BirdingInSpain

Purple Swamp-hens. Photo by Jan-Michael Breider.

This is the first of what will hopefully be a monthly event throughout 2009. The Birding Hotspot Monthly Report. The first month, as expected, was January.

Below is the link to download the Pdf with the full list of species seen or heard (yes, I count both – if it was heard it was there wasn’t it?) in the hotspot centred around Balaguer. See the earlier entry if you don’t know where that is.

I’m really struggling not to make this a listing exercise. For example when I heard that we had an influx of storm-driven Kittiwakes my first thought was “Wouldn’t that be a bonus for the hotspot list!” These things have their dangers. Today I heard about a couple of Jack snipes just up the road and it was only an unscheduled phone call that prevented me from jumping into the car and off we go. Maybe I’ll check them out next week.

But no that is not the hotspot spirit. One is supposed to go about one’s normal birding activities and record the species encountered.

Back to the list: of the 113 species recorded gulls feature highly, with no less than 6 species, and not a crab or a breakwater in sight! Little Gull, Kittiwake and Common Gull were all nice surprises to add to the more regular Yellow-legged, Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Ducks also paddled into the picture, as they should do at the height of winter. A Ferruginous Duck was seen in the company of Common Pochards and a Pochard x Fudgy Duck hybrid, on the same lake as 7 Greylag Geese and a Black-necked Grebe. There are still some to get though: Shelduck, Red-crested Pochard and Tufted Duck spring to mind.

Little Bustard. Photo by Jan-Michael Breider. 

The drylands are all but hibernating for the winter. Even so, Little Bustards, Calandra Larks, Hen Harriers and Little Owls do their best to brighten them up.

A couple of morning visits to Montsec ensured winter specials like Wallcreeper and Alpine Accentor, as well as the resident Bonelli’s Eagles. Winter passerines seemed to be in good supply too, with Bramblings, Redwings, Yellowhammers and good numbers of Hawfinches.

My prediction for February is little change. Perhaps a passing Crane flock or early Black Stork, a flock of Fieldfares in a fruit orchard, a couple of Black-bellied Sandgrouse on the drylands and Bullfinches near Sant Llorenç de Montgai. February is also the month when Great Spotted Cuckoos often make an appearance, so we’ll see. Ah! The joys of birding!   

Great Spotted Cuckoo. Photo by Jan-Michael Breider.

As mentioned above, here is the Pdf with the January hotspot list.

Northeast Spain Hotspot list January 2009

Exceptional gale force winds buffeted northern Spain on the 24th and 25th January, causing an unprecedented influx of Kittiwakes to inland Catalonia. In most countries that I know inland Kittiwakes are a rare event (persoanlly I’ve only seen them inland once before in Kent, England, in the late 1980s).

Well, in the last week more than 300 Kittiwakes have been observed on the rivers, lakes and reservoirs of inland Catalonia. Many of these birds are fatigued and end up dying. Some of them have been picked up by concerned people and taken to local wildlife recovery centres.

Sant Llorenç de Montgai – not well known for its Kittiwake population

One local birder reported an interesting event concerning one of those wind-driven Kittiwakes: one of a flock totalling 28 was caught and eaten by a Golden Eagle (one of the few Golden Eagles in Spain with a taste for seafood it seems).

Are you sure it was a Kittiwake you saw sitting with the sandgrouse?

How can any birder not agree that Hawfinches are really cool birds. I’m sure Franck Renard thinks the same. Just look at his photos of these beautiful Hawfinches below. Feel the photographer’s respect and desire to portray the species as it really is.

Hawfinches by Franck Renard

Many thanks to Franck for sending us these photos and for allowing us all to enjoy them. It just so happens that this winter there has been an exceptionally good number of Hawfinches in northeast Spain. From early November I’ve had the good fortune to see Hawfinches in Navarra, Huesca and on several occasions in the Montsec area, Lleida.

For me nowadays seeing a Hawfinch is one of the bright sparks of winter birding. And I’m sure Hawfinches will give Franck and I something to talk about when he comes here in February to photograph the Lammergeier and other vultures.

Curious to see the face behind the photos? See who Franck Renard is and a little of what he does by following this link, and this other one.

Read Neal Warnock’s excellent trip report. How he faced up to highway robbery and snowstorms and still came out smiling after having seen a good number of great birds.

http://www.travellingbirder.com/birdwatching/birding_Spain.php

I hadn’t been in touch with my friend Marius for a couple of years. Back when I was researching for “Where the birds are in northeast Spain” Marius selflessly provided me with information on where to find certain birds in his Tarragona homeland (Baix Camp and Alt Camp, Catalonia) and also invited me to help myself to his cherries whenever I was in Farena in the summer.  So I rang him and we chatted for a while about the Bonelli’s Eagle, his motorbike, my second book and his cherries.

I also found out that he has blog (or bloc as he puts it in Catalan). Follow this link to find out more about Marius and his relationship with the natural world around him: 

http://mariusdomingo.blogspot.com/

If you only understand English then be prepared – it’s in Catalan. In fact true to his Catalan roots Marius pokes a bit of fun at me for the name of my website. But it’s only a bit of fun, and I can forgive him as long as I can sneak into his garden and pick his cherries every June after doing my Common Bird Count at Farena.  

The Portuguese nature photographer and remote friend Joao Cosme has just published a book of his photos of the wildlife and landscapes of his native Portugal. “Rios de vida” (Rivers of Life) is the title, as it is a visual account of the rivers that run through his native land, from the hills and mountains down to the Atlantic Ocean. Those rivers are so often the life blood to the surrounding land and to biodiversity itself. Joao’s camera has skillfully captured a great variety of these rivers’ natural elements, from butterflies, dragonflies, reptiles and amphibians to birds, mammals, trees and landscapes.

The photos that most caught my attention were the Grey Heron in the corner of a seemingly blank, whitened-out landscape, a flock of Black-tailed Godwits in flight, bathed in sunset red, and the more abstract treescapes.

The accompanying text in both Portuguese and English is brief and concise and plays a secondary role to the images.  

You can see more details about “Rios de Vida” on Joao’s blog:

http://www.cinclusnatura.blogspot.com/

I was particularly pleased, although not surprised, that one of Joao’s stunning images of the spectacular Bonelli’s Eagle was chosen for double-spread treatment. Those who possess a copy of the Montsec Birding Routes Map can also see an equally stunning image of the Bonelli’s Eagle, also taken by Joao.  

Possible is everything    

I was driving my car in the sierras of Tarragona the other day, on the way home after a bird census. It was then that I came up with this catch phrase “Possible is everything”. Attention now – that is not the same as “Everything is possible”. For one thing, I don’t believe that the Dodo will ever fly, for example.

The Pine Bunting that has been kicking around with the wintering Yellowhammers at Aspa (near Lleida) since early in the New Year was the catalyst for this far-reaching reflection. I said to myself,
“If a visiting birder came across a Pine Bunting near Aspa (which is in the middle of nowhere in particular), why couldn’t that bunting I’ve just passed while in my car be a Rustic Bunting, and not a Cirl Bunting? I’ve just told myself that it was a Cirl Bunting even though I haven’t really seen the bird well enough to know for sure. However unlikely it may seem, couldn’t that bird be a Rustic Bunting?”

The thought rang out so loud that I had to stop the car and back around a sharp bend (Hey! It’s a very quiet road!), to come to a halt opposite the bush where the bunting in question had landed. I groped for my binoculars on the passenger seat and I clinched the identification – Cirl Bunting.

But it’s not the fact that it was indeed a Cirl Bunting that matters. After all the Cirl Bunting is the bunting one is most likely to see in these parts. No, what carries real weight is that I actually stopped, reversed and took a good look at the bird in the bush.

Because it could have been something else.

It could have been a Rustic Bunting, for example.

Where birds and birders meet “possible” is everything.

Personally, I feel closer to the possibility of finding Spain’s first Radde’s Accentor than scaling the vertical rock faces of Riglos.

Birding Hotspot Challenge 2009

It’s been there sizzling in my brain for some time, then it went cold…..now it’s started to boil! The Hotspot Challenge! That’s it – the gauntlet has been thrown down, will it be taken up or will it be swept up and carted away by the municipal cleaning brigade?

“What is this Hotspot Challenge then?”, I hear you all clamour. Patience, and I will explain.

I have just drawn a circle with a radius of 25km on the map of northeast Spain, centred on Balaguer, just 25km or so from my home. I have chosen this area as my promising “Hotspot”. Around that I have drawn a larger circle, with the same centre but with a radius of 50 km, the “Hot ring”.

In the course of 2009 I am going to go about my business as usual, birding on my own, with friends, individual clients or tour groups. Maybe the odd twitch for something really close to home, but without any obsession factor involved. The only extra activity that the Hotspot Challenge will imply is taking note of the species I encounter within each area in the course of the year. And of course, making sure that the observations are within the designated areas. Then writing gripping reports about what I have seen on the BirdingInSpain blog (ie. here).

In order for hotspots to compete against each other there are just a couple of restrictions:

(i) No coastal areas can be included as Hotspots. It wouldn’t be fair.

(ii) Hotspots to be chosen in the temperate (not tropical/subtropical) zones of the continent. 

And that’s all! So the Hotspot challenge is simplicity itself. Too simple for all those words really. And an innocent pursuit which will add no carbon to that nasty carbon footprint we all hear so much about (not counting the writing bit of course).

The only thing remaining is to announce the challenge: who is willing to take up the gauntlet? Who thinks they can find a hotspot near them to rival or surpass the one I have chosen here near Lleida in northeast Spain?

Tell us about it, and may the migration be with you!

By the way: I’ve already started and got a couple of goodies for my hot ring. But I’m not revealing their identity just yet – you’ll have to wait for the next Hotspot post.

Staffan Widstrand

The Swedish photographer Staffan Widstrand was in Finland photographing Brown Bears in 2008, on one of his assignments as part of the Wild Wonders of Europe project. Now the Spanish audience can read about his experience thanks to the translation that BirdingInSpain.com have recently completed for the Wild Wonders blog.   

Brown Bear by Staffan Widstrand

Did you know? – Cranes in northeast Spain

Cranes at Gallocanta lagoon. Photo by Marten van Dijl. Visit his website here. 

The spring passage of Cranes in northeast Spain takes place from the latter half of February to the end of March, or more rarely into early April.

In autumn the largest influx of Cranes is from the end of October and in November, with the last birds passing through in early December.

In Catalunya flocks of more than 100 birds are uncommon.

Gallocanta in Aragón channels the passage of virtually the whole of the Western European population of the Common Crane, with up to 60,000 birds recorded together in late October and a pre-nuptial maximum of some 30,000 birds in mid-February.

Birds heading northwards in the spring often stop off at Sotonera before crossing the Pyrenees. Gatherings of more than 14,000 Cranes have been recorded here, principally between mid-February and mid-March.

Gurelur Bird migration centre, at the Alto de Ibañeta (1,057m), is situated at one of the most popular mountain passes in the Pyrenees for watching the autumn passage of Cranes. The centre is open from July 1st to the end of November.

Reference and further information: Where the birds are in northeast Spain

Where to stay and watch the Cranes:
Gallocanta – Allucant
Sotonera – Hospedería de Loarre
Alto de Ibañeta – Navarra Selección