Birding In Spain newsletter

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Birding In Spain

The summer edition of the Birding In Spain Birds and Birding Newsletter is available here.

Just click on the BIS logo or on this link to download the latest Birds and Birding Newsletter Summer 2011

The sections include:

Catalonia Bird Tour News – who, where and when?

Birders Like You – an engaging new section where visiting birders are the protagonists

 Birders like you

Bird News – from Catalonia. Red-footed Falcons, Little Bustards and more.

Birding In Spain Video Channel – we have almost 20 videos on our new You Tube channel. All birds, of course! Hoopoe, Montagu’s Harrier, a really entertaining pair of Little Owls and much more.

Bird fair auction – see what we are offering at the Bird Fair auction this year

Winter tours – explains the delights of winter birding in northeast Spain

Seawatching excursions – Balearic Shearwaters, Pomarine Skuas, and what else?

Best Accommodation for birders – don’t mess up your holiday by choosing the wrong place to stay. Take our informed advice. It’s free.

Accommodation for birders in Spain

 

Aus Marines a Catalunya

Participants en el curset “Aus Marines a Catalunya” organitzada per l’UGT 

Els dies 7, 8 i 9 de juny vam estar amb L’UGT – Agents Rurals com a ponents d’un curset d’identificació d’aus marines de Catalunya.

De fet el primer curs d’aus marines es va fer l’any passat des de Salou, durant el mes de maig. Es veu que hi havia molta demada i així vam tindre la sort de poder repetir enguany.  

En total els 20 participants vam passar unes 20 hores aprenent sobre la biologia i l’identifació de les aus marines de Catalunya. Segurament, però, la part que ens va agradar més eren les 2 sortides que vam realitzar des del port de Tarragona. Vam tindre la sort de gaudir de bon temps, a pesar de les previsions més pessimistes, i vam acabar amb una llista d’espècies molt semblant a la de l’any passat: Ocell de Tempesta, Baldriga Mediterrània, Baldriga Balear, Baldriga Cendrosa, Paràsit Cuaample (és una cita força tardana o només ho sembla a mi?), Paràsit Gros, Paràsit Cuapunxegut, Mascarell, Xatrac Bec-llarg, Xatrac Comú, Corb Marí Gros, Corb Marí Emplomallat, Gavina Corsa, Gavina Riallera, Gavià Argentat de Potes Grogues, Gavià Fosc. I dues espècies noves: Fumarell Negre i Bec d’Alena!

Veure l’article original aquí

Wild Images comes to Lleida

FROM

the 8th to 15th May we received the first group of photographers from Wild Images. Wild Images, a daughter company of Birdquest, came with leader Mike Watson and 6 avid bird photographers from different parts of the UK. 

Little Owls, Athene noctua.

They followed the basic outline of our Great Photo Trip (see details here) with 3 days on the plains of Lleida and 2 in the Lammergeier hide in the Pre-Pyrenees.

Apart from Lammergeiers and the other 3 species of vulture they also managed to get excellent shots of a wide variety of birds on the steppes, in magnificent spring scenery. Jumping Little Bustards, Bee-eaters, Stone Curlews, Montagu’s Harriers, Iberian Grey Shrike, Corn Bunting and even a last minute Hoopoe! Still, in my opinion it was the Little Owls that really stole the show. 

Bee-eaters, Merops apiaster.

Did they leave with smiles on their faces and giving us the thumbs up? Well, yes. And if you want to see some of the great photos they took then you need do no more than click on these links to their own websites:

Mike Watson (Wild Images leader)

Eric McCabe (with wife Lesley hailing from Scotland)

David Mercer

Congratulations to all! We’re looking forward to next spring already.

Plain sailing

Quail

Quail, Coturnix coturnix.

A Quail sat in the track in my car headlights just before dawn

Bee-eater

Bee-eater, Merops apiaster.

The Bee-eaters in front of the hide were bright and good afternoon entertainment

Little Owl

Little Owls, Athene noctua.

The Little Owl antics usually steal the show.

Thekla Lark

Thekla Lark, Galerida theklae

Singing Thekla Lark was an added bonus from the Hoopoe hide. 

Monty’s Harrier

Montagu’s Harrier, Circus pygargus.

Poppy landscape

Poppy Landscape, Lleida.

Now that’s not bad for a (very early) morning or two out on the plains of Lleida.

Lammergeiers and Black Vultures

A couple of flight sequences from some months back. In the Pre-pyrenees of Lleida.

Black Vulture, Aegypius monachus, in flight

Black Vulture, Aegypius monachus, in flight

Black Vulture, Aegypius monachus, in flight

Black Vultures have bred there now for the second consecutive year and seem to be on the way to repaying the efforts at re-establishing the species in this part of Spain.

Lammergeiers, Gypaetus barbatus, in flightLammergeiers, Gypaetus barbatus, in flight

In the last year or so some Lammergeiers have been observed outside their normal range in the Pyrenees. It is well known that vacant territories for this species in the Pyrenees are hard to come by, so perhaps this is a forced response by this normally sedentary species.

Lammergeiers, Gypaetus barbatus, in flight

One slightly worrying aspect about the latter species is that a couple of adult birds have been found dead, the cause of death having been lead poisoning. This fact is of great relevance to feeding stations: they are strongly advised not to put out animals that have been shot (boar, deer, etc), as if the bullet is not removed from the corpse within five minutes of entering the body the lead spreads around the body and can end up in Lammergeiers and other vultures.

Let’s hope they take note.

Birds as art?

  

I don’t know how far people in the know go these days to define art, but here’s a minor contribution to the debate.

White Wagtail Motacilla alba

And another one:

Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

And another:

Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

This one’s not art, it’s about Choughs…

Red-billed Choughs Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax

You could hang this one upside-down and it would be the right way up. Now isn’t that cool?

Whinchat reflection Saxicola rubetra

This one invites comment… I said “This one invites comment”….No?

Bird dream

 

Free 2011 calendar for birders

2011 birding calendar from Catalonia

Dani Valverde and Joan Morales are the bird and nature photographers who have generously shared their work and love of nature with the international birding community.

Just click on this link and then follow through to download their 2011 calendar, illustrated with birds like the Yelkouan Shearwater, the Snow Finch, the Pectoral Sandpiper, and more. There’s more than just birds however, as the exuberant Apollo butterfly also manages to collar a month, as does a Red Fox. 

2011 birding calendar from Catalonia

The calendar is written in Catalan and English.

Friends of the Lammergeier

Our Facebook group “Friends of the Lammergeier” is fast approaching 1,000 members. Many are the bird and wildlife photographers who are sharing their photographs, comments and references about this splendid bird with a growing Facebook community.

For example, Jari Peltomaki left this little appetizer for us all:

 Lammergeiers in Catalonia

Magnificent work, Jari!

Although he’s not the only one….

Those Great Bustards!

Great Bustards - Avutardas - Piocs

“Then I pass over a rise in the terrain and something unexpected happens. A field of grass and flowers lies before me, bursting with the song of calandra larks and crickets. In this scented field, which has somehow been overlooked by the ploughman, I see the unmistakeable bulks of several great bustards, necks stretched and eyes fixed in my direction. I am too close for their liking, so they take to a nonchalant but purposeful gait to move away from me, stopping now and then to raise their heads and check that I am not following hard on thier heels. I watch from the path as, slowly, the last of their heads sinks below the grassy horizon like a setting sun. Tipping an imaginary cap, I wish them the best of luck. ”

A typical scene from the Monegros

Excerpt from the chapter “Little Tales and Great Bustards” from the book “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains

A Spanish Juniper in the Monegros

How do you say “white light” in French?

Irene from Paris got in touch after the summer and explained that she was set on coming to film vultures. Vultures feeding seen from the hide? No. Vultures perched on the rocks? No. Irene was explicit: she wanted to film vultures circling in thermals.

The French vulture expedition

Irene and friends Dorothy, Jean and Gilles

It became clear to me that her best option would be Mas de Bunyol. The patron of Mas de Bunyol, Jose Ramón Moragrega has been feeding the vultures of els Ports on his land near Valderroures every day for more than 20 years now. In the eyes of the public he’s on the way to becoming a local legend; for the hundreds of vultures that turn up every morning waiting for him to serve their food he already is.  

From the comfort of the newly-completed vulture observatory, with benches and all-round vision, vulture displays and the attentions of Loly, José Ramón’s partner, one can watch as he enters the compound with a wheelbarrow loaded with dead rabbits. The vultures sail down from the nearby trees, the bravest of them actually going up to José Ramón’s wheelbarrow to try and grab a rabbit for themselves even before he can unload them!

Everything unfolds as usual, although José Ramón is a little upset that today we have only seen 150 Griffon Vultures, instead of the more usual four or five hundred. Only! The vultures feed, and then rest, some in the trees, some in the compound itself next to a pool where they often bathe. Irene, however, is far from relaxed. When will the vultures start circling Steve? I consult with Loly, and she tells us not to worry – the vultures are just hanging around waiting for the first thermals to form.

Griffon Vultures at rest

Griffon vultures just hanging out after a feed at Mas de Bunyol. But Irene was looking for something more…

They make us wait in a nervous state before they eventually comply by finding a thermal that brings some 70 of them circling closer and closer until they are just over our heads! Phew! Mission accomplished, and that after spending a lovely night dining on Loly’s roast chicken, drinking local wine and sleeping in one of Mas de Bunyol’s tastefully furbished rooms.

José Ramón told us about the Eagle Owls and Peregrines that inhabit the nearby rock faces, and after the vultures had all but left two adult Bonelli’s Eagles sailed leisurely over the observatory! However, Irene and her crew were already thinking about a fish lunch on the Mediterranean coast…

If you’re curious about the title of this article take a look at Irene’s website

White light II

White light?

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