Spain in early spring tour report
Heatherlea early spring in Spain tour participants
This was a fully-ascribed bird tour from 2nd to 9th March, starting off with 2 nights at the Ebro Delta – it was windy, but we managed, quite well, in fact: Bluethroat, Moustached Warbler, Slender-billed Gull, Audouin’s Gull, Common Gull, Booted Eagle, Whiskered Tern, Caspian Tern, hordes of Greater Flamingos, a roost of more than 100 Night Herons, Black-necked Grebe… there are so many birds here in this delta!
Ebro Delta birding destination
Ebro delta birding: a flock of Avocets. Photo by Zane Davidsone. Thanks Zane!
Then it was on to bird the area surrounding Lleida, our home town, for one night: Golden Eagle, Bonell’s Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Eagle Owl, Little Bustard, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Dupont’s Lark, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Bearded Tit … Now that’s what I call quality birding! Thanks Lleida!
Now for the last leg, and the piece de resistance … would we see the Wallcreeper? Yes! Not one, but two Wallcreepers, and impossibly close-up. Then there were flocks of migrating Cranes in the sunshine, crossing northwards over the Pyrenees. What could follow that? Apart from birds such as Citril Finch, Rock Bunting, Lammergeier, Crested Tit…
Winter Wallcreeper. Photo by Michael Vecht. Thanks Michael!
And then a visit for birding the high mountains of the Pyrenees and a foot in France for Alpine Chough and a few more bits and bobs, before a last day’s birding on the pseudosteppes of the Monegros, for Stone Curlew, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Hen Harrier, Golden Eagle, Mediterranean Short-toed Lark…
What a tour! Northeast Spain. What a way to kick off the spring birding season of 2024!
Read the full tour report on the following link:
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