BirdingInSpain

 Balearic Shearwater, Puffinus mauretanicus.

Pomarine Skua, Stercorarius pomarinus. Photo by Erik. 

Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus griseus. Photo by Toni Boyer.

Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus griseus. Photo by Toni Boyer. 

All of the photos here were taken on the 12th and 14th May during a training course “Identification of Marine Birds of Catalonia” for the rural agents of Catalonia. Our vessel sailed from the port of Tarragona and headed straight out to sea; on board were 17 rural agents, the skipper, first mate and myself (teacher).

Seawatching off Tarragona on a sunny day

We didn’t really know what to expect; some shearwaters, gulls and the odd skua or two, perhaps. In fact we had a lot more than we dared hope for, including a rarity for Catalonia in the shape of a Sooty Shearwater – up to 2008 there had only been 12 records of this species off the Catalan coast.

We also enjoyed great views of numerous Balearic and Mediterranean Shearwaters, 2 Pomarine Skuas, a Great Skua, an Arctic Skua, a single Storm Petrel, Audouin’s, Lesser Black-backed, Yellow-legged and Mediterranean Gulls and, what for most was the star of the day, a Fin Whale Balaenoptera physalus.  

Audouin’s Gull, Larus audouinii. Photo by Erik.

Great Skua, Stercorarius skua. 

That was all on Wednesday 12th May. What would Friday 14th May bring?

Els agents rurals (“forestals”) de les 4 provincies de Catalunya van assistir a un curset a Salou els dies 12, 13 i 14 d’abril. “Identificació d’aus del litoral català”.

En total vam passar unes 20 hores junts, incloent-hi un dia sencer en el camp, tot posant en pràctica els coneixements adquirits a l’aula. La reserva de Remolar-Filipines (Delta del Llobregat) va donar molt de si (a més d’una sorpresa molt agradable en forma d’un Rascletó Porzana parva). Hi havia també un gran nombre d’ànecs i de limicoles, el Xarrasclet, un Territ de Temminck, Tètols, Becplaners, …

Desprès del nostre picnic a la platja vam pujar al massís de Garraf, on l’única cosa que es movia era una parella d’Aguila Cuabarrada. Al poble del mateix nom vam caminar al peu dels penya-segats. Aquí vam veure Merla Blava, Còlit Negre, Falcó Pelegrí, Tallareta Vulgar, Cotxa Cua-roja entre altres.

Participants en el curset. Tots contents perque ningú va suspendre l’evaluació final!

The following is a series of photos taken by Dutch bird photographer Frank Dröge on Thursday 18th March at our Lammergeier feeding station and photography site in the Pre-Pyrenees of Catalonia, Spain.

Probable juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti. All photographs copyright of Frank Dröge.

They show what is obviously a juvenile Aquila eagle, but one which is not a Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos, the only Aquila eagle that could be expected in the region. The combination of the pale, milky-brown coloration, the general lack of streaking, the all dark tail, the degree of contrast on the outer and inner halves of the outer primaries and the deep, heavy bill have led us to conclude that it is a juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti.

However, to get here we had to consider several candidates, including Eastern Imperial Eagle Aquila heliaca, the fulvescens form of the Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga, and even the Tawny Eagle Aquila rapax.

The main obstacle to 100% confidence in Spanish Imperial Eagle is the pale coloration, much paler than the few juveniles that Frank and I have seen between us. Could this be due to wear or bleaching?

We would be glad to hear any comments that can shed light on this matter.

Last Monday’s snowfall in Catalonia made the records. It must be said that Barcelona doesn’t usually get knee-high in snow in early March.

But the snow wasn’t just in Barcelona you know. The mountains of the Pyrenees and pre-Pyrenees had a very good helping of the stuff too. On Monday the roads were blocked, but on Tuesday I took 3 photographers up to the site to photograph the Lammergeier through 30cm of snow. The landscape was a delight, the sky was a perfect sky blue and the odd gust of wind blew glittering powdered snow around trees and rocks.

We had to shovel snow and push the car through snow drifts. It took us 2 and a half hours to get to the feeding station when normally it only takes 25 minutes. But we had our reward. Unforgettable. The birds, the light, the landscape. The experience.   

BirdingInSpain.com, getting you to places where nobody else would even try.

A snow-capped Villa Hide

There’snow problem!

The southern part of Mallorca offers beautiful beaches, sea views and some very good birding

At this stage you really should know that Mallorca is more than just a sun and beach holiday destination. Especially if you are a birder. But if you are still in some doubt just check out the birding itineraries in the Mallorca section of the main BirdingInSpain.com website.

The spectacular Formentor peninsula is home to Eleonora’s Falcons, Balearic Warblers and much more.

Places like s’Albufera, Ses Salines, the Tramuntana range, the Formentor peninsula, the Artà peninsula, are all places that the birder cannot afford to miss if he or she spends any time on this rich and varied island in the Western Mediterranean.

Black Vulture, one of the specialities of Mallorca, can be seen in the Tramuntana range

Birds you’d want to look out for include the endemic Balearic Warbler, Balearic Shearwater, Eleonora’s Falcon, Black Vulture, Audouin’s Gull….

Red-crested Pochards can be seen at the S’Albufera Natural Park

The good news is we are working with a number of top quality hotels on this splendid island. Take a look at the itinerary, click on the “Recommended accommodation” link and see for yourself what your travel agent hasn’t told you. You’ll find hotels of different kinds and styles but with something in common: they welcome birders and their families and have excellent birding opportunities nearby, often on the very doorstep.  

Scops Owl can be detected in the grounds of some of our recommended hotels

S’Albufera Natural Park – try Iberostar Playa de Muro

Tramuntana range – try Can Torna or Mallorca4seasons

Boquer Valley and Formentor peninsula – try Grupotel Molins

Ses Salines and Salines des Salobrar – try Finca Son Guardiola or Can Canals

Artà peninsula – try Grupotel Cala Ratjada or Grupotel Gran Vista and spa

Red Kites flock at a site near Lleida. 

Has anybody seen a Brambling this winter? I haven’t yet, but last year I saw more than a dozen in a single tree!

The Griffon Vulture may be a carrion-feeder but it still has its beauty. And most of them stay around in the winter.

Bellmunt drylands. No Little Bustards here now!Instead we can look out for Merlin, Hen Harrier, Red Kite, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagle.

The Avellanes Monastery as it is rarely seen. This is the doorway to the birds of the Montsec range as well as the drylands to the north of Lleida.

Early on Saturday morning (15th August) while out picking Blackberries with the family (they ripen earlier here than in the UK) a familiar call made me look up and spot 2 Red-rumped Swallows near Alòs de Balaguer. A pretty unusual sighting and a new one for my rather neglected Hotspot list, now standing at 196 species since the beginning of the year.

The BirdingInSpain.com hotspot 

But that’s not all: we had a pleasant paddle and then strolled in search of a picnic site – somewhere cool and shady, as temperatures were raging close to 40ºC. Well, I was more than a little surprised to see a Plain Tiger Danaus chrysippus fluttering around a roadside verge. Only the second time I’ve seen the species, and less than a month after my first observation in the Ebro delta! 

It just goes to show that you should never leave your binoculars at home, even if you’re only going blackberry picking with the family. 

 The Red-rumped Swallow in northeast Spain

 Red-rumped Swallow   Hirundo daurica

The Red-rumped Swallow is a summer visitor to northeast Spain from mid-March to October. Scarce and localised as a breeding bird, it is a regular but uncommon migrant at coastal locations. In recent years it has undergone a range expansion in the region, with breeding proven or suspected in Montsec, Sierra de Guara and the Lleida drylands.

Birding itineraries where you can observe the Red-rumped Swallow:

Cap de Creus, Aiguamölls of Empordà, Montgrí massif, Prades and Montsant ranges, River Ebro, Drylands of Lleida.

Distribution map of Red-rumped Swallow in northeast Spain. We’ll have to fill in a few more green blobs.

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

March has come and gone again and so I’d better get in this 3rd Hotspot report before the guiding season comes into full swing and keeps me away from my beloved keyboard.

This March of 2009 there were days when spring was in the air; sometimes one could even feel the scorch of a summer sun; then there were days when we all took two steps back into winter. That was confusing enough for us poor mortal humans, so just imagine what fresh migrant birds must have felt like, just off the boat from Africa.

Nevertheless, the migrants did arrive. New Hotspot birds of the month included some of the usual common migrants: Yellow Wagtail, Tree Pipit, House Martin, Swallow, Black-winged Stilt, Subalpine Warbler and Willow Warbler. Great Spotted Cuckoos and Stone Curlews also returned early in the month and are now well and truly established. A single female Red-crested Pochard at the Estany d’Ivars was a hoped-for addition to the Hotspot list, and mid-month a small party of Garganeys also put in an appearance. Montsec attracted raptors in the form of Egyptian Vulture, Black Kite and  Short-toed Eagle. The biggest surprise I had though was spotting a female Little Crake at the Estany d’Ivars in the middle of the month. Great stuff!

Great Spotted Cuckoo. Great bird, lousy photo.

The 50km Hotring seemed determined to keep in on the act, with the first Night Heron, Purple Heron, Osprey and Little Ringed Plover. Lesser Short-toed Lark was another species seen in the Hotring but unlikely to occur in the Hotspot. Oh well.

Fish-eating Osprey. Not Osprey-eating fish.

And on the note of species unlikely to occur in the Hotspot the prize went to a Great Bustard which came to meet me near Utxesa on the 17th March. One of the very few records of this marvellous species for Catalunya in the last few decades. What a shame it didn’t come with some friends to settle down and raise a family.

Mont-roig through the window (fortunately not mine)