North Herts Birders
Here are some excerpts of the trip report of the North Herts Birders’ visit to Catalonia this April.
Catalonia – Spain. Ebro Delta, Lleida Drylands and Pre-Pyrenees
20th to 24th April 2015
“Arriving at the Delta Hotel we saw Pied Flycatcher and Redstart as we pulled into the car park and later Wood Warbler in the wooded area. The hotel has excellent grounds with a large reedy pond with an island and a small wooded area, so we would not have to go far for some pre-breakfast birding.”
“An early pre-breakfast start for Little Bustard and Lesser Kestrel on the Balaguer Drylands, in the company of a film crew from Channel 3 TV, Catalonia’s largest TV Channel. Making a programme about eco-tourism, the environment and Little Bustards, so they had arranged with Steve West to film and interview us watching Little Bustards. Well this turned into a game, something like Musical Chairs. You had to keep moving, if you stopped and looked through your bins too long, when you put them down the lady interviewer started to ask questions in a reasonable version of English, a sound recorder tried to put his large, fluffy grey microphone up your nose and all this while the cameraman was bobbing about trying to find your best angle.”
“A new chapter of the Entente Cordiale was written in the hide, when a French birder complained that our guide Steve was too loud,…”
“Arriving at the very fragrant Alfes Aerodrome, the scent of wild Thyme hits your nose and the myriad of colourful wild flowers catches your eye. The birds, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Calandra Lark, a song flight from Short-toed Lark, Crested and Thekla Larks, Kestrel, from a nearby wood calling Iberian Green Woodpecker, Western Bonelli’s Warbler…”
“Our second attempt to find nesting Eagle Owl was successful, with one adult and 2 very large chicks still in the nest high up on a cliff. Great views were had by all.“
“We had excellent views of a male Bonelli’s Eagle dive bombing Griffon Vultures, we then walked the gorge road and added a feisty Firecrest, Wryneck, singing Nightingales everywhere, calling Golden Orioles,…”
“A long day with loads of excellent birds, Ray commented that this was his best days birding ever! We all agreed,…”
“This area is my favourite part of Spain and as we got closer we could see the snow-capped mountains of the Pyrenees.”
“Overhead adult and juvenile Lammergeiers, amongst the circling Griffon Vultures. Next, an adult Egyptian Vulture glided past and down the valley. Coming up the other way more Griffons, but one didn’t look right, bigger and darker and not a Griffon, but a Black Vulture which circled and gave good views. Four species of vulture in around 10 minutes.”
“A quick tally up of the list gave a trip total of 192, with all of us getting at least one tick.”
“Arriving back at Barcelona airport, we all thanked Steve West for his hard work in making our bird filled trip fun and enjoyable, a second sucessful Happy Tours trip. Steve said we made his job easy and fun, and looked forward to our return.”
From a Happy Tours Publication – written by Steve Lane
Download and read the full trip report, with lots of birds and butterflies here:
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