BirdingInSpain

Here in Lleida we’re going through a bit of cold weather, or rather it is going through us. The radiators are on, and so are the vests. From my office window I can see white icing on the mountains of Montsec. Grey Wagtails, Chiffchaffs and Black Redstarts are the birds that visit the square and gardens behind our flat every winter. I wonder how many Wallcreepers are actually clinging to the rock faces of Montsec as I write this, and whether Hawfinches will turn up in any number along the River Set, on the edge of the drylands of Alfés.

Just over 6 months ago I was birding on Mallorca. Warm sun, long evenings, clear skies and marine blue seas were the backdrop for the birds I saw then.

That’s warmed things up a little, any more?

Now I remember: Black Vulture, Booted Eagle, Balearic Shearwater, Audouin’s Gull, Balearic Warbler….

Phew! If I do this every day I’ll be able to lower the heating by one degree and reduce my carbon emissions.

Want to know more about birding in Mallorca? Check out the Mallorca section on the BirdingInSpain.com website, and don’t forget about the recommended accommodation either.

Navarra has no coast, so let’s not talk about birds on the steps to the beach, but rather birds from the steppes to the beech.

Firstly, the Bardenas Reales Natural Park.

Check out the circuit around the firing range, preferably when the fighter jets are not actually firing at anything, and look for some of these birds:

Dupont’s Lark, Calandra Lark, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Short-toed Lark, Black Wheatear, Black-eared Wheatear, Spectacled Warbler, Egyptian Vulture, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

And some whacky scenery!

From here your acute birding sense should point you in the direction of the Pyrenees. Unless you have a train to catch, though, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stop somewhere along the way. There are lots of places to choose from, but it would be a thick-skinned birder who could resist the lure of the foces of e.g. Arbayún and Lumbier.

Birds to be seen here include superb views of Griffon Vultures, Egyptian Vulture, Booted Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Blue Rock Thrush, Bee-eater, Wallcreeper in the winter, and a lot of those warblers (including Iberian Chiffchaff) and buntings that are typical of a Mediterranean type landscape.

Continue northwards.

“So these are the Pyrenees? I thought they were higher.”

They are in Aragón and Catalunya, but how high do you need them to be? Navarra has the westernmost 2,000m peak, and the more Atlantic influence has given rise to some of the best deciduous forests in the Pyrenees. That means Woodpeckers: Black Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and the prized White-backed Woodpecker. If you want to see the latter in Spain then you had better come to Navarra.

If yours is not a single-track mind you could always spend a little time contemplating the Lammergeier, Alpine Chough, Dipper, Water Pipit and other great birds too.

Right, the birds are great, and the landscapes too. But what about the logistics? Well, to find a lovely rural hotel or guesthouse, at an affordable price and close to the birds you really should follow this link to CR Listen

Check out the Irati itinerary on the BirdingInSpain.com website, or go east young man, and check out the Pyrenees at the Rincón de Belagua.

Located on a continental plateau at an altitude of around 1,000m Gallocanta lagoon is deservedly well-known for its role as a stopover and wintering site for thousands of Common Cranes Grus grus. The spectacle offered by these birds as they gather to roost on and around the lagoon, especially in February and March, is one that any visiting birder worth his binoculars could hardly fail to appreciate.

The first-time visitor should know a few things about this site when planning a winter visit. Firstly, it can get very cold here in the winter, so make sure you bring your woollies! Secondly, the level of water in the lagoon depends entirely on rainfall, and that has been scarce or intermittent in recent years, so don’t be surprised if the water in the “lagoon” is only a at a fraction of its capacity.

However, only the fickle and faint should be put off by the above. Apart from the Cranes and other waterbirds there may be on the lagoon itself, there are a lot of interesting birds that can be found on Gallocanta’s shores and in the surrounding area. These include a small but regular wintering population of Great Bustards, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Calandra Lark, Thekla Lark, Golden Eagle, Hen Harrier, Red Kite, Griffon Vulture…there are even small numbers of Dupont’s Lark if you care to try and find them.

For more information see the Gallocanta itinerary in the sites and itineraries section of the BirdingInSpain.com website.

Oh yes! And don’t miss Eloïsa Matheu’s wonderfully atmospheric recording on the same page.

Just a shortie with a couple of images which are probably of no interest to anyone at all. I won’t give up trying though!

Firstly, one of the Catalonia Tourism stand in marquee 4. I got the general feeling that there was a fair bit of interest in the region, especially among visitors who knew where Barcelona was. Mind you I had to point out that neither Murcia nor Tarifa were on the map!

And now for the photo that you never knew existed! Me signing a copy of my book for David Attenborough? No, actually it’s the other way round. I did, however, present him with a copy of “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains”, which hopefully his personal secretary will enjoy.

“Is that the last one?”

This year’s Bird Fair at Rutland Water seems to be set to break the previous records of attendance and funds raised for conservation. BirdingInSpain.com were there for the whole 3 days, invited to give a talk about the birding opportunities in the province of Lleida and occasionally helping out at the stand of the Catalonia Tourist Board.

Everything there is extremely well organised, and just as well. Friday morning saw a constant flood of public pouring through the entrance gates and swamping stands and events. Luckily the rain held off, the weather was warm and pleasant, as even for the birdfair organisation two floods would have been too much to cope with at the same time!

The Birdfair proved to be yet another great occasion for meeting public and bird traders alike, and even rubbing shoulders with the odd celebrity or two (won’t say who just yet). One warning though – get the wallet ready, as it is always so difficult to resist making a purchase or two!

Ordesa National Park was the first national Park in Spain and one of the first in Europe. It’s an area of exceptional natural beauty in the Pyrenees of Aragón and borders with France.

It is home to the most emblematic mountain birds that can be seen in the region, such as Wallcreeper, Lammergeier, Black Woodpecker, Snowfinch, Citril Finch and Alpine Accentor. But it’s not a place for car-bound birders! Get out and walk through Beech forests, Scots and Corsican Pine, fir, alpine meadows with pristine streams and rivers, scree slopes, and enjoy the exercise, the scents, the breeze, the scenery. And of course the birds.

A word of warning though: Ordesa gets very busy at the peak tourist periods (summer and easter week), so either plan your visit to avoid these times, or get up early before the crowds. Unless you like being one of the crowd!

Birding in Ordesa National Park was my very first experience of birding in Spain. I came in April with the University Bird Club and we spent a whole day bathed in beautiful spring sunshine, soaking up the natural ambience of this wonderful area. We also managed to see Black Woodpecker, Alpine Accentor, Lammergeier and Wallcreeper. I don’t think I will ever forget that Wallcreeper. My first, and hopefully not my last.

It should be known to anyone about to come birding in Spain that the SEO reserve of Belchite is a stronghold for the prized Dupont’s lark. The two reserves of la Lomaza and el Planerón both hold enough Dupont’s Larks to sustain a healthy population, and to attract a large number of birders to this part of Spain in early spring.

But there’s more to birding in Spain than just larks, you know. There are sandgrouse too, and Stone Curlews, Little Owls, Golden Eagles, Dotterel, Lesser Short-toed Lark. Ok that’s a lark too, but there are so many around Belchite that I just had to mention it!

And then there are those early morning rises to get to the reserve before the crack of dawn, before the Dupont’s Lark bursts into song. You stand there shivering, swatting mosquitoes and wondering what you are doing here. Then slowly the sun rises and the rocky horizon glows red just as the first Dupont’s Lark starts to sing.

Yep! There’s gold in them thar hills!

The prime wetland site on the coast of Catalonia (Catalunya), and perhaps the most sizzling birding hotspot in northeast Spain, is the Ebro Delta.

I’m sure it wouldn’t take me long to find the official statistics to inform those drawing up plans for a birding trip to the Ebro Delta, something like:

“The Ebro Delta covers an area of x km2, and has a human population of y,000. The Natural Park of the Ebro Delta includes z protected areas, totalling x hectares. y species of bird have been recorded in and around the Ebro Delta”

Very interesting, but that’s not my style anymore. However, one of the first things I would say to anyone thinking of a birding trip to the Ebro Delta would be “Do it. You won’t regret it, even though you should be prepared for a surprise or two.” And those surprises take on all kinds of forms. If you think the Ebro Delta is one giant unbroken nature reserve with turtles scuttling on the beaches and crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks of the rivers, then you are certainly in for a surprise.

The possibilities for birding offered by the Ebro Delta are never quite exhausted, as I can testify. My first visit here was in 1990, and since then I have made regular visits leading bird tours or to satisfy my own birding needs. In the early days a real danger was getting lost. Then came the realization that mosquitoes not only thrived in the summer but also seemed to survive well into the winter. In October birders have to try and bird the Ebro Delta while coexisting with hordes of hunters.

But then come the pleasant surprises: a short seawatch turns into a spectacle as you spot hundreds or even thousands of Balearic Shearwaters plying the waves at a short distance from the shore; a winter visit to the Alfacs bay produces three species of divers on mirror-like waters; you chance on a spring day where hundreds of migrant passerines are piling up in the few available bushes along the shoreline; a Short-eared Owl jumps up silently from almost under your feet; a strange gull flies over your head and you look more closely and see that it’s a Caspian Tern.

Those are the surprises that birders like best. And something similar could happen to you while birding in the Ebro Delta, in northeast Spain.

The Spanish Pyrenees stretch from west to east from Navarra, through Aragon and on to the northeast corner of Catalonia.

Approaching from the Bay of Biscay the Pyrenees rise gently but steadily in Navarra to Orhi, the first 2,000 m peak near the region’s eastern border with Aragón. Navarra’s beechwoods and mixed forests are home to White-backed Woodpecker and Black Woodpecker, while the high sierras and mountain passes are the migratory flyways of birds of prey, cranes and other species. Navarra also has some spectacular gorges and the westernmost populations of Lammergeier, Snow Finch and Citril Finch in the Pyrenees.

Aragón is the wildest and perhaps most spectacular part of the Spanish Pyrenees. It can lay claim to Spain’s first and one of its finest National Parks, Ordesa, and many unspoilt tracts of high mountain. Birding the Pyrenees of Aragon is a delight for the large numbers of birds of prey, especially Lammergeier, Egyptian Vulture, Golden Eagle and Booted Eagle, and for it having some of the more accessible areas with high mountain species like Alpine Accentor, Wallcreeper and Snow Finch.

Capercaillie, Ptarmigan, Tengmalm’s Owl, Citril Finch, and Black Woodpecker are all species that can be less difficult to see when birding in the Pyrenees of Catalonia than in those further west. Catalonia also has its National Park, Aigüestortes, a land of lakes, peaks and black pine forests. The natural park of Cadí-Moixeró is one of the easternmost points of interest for the visiting birder, who with some luck can find a good variety of the mountain specialities, perhaps even a Wallcreeper.

Recently I went to els Ports (Beseit/Tortosa) in Catalonia to do a Common Bird Census which I have been doing for the last 5 years or so for the Institut Català d’Ornitologia. It’s a wonderfully scenic 3 km transect following the course of a river gorge. Birds are not that abundant in the gorge itself although the surrounding olive groves and pine woods make up for that. Usual species include Firecrest (also Goldcrest in the winter), Coal Tit, Bonelli’s Warbler (summer), Sardinian Warbler, Blue Rock Thrush and more. For the last two transects I’ve seen a Peregrine Falcon sitting in exactly the same place, the ever-radiant Kingfisher and a dozen or so Griffon Vultures.

What I haven’t seen for the last couple of years is the Bonelli’s Eagle. Now that’s a surprise and a shame because a territorial pair has one of its known nests in view of my transect, and 2 years ago these birds used to offer wonderful views of synchronised flying in the breeding season. Last year I scanned the area around their nest but only saw two Griffon Vultures. The same happened yesterday.

It’s a known fact that the recent recovery of Griffon Vultures has been to the detriment of Bonelli’s Eagles in some places where the two species coincide. The Griffon Vultures oust the Bonelli’s Eagles and take over their nests. Apparently the same has happened, for example in Extremadura, with Golden Eagles ousting the Bonelli’s Eagles too.

This is not meant as a harangue against Griffon Vultures. Bonelli’s Eagles (less than 750 pairs in Spain of 1,000 in all of Europe) are under threat from other sources which have a greater impact on their populations than competition from other birds of prey: electrocution, habitat fragmentation and loss, shooting and disturbance.

But it does annoy me that I can no longer enjoy the double treat of the scenery of els Ports and the spectacle of Bonelli’s Eagles.