We know, and we apologize. We haven’t appeared on the blog for months now. Now, it’s not as an excuse, but rather as information, that we can tell you we have been very busy working on a new Birding In Spain Tour brochure, and a great competition where prizes can be won every month. Additionally, there will be a Big Year Prize at the end of those 12 months, with the option of winning a place on one of our Wonderful Winter Tours Winter wallcreeper tour info (1) to take place in 2019 or 2012.
Want to know more? Then get in touch via e-mail, or follow Birding In Spain on Facebook. There will be competition announcements on Twitter and Instagram, as well as on this blog.
Christmas 2011
To celebrate the Christmas festivities we have designed a fun Christmas card. Click on the link below, download and have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous new year!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Birding In Spain
From Steve and Florinda
Birdpictures.pro is a community-based website aimed at…bla…bla…bla…STOP! Cut it! Just answer these questions in your head, or out loud if that is your preference:
Do you answer yes to any of these questions, but you refuse to look at Birdpictures.pro out of pure bloody-mindedness?
Birdpictures.pro, a growing bird photography community. Even for the bloody-minded.
119 votes so far
“If you were asked to pay to enter a nature reserve in the knowledge that the money you paid would go directly towards its conservation, how would you respond“
That was the question we asked on our Birding In Spain fan page on Facebook.
To date the response has been:
I would definitely contribute in that case = 85 votes
No problem. Is there a “Friends of the Park” association I can join too? = 13 votes
How do I know that my money is going towards conservation? = 12 votes
It depends on the overall price = 6 votes
It depends on how the conservation is being done = 1 vote
We always pay to enter a nature reserve anyway = 1 vote
No, that’s a government task. We’re paying taxes for that = 1 vote
Pay? No way! = 0 votes
If you would like to follow the debate, or if you would like to have your own say, just follow this link to the question on Facebook or visit the Birding In Spain fan page.
This is an excerpt of
The Montsonís Bonelli’s Eagles
Montsonís is a tiny village that clings to a hillside on the edge of the rocky Montsec range in Lleida province, Catalonia. For many years now I have been guiding birders there to enjoy thrilling views of the resident Bonelli’s Eagles*, and with great success.
….after enjoying views of the eagles we can then all saunter along to Montsonís itself, and have refreshments, a cup of tea or coffee perhaps, while admiring the village’s cobbled streets and the distinguished castle.
I was particularly concerned that something might happen to the Montsonís eagles. I’m a conservationist, and I don’t want the eagles to disappear, full-stop.
… the Montsonís Bonelli’s Eagles hadn’t reared a chick successfully since 2005.
… it was in our hands to do something. So we recruited Ramon. With his regular walks from Montsonís up to the “sacrificial stone” we set in motion a supplementary feeding program with feral pigeons, caught from castles…
Our efforts bore their fruits. Ramon lost a few pounds, there are no more feral pigeons at Montsonís or even nearby Montclar castle, and the local pair of Bonelli’s Eagles raised a healthy chick for the first time in 6 years!
You can read the full story in the accompanying Pdf – just click on the link above.
And the title of this post? Well, we have a great Raptor Card Game and we think it’s a good idea to have short personal stories that can accompany the cards in a separate booklet. Do you have any stories of your own that concern raptors that can be seen in Spain? Would you like to submit them and perhaps see them published here and/or in the Raptor Card Game booklet?
If so, let us have them!!!
Raptor Silhouettes
Click on the link to see the original raptors silhouettes poster on Facebook and the subsequent thread:
By popular request we have to give the answers – already! So if you want to have a go yourself first of all, don’t look at the following.
Raptor Silhouettes – the Answers:
1. Egyptian Vulture
2. Honey Buzzard
3. Booted Eagle
4. Black Vulture
5. Eleonora’s Falcon
6. Marsh Harrier
7. Hen Harrier
8. Short-toed Eagle
9. Black-winged Kite
10. Hobby
11. Montagu’s Harrier
12. Bonelli’s Eagle
13. Common Kestrel
14. Goshawk
15. Osprey
16. Black Kite
17. Peregrine
18. Red-footed Falcon
19. Griffon Vulture
20. Golden Eagle
21. Merlin
22. Common Buzzard
Oops! I got one wrong accidentally on purpose! Can anyone tell me which one?
Tarifa, September 2011
From the 4th to 10th September I was leading the Ornitholidays tour “Tarifa at Leisure” . That meant staying in just one hotel, the lovely Palomar de la Breña, for the whole week and making sorties to watch the migrants crossing the straits and to look for other local avian goodies.In some 5 sessions of raptor watching we spotted Rüppell’s Vulture (1 juvenile, with a possible second that had to remain just “possible”), 2 Goshawks, 1 Bonelli’s Eagle, dozens of Egyptian Vultures and Griffon Vultures, More than 20 Black Storks, dozens of Short-toed Eagles, more than 200 Booted Eagles, hundreds of Honey Buzzards, a dozen Montagu’s Harriers, Sparrowhawks, Lesser Kestrels and flocks of hirundines and Bee-eaters.
A Western Olivaceous Warbler, 3 Black-winged Kites, almost 20 Collared Pratincoles, Iberian Chiffchaff, White-headed Ducks and a Monarch Butterfly were some of the other highlights of an interesting week spent at the other end of this country called Spain.
It wasn’t always easy to keep our eyes on the raptors….
Last autumn I took a series of photos of animal tracks while out scouting around my favourite drylands to the south of Lleida. I found a really productive dusty track, and it got me wanting to be an expert tracker, which I doubt I will ever be! Nevertheless, I would like to identify the authors of these tracks with some degree of certainty.
Can anyone help?
Check out the album by following the link below, and if you do know the answers then please tell me in one way or another – comment on FB, this blog or an e-mail.
The link:
Photos of mammal and bird tracks
Thank you so much for your help!
In May we discovered a Hoopoe nest site, just at the right time for us to set up a hide for our bird photographer guests.
A photo of one of “our” Hoopoes by Eric McCabe
Lovely, striking birds, which performed wonderfully for the photographers, perching on a branch with fat grubs in their bills before entering a hole in a stone wall where their nest was located. The perch was also much in demand by a local Corn Bunting and a singing Thekla Lark.
Hoopoe from the Hoopoe hide. Photo by Jordi Bas.
After a few weeks on a recce visit it seemed to me that the Hoopoes had left the nest. But surely the young ones would be somewhere in the vicinity for a while yet? I had to check that idea, so I decided to get hold of some worms to tempt them back to the hide.
A day or so later I tried on the offchance at our local Decathlon store. I was amazed! In the fishing section they had a fridge with several types of worms or maggots that looked ideal for the purpose! Happy with my purchase I duly transfered them to our own fridge and waited for the right moment to act…
Hoopoe, but from the wrong hide (the Montagu’s Harrier hide).
A couple of days later I was back at the Hoopoe scene, eager to see how effective the “worm ploy” would be. I placed the two classes of worms in strategic, visible places and waited. And waited…nothing. The Hoopoes had definitely moved on. And I still had two half-full tubs of worms. Some of them were left out for the Rollers, the rest went back into the family fridge.
And what did I see just as I was leaving the drylands? A family group of no fewer than 6 Hoopoes flying together over a small patch of pine trees. OUR Hoopoes, for sure, ungrateful lot!
I have to remember to take the rest of the worms out of the fridge and offer them to a local bird or two – there’s a shriek every time Florinda opens one of the pots thinking it contains paté!
The first edition of the Anuari d’Ornitologia de Catalunya (Catalan Bird Report) was published in 1998, but covered observations for the year 1996. At the time it was edited by the Grup Català d’Anellament (Catalan Ringing Group), which later changed its name to the present-day Institut Català d’Ornitologia (ICO – Catalan Institute of Ornithology).
The report compiled the observations of no fewer than 465 contributors, quite a remarkable landmark and a proud moment for ringing and birding in Catalonia. This was already a far call from the 129 observers involved in the making of the Breeding Bird Atlas of Catalonia and Andorra 1975-1983.
The Anuari compiled a total of more than 5,000 observations of rare and scarce birds, censuses, population estimates, migration dates, changes in distribution and the opportunity to publish observations from many areas around the country that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
And 1996 was quite a good year as far as rarities are concerned: the Ebro Delta alone took account of Spain’s second Rough-Legged Buzzard, the country’s first ever overwintering Terek Sandpiper, Catalonia’s first Black-headed Bunting, Least Sandpiper and Greater Sandplover (together!), Citrine Wagtail, Lesser Yellowlegs….
Although Lleida is not in the same league, it certainly had its say: 2 White-headed Ducks that arrived in 1994 stayed until late winter, up to 1,000,000 starlings were observed at their roost at Utxesa (the site has never seen such numbers since), a winter Grey Phalarope, 21 of the 30 pairs of Montagu’s Harrier breeding in Catalonia were on the Lleida steppes, and a Ruddy Duck turned up at Utxesa at the end of the year.
With this first edition the figure of coordinador comarcal was also established, a position rather like a County Recorder, and a first compiler and filter of interesting records for his/her sphere of influence.
The report also included a summary of the ornithological year in English and in Catalan, as well as an annotated systematic list, with the most interesting or relevant observations of each species ordered by “comarca”. A complete bibliography could not be left out of course, and interest was maintained right to the end by the inclusion of detailed articles on identification problems (for example Yellow-legged Gulls and tristis Chiffchaff).
An excellent first edition, creating interest and cohesion and marking the way for additions and improvements in the following years. Long life!
We’re working hard to make sure you’re well informed before coming 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
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.
