BirdingInSpain

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)

Last week one of those nice birdie surprises came to me in a rather large package. The first Great Bustard to be recorded in Catalunya for almost 14 years flew past me as I was out on the drylands of Lleida trying to get close to a couple of Great Spotted Cuckoos. Of course I had a good idea of the unusualness of the sighting, although I had to check the bibliography to get the full details: the previous record of the Great Bustard in Catalunya was that of 2 birds at Belianes between 15th and 22nd July 1995. The previous record to that one dates back to August 1987.

Displaying Great Bustard as depicted in “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains”

The sighting caused quite a stir among the local birders and forum-followers. I received congratulations, and even a couple of phone calls, their makers keen to get more details. And could the observation be used to illustrate importance of the remaining drylands in Lleida, threatened by a badly thought out irrigation scheme?

Who is not seduced by the idea of the Great Bustard making a comeback to Catalunya as a breeding bird, after an absence of half a century? But let’s get real: no more than 80 Great Bustards remain in the Monegros, the nearest regular site for the species, and the impending pincer movement of the Gran Scala casino complex and the Segarra-Garrigues irrigation scheme is most unlikely to leave them with many options for recolonisation of lost territory. 

Escriure una petita introducció sobre l’observació dels ocells al Montsec? Com començar? No ho sabia. Així, un dia esplèndid de primavera vaig agafar els prismàtics i vaig fer una visita als camps, bosquets i cims airosos de Montsec, buscant inspiració en la seva solitut i majestuositat.

La veritat és que la cosa no comencava massa bé. Hi havien moltes distraccions: grupets d’abellerols melosos de colors llampants, una guatlla cantant “set-per-vuit”, la seva veu ondulant com el blat en la brisa lleugera. Un destell repentí de colors quan una puput aixecà el vol. La dolça melangia d’un parell de cotolius.

Bee-eater by Joan Manel Puig 

5 espècies de tallarols estaven en plena forma anunciant-se propietaris de les mates, les alzines i els roures. 5 espècies! Silenci!! Tot aquell xibarri no em deixava pensar. 

Orphean Warbler by Jan-Michael Breider 

Així vaig rependre el camí. Lluny cantava un hortolà, orgullós d’haver tornat de l’Africa a la seva terra natal. Després una volada de gralles de bec-vermell van interrompre els meus pensaments amb les seves acrobàcies aèries.

A dalt de la serrelada el pas de voltors era continuo, però vaig fer un esforç sobrehumà per no fer-los cas, al igual que la merla roquera que cantava insistentment al meu darrere. Però, quan un trencalòs va planejar davant meu mirant-me de fit a fit als ulls, aleshores vaig adonar-me’n que els ocells m’havien guanyat la partida.

Griffon Vultures by Franck Renard 

Steve West

The 3rd Bird Fair in Extremadura was a good excuse for me to make the long haul in my “trusty” white Rover from Lleida to Cáceres province for the last weekend in February.

So it was not really a birding trip – I was not there to make a concerted effort to search for interesting birds, but rather to check out a few new areas, to drive back and forth from the fair, to take some landscape shots, etc. Even so I still managed to see a pretty good selection of our feathered friends. Here is the roll of honour:

Imperial Eagle at Monfragüe

The Imperial Eagle is the one in the middle 

Bonelli’s Eagle – 2 soaring over the fair car park on Saturday

Short-toed Eagle – the first of the year in Monfragüe

Golden Eagle – 1 at close range in Monfragüe

Black-winged Kites – 5 different birds in one day, to the north of the park.

Great Spotted Cuckoo – 1 noisy bird, another first of the year.

Egyptian Vulture – 2 in Monfragüe, also my first for 2009

Black Vulture, Hawfinch, Azure-winged Magpie – relatively easy at various locations

Azure-winged Magpies seem to be very conspicuous at this time of the year 

Spanish Sparrow– groups at 3 different sites

Spanish Sparrows – aren’t they cute? 

Black Stork – 1 at Monfragüe

The timid Black Stork 

Great Bustard – 7 or 8 on the plains near Cáceres

More of a brief summary than a report, as new species have been few for me this February. That is not because the birds are not there: other observers have already reported first sightings of House Martin, Swallow, Spoonbill, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Crane, Lesser Kestrel and even a couple more Jack Snipes. So, mea culpa – I haven’t been out and about enough to really get to grips with the current birding offer in my local hotspot.

OK, what have I seen? New species I recorded in February were Nuthatch and Eagle Owl, both in the Montsec area, and both recorded in the course of a family outing.

Meanwhile, in the Hotring things have been just a little more exciting, with the addition of Moustached Warbler (3 birds singing at Utxesa), Bearded Tit (6 birds together), and Fan-tailed Warbler, or Zitting Cisticola if you like, on the edge of Lleida. The latter, surprisingly, is the only record I have of the species in the area this year, surely a sign that it has been hard hit by the cold periods over the last winter.

Local weather conditions didn’t always help me in the pursuit of the hotspot ideal.