hopeful mission: I had heard the Wallcreeper singing at a wintering site in Montsec, a nice quiet spot, with no traffic, loud running water or barking dogs. It was a long shot, but Eloïsa was willing to give it a go.  Luckily she knows that birds have wings and don’t always use them to our convenience: no Wallcreeper this time, but she did manage to get Peregrine Falcon for the records.

Eloïsa’s CDs can be purchased from most major wildlife publication outlets, and from her directly at her website Alosa.

Popularity: 4%

Birding with the family or rather getting in some birding while on a family holiday is a hard-earned skill. Early rises, minor detours, games and distractions for the kids…on the one hand we could talk about some of the tried and tested techniques that most birding parents are already familiar with, while on the other this is a subject matter that is essentially incomprehensible for birders with no offspring of their own.

One basic rule that is recognised by beginner and expert family birder alike is the importance of choosing the right holiday destination.

Julian Bell, author of the Natural Born Birder website, has had his own experiences of birding with the family, and has expressed an opinion which I wholly agree with:

The island of Mallorca is one of the best spots in Western Europe for combining a family holiday with a spot of very good birding.

Follow this link to his site to see his photos, trip reports and comments on birding in Mallorca:

http://www.naturalbornbirder.com/gallery/mallorca.html

However, there’s a whole lot more that could be said about birding with the family, especially in a country like Spain.

Popularity: 4%