BirdingInSpain

Birding in Catalonia – Part 1

Catalonia, or Catalunya, in the north-east corner of Spain, is the main overland gateway into the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe. A glance at the statistics will tell us that around 7 million people inhabit its 32,091 km², at an average density of 190 persons per km², and that it is an industrialised region with a coastline largely developed to accommodate mass tourism.
Not precisely a beacon for the foreign birder, or so it would seem. But then there are the other statistics: the new breeding bird Atlas of Catalonia reveals 232 species of breeding birds – more than any other region of a comparable size anywhere else in Spain – inhabiting its numerous and varied biotopes, including wetlands of International importance, high mountains, Mediterranean type sierras & lowlands, rocky coasts & headlands, and steppes.
Catalonia`s Mediterranean coastline, for example, has 3 very interesting wetland areas, the most important of which is undoubtedly the Ebro Delta. This must be the star attraction for any visiting birder wanting to see gulls and terns, including the rare Slender-billed and Audouin`s Gulls, Gull-billed and Caspian Terns, along with a wide variety of herons, ducks and waders such as Squacco Heron, Little Bittern, Glossy Ibis, Great White Egret, Red-crested Pochard, Collared Pratincole, Kentish Plover, migrating Marsh Sandpipers and Temminck`s Stints and a few miscellaneous items such as Purple Gallinule, Greater Flamingo and Savi`s Warbler. Furthermore, its impressive list of wintering and migratory birds means that it`s not to be forsaken at any time of the year.

The Llobregat delta, on the very edge of Barcelona airport, also presents itself, although on a much smaller scale, as an interesting proposition for a 2 or 3 hour visit, with excellent hides overlooking scrapes which never fail to turn out rarities year after year. Last but not least there is the Aiguamolls de l`Empordà in the north of the region, intensively managed to enhance its wildlife interest and well placed to receive those more easterly migrants which rarely make landfall elsewhere along the coast. It`s also something of a Mecca for spring crake hunters (Spotted, Little and Baillon`s).

to be continued….

This January 2008 the Birdinginspain.com web site has received over 1,000 unique visitors. For the first time since its creation in late June 2007.

Most visitors by far come from the USA, second in the ranking is Spain, and then the usual third is the UK, although this month it has been surpassed by Sweden and Holland.

If you haven’t visited the page then take a look at the different sections dealing with Steve West’s birder’s books, itineraries, maps and photos dealing with birding sites in northeast Spain, free birding downloads such as checklists and trip reports, bird recordings and more.

A recently incorporated section is “Hotspot Holidays” – a product offered exclusively by Birdinginspain.com for birders and naturalists who prefer the slow travel concept. More about Hotspot holidays in a later post.

April is the time when the Spanish steppes are at their yearly zenith and Little Bustards celebrate the fact with much foot pattering, leaping, wing flapping and head jerking! It’s time to impress the lady bustards and fend off male competitors and, in the opinion of the Little Bustard, there’s nothing like a bit of head jerking and raspberry blowing to do just the job.

Birdinginspain.com is teaming up with Jordi Bas, a renowned bird photographer who lives near Lleida, and Castellsdelleida.com (a local tourism agent) to offer a special trip for nature photographers who are keen to snap up the Little Bustard in one of its comic, er, dynamic postures.

And then there’s the Lammergeier sortie: we’ll take the lucky few along a long and winding path to a remote hide, we’ll drop bait for the Lammergeier and then we’ll leave the photographers alone with the birds until the following day! Lammergeiers are shy and wary but do not shun free food. So we’ll be hoping for good photographic opportunities for the Lammergeier as well as the Griffon Vulture and perhaps the Egyptian Vulture.

For the rest of the week we’ll concentrate our efforts on Bee-eaters, Penduline Tits, Blue Rock Thrushes, Little Owls, Calandra Larks… and more.

Hope you can make it! For more information go to the Birdinginspain.com website and send an e-mail to Steve West.

Another mid-January is upon us and the time has come for John, Hans, Pierre, Mario and scores of other birders from all over Europe to get out and count their populations of wintering waterbirds.

Every year Wetlands International co-ordinates the European mid-winter waterbird counts and publishes the results. That way we can all see what is happening to our winter water birds and possibly even our climate.

Mind you, there’s usually little need to tell the good birders of Lleida, Catalonia, what is happening to their climate, as they can usually see it for themselves: for at these dates there is almost invariably a blanket of impenetrable fog cloaking the plain between Montsec and the mountains of Tarragona! But the birders of Lleida show their resilience and resourcefulness at such times of adversity and usually end up retiring to the nearest bar and a coffee or two to wait for the fog to lift. And sometimes it does.

Fog was predicted for this weekend. On Saturday the Lleida City Council wanted me to show a small but interested public how to conduct the winter water birds census on their local patch, the municipal park of la Mitjana, riverside woodland on both banks of the River Segre. Before leaving home I checked the small change in my pocket to make sure I had enough to buy a coffee, but when I got to la Mitjana the fog had still not descended.  And neither did it for the rest of the day.

So in the end the census participants and myself had a pleasant walk around la Mitjana. The birds we saw were the usual ones: Moorhens, Coots, Little Grebes, Mallard (and 1 Gadwall), Cormorants, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Grey Wagtail, etc. For me the highlight of the day was the ever-splendid Kingfisher perched on a reedmace head. And the obvious enthusiasm of a good number of my companions.

I must admit though, by about midday I was missing the coffee!

Birding in Catalonia – The Eagle Owl

Birding is a pastime where no two days are ever the same. Regardless of whether you want them to be or not.

I was reminded of this recently. Returning home after escorting our youngest son to school I had hardly re-entered the flat when my wife urged me to grab my binoculars and telescope and to undertake the 15-minute drive to the village of Castelldans.

A group of 4 Swiss birders were eagerly awaiting my arrival. They were keen to see some of the key birds of the drylands of Alfés, above all the elegant Pin-tailed Sandgrouse.

Before long we were all standing on the edge of an area that I knew was good for the Sandgrouse. Our first find, however, was an enchanting flock of some 20 Red-billed Choughs, strolling around and pecking at the ground in their usual lively manner. Over a nearby rocky ridge a Kestrel was kicking up a ruckus, plunging, circling and calling hysterically. I raised my binoculars to see what all the fuss was about. My eyes goggled.

“Good God! An Eagle Owl!” I exclaimed.
My Swiss companions’ optics all immediately homed in on the magnificent bird sitting on an exposed rocky perch. So did the flock of Choughs, which before long had joined forces with the Kestrel in haranguing the unwelcome visitor. The Eagle Owl held its ground, and merely turned its head to blink at its antagonists. However, when this rather hesitant troupe was reinforced by a mixed band of cackling Magpies and determined Jackdaws the owl must have realized that peace and quiet would have to be found elsewhere, and took to flight.

There was a spring in my step for the rest of the day. For undoubtedly there had been a kind of wild, unrepeatable magic in those 5 minutes. It makes me wonder what I’ll see the next time I come here looking for Sandgrouse.

For indications about where to see Eagle Owls (and more than 100 other species) see Steve West’s first book “Where the birds are in northeast Spain”.

The Eagle Owl also lends its name to one of the chapters in Steve West’s highly-praised second book “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains”.

For further information see: http://www.birdinginspain.com

Now I don’t know if it’s the first time on record, but it’s certainly the first time that I have ever seen both Pin-tailed Sandgrouse and Black-bellied Sandgrouse in the same day in the drylands of Alfés.

It’s not unusual to see Pin-tailed Sandgrouse here, in fact this is the only place in Catalunya where the species breeds (some 50 pairs at most?), but seeing a Black-bellied Sandgrouse is quite another matter. For one thing there are probably no more than 10 or 15 pairs of this avian gem left breeding in Catalonia, and they don’t breed at Alfés. Secondly, actually seeing them even if they are in the area requires luck, timing and a little celestial indulgence.

Alfés is only 6 or 7 minutes from my front door so I made a short incursion, mostly to locate the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse’s favoured haunts this season in preparation for a birding trip in late March. Two British birders have booked 2 nights in la Garbinada, a splendid rural hotel in the nearby village of la Granyena, and one of the prize birds around is precisely the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. I don’t suppose the Black-bellied Sandgrouse will stay around until then, as when I last saw it it was flying directly away from me at a nifty speed!

The Dutch Birding Association have done it (but then again they always do!) and so have the UK400 club, will others follow suit? Will the Iberian Green Woodpecker, now standing as Picus viridis sharpei soon be universally accepted as different enough to become Picus sharpei, a species in its own right?

Time will tell, but if past experience is anything to go by then the Dutch are usually the first to split, while others reluctantly follow suit some years later! In practical terms this split will mean a lot more birders on the look out for a bird that previously they would have paid scant attention to. I’ve already had an enquiry or two about the distribution of this species in northeast Spain…from Dutch birders, of course.

It’s December. Imagine you’re walking along the base of a steep rock face
somewhere in the Pre-Pyrenees. You detect a movement and look up. There’s a bird, and it’s close enough for you to see its long, slender downcurved bill and its slate-grey and black plumage. A moment later the bird flutters, and on its open, butterfly-like wings you see a dazzling flash of deep crimson.

Rejoice! You are now among the lucky few that have set eyes on one of nature’s jewels: the Wallcreeper. An amazing bird that is at home clinging to vertical rock faces in order to probe into nooks and crannies and pry out spiders and insects with that slender, downcurved bill. Little wonder then that when foreign birders visit this country this is usually the bird they most want to see, or that even the practical-minded Chinese have baptised it with the graceful name of “rock flower”.

In the breeding season the Wallcreeper inhabits sheer cliff faces in the Pyrenees at altitudes of between 2,000 and 3,000m. That means that between May and September the Wallcreeper is rarely an easy bird to see – first of all one has to reach its secluded mountain haunts and then one has to strain the neck muscles, and often the patience too, in order to spot it among towering mountains of naked rock.

That’s one reason though why winter is not all bad: by then Wallcreepers have left their high mountains in Spain to occupy more accessible terrain in the pre-Pyrenees, Montsant, els Ports…even cliffs by the sea at Cap de Creus.

One day last winter I made a personal pilgrimage to the sunny rock faces of Montsec and I received my reward. I took home the Wallcreeper’s colours and a little of its wing-flashing warmth, clutching onto the vision as I descended once more into the blanket of fog enshrouding Lleida and the surrounding plains.

And I hadn’t even strained my neck muscles.

Article published in Catalonia Today December 2007

Read more at http://www.birdinginspain.com

And Steve West’s latest book “Flying over the Pyrenees, standing on the plains”

Christmas is over

The birder’s getting fat,

So don the greasy Barber

And the silly birding hat.

If you haven’t got a Barber

Then any jacket will do

But if you have no birder’s hat

Then Gold help you!

Happy birding for 2008, and may the world be a little better for people and birds by 2009!

The Aigüestortes National Park was declared as such just over 50 years ago, and became Catalonia‘s first and only National park. It’s a marvellous place for trekking among the most breathtaking high mountain scenery in the central Pyrenees: dozens of lakes, rugged peaks, pine clad valleys and slopes and gushing rivers.

There are two main entrances into this National Park: one is via the Boí valley in the west, with its World Heritage Romanic churches, and the other is via the village of Espot in the east. Last year Birdinginspain.com led a group for Naturetrek to the Aigüestortes NP.
We stayed at Roca Blanca, Espot. And what a great time we had!

Black Woodpecker, Lammergeier, Capercaillie, Citril Finch, Ring Ouzel, Scops Owl (calling outside the hotel!), Dipper, Golden Eagle, Crested Tit, Crossbill, and even an Iberian Chiffchaff (the first possible breeding record for Catalonia!). And then there were the non-birds like Apollo Butterfly, Camberwell Beauty, Alpine Marmot and Chamois, and buckets of fresh air!

But don’t take my word for it: look at the itinerary on the Birdinginspain.com website and read the Naturetrek Catalonia Trip Report for 2007 for yourself.