We know, and we apologize. We haven’t appeared on the blog for months now. Now, it’s not as an excuse, but rather as information, that we can tell you we have been very busy working on a new Birding In Spain Tour brochure, and a great competition where prizes can be won every month. Additionally, there will be a Big Year Prize at the end of those 12 months, with the option of winning a place on one of our Wonderful Winter Tours Winter wallcreeper tour info (1) to take place in 2019 or 2012.
Want to know more? Then get in touch via e-mail, or follow Birding In Spain on Facebook. There will be competition announcements on Twitter and Instagram, as well as on this blog.
After last year’s runaway success (6 wallcreepers on one tour, 4 on another; more than 100 species on both 4-day tours) we are giving you – the keen birder – another chance if you missed this superb tour the first time round. Our advice: don’t miss it!
We’ve changed the itinerary of the Wallcreeper Tour a little, adding an extra day to take in some great birding in the Ebro Delta. That means there’ll be even more birds to look forward to!
Take note of the November is Wallcreeper Month tour dates:
1. Tour 1 November 5th to November 9th
2. Tour 2 November 12th to November 16th
Jacob and Daniel – two keen and well-traveled birders from the USA – contacted us at short notice for 3 days of birding between Barcelona and Lleida.
They were wise, and took our advice (Hey – we’re Birding In Spain and we know a fair bit about the birds in Spain – we’ve been creating, organizing and leading birding tours here since the last millenium; and we live here), so we had one day around Barcelona and almost two days around Lleida.
Birds of Barcelona – Pallid Swift, Little Tern, Whiskered Tern, Little Bittern, Blue Rock Thrush, Audouin’s Gull, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Spoonbill, Greater Flamingo, Western Bonelli’s Warbler, Western Subalpine Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher …
Western Subalpine Warbler
Birds of Lleida day 1: Red-footed Falcon, Little Bustard, Roller, Egyptian Vulture, Short-toed Eagle, Montagu’s Harrier, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Little Owl, Eurasian Hobby, Golden Oriole, Western Orphean Warbler, Red-rumped Swallow, Sardinian Warbler …
Red-footed Falcon in flight
Great Spotted Cuckoo – noisy!
Birds of Lleida day 2: Eagle Owl, Black-eared Wheatear, Tawny Pipit, Rock Sparrow, Red-billed Chough, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Penduline Tit, Turtle Dove… then it was time to take the early afternoon train back to Barcelona from Lleida.
Eagle Owl on perch
It was quite an intense 3-day birding tour, but an incredibly successful one too!
Note: all photos worked from originals by Dave Bassey
Easy access to great birding areas around the Sierra de Gredos and the plains to the north
Local birds include Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Wryneck, Iberian Magpie, Golden Oriole, Red-rumped Swallow, Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Rock Sparrow
Birding hotel for the Sierra de Gredos: Trocha de Hoyorredondo
Extremadura sites visited:
Arrocampo – Well-known wetland area with reedbeds and hides. Highlight birds for us here were Savi’s Warbler (6+), Little Bittern (6), Purple Swamphen, Penduline Tit, Purple Heron, Spoonbill, Gull-billed Tern and Iberian Grey Shrike.
Monfragüe National Park – Two visits here enabled us to see birds such as Eagle Owl (adult and chicks), Spanish Imperial Eagle, Black Stork, Cinereous (Black) Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Rock Bunting, Blue Rock Thrush, Alpine Swift, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Western Black-eared Wheatear, Western Orphean Warbler, Western Subalpine Warbler, Rock Sparrow, Spanish Sparrow, Egyptian Goose and Peregrine Falcon.
Alcollarín, Sierra Brava and nearby plains – Two visits to this area gave us a small selection of waders including Wood Sandpiper and Spotted Redshank, a beautiful male Pied Flycatcher, Spoonbill, Eurasian Wigeon, Collared Pratincole, a melanistic Montagu’s Harrier, Greater Short-toed Lark and an Otter.
The Cáceres-Trujillo plains – excellent views of Great Bustards and Little Bustards on both visits, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Little Owl, Lesser Kestrel, European Roller. Pallid Swift in Trujillo.
Other sites: Sierra San Pedro, Villuercas, Almonte river, N-IV
Oh yes! We stumbled across a Great Snipe on the Almonte River on 13th April
Gredos was the second leg of our tour
Bluethroat (oh, delightful Bluethroats!), Common Rock Thrush, Water Pipit, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Golden Eagle, White-throated Dipper, Crested Tit, Firecrest, Western Bonelli’s Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Wryneck …
Little Bittern: we saw about 6 of these one morning at Arrocampo reservoir. Photo by Dave Bassey
The plains to the north treated us to Great Bustards, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Hen Harrier, Montagu’s Harrier, Lesser Kestrel, and more. Well worth the visit!
There were mammals and butterflies too – quite a few!- but maybe we can keep that until later.
This is a brief tour summary of an early spring birding tour in northeast Spain.
Peter and Sue came from the UK for a private spring tour in northeastern Spain, from 20th March to 4th April. The birding tour started and finished at Barcelona.
We spent the first 5 nights at the homely and welcoming Rincon del Cierzo just south of Belchite. As Birding In Spain we have been staying at this hotel, ideally located for the Dupont’s Lark, for about 15 years now.
Then we spent 5 nights at Hosteria de Guara, in Bierge, Sierra de Guara Natural Park. This hotel is another of those that Birding In Spain has been staying at for longer than we care to remember. It’s faultless!
We spent the last 4 nights at a 4-star hotel near Puigcerdà, in the Catalan Pyrenees, and within easy reach of the Cadí-Moixero Natural Park.
Some birding highlights of the tour:
En-route from Barcelona on day 1 we birded near Lleida, observing Little Bustards, an Eagle Owl on the nest, Mediterranean Short-toed Larks, Calandra Larks, and Rock Sparrows.
On our daily excursions from our first base at the Rincón del Cierzo we encountered …
Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Egyptian Vulture, Northern Goshawk, Golden Eagle (6), Lesser Kestrel, Eurasian Hobby, Montagu’s Harrier, Red-billed Chough, Stone Curlew, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Red-rumped Swallow, Blue Rock Thrush, Penduline Tit, Iberian Grey Shrike, Alpine Swift, Black Wheatear, Western Black-eared Wheatear, Spectacled Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Western Bonelli’s Warbler, Little Owl (5 at one time behind the hotel!), Night Heron, Water Pipit, Wryneck, Greater Flamingo (What? Where?) …
And of course the larks! Dupont’s Lark eventually gave us an excellent show running, perched and singing and songflight, but we worked hard for it! Then there were bucket-loads of Mediterranean Short-toed Larks, Calandra Larks, Thekla’s and Crested Larks, and Woodlarks.
Next, with Hosteria de Guara as our base we enjoyed the marvellous scenery of the Sierra de Guara Natural Park and some good birds too …
Lammergeier, Peregrine Falcon, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Western Subalpine Warbler, Firecrest, Alpine Chough, Hawfinch, Rock Bunting, and others
En-route to our hotel near Puigcerdà we caught up with a pair of Bonelli’s Eagles – what a bird!
Daily excursions from the mountain hotel brought us close to birds such as Citril Finch, Ring Ouzel, White-throated Dipper, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Wryneck, Common Redstart, and more.
The tour ended at Barcelona, but the spring had just begun …
Thanks for the few but very encouraging comments we received about our arty offerings.
Now, without wanting to milk the cow dry, I’m going to publish one more batch of Gekko Art before moving on to something else. Hope you like it!
The Goshawk is mean. You wouldn’t want to be that poor pigeon held captive under its claws looking up into that cruel orange eye as the beast plucks your feathers without a smear of pity for you in your death throes … but that’s nature too folks.
The original didn’t quite manage to get the whole bird in the frame, a fact which was scoffed at by other bird photographers, in part motivated by their jealousy of the photographer’s commercial success I daresay. I was a direct witness to that. On a different note there’s beauty all over the Lammergeier, and I don’t think that you need to see the wing tips to know that they are there, so I zoomed in on the bird even more.
Is it a coincidence that this, a work with flowers and not birds, is Florinda’s favourite? I like it too, mind you, as I fancifully imagine that it takes me closer to another being’s vision: perhaps that of an insect?
Tell me you want to see more, and I’ll keep them coming!