BirdingInSpain

On a hot summer’s day going canoeing with friends is not a bad idea. Get some exercise, enjoy the landscape, tranquillity and wildlife, have a laugh and be left with the perfect excuse for enjoying a good meal in a local restaurant. If the sun beats down hard there is the shade of the gallery woodland, and you can always splash a bit more as you paddle along. Oh, and wear your swimming costume in case you overturn – as I did.

11 of us, ranging in age from 11 to a little over 50 paddled the 12 km between Miravet and Benifallet. The nature and adventure sports company Beniemocions based in Benifallet provided the canoes, the tuition, the guidance and also transported us to the river’s edge. Thanks Beniemocions! We had a great time.
 
Here’s the list of the birds I remember seeing along the river:
6 or more Squacco Herons
1 Purple Heron
2 Little Egrets
2 Kingfishers
3 Grey Wagtails
1 Short-toed Eagle
Several Golden Orioles (calling mostly)
Several Bee-eaters
1 Sardinian Warbler

Combine all that activity with a visit to the village and castle of Miravet, the caves of Benifallet, a walk in the sierras of Cardó or Pàndols, an afternoon on the beach, or else somewhere nice and quiet to enjoy a well-deserved siesta.

Thanks to Ramon for the use of his photos!

At last Gerd Herren’s super Lammergeier and vulture video is up on the BirdingInSpain.com website! And it’s a film that anyone remotely interested in photographing or filming raptors should not miss.

Belgian Gerd Herren is a professional film-maker who spent several days with his friend Franck Renard in our Lammergeier hides in February. In this short film, approximately 8 minutes long, he magnificently portrays some of their unforgettable experiences, let alone the unique images of Lammergeiers and other vultures they obtained! 

Driving along a mountain track in a snowstorm?

That’s Steve and Belgian bird photographer Franck Renard. What are they talking about?

Black Vultures? In the Pre-Pyrenees of Lleida, Spain?

A Lammergeier, or Bearded Vulture, with a meaty bone. What’s going to happen next?

The mountains look lovely in the snow, but what about the vultures?

Well, the snow certainly hasn’t kept the Lammergeiers away!

Admiration or rivalry

Click on this link in the photography section of the BirdingInSpain.com website to see the full video.

 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

Early on Saturday morning (15th August) while out picking Blackberries with the family (they ripen earlier here than in the UK) a familiar call made me look up and spot 2 Red-rumped Swallows near Alòs de Balaguer. A pretty unusual sighting and a new one for my rather neglected Hotspot list, now standing at 196 species since the beginning of the year.

The BirdingInSpain.com hotspot 

But that’s not all: we had a pleasant paddle and then strolled in search of a picnic site – somewhere cool and shady, as temperatures were raging close to 40ºC. Well, I was more than a little surprised to see a Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus fluttering around a roadside verge. Only the second time I’ve seen the species, and less than a month after my first observation in the Ebro delta! 

It just goes to show that you should never leave your binoculars at home, even if you’re only going blackberry picking with the family. 

 The Red-rumped Swallow in northeast Spain

 Red-rumped Swallow   Hirundo daurica

The Red-rumped Swallow is a summer visitor to northeast Spain from mid-March to October. Scarce and localised as a breeding bird, it is a regular but uncommon migrant at coastal locations. In recent years it has undergone a range expansion in the region, with breeding proven or suspected in Montsec, Sierra de Guara and the Lleida drylands.

Birding itineraries where you can observe the Red-rumped Swallow:

Cap de Creus, Aiguamölls of Empordà, Montgrí massif, Prades and Montsant ranges, River Ebro, Drylands of Lleida.

Distribution map of Red-rumped Swallow in northeast Spain. We’ll have to fill in a few more green blobs.

Descendants of the British House Mouse are killing huge numbers of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters every year in British Overseas Territories and British Protectorates. Yes, MICE! They gnaw at and eventually eat defenceless chicks on the nest.

If you are a British resident or expat then you can sign the petition requesting that the British government dedicate sufficient economic resources to overcome this macabre situation.

Click here to read and sign the petition. 

Painted Lady butterflies invaded Europe in their millions this spring, astounding many observers by the sheer volume of their migration. However, the usual time for a birder to be showing interest in butterflies is the summer: there’s more butterfly and less bird activity.

Ebro Delta, mid-July. With a young British birder, Max Levy and his parents. Over two days we saw at least a dozen of these handsome butterflies, which I initially identified as Monarchs Danaus plexippus.

Max spotted the first one on 18th July and then we saw about a dozen the next day. I got rather excited and subsequently reported our “Monarch” sightings on a couple of forums. Luckily there are some diligent and knowledgeable forum-goers out there, and I was promptly redirected to the right identification: Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus.

Both of these butterflies breed in the Canary Islands. On the Spanish mainland the Plain Tiger (Spanish: “Mariposa Tigre” or “Monarca Africana”) has been recorded from all around the coastline, parts of which it has colonized in the last decade or so. Currently it breeds at several localities, including the Ebro Delta. The Monarch is more restricted in range, but has bred alongside this species in the province of Málaga.

Here’s another spectacular butterfly, the Cardinal Argynnis pandora.

I feel pretty confident about its identification (please!), and that the photograph is my own, taken on the edge of the Montsant range in mid-June.  In Catalunya the Cardinal is is a rare and localised species which shows significant variations from year to year.

If interested in these attractive insects you could do much worse than download a pdf of Cynthia, the bulletin of the CBM scheme (Catalan Butterfly Monitoring).

Now you know what to do with those long, hot summers: when the birds go quiet, take a glance at the butterflies.

Regular visitors to the BirdingInSpain.com blog might have noticed a lull in blogging activity over the last few weeks. Well, summer’s here, it’s close to 40ºC outside, and most birds are clever enough to be keeping a very low profile in this part of northeast Spain. Not just that, but the heat sizzles the brain a little, making it hard for an amateur blogger like myself to come up with something fresh and stimulating.

Here’s the offering. I don’t know if it’s fresh, but it should be a little stimulating. So make sure you tackle this new bird silhouette competition after the sun goes down, so as not to suffer from neuron meltdown.   

Winners get to buy me an ice-cold drink.

                                        Limícolas en el Wattenmeer por Laszlo Novak

Halcón Gerifalte por Daniel Bergmann

Para fotógrafos y los amantes de la naturaleza hemos traducido dos artículos más del blog de los Wild Wonders of Europe.

Mirad las fotos y leed las experiencias de Laszlo Novak y de Daniel Bergmann.

A Laszlo le enviaron al Parque Nacional de Wattenmeer, lugar de paso de 8.000 Barnaclas Cariblancas y de 2.000 Barnaclas Carinegras en la primavera. Encontró y fotagrafió limícolas, bancos de arena, faros, focas y much más.

A Daniel Bergmann le encomendaron la misión de fotografiar el magnífico Halcón Gerifalte en el norte de Islándia. Aunque haya entre 300 y 400 parejas de este halcón en Islándia, buscaba una cosa en particular: una hembra blanca con el nido en un risco pequeño.

¿Habrán logrado los resultados deseados?

We at BirdingInSpain.com invite you to read the Birdfreak review of “Where the birds are in northeast Spain”

“…an excellent resource for birders wishing to explore an exciting part of Europe”

                                                                                           The Birdfreak Team, Jan 6th 2009

And if you haven’t read the Birder’s Library review of “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains” what are you waiting for?

“This is highly recommended to anyone who can get their hands on a copy.”

                                                                             Grant McReary, The Birder’s Library

 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.