BirdingInSpain

Great Spotted Cuckoo   Clamator glandarius

Great Spotted Cuckoos: image taken from “Where the birds are in northeast Spain“

The Great Spotted Cuckoo is a summer visitor to northeast Spain, with the first arrivals often occurring in February, although the species becomes more conspicuous in March and April. The Great Spotted Cuckoo is patchily distributed in lowland areas, with some important local declines in recent years.

Birding itineraries where it is possible to see the Great Spotted Cuckoo: Llobregat delta, Drylands of Lleida, Aiguamolls de l’Empordà, Monegros Alcolea and Candasnos.

Interestingly, we spotted no fewer than 4 juvenile Great Spotted Cuckoos, Clamator glandarius, following a single Magpie, Pica pica, foster parent on the drylands of Lleida this June. According to the BWP concise edition it is normal for the Great Spotted Cuckoo to place one egg in a particular Magpie’s nest. Similarly, there are a number of observations of 2 juveniles with a Magpie foster parent, while the BWP states that 3 is rare. So has anyone else seen 4 juvenile Great Spotted Cuckoos with a single Magpie, or is this a unique observation?

Would these young birds have originated from the same cuckoo mother or two or more different ones? Was that particular magpie a soft touch? Would all those birds survive until independence? If these more vulnerable Magpies are not able to raise their own offspring what are the implications for the dynamics of the Magpie and Great Spotted Cuckoo relationship?

Birding together near Lleida

Martin’s main targets for our second day of birding together were to get a good look at Orphean and Subalpine Warblers in the morning and then Pin-tailed Sandgrouse on the plains in the afternoon. It wasn’t an easy task, given the weather conditions and the time of the year. However, we managed to do it all, even the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse in the scorching afternoon heat of 36ºC (Fahrenheit anybody?).  

 We took a couple of short walks in the lovely Sierra de Guara. Fruit of our efforts was a generous dose of fine scenery – impressive rock faces, ancient olive groves, near abandoned solitary villages, breathtaking gorges. The birds were in no short supply either, and we encountered numerous Egyptian Vultures, Griffon Vultures, a pair of Peregrines, both light and dark morph Booted Eagles, a Short-toed Eagle, Rock Sparrows, Alpine Swifts, Cirl Buntings, Wrynecks, etc. Then the Warblers, with no fewer than 5 Sylvia warbler species (Orphean, Subalpine, Sardinian, Dartford Warbler and Blackcap) as well as Bonelli’s Warbler.

Alquezar in the Sierra de Guara

We had a relaxed lunch on a verandah overlooking the walled town of Alquezar before rather ambitiously setting off to the plains to coincide with the warmest – no, hottest -part of the day. But birders do things like that when there is a bird at stake. And Martin was keen enough to want to have a shot at the grouse, and his wife Carol was resigned to the discomfort that accompanying her husband often involved.

C’est la vie, especially the birding vie, I said as we crossed the last few metres back to the car parked on the edge of a dry dusty and stony field. The next stop was to be a petrol station and then the dropoff at their Lleida hotel. We had followed the dustiest route across the plains and had stopped in all the right places to scan, but the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse had eluded us.

Well, I thought we were rather optimistic looking for this inconspicuous species at the time of day when it is most inactive, Martin pronounced.

Just then a female Pin-tailed Sandgrouse launched itself into the air from under our feet, and emitted an accusing “gahGAH!”.

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse nest with 3 eggs

Darek Giej linked up with us at BirdingInSpain.com and Jerome, an accomplished and applied bird photographer from France, for a three-day bird photography trip based to the north of Lleida.

Both visiting bird photographers shared the common targets of Little Bustard, Bee-eater, Little Owl and Griffon Vulture. So we organised everything for them, and just hoped that the birds would co-operate on the day. Although we can’t control the whims and fancies of our feathered friends, it certainly helps if all the aspects are well planned and organised.

We needn’t have worried, as both Darek and Jerome left for home after photographing the species they had come for. And more: in just three days they managed close to a dozen species, including Woodchat Shrike, Southern Grey Shrike and Roller.

And the best thing of all: they’re both really keen on coming back!

Here’s what Darek wrote:

Indeed, it was a great time!  Lots of great photos and species I had never seen before. I do hope I will visit Catalunya again. I am open to any new ideas, I am sure you have lots of them, if you are ready to go on with anything new just let me know, I will be there. Many thanks to Jordi, he did a great job! I attached some of my photos to prove I did not waste the time. I am very proud of a couple of the rollers…

Jerome:

I had a very good time and all was very nice in Catalunya! The guide (Jordi) was great and the lodge was very nice! 

Darek kindly agreed to share some of his photos with us and the Internet community. Enjoy!

Little Owl by Darek Giej

Woodchat Shrike by Darek Giej

Southern Grey Shrike by Darek Giej

Did you know that Lleida is just an hour by train from the centre of Barcelona?

That you can arrive early in the morning, bird all day, and go back to the metropolis in the evening, if you so desire?

That the nearest steppes and their birds are on the edge of Lleida?

Not sure I’m telling you the truth? Let’s look at a case example:

June 12th, 2009

Kevin from the USA got the train from Barcelona, arriving at Lleida station at 07:20 hours. I was waiting for him at the station, so the first bird were just a short drive away, literally on the edge of town.

We spent the whole day birding within a 50km radius of Lleida, after which Kevin took the train back to Barcelona at about 8 o’clock in the evening.

It was a long, hot and brilliant birding day. Here’s some of what we saw:

Little Bustard – 4 males

Little Bustard: photo by Jan-Michael Breider

3 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse

Shrikes: Lesser Grey, Southern Grey and Woodchat Shrikes

Great Spotted Cuckoo – 1 adult, probably the last one we’ll see this year

Great Spotted Cuckoo: photo by Jan-Michael Breider

Lesser Kestrel – at least 6

Montagu’s Harrier – 4 males

Vultures: 2 Egyptian Vultures and about 10 Griffon Vultures

Eagles:  2 Bonelli’s Eagles, 3 Short-toed Eagles and 1 Golden Eagle

2 Red-necked Nightjars

1 Penduline Tit buiding a nest

Wheatears: 1 Black Wheatear and 1 Black-eared Wheatear

Larks: Short-toed, Lesser Short-toed, Calandra, Thekla and Crested Larks

Rollers: I lost count of the Rollers we saw 

Miscellany: 1 Little Owl, 1 Blue Rock Thrush, 1 Orphean Warbler, 1 Golden Oriole, Sardinian Warblers, Cirl Buntings, Bee-eaters, Iberian Green Woodpeckers, Red Kite, Western Bonelli’s Warblers, Stone Curlews ….

Stone Curlew: photo by Beat Rüegger

Check out the train timetables between Barcelona and Lleida with Renfe

Sometimes I get the impression that people think that BirdingInSpain.com is about birds, and only birds. I hope that the following images will dispell that myth.

Construction in Spain has suffered a downturn as a result of the credit crunch.

Photo by Beat Rüegger

In these difficult times is the grass really greener on the other side of the Pyrenees?

Reconstruction of what many “properties in Spain” used to look like.

Who knows? Maybe every cloud has a silver lining. Rampant, uncontrollable urbanisation may have met its match at last.

Photo by Beat Rüegger

Pete Oxford

The man who was sent to photograph the Iberian Lynx. That is just as daunting as it sounds, considering that the Iberian Lynx, or if you like the Spanish Lynx, is the world’s rarest cat, and only occurs in two isolated populations in Andalusia, in southern Spain.

How did Pete Oxford go about photographing the Iberian Lynx? Read about his mission here.

O bien, nosotros en BirdingInSpain.com hemos traducido el artículo al castellano.

Was Pete Oxford successful in his Iberian Lynx quest? Well, where do you think the above photo comes from?

There are no Black Grouse in Spain, as this is a bird that inhabits the moors, bogs and forests of central and northern Europe. The Black Grouse is a sedenteray species, in decline over much of its range. Fortunate are those who have seen this handsome bird, or heard its far-carrying, bubbling song. More fortunate still is Erlend Haarberg: his mission for the Wild Wonders of Europe was to photograph Black Grouse on a lek in Sweden. 

Of course he succeeded, and admirably. But don’t take our word for it, read the original article here.

O si prefieres, puedes leer el artículo en castellano.  

It was a windy day on the Ebro valley plains for me and the Liberty Bird group from Switzerland. Looking for Dupont’s Larks was going to be hard work, luckily we had taken out our own insurance policy and were staying two nights at our hotel in nearby Lécera.

All told we had some pretty good birding. The highlights of one day and one morning’s birding in the plains were: Dupont’s Lark (seen on the second morning), Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Black Wheatear, Golden Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, Montagu’s Harrier, Melodious Warbler, Wryneck, Tawny Pipit, Black-eared Wheatear and Lesser Kestrel.

Lesser Kestrel. Photo by Beat Rüegger

Next stop: the steppes between Candasnos and Ontiñena. Here our main birds were Black-necked Grebe, Red-crested Pochard, Booted Eagle, Little Bustard, Spectacled Warbler and Thekla Lark.

Booted Eagle. Photo by Beat Rüegger.

Then wonderful sunny weather in the Pyrenees just had to be shared with some special birds too. Lammergeier, Citril Finch, Alpine Chough, Honey Buzzard, Alpine Swift, Wryneck, Water Pipit and Bonelli’s Warbler are the birds that didn’t let us down in the mountains.

Western Bonelli’s Warbler. Photo by Beat Rüegger.

The next couple of days were spent in the plains and Pre-Pyrenees not far from my home town, Lleida. Everybody will remember the Ortolan Bunting, and I’m sure most will recall Rock Sparrow, Orphean Warbler, Blue Rock Thrush and the Sardinian Warbler. Sadly, I was the only one to see the female Rock Thrush at Mont-roig.

Ortolan Bunting. Photo by Beat Rüegger.

Oh yes! I should have mentioned the Bonelli’s Eagles, Little Bustards, Little Owls, Rollers, Stone Curlews and Bearded Tits. How forgetful I am at times. 

The Ebro Delta held up well to our scrutiny too. One of the rarer birds we saw was a handsome summer-plumaged Marsh Sandpiper, but there were a lot more waders to choose from. An assortment of little avian delights also included Temminck’s Stint, Little Bittern, Collared Pratincole and Mediterranean Gull. I am not going to write a long and rather tedious list of Ebro Delta bird names, so it should be enough to say we saw just about everything you could expect to see in the Ebro Delta in early May. 

See more of Beat Rüeggers photos from his Spanish and other bird tours on his website:

http://www.ornitour.ch/Photo_Galerie/PGSpanienreise09.html

Collared Pratincole. Photo by Beat Rüegger.

The whole trip ended with a list of 210 bird species in all – very good, but try saying them all in Swiss German!

Birding is brill. Especially in the spring in northeast Spain.  But not all is birds, or so they tell me.

What else is there? Well, you could just pop in this part of Spain to see the spectacular poppy fields all over the lowlands this spring. Although don’t delay for too long, as they’re already on their way out.

Photos by Gerd Herren

Just in case you can’t make it I would like to share a couple of images of the poppy-strewn drylands of Balaguer with you all. Photos taken by my friend Gerd Herren who visited us with his wife Verónica earlier this month. Enjoy!

A fine walk with a group of keen birding newbies from the castle of Montsonís was one of the last local activities I had the joy of organizing before starting serious tour work. We all enjoyed a beautiful spring day and a variety of good birds too: a pair of Egyptian Vultures making baby Egyptian Vultures, and also a pair of Bonelli’s Eagles. We had good looks at Bonelli’s Warbler, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Swallow, House Martin, Crag Martin, Blackcap and Robin. I enjoyed it and, most importantly, so did the public.

Then came Tom and his lovely lady from Germany. Tom is a photographer, and to make bird photographers at least moderately happy is by no means an easy job. Well, thanks to the weather I had an even more complicated task. Day 1 came down to a drive in the increasingly heavy rain. On Day 2 I convinced them to visit Loarre castle, where it had just been snowing! It was really cold and Tom was about to pack his bags and leave. Luckily we had a clear spell around midday when the discovery of a dead sheep on a farm allowed him to get some very good shots of Egyptian Vulture, Griffon Vulture and Red Kite. Another castle nearby also provided the goods in the form of Chough, Spectacled Warbler and Blue Rock Thrush.

Unfortunately we were not together when I watched a Lammergeier breaking a bone later in the afternoon.  

On day 3 we were assailed by a buffeting wind – photos of Sardinian Warbler and Scarce Swallowtail were the hard-earned fruits of our labours that day.

Tom was then going to head on down to Extremadura. I hope he had better luck with this crazy spring weather!