{"id":125,"date":"2008-05-31T20:45:58","date_gmt":"2008-05-31T18:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/birding-and-wildlife-trips\/birding-in-catalonia-and-aragon\/"},"modified":"2008-05-31T20:45:58","modified_gmt":"2008-05-31T18:45:58","slug":"birding-in-catalonia-and-aragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/birding-and-wildlife-trips\/birding-in-catalonia-and-aragon\/","title":{"rendered":"Birding in Catalonia and Arag\u00f3n"},"content":{"rendered":"

CATALUNYA<\/strong>, NORTH EASTERN SPAIN – End of March, 2008.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s moonscape scenery \u2013 as dry and arid as one can imagine with stunted bare branched shrubs hugging the ground either side of the dust track road.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s a flicker of movement and a triumphant, muted call from Steve who\u2019s pointing vigorously.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ve found the Spectacled Warbler<\/strong>, although it\u2019s determined not to make too easy viewing.<\/p>\n

We are in the driest part of Spain<\/strong>, north of Candasnos and we\u2019ve gone into western Aragon<\/strong>, (Eagle Owl territory according to Steve) but the real surprise lies only a short distance away.\u00a0 Suddenly we drive into an irrigated field on the edge of the plateau, and the colour tableau changes from grey and brown to lush green and colours of spring flowers;\u00a0 on either side of the road a flock of Yellow Wagtails<\/strong> flicked their tails and showed off their brilliant colour, between 20 & 30 of them. What a contrast!<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day in the drylands, we\u2019d spent minutes watching both Black-bellied<\/strong> and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse<\/strong> after disturbing a young Bonelli\u2019s Eagle<\/strong> from the ground.<\/p>\n

If your birding is a part of\u00a0 exploring varied scenery (& therefore habitats), then NE Catalunya with its plains, drylands, & the lower ranges of the Pyrenees<\/strong> is a place to visit.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The contrast is complete with a half day spent in the Montrebei Gorge<\/strong> which is a well trodden pass through the Montsec mountain range<\/strong> \u2013 fast running river, steep wooded cliffs with flowers, butterflies and our objective, the Wallcreeper<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 En route we encounter Cirl Buntings, Rock Buntings and numerous Black Redstarts on their migration. Exactly on cue and deep in the gorge, a Wallcreeper displays<\/strong> for us on rocks opposite a convenient bench while we enjoy our sandwiches.
\n\"There\u2019s
\nThree days of great birding<\/strong> guided by Steve achieving over one hundred species, that was real holiday.\u00a0 (It did start to rain just as we arrived back at Lleida railway station to catch the Ave back to Barcelona \u2013 good timing!). I must mention the Great Spotted Cuckoos<\/strong> if only because the guru taught us that they parasitize on Magpies \u2013 what a useful bird \u2013 and the flock of Little Bustards<\/strong> who clearly quite enjoy posing for Steve\u2019s clients.\u00a0 I suspect that some of the quieter winter period may have been devoted to a little training!<\/p>\n

Go to northern Catalunya<\/strong> in the spring migration season;\u00a0 if you don\u2019t know the region already you\u2019ll get some surprises.\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks Steve.<\/p>\n

Rupert Ormerod
\nExmouth,
\nDevon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CATALUNYA, NORTH EASTERN SPAIN – End of March, 2008. It\u2019s moonscape scenery \u2013 as dry and arid as one can imagine with stunted bare branched shrubs hugging the ground either side of the dust track road.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s a flicker of movement and a triumphant, muted call from Steve who\u2019s pointing vigorously.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ve found the Spectacled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding-and-wildlife-trips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7I752-21","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdinginspain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}