Scenario: Two long term friends, Dermot Hughes (Mr H) from Belfast, Northern Ireland and Colin Reid of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia spent three weeks birding Catalonia and points south. Starting and finishing in Barcelona, we travelled 5,400 kilometers, and visited areas around Barcelona, the lower Pyrenees, the Zaragoza area, the Ebro Delta, Andujar (for the Iberian Lynx), the Caceres area and finished with a brief visit to the Valencia area. We had moderate success.
Transport: We used Vueling airlines as the cheapest option from Dublin, Ireland to Barcelona and back. (99 Euro Aus$157) each return, with 23 kg check-in and 10 kg carry-on bags – always necessary when carrying tripods and optics. They were reliable, friendly and efficient and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.
We hired a car from Budget (188 Euro, Aus$300 each) a manual diesel Citreon that was comfortable to drive and handled the very rough roads we encountered with relative ease. I did most of the driving as Mr H is the navigation expert and had organised the whole trip – good work, Mr H!
The car had a built in sat nav, which was very handy – especially for longer drives across country. For in-close work Mr H preferred Google Maps on his phone, is a lover of old school paper maps and I had an iPad with the free MapsMe app as a backup. With 4 different navigational aides one would think we’d be solid – but we still ended up in the WhereTF Are We state at times…..but not for long.
Accommodation: Mr H had organised everything through Air BnB – who we have used before on similar trips. Places varied from a very nice 2 bedroom apartment in Barcelona, to a 16th century 4 bedroomed apartment in Trujillo, to share house type accommodation, where we shared a bedroom, and a rather flash house where we shared the kitchen with the older live in owners. All had good heating, comfortable beds and clean bathrooms.
But - only two had a kettle to boil water, one of which had no lid, and only 3 had a toaster. I know this sounds strange, but I drink instant coffee – a lot of instant coffee - and we both like toast with our breakfast. These items are standard in our own homes, but not in Spanish households. Nothing dramatic, just different, we had to make adjustments….
We found all the addresses easily, and the owners all provided flexible access and clear instructions when asked. Mr H did try to keep the price at a ‘reasonable cost’ as neither of us is keen on wasting money. Barcelona was expensive, there was no real way of getting around it, but most of the others were within our budget.
Internet access: Every place we stayed had WiFi and, in my opinion, good WiFi - certainly compared to the service I get at home. We didn’t try to access WiFi in any public places but I did notice several had ‘free WiFi’ signs.
Research: Once again Mr H had done most of the research based on trip reports (not many available for this time of year) and on a couple of books he purchased.
Where to watch birds in Northern & Eastern Spain by Ernest Garcia & Michael Rebane and Where to watch birds in Southern & Western Spain by Ernest Garcia & Andrew Patterson both proved useful and fairly reliably accurate, although a little dated.
When and where to watch birds in Catalunya by Richard Gutierrez sounded like a great option, but proved very difficult to use due to its ‘construction’ and we got quite frustrated trying to match species with locations, seasons and locales.
We used Collins Bird Guide, of course, as the best bird book in the world (in our opinion) and I had the app on my iPhone for calls and ease of use in the field.
Our targets dictated our direction – Wallcreeper, Lammergier, both Bustards, both Sandgrouse, Alpine Accentor, Audouin’s Gull, Marbled Teal, Red-crested Pochard, White-headed Duck, Spanish imperial Eagle, Lesser Short-toed, Thekla and Dupont’s Lark, Moustached Warbler, Black Wheatear, Citril Finch, Spanish Sparrow – probably most of the usual Spanish winter targets for any visiting birder? We didn’t get them all, I’ll tell you now, but we did OK for two 60+ birders scratching around in the late winter months. I had made a request we try for The Lynx so Mr H had built in two days in the Andujar area specifically for the hunt.
On the road we referred to E-bird for recent reports of specific species. These proved both useful and useless – but, as always, no report is a guarantee of any bird so we accepted all research as such and went with open minds.
A few brief notes on driving in Spain:
1. If you live outside Europe it’s best to take an International Driving Permit. The car hire company don’t need it (well, they accepted my Australian License) but apparently it upsets the police if you don’t have one if they stop you. They didn’t, but I had one anyway.
2. The Spanish LOVE roundabouts and pedestrian crossings. I appreciate roundabouts myself as a means to keep the traffic flowing, but, Jesus, it’s over the top. And the pedestrian crossings? There are MILLIONS of them!
3. The roads are very good. The toll/motorways have 120 k/hr speed limits, but we estimated some cars regularly exceeded 150 k/hr. Trucks in number, but they generally stayed in the right lane and indicated well. The tolls were not excessive.
4. The non-toll roads are set at 90 k/hr and are excellent, but naturally, a little slower for longer drives. Speed bumps as you approach villages are common and certainly control the speed in those populated spots.
5. The side and city streets could be a little bumpy, but very navigable.
6. We did use some dirt roads – on the plains and on the Lynx search – and they were horrendous. Huge multiple potholes that required excessive caution and first and second gear for the most time. I suspect they are left like this to stop people driving too fast through these important areas?
7. Other drivers – no issues. I made some stupid mistakes like driving the wrong way down one-way streets, turning onto the left hand side of the road ect, but didn’t experience any road rage. Maybe they were laughing too much to get angry…
8. Villages – very, very tight streets, especially in Trujillo. I mean extremely tight. Some medium sized villages had one-way systems that were confusing and parking was surprisingly difficult when we just wanted a cup of coffee.
9. And you need to drive on the right hand side of the road……..ALL the time.
A few brief notes on eating in Spain
I’m not trying to teach you to suck eggs but if you’re not familiar with the Spanish style, this might be something you would appreciate knowing.
Breakfast we took care of ourselves, wanting to be on the road with full stomachs as early as possible so I can’t offer advice on the morning meal.
However, if you’re looking for dinner in the evening, be prepared to eat AFTER 20.00 (8pm). We didn’t want to eat that late, just before bed, so had to look at alternatives.
It’s easier, if you can, to eat between 14.30 (2.30pm) and 17.30 (5.30pm) when most café/restaurants offer a Day Menu for varying amounts (10 – 20 Euro per person). This involves ~5 choices for first course, ~5 choices for second course, ~3 choices of desert, a bottle, or at least a glass each, of local wine + bread. When we had the time and could tear ourselves away from birding, we searched out the cheaper end of the deal in the afternoon and ate well. Otherwise we cooked for ourselves – one of the advantages of Air BnB.
After the first night we never did eat late at night so I can’t offer advice on cost or choice but imagine it’s higher and better respectively.
The coffee is fantastic! Small cups of ‘café con leche’ (coffee with milk) were a delight at 1.15-1.80 Euro. I could drink it all day. And you can smoke with your coffee/food (outside only) – may not mean much to a non-smoker, but feeling like a parasite most of the time, its nice to be able to enjoy both for a change.
OK onto the trip. I am not going to list every bird we saw everywhere. We saw a lot of species multiple times, daily in some cases, for example Sardinian and Cetti’s Warblers in all suitable habitat. If you fail on any of those, there’s nothing I can do to help you. I have focused on the Wish List we had (see above) and what we did to see them, where we found – or didn’t find – them and how well we saw them. Each evening we completed a log of all the birds seen that day and I updated my blog (reidcolin55@blogspot.com) - most of this information is taken from that daily update.
I include non-birding happenings as well – I hope you enjoy my style.
Day 1 – 25.1.19 (Friday)
I got to the drop off point at Dublin airport for rental cars and pulled into the Europcar area. As usual a rep came over to check the car back in. He went round the car examining everything in close detail – I have never had anyone inspect a return so closely. Eventually he called me over and pointed out a minor rusty scrape on the front left alloy rim and a small piece of rubber missing from the tyre. I mean it was minimal and appeared to me to have been there for some time. Anyway – he wasn’t happy about it and advised that they were holding E500 against my credit card and the manager would be in touch ‘in a few days’. I assured him I hadn’t hit anything, that I was used to driving on the left and that the scrape could have been there before I picked up the car.
I wasn’t happy and will argue the point, needless to say, however, I now have to wait to hear from ‘the manager’.
Mr H was getting the bus from Belfast and we connected at the airport, checked in quickly for our Vueling flight. Apparently it’s the ‘cheap’ version of Iberian Air – the national Spanish airline. Much the same as Jetstar (Australian) and Ryanair – basic, no frills, but 23 kg check-in luggage, 10 kg carry-on + a ‘small bag’ which was all good for 99 euro (A$157) return (each) – and it left half an hour late.
Non-eventful flight and arrival, found our way to the Budget desk and then to the car pick-up in the adjoining garage. The car was, of course, left hand drive, diesel, and manual – a Citreon. I drove. I only got on the wrong side of the road three times.
Luckily there was little traffic, but very narrow streets around our first two night’s accommodation in the suburb of Gava, on the coast, made for cautious driving – only 15 minutes, but a slightly traumatic 15 minutes…….
We met Laura, our ‘host’, outside - late twenties with great English – and dumped our gear in the ground floor, modern-style apartment, before heading out to a nearby supermarket and stocking up on the basics for breakfast and lunch.
Then we went looking for a place to eat. We drove along the seafront taking a while to find parking then walked into the only restaurant in sight – El Txoko, a Basque style joint apparently. It wasn’t really as cheap as it looked. We had a fish dish served up by the waiter, a bit of bread, a beer for Mr H and a bottle of water for me - E48 (=A$76). At E2.35 a bottle, next time I’ll ask for tap water…….Anyway, the fish was tasty and, probably best at this time of night (21.30), light.
We returned to the apartment – safely – unpacked the gear and planned for the morrow.
Day 2 – 26.1.19 (Saturday)
We were up and out just after 8. Daylight was just done and we arrived on site at Espais Naturals del Delta del Llobregat before it ‘opened’ at 9.
It was the noisiest place we have ever birded being right under the end of the runway for the main airport. The low overhead aircraft didn’t seem to worry the birds any, but it did make it difficult for Mr H to hear things and completely impossible for me.
W parked up outside and walked in. As it turned out the road in was never opened to the general public. Maybe because it was a Saturday? We never did find out, but the 30 minute walk in wasn’t too bad early on.
Virtually our first bird out of the car was a lifer for me – Spotless Starling. We saw a number of ‘Starlings’ during the morning, some of which looked more spotty than others, but we were confident with most of them.
Our walk in took us along the side of a canal/dyke/river lined with reed beds – very tall phragmite style reeds. We picked up a number of common european birds plus a couple of Western Marsh Harriers, Green Woodpeckers, European Serins (poor views) and lots of Northern Shoveler.
The area is fairly compact with a number of good quality hides overlooking areas of open water, so we had a few Eurasian Teal and Wigeon, Common Coots (couldn’t find any Crested), Little Grebes, Northern Mallard, Gadwall and, from one hide, a small flock of Grey Lag Geese (14) and 2 Common Snipe. Nearby a local birder pointed out a Purple Swamphen to us – my first European PS. At another hide 2 Black-necked Grebes showed really well and a couple of Common Pochard snoozed in the corner.
On the way back to the main junction Common Chiffchaffs started to appear in number and we must have seen 50 in the end, all madly flycatching. Mr H heard a Firecrest and we eventually had poor back-lit views – my first, I think, since the 70s.
A Green Sandpiper flew over-head about then and that was it for the waders. Down at the beach we scanned the ocean, but only had half a dozen distant Northern Gannets and fly-by Yellow-legged Gulls.
In the scrubby dunes behind the beach – a flock of European Serins appeared and disappeared, Crested Larks did much the same, being bloody hard to find on the ground, and 2 Hoopoes butterflied into the distance. A single male Black Redstart also put in an appearance.
Mr H had been hearing Cetti’s and Sardinian Warblers all morning and had seen one Cetti’s, briefly. I hadn’t. As we walked back to the car a Sardinian put in a brief fly-across-the-track-and-disappear-into-a-tree-never-to-be-seen-again appearance – as they do. We also had one butterfly – a Wall Brown Lasiommata megera.
We were pretty knackered by the time we got back to the car at 12.30, so decided a coffee was required and headed for a village not too far away. We got what we needed and really good it was too – I could live on this!
As we felt we had exhausted the birding possibilities for the day – it had now, incredibly, reached 18 degrees and was quite warm in the sun – we decided to get a train into Barcelona and do the tourist thing for the afternoon.
So we did. Walking for ages around the old town, visiting (or at least seeing from the outside) Gaudi’s crazy creation – spectacular in fact – the Barcelona gothic Cathedral and walked up Las Ramblas, the famous shopping street that, sadly, was the site for a terrorist car attack a couple of years ago.
We also found some parakeets – Monk Parakeet (seen previously in Athens) and Mitre Parakeet (Lifer) screeching and arguing in the trees in some street or other.
Along the way, to save Mr H dying of malnutrition, we chose, at random, a small side street restaurant and had an amazing meal for E13 each. I had a seafood paella (look at me eating seafood!) and, for second course, baked chicken, all washed down with a carafe of local rough red wine, followed by another excellent coffee. Soooo much better than last night’s expensive effort. The people were lovely and the food served almost immediately – and really good. This is the way to go!
We made it back to a train station, back to the car in Viladecans and home by 18.45.
Lifers – 2 New European – 5 Spanish – 53
Day 3 – 27.1.19 (Sunday)
Breakfasted, packed up and out we had decided to bird another part of the wetlands south of Barcelona before heading north.
This wetland (El Prat de Llobregat) was more productive, but was the at the other end of the airport runway and we had a multitude of jets passing very low overhead coming into land – I mean, very low…..
Once again it didn’t seem to worry the birds, just made conversation impossible.
We had a Black Redstart in the carpark before we even got out of the car and, as we walked towards the entrance to the reserve we were looking at Starling sp on the roof of a farmhouse when I spotted a Little Owl sitting out in the open. It sat up well for scope views, but as soon as I pulled out the camera – pissed off.
In the field beside the farmhouse Mr H was scanning and I said ‘Stone Curlew would be nice?’ and he said ‘Well, there’s one there’ There were in fact 3 and I got my one and only lifer for the day. Rather distant, but OK in the scope, doing the usual SC thing – standing in the open assuming they couldn’t be seen.
We headed down the wrong track to start with along with dozens of cyclists and joggers. Realising our mistake, we headed back and down the right track and, although there were quite a few non-birding walkers, it was much quieter.
There were a lot of the same birds as yesterday, but this time I did manage to get good views of European Serin. We added Greater Flamingo (14), Mediterranean Gull, Short-toed Treecreeper (2), Tawny Pipit (1), Little Stint (1), Common Kingfisher, Spotted Redshank (3) and Eurasian Tree Sparrow to our Spanish trip list among other, more common species.
We also had average views of Sardinian Warbler, good views of a Cetti’s Warbler for a limited time and distant views of a Water Rail, another of which we heard in the huge reed beds.
Unfortunately our targets – Audouin’s Gull and Moustached Warbler did not figure.
By the time we were heading back it had got really, really busy with hundreds of people walking - families, couples, singles, groups, unbelievable - but it was a Sunday afternoon, after all. Back at the car we found some dickhead had parked so close to the driver’s side I had to get in the passenger side – not happy Jack. However, we headed off after something to eat and found a place for a quick coffee in the nearby town.
Then it was onto the motorway and heading north along the coast. Tolls = E13.20 (A$21) for the 170 km drive, about as much as we expected. We arrived without any incident in the Cap de Creus region, a headland just south of the French border at 16.30 and found our way to Pau where we had our next AirBnB stay organised. A quaint little village set on the side of the headland, all narrow streets and old houses and our stay was in one, renovated of course. A one bedroomed self-contained apartment – with a sofa bed for me (I volunteered).
As soon as we’d checked in we headed off towards the coast round the north side of the headland, ending up at the end of a short road just south of Llanca, north of the actual headland looking across the bay. Immediately we saw shearwaters.
Jumping out of the car and setting up the scopes we soon had half a dozen Eastern Mediterranean/Yelkouan Shearwaters heading north (so to speak) at a few hundred meters distance. We’d had a single very distant bird off the Peloponnese in Greece in 2017, but these were much more satisfying views. There was a ferocious northwest wind howling down the coast and it was a struggle just to stand up. We did however, have a bit of cover, but the shearwaters were loving it as they sheared by, their white bellies and underwing – fringed by black leading and trailing edge – contrasting with their dark upperparts, reminiscent of my favourite Manx.
Pretty happy with that we drove ‘home’ the long way round, then went looking for somewhere to eat. Almost dipped! Nothing open in Pau on a Sunday night so we drove to a nearby village and tried there. One bar/restaurant wasn’t serving food, one had only opened for lunch and the pizzeria didn’t open till 20.00 – an hour and a half away. We decided to head home and just eat whatever we had, but as I drove up through the village to find somewhere to turn, we found a small café/restaurant that had a menu operating ‘in 5 minutes time!’ (at 19.00) and parked our asses there. I had a burger (minus the bun), a fried egg and chips and Mr H had an omelet and salad, plus a beer and two coffees later, the bill was E19 (A$30), cheap by Spanish standards, all in a warm, friendly, cute (?) little bar – really could eat like this every day.
Lifers – 3 New European – 6 Spanish – 70
Day 4 – 28.1.19 (Monday)
The wind died down overnight so we decided to start at the high ground and work down.
Our first destination therefore was at a monastery high on the Cape – Conjunt monumental de Sant Pere de Rodes. Our (hopeful) target here was Alpine Accentor down for their holidays from the real mountains.
There weren’t any vacationers. In fact we saw f-all apart from a female Sardinian Warbler and a Short-toed Treecreeper. As we walked back to the car it started to snow – but turned to sleet very quickly, causing no issues.
We dropped down to the lowlands/coast and spent the rest of the day dodging showers in hides around Del Cortalet wetlands.
A word on the wetlands so far seen – brilliant! The Spanish have done themselves proud building sturdy, user-friendly hides with easy to use viewing points, situated in positions that take full advantage of the environments, solid, safe tracks and boardwalks and maps that are easy to follow and clearly descriptive. We have been impressed.
Anyway – the first part of the Del Cortalet wetlands required us to enter through a barrier and pay E5 for a ticket to get out. Given the amount of infrastructure and work to control the water levels it’s a fair price to pay – and you know how I hate paying for anything.
The first bird we saw was a White Stork standing on its nest right beside the car park. The only other WS’s I have seen were 3 flying away from us in Greece in 2017 – so this was a pleasure. We reckoned at least 170 were present through the wetlands – and there were probably more.
We also had a lot of the previously seen and common species of Duck, hundreds of Grey lag Geese and about 20 Greater Flamingos. We added two new trip birds – European Spoonbill and Northern Goshawk – which took us a while to work out, it being perched on the ground on an island.
It was lunch time by the time we got back to the car and we were hanging out for coffee – or at least I was – so we went to a nearby village and had same. Then it was back to the other half of the wetland – no charge this time and the birding was good.
A flooded field provided habitat for hundreds of Dunlin and Common Snipe – feeding out in the open - and among them, at least 5 Little Stints, a heap of Water Pipits and Kentish Plovers.
We walked for quite a distance stopping off at the various hides and seeing more of the same birds we saw at the first place. We ended up at the beach – nothing of interest there and the sea was empty. Re-tracing our steps we spotted a flock of 28 Common Cranes flying in to land somewhere distantly – probably, again, the first place we had visited.
It was now 15.30 and we decided to head to the Cape itself as Mr H had some information regarding Wallcreepers on the sea cliffs. It seemed unlikely but what the hell do you do? It took us ages to get there via an unsealed, rough road that wound around the south side of the headland and eventually petered out, despite the map’s description. We did walk in to one area and scanned the cliffs in the setting sun, but nooooo Wallcreepers.
So it was back to first and second gear for another half an hour to get out before dark.
On the way home we stopped off and stocked up on food, including two pizzas and salad for dinner – and a bottle of Spanish wine for all of E1.56…….it really was quite nice, is quite nice…..
Lifers – 3 New European – 7 Spanish total – 90
Day 5 – 29.1.19 (Tuesday)
Time to move on to new pastures. We packed up and left by 9, headed for the Cap de Creus headland again – this time to the lighthouse side. We drove right up to the lighthouse (on bitumen), parked up and looked around.
Then we walked back down the road a bit and looked around.
Then we drove back along the road, parked up and looked around. Not much to see anywhere! (We did add Common Linnet to the trip list) We had still being hoping for an easy Wallcreeper – but were not to get off that lightly. A few birds around, but nothing worth reporting here. Gave it away and headed west. Mr H took over the driving and I sat and enjoyed the scenery for a change. Only one toll – E20 after we went through a 5km tunnel.
We stopped for coffee a couple of times, and filled up with fuel, and once again just 7 kms short of our destination for a circling flock? kettle? group? of Eurasian Griffon Vultures high above the gorge we were in. A lone Peregrine accompanied them.
We had hit our first snow on the way as we climbed into the lower Pyrenees, crossing a couple of passes on the way; thick snow on the fields and trees, but the road was completely clear and dry and no issue.
Our destination was a small village – Figoles – close to the slightly larger ‘town’ of Organya. We checked in with our host and then decided to walk the ‘500 meters’ to the bigger village in the hopes of something to eat. It was, in fact, closer to 2 kms each way and we found everything was closed on a Tuesday. WTF?? But we did have a pair of Rock Buntings on the road and a White-throated Dipper on the river to add to our trip list.
Anyway, we bought meatballs, rice & a capsicum in the supermarket and Mr H rustled a tasty little meal to go with the beer.
Lifers – 3 New European – 6 Spanish – 99
Day 6 – 30.1.19 (Wednesday)
It was a cold, frosty morning, but no extra snow, no wind and clear blue sunny skies. We had done a bit of research overnight re reports of Wallcreeper, Lammergier and Snow Finch on E bird and had identified a gorge in the next valley with recent (this year, 10 days ago) reports of the creeper and the vulture so we were headed there over the intervening mountain. The roads were completely cleared but the snow was thick in the fields and trees. We think Mr H was flashed speeding but we will have to wait and see.
We got to the gorge (Congost de Collegats), about 20 kms south of Sort, on the main road. There were two tunnels in the gorge, but the original road had been left open to walkers, climbers and bike riders. We parked up at the second gorge and walked this side road with cliffs on both sides and a river below us. To us it appeared absolutely perfect creeper habitat. The cliffs were a couple of hundred meters high, with vertical slabs and crevices and holes which one would imagine would be heaven to a wintering creeper. Above us Eurasian Griffon Vultures lazily circling – we counted 45-50 at one point during the morning. A half an hour or so in and I thought one of the vultures looked a little different – it was, it was a Lammergier. Brilliant. We had relatively good views of it before it disappeared over the crest and re-appeared a couple of times high above the other vultures before drifting south out of sight.
We carried on walking slowly, scanning the cliffs but seeing nothing apart from the occasional Blackbird or Robin. When we reached the end of this section – we walked back repeating the exercise. No luck.
Lunch time - so we drove a few ks down the road to the nearest village and had coffee, discussing our next move. Then it was back to the first tunnel (the ‘Sector Nord’ described in the report, we think) and a similar set up re the old road. Again we walked it slowly, continually scanning the cliffs getting what is now recognized as a rare affliction affecting only ageing, idiot birders – wallcreeper-neck.
Having done the road twice we stopped a hundred meters short of the car and I had a smoke while we, again, reviewed our options. I’d love to tell you this was when a Wallcreeper magically appeared – but I’d be lying….. We did have 3 Lammergiers glide smoothly over us giving me time to get a couple of shit shots, but it was a great view.
Other birds encountered in the gorge were few and far between – a couple of Alpine Choughs and Common Ravens and a small handful of small stuff as noted above plus a couple of Great Tits. Oh, we had White-throated Dippers on the river and one Short-toed Treecreeper as well.
Other than that it was a tough day and as we left the area after 3 and headed back over the mountain road we planned what we would try next… We did our notes and sorted photos until 18.45 when we drove over to Orgyana to have dinner. The only café/restaurant we could enquire within didn’t start serving until 21.00 (9pm)!! Jesus Christ on a bike, all we want is dinner, not a sleep over! We bought some canned meatballs, mushrooms and a jar of sauce and made our own dinner.
We’re sharing our Air BnB with an Australian guy from Sydney and his German wife. They live in Germany near the Luxembourg border and are on a climbing holiday. Mr H and I have one bedroom with single beds and share the bathroom and kitchen with the other guests. It’s a really cool house with narrow staircases, low ceilings and polished wooden floors.
Lifers – 4 New European – 7 Spanish - 101
Day 7 – 31.1.19 (Thursday)
Up and out again by 8.30 (daylight at about 8). Today we were heading for the highest peak we could get to – a ski resort at Porte del Comte. It took us the best part of an hour to get to the bottom of the ski lift and we joined a queue of eager skiers to buy tickets for the chair lift. We were determined to get as high as we could in search of White-winged Snow Finch. The snow was crispy and dry, it was cold, but not bitter, the sun was shining, the sky was clear and we purchased our lift tickets with high hopes. E15 saw us both sitting pretty as the chair lift carried us up the slopes.
At the top there was a howling wind blowing all before it. The chances of any small bird staying on the ground were remote - we were nearly blown away. However, we persevered and staggered around the area seeking the partial protection of the small pine trees that dotted the frozen landscape. We did see two Common Crossbills to add to the trip lists, but other than that nothing.
Back down the chair lift again and into the après ski lodge for pretty shitty coffee before venturing out again in the more comfortable conditions to wander around the carpark looking for stuff. We found a few Crested Tits which eluded successful photo capture – again, my first since the ‘70s - brilliant little bird though.
We then drove further up the hill to the top of the resort where snow-shoeing was the thing, but only saw a few more Crossbills in flight. The rest of the morning was spent driving around narrow roads – all clear – surrounded by snow covered mountains and fields, past quaint villages – stone houses, wooden doors, narrow streets, snow covered roofs – all very picturesque, but few birds. We stopped at random intervals where it looked good and did pick up a few new birds for the list – Cirl Bunting, Golden Eagle and a couple of Dunnocks that we tried, unsuccessfully, to string into Alpine Accentors.
We ended up in La Seu d’Urgell where we decided to eat now (at 14.30) rather than risk another disappointment tonight. I had pig’s cheeks which came with an interesting physical description by the waitress as she said ‘pork’ and slapped her own face. They were very nice. I also had a small carafe of red wine which affected my concentration for a while afterwards.
Discussing our options we thought we’d maintain our tradition of seeing border areas (think the Turkish, Bulgarian and Albanian borders in Greece 2017 & Mexican in the USA last year) and headed for the Andoran border – just for the hell of it. We didn’t see any interesting birds up that way.
Heading back down to Orgyana – my head now clearing – we decided another gorge walk would give us another go at that bloody pink creeper and so stopped off at a similar tunnel/closed side road scenario as described yesterday.
We didn’t see any creepers, but we did have a European Wild Pig dash across the quiet side road just in front of us which made us both jump - our first wild Spanish mammal.
Closer to ‘home’ Mr H suggested a short walk along the river bank in the last of the daylight and we found another flock of Rock Buntings, of which I made poor effort photographing. We also had a flock of Crag Martins overhead – we’ve had them at several locations over the past few days, but I keep forgetting to mention them.
Then it was back to the comfort and warmth of our Air BnB, having it all to ourselves as the climbing couple had departed back to Germany this morning.
Lifers – 4 New European – 7 Spanish - 108
Day 8 - 1.2.19 (Friday)
We had breakfast, packed up and left Fijoles at 8.10. It had rained overnight and was still spitting. The rain increased as we drove southwest and for the first hour was pretty heavy. We had to abandon plans to drive a minor back road in a last chance attempt at Citril Finch, sticking to the main roads until the rain cleared and we headed towards Vessants de la Noguera, just north of Alfarras.
We had identified another, last ditch, site for Wallcreeper from recent records in Ebird – 2 had been seen in the gorge on 21st. After this we would be too far south.
We parked up and walked in along the narrow tunnel-strewn access road that ended at a dam wall. The sides of the gorge were not too high – our side easily visible, the opposite side across the outflow river from the dam, more difficult. We walked slowly along, scanning the cliffs again, bare-eyed and with bins, watching for a telltale flicker.
We reached the end of the gorge without any success and I scanned the dam wall hoping against hope – my hopes were dashed, nothing moved. Bolstering our optimism we headed back along the road still looking, looking, looking.………
Mr H was scanning a cliff on the opposite side of the river where half a dozen Spotless Starlings were hanging out around an apparent roost or nest site, when he said the words we had both being dying to say ‘I’ve got one’.
I managed to get onto it very quickly – unusually, as Mr H’s left and right often get confused and the cliff was a mass of misleading descriptive points – and we both watched a tiny grey shape flutter up the vertical wall for a short time through our bins before we both went for our scopes and…………..lost it. Jesus Christ on a cliff face!!
We spent the next two hours trying to re-find the little grey shit, but never did see it again. Man, it was frustrating. If we’d got the scopes on it it would have been a reasonable view, as it was with just the bins it was very unsatisfactory. It WAS a view, but it was a poor one. All that time and effort for this? You know what its like, no point in belaboring it.
We decided to walk back to the car and drive up to the same spot and keep looking. Almost back at the car we met a Spanish couple who were sharing one pair of bins and one scope and didn’t speak any English. She was looking at a raptor perched on top of the nearside cliff and we had a look at it, within a few seconds it took off and glided across the gorge to the opposite face where it perched up on an apparent nest site providing cracking scope views of a Bonelli’s Eagle.
After we’d watched our fill – the bird was still perched up, but the lure of a better Wallcreeper was too much to bear – we drove back up to The Spot, (just before the second tunnel, on the opposite side of the river in the big rock/cliff with the large ‘cave’ in it’s face) parked up and ate lunch between taking turns to scan The Cliff. All to no avail and eventually we accepted (partial) defeat and headed out.
Driving south towards our next destination in Chiprana (near Caspe) we stopped off at a spot Mr H had researched which promised some good stuff. Just out from the village/town of Bujaraloz, a narrow bitumen road runs across the agricultural plains. About a kilometer along this bird movements in the fields beside the car brought us to a standstill and we quickly identified my third lifer for the day – Calandra Larks. Lots of them flying around over the fields reminding me of Black-fronted Dotterels back home, landing and disappearing as they blended in so well with the recently ploughed soil. We did get some views on the ground however, which was satisfying.
A few minutes later we picked up 3 Great Bustards about 300 meters away, then another group of 3, then 10 more flew in! Brilliant!! An impressive bird and my fourth lifer for the day (Mr H had two – this bird and the earlier obvious one).
We explored the road further, but really the first kilometer was the best, although we did pick up 30 Common Cranes in the salt lake about 2 ks further on.
Heading back to the main road we continued on towards Chiprana, stopping off once more at a couple of lagoons just outside the town. There wasn’t much there – a few Northern Mallard & Eurasian Teal, but 18 Green Sandpipers together was an interesting statistic. We also saw 2 Great Egrets which, according to the book, are not supposed to be in this area. (And yes, they definitely WERE Great Egrets, despite my single, historical failure to correctly identify an egret, which some people never let me forget….)
(FUP note – we believe that nowadays Great Egret would be a common species in this area – it was just that Mr H’s Collins was an early copy and the map was now out of date, given the continuing expansion of Egrets in general.)
We finished the day at our next Air BnB in Chiprana. A nice enough place, but pretty boring compared to where we have been staying – one bedroom, twin beds, en-suite shower and toilet, shared kitchen and sitting/eating area. It’s all ours, though, as no one else is staying here so that’s OK. We unpacked, stuffed around for a while while we waited for the only restaurant/café in town to open at 19.00, then walked down the street to it, to find they weren’t actually serving food tonight!
F..k me, I’ve never had so many problems trying to buy a freaking meal! What is it with this place? I mean the people are lovely – generally – and the food is good – when you can get it. But, if they’re not open, they’re starting to serve after we plan to be asleep, now they’re open, but they’re not cooking at all!!
We walked back to the car and drove 10 kms to Caspe where we did find a café and we did get a nice meal – I had grilled chicken which came with an omelet, small side salad and chips, Mr H had a ‘beefsteak’ which was accompanied by the same, but a fried egg in place of the omelet. A glass of wine for him, water for me, as designated driver, and a coffee = E27 or A$45. We got lost in the old city on the way back while looking for a supermarket. We didn’t find one but did eventually find our way back out to the main road and home.
Lifers – 8 New European – 11 Spanish - 116
Day 9 – 2.2.19 (Saturday)
We left early – 7.45 – with intention of being on site at potential Dupont’s lark habitat at or even before dawn. When we did get to the area the wind was blowing a gale and it was raining, cloudy, grey and dull. On the open plains on foot we had little or no hope of seeing an elusive, thin-on-the-ground species.
We moved to a new area, - El Planeron - between Belchite and the almost deceased village of Codo – and drove the tracks slowly, at just above walking pace, watching for bird flocks. We stopped a couple of times and walked good-looking habitat, struggling against a wind you could lean into.
Every time we put something up – it was gone, blown to hell and back on the fiendish gale. A difficult, frustrating process, especially with larks, for God’s sake! We did find a small flock of Lesser Short-toed Larks to start off the ticks-for-the-day list, but didn’t get particularly good views at the time.
After an hour or so of this we moved to a different area on the other side of the motorway and again drove the rough, stony tracks slowly and carefully, watching and stopping for any birds that seemed interesting or, in fact, actually landed within view. By now the rain had stopped - and it stayed dry – the sun was breaking through, but the wind was still rockin’ the car.
This time Mr H sat in the back while I drove so we could both scope from the windows without disturbing the birds too much. This worked well and eventually, after much discussion, we identified a small handful of Thekla Larks from among the hundreds of Crested Larks. It did take some doing and having both species in the same scope view really helped. We also had ground views of Lesser Short-toed which made up for the poor views of earlier in the day. However, no Dupont’s nor any Sandgrouse sp showed at all.
Moving between two locations somewhere, an Iberian Grey Shrike flew across the road. We didn’t see it land, but it was an obvious identification. Later in the day we had one perched on a grass bank, which was a good follow up. We also had two huge flocks of Stock Doves totaling, we estimated, 250 birds, a couple of flocks of Western Jackdaws and a single Hen Harrier – all firsts for our Spanish list.
Late in the afternoon we headed back to the roads near Bujaraloz to see the Greater Bustards again and, hopefully, get some photos. We did see 8, but they flew almost immediately and the best I could do was distant flight shots.
We thought we would sit near the drying salt pan lake up the road with hopes of sandgrouse coming in to drink before dark, but it was cold, still very windy and the lake was really too big to cover, so we gave it away and headed back towards Caspe to pick up dinner. On the way, a Little Owl was sitting in the middle of the road and lackadaisically flew off, landing a few meters from the car – the wind was obviously giving it hell, but after glaring at us, staring at it - while I fumbled for my camera - it blew away with the wind into the distance.
Lifers – 11 New European – 14 Spanish - 122
Day 10 – 3.2.19 (Sunday)
Today was, essentially, a moving day. We had a slow start, long breakfast and it was 9 before we hit the road. Mr H had researched Alpine Accentor locations and so, after an hour and a bit, we started trying to get to some of these places.
The wind was still blowing tobacco out of cigarettes and the north side of Reserve National de Puertos de Beseit, just inland from the Ebro delta, was, we thought, blown out. We made a half assed attempt at access near Horta de San Joan, but quickly moved on through a very scenic pass and round to Roquetes where we thought it might be calmer.
A long winding drive up the mountain to 1,000 meters followed. We tried to drive to the peak at 1,400 but patches of ice appeared on the corners above the residential, holiday home area and we decided caution was the better part etc, parked up and set off on what Mr H described as a 1.5 km walk………
More than an hour and a half and 3.7 kms later, having braved an evil wind of apparently gale force strength at times, that tried to blow us to our deaths, and steep sections that made tears come to my eyes, we reached a point just below the summit. Sometimes you just have to keep on putting one foot in front of the other.
We had only seen Common Chaffinches on the ‘walk’ but agreed to give it away without completing the walk, as, going further, we felt, was too risky. It took us another hour to get back down and even that seemed dangerous at times as that evil minded wind did everything to sweep us off our feet or cause us to break into a run down ice spotted road.
We retired quickly to a local café for much needed refreshment before heading back down the mountain and on to the Ebro delta.
We headed for the south side and drove right out to the beach. That f…….g wind followed us and was blowing a hurricane. It was impossible to hold the scope steady and I was pretty pissed off. Mr H was more determined and we stopped and scoped at several locations, seeing nothing new, but adding a few good birds to the trip list – Glossy Ibis, Black-winged Stilt, Red Knot (1), and Sanderling included.
We had to meet our next Air BnB host just down the coast at Les Cases d’Alcanar, about 15 minutes south of the Delta in an apartment near the beach. We got there and waited a few minutes before she showed us in and around. Then we decided we needed milk.
We wandered around the immediate area without success – no supermarkets or mini markets even visible, never mind open. The cafés and restaurants were all closed or looked pretty flash and when Mr H Googled the nearest supermarket-type place that was still open (19.00 Sunday evening) it was 25 minutes away in Vinaros.
We drove there and he navigated me around and down and up and in and out of winding, one-way, narrow streets to find, the market was not just closed, but had ceased to exist altogether……dam Google!
As we maneuvered our way back out of town, a small greengrocer-type shop appeared and I parked in a disabled spot while he ran in and got milk. Then it was back to the apartment. A load of much needed washing was on, I was tinkering with the coffee machine and ‘pop’ all the lights went out.
Donning head torches we investigated and found a circuit breaker ‘down’.
No problem! We turned it back up. Problem. It wouldn’t stay up. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong so, reluctantly, called the host. She sent her husband round and, after he had pulled the plug on the water heater, the safety switch stayed up and the lights came on. He promised to have it fixed tomorrow.
Lifers – 11 New European – 14 Spanish - 131
Day 11 – 4.2.19 (Monday)
The wind dropped overnight, Thank Christ, and we were out by 8.15, on our way to the north side of the delta, via the coast as much as possible, as we checked harbours and beaches for one of our target birds – Audouin’s Gull.
We arrived at the far side of the delta without success – and the day continued in the same vein. Our other targets – Moustached Warbler and Red-crested Pochard were as elusive as …. Well, I can’t think of an analogy that I could print, but you get the picture, I’m sure.
We searched all apparently suitable habitat for all three birds, but the reed beds seemed too sparse (for the Warbler), the lagoons too shallow (for the duck) and there just weren’t any bloody A’s Gulls anywhere!
We noticed a sign for a supermarket and went in to refresh some supplies. While there we looked for Ponche – a Spanish type of brandy that Mr H had introduced me to a week or so ago. We drink it straight and its very nice! We’d finished the bottle and had been trying to get some more. There wasn’t any in the Lidl or the Dia supermarkets so we asked the staff. They dragged a guy out of the back room and he told us in broken English where we could buy some, so off we went to that supermarket and bought 3 bottles of the stuff. (Yaaaahhhhay!!) (At E5.99 a litre bottle it’s not a huge expense!)
Somewhere between the delta coast, the Ponche search and heading north, a large raptor flew over the car and we ground to a quick halt to identify a nice, soaring, light phase, Booted Eagle. We’d had one in Greece in 2017, badly, this was much better and a nice list addition.
We drove 60 kms up the coast on a vague report of the Gull in the harbour at Cabrils and we did see a lot of Mediterranean Gulls, but no A’s. We had a late bread and cheese lunch on the foreshore and decided to head back home via the south side of the delta where we had been yesterday. As the wind was almost non-existent today (Hurrah!) we wanted to see the delta in real action.
Our first stop off was a hide at a lagoon we actually hadn’t visited yesterday. There were the usual thousands of Greater Flamingos, Eurasian Coots, Northern Mallard, Northern Shoveler and a few other bits and pieces.
I had kinda given up hope and was making smartass comments such as ‘OH LOOK, another Shoveler” and similar, when Mr H said ‘Guess what I can see’? And, yes, on the far side of the lagoon, about a kilometer away, 2 male Red-crested Pochard sulked along against the reed bed. Excellent!
10 minutes later and he’d pulled a Moustached Warbler out of his a….. well, not quite, but he found one in a nearby channel! I’d be lost without this guy! Unreal! A bird we had both almost given up on and we had decent scope views of it, about 50 meters away, in and out of the reed bed. Yeah, good stuff!
By this time it was after 16.00, the sun was setting, the Ponche was calling, so we headed home and had microwaved meals from Lidl along with a 99 cent Vinho Tinto that came in a milk carton before cracking a bottle of Ponche and planning tomorrow.
Yeah, don’t call US tight!
Lifers – 13 New European – 16 Spanish - 139
Day 12 – 5.2.19 (Tuesday)
Another moving day. This time 600 kms southwest, down the coast, past Valencia and inland to Lynx country. On the way we stopped off at the seaside village of Torrenostra, not far down the coast from our starting point. There was a lagoon/wetland area behind the beach at the south end of the esplanade that Mr H thought was worth a look. And it certainly was! Right where we parked the car, approx 200 Crag Martins were using an apartment block as a warm-up spot in the sun. We walked the 100 meters to the entrance and found several well-watered lagoons surrounded by dense reed beds, a solid dirt track making access easy.
At first it looked worthless – the first ponds were empty - however, we soon had a new trip list bird – Zitting Cisticola - in scope view, along with a couple of Cetti’s Warblers giving typical Cetti-shit views.
I scanned a little further and picked up a familiar shape/colour combo in a far distant pond – Red-crested Pochard. We had 9 males and 2 females, still 500 meters away, but much better views than yesterday. I got some poor record shots. I’d love to get closer – the males are stunning.
We walked a little further and Mr H pricked up his ears and said he could hear a Moustached Warbler singing. I tried a bit of playback and we got him up the reed stems, checking us and the phone out at about 15 meters range. Really cool!
There wasn’t much else in the wetland area, but it was well worth the diversion and we celebrated with coffee at a beachfront café before setting off on the rest of our day’s journey.
I drove the first half, Mr H the second. We had several Red Kites and Common Buzzards and 1 Booted Eagle along the way. We used a toll road as part of the trip and paid E10.85.
Arrived at our destination – Marmolejo, or Marmalade town as Mr H referred to it - found our next Air BnB and checked in with the grandmother who lives there. We had two bedrooms and a shared bathroom – but there are no other guests. We share the kitchen with herself and her husband. It’s all very grand – marble staircase, sweeping handrails, heavy furniture, wooden framed pictures, but she is lovely even though she has no English, I have no Spanish and Mr H confuses both of us – but he does manage to communicate in some fashion, somehow.
We unloaded and went for a walk – to find somewhere to eat of course – it’s 17.30.
We wandered around for a while, found the town square, found an ‘open’ restaurant, to find out it was just closing and wouldn’t be serving food again till 20.30. Bugger that - again.
We picked up some fresh bread, eggs and chorizo type sausage and headed home to, once again, us the emergency rations we had put aside for just this eventuality – a jar of cannelloni beans, fresh green giant beans, green capsicum/pepper thing, corgette, shallots and chopped up sausage in a tomato based sauce on rice. Perfect!
Lifers – 13 New European – 16 Spanish - 141
Day 13 - 6.2.19 (Wednesday)
We were on the road by 8, before the sun which rose as we drove up into the national park, Sierra de Andujar. Our mission today, which we had accepted, was Iberian Lynx searching.
There are basically two roads one can drive along, both of which are described in great detail in various trip reports and books so I will simply refer to them as the Lower road, which runs alongside and then just above the river for about 2 kms, and the High road which runs along the side of the valley for about 10 kms giving commanding views of the surrounding hills. Both finish at dam walls – the lower the smaller of the two.
We started on the Low road and drove in about a kilometer to the main lookout point where the road rises and there is a wooden fence. It was a cool, frosty morning and we settled down to watch the opposite side of the river and river bank in hopes of seeing a Lynx come down to drink. Within 10 minutes a splashing in the river 40 meters or so below us attracted our attention and we had great views of 2 Eurasian Otters diving and feeding in the river. At last! For me my first Otter – a long awaited experience! Brilliant start.
We hung there for an hour or so but saw little else as the Otters moved downstream out of sight.
We drove up to the dam wall and met a couple of UK birder/mammal watchers who gave us updates on Lynx sightings and suggested the High road was the better option.
We drove back and, as we did so, a flock of Azure-winged Magpies flew and landed alongside. My first european AWMs – they were pretty cool – and were to be a feature of the day.
We headed in towards the High road, turning off at the farm described in the literature and grinding our way slowly along the atrociously potholed dirt road.
We came to what I would call the ‘first’ lookout and pulled in behind a 4WD. There were 3 young guys there and they told us they had had a Lynx sighting 50 minutes before over on the opposite slope ‘near those 4 boulders’. We set up and scanned and looked and scanned and watched. We picked up a single Mouflon sitting down high on the opposite hill, small numbers of both Red and Fallow Deer and a Little Owl sitting on a rock, but no Lynx.
Time dragged on, people came and went, all our companions eventually moving on to other lookouts further down the road. I got some photos of a Sardinian Warbler nearby, but other than that it was pretty slow, and, as the sun warmed us up to 19 degrees, we dressed down to t-shirts for the first time on the trip and butterflies came out.
We were about two hours in and a small group were walking back up the road towards us when Mr H and I heard a strange gull-like coughing. It appeared to come from high on the opposite slope. As we pondered the call and started looking, the group of people arrived including a tour guide for a Lynx spotting company. We described the sound we now believed was a Lynx calling and pointed in the general direction of where we thought it had come from. The guide immediately spotted a Lynx and we all got onto it briefly before it moved through bush and disappeared. Wow!! It was much closer than we had thought, but still probably 300 meters away? Much bigger than I had anticipated and a deep bodied, tawny colour – very cool! (The tour guide said he believed it was a male). Within minutes there were 15 people gathered around us, some saw it, most didn’t, but it seemed everyone else had had other views on other days.
We hung around for another hour or so, watching the spot it had vanished into, but it didn’t re-appear and gradually, again, everyone drifted away. A group of Vultures appeared above us and we picked out a couple of Black Vultures from the Eurasian Griffons to add to the trip lists.
We had some bread & cheese for lunch, then decided to drive to the dam at the end of the road and did so, slowly and painfully negotiating the potholes – they are horrific!
Not a lot at the dam apart from about 500 Crag Martins on the walls and in the air.
We started heading back and noticed another group of Vultures circling high above the mountains.
Stopping on the side of the road we again found a couple of Blacks among the Griffons. We were about to move on when Mr H said – ‘Is that a vulture?’ referring to a bird lower down – no, it wasn’t. It was a Spanish Imperial Eagle and we had another one within the next few minutes! Cool! Another lifer for me and we are now free tomorrow and don’t have to return to the mountains and this horrendous road!
We reached the bitumen, eventually, thankful we hadn’t broken an axle, and headed down towards Andujar to find a café for lunch. We were determined to beat the opening hours and succumb to the Spanish style, rather than cook again tonight. We found a roadside place and for E9 each had a three course lunch with wine for me, water for himself, as designated driver, and coffees. I’m not sure what I had. I think the starter was artichoke hearts, I’m not sure, but the whole meal was nice and filling and the service was prompt and efficient.
We headed back up to the Lower road and spent the rest of the light walking the road from the lookout to the dam wall and back, but saw nothing new or even very much at all. We did hear a Tawny Owl from the lookout – it was on the opposite side of the river, so we didn’t pursue it.
We got ‘home’ at 19.30 – big day, but well worth it.
Lifers – 14 (B), 4 (M) New European – 18 Spanish - 145
Day 14 – 7.2.19 (Thursday)
A bit of a boring day with a lot of driving and frustrating birding.
We were on the road by 8. Yesterday, while watching for the Lynx, we had struck up conversation with a second UK birder who described a small lake 2 hours/200 kms, away that, he claimed had numerous White-headed Duck. We had decided that, as we had seen the Lynx, we would drive to this lake and tick the duck. Last evening Mr H had looked at the route, researched his books and picked two other small wetland areas that claimed to also have the Duck. They were ‘on the way’ to the lake described by the birder and if successful, would save us 100 kms drive each way and the resulting time difference. He had also discovered some info regarding Alpine Accentor and Black Wheatear in a mountainous area also in the general direction of the wetlands so we had a plan of sorts.
The first lake we stopped at was an established set up – Laguna de Zonar, near Aguilar – we parked up and walked to the hide (incidentally the road has changed since the book, Where to Watch birds in Southern and Western Spain, was printed, follow the signs on the main road.)
It was the first hide I have ever seen with a tiled floor. There were no White-headed Ducks there, just Common Pochard, Northern Shoveler, Great Crested Grebes and Eurasian Coots.
We moved on to the second of the two lakes he’d found – Laguna de Rincon – not far away on a different road out of Aguilar. The info described the road in as ‘probably not suitable after rain unless you have a 4WD’. We didn’t and it hadn’t rained, but we abandoned the car after 100 meters or so and set out to walk the ‘750 meters’ to the lake. It was closer to 1.5kms through the olive groves and we were both pretty silent through the walk. The lake, however, turned out to be OK. The visitor center they had built was long abandoned, the ‘fence and roof’ type hide very low – had to use the scopes sideways - but we did have a Hen Harrier and 6 White-headed Ducks. A lifer for both of us, but, as Mr H put it, the least inspiring tick he’s ever had, with them being about 200 meters away across the lake and mostly sleeping.
Anyway, we trudged back to the car through the thick clinging mud, got outta there and headed for Aguilar for what we believed was a well deserved coffee or two. It took us 20 minutes to find parking and only after I drove the wrong way into one-way streets twice. Then we walked for another 20 minutes trying to find a café. We found one, but the owner wouldn’t let us in, mumbling something about a ‘medical situation’. We trudged on and finally found a café in what resembled the main square and I had two badly needed coffees before we found our way back to the car and got the hell out of dodge.
Note here regarding Spanish towns……I always imagined a central square with café’s and shops and markets and bustle and activity. We have found it very, very difficult to locate the center of anywhere and café’s are either closed or appear abandoned. The towns appear spread out all over the place and people seem to just wander haphazardly around. There will be one or two shops in a street but they’re not connected to anywhere else. It’s a bit bizarre. And parking? We’ve, generally, tried to find a café and then find parking. Maybe it’d be easier the other way round. Parking has proved very challenging and usually miles away from any coffee place. The street system in most towns has been unclear and as the streets are very narrow, we’ve been concentrating on just not hitting any other vehicle or pedestrian and missed one-way signs at times…….luckily no one drives particularly fast in town, so no accidents occur – or maybe they are just as confused as we are? Anyway, going into town for a coffee has been a bit of a nightmare – and not the experience I had imagined. Maybe its just us?
After coffee we headed out of town into the olive groves. Now, let me tell you, in this area these olive groves cover millions of square acres. They go on and on and on, over hill and over dale as far as the eye can see. A very sterile environment on the whole and yet, I don’t associate Spain with olives? Greece, yes. Spain – its oranges isn’t it? Yet here we are neck deep in olive groves and they went on and on and on….,….
We drove to an interesting rocky outcrop of a place, called Ermita Virgen de la Sierra, a monastery on top of the hill. A rock strewn, scrubby bush area perfect for wheatears, accessed by a winding, steep-cornered road, up which we drove at 5 kms/hr, scanning the hillside for movement. This looked good! Yeah, right! We saw a few Black Redstarts and heaps of Common Stonechats and that was it. We wandered round near the top but turned up nothing else of any interest. Strike one.
The next place looked good too. A cute little village, Zuheros, perched high above the ubiquitous olive groves. An old castle was part of the whitewashed village, a holy cave of some sort at the end of the road, sheer cliffs on the way up, bare rock and stony ground everywhere. We parked up before the end of the road and walked into a stony, well cropped grass area with high hopes. Dashed again. We had a few Crested Larks, Common Chiffchaffs, a distant Iberian Grey Shrike and a couple of Sardinian Warblers. The only thing of interest was the carpet of garlic bulbs scattered across the ground, presumably left out to dry. Strike 2.
We retreated to the, apparently, only café in the village for yet more coffee and discussion about what to do next.
It was now 15.00 and we decided to head back to Marmalade town (home) and take a drive into the hills there. We did that and Mr H went for a walk while I sat and smoked. I was feeling a bit drained after 9 hours on the road, 5 hours driving, and was happy to sit in the evening sun and relax for a while. He saw some Woodlarks on his walk, but that was about it and we headed back down to the town, a shower, home-cooked dinner and a milk carton sized, 88 cent, Vino Tinto followed by the good ol’ Ponche……
Lifers – 15 (B), 4 (M) New European – 19 Spanish - 147
Day 15 – 8.2.19 (Friday)
Another day, another birding destination…. We were ready to go at 8, said goodbye to our hosts who waited to see us leave, and headed outta town. It was only a 300 km drive to our next bed in Trujillo and we took it fairly easy.
We stopped for coffee, stocked up with some more food and sidetracked a little to Ermita de Belen, near La Serina, where we managed to scratch a single male Spanish Sparrow from among the House. The hermitage has a large breeding colony during the season and, luckily, we thought, at least one had hung on for the winter.
Later, around Trujillo we saw about another 99…… Anyway, target acquired and destroyed, we moved on into Extremadura.
We drove very slowly along 90 km roads scanning the fields on each side for about two hours, looking for Bustards and Sandgrouse. We did see hundreds of Common Cranes, White Storks and Corn Buntings - we didn’t see any of either target - but we didn’t give up hope. No siree. We have two more days here and we will find them, or die in the attempt (that’s the Ponche talking now….)
At 16.30 we gave it away and retreated to the main square in Trujillo for coffee and a gawk. The church is pretty old and impressive with White Storks standing on empty nests, clacking their bills, on the main tower. We had coffee and then wandered around the town following the maze of narrow streets, looking for somewhere to buy stamps for Mr H to send his postcards. I don’t know why he bothers, but he says ‘at least I know people’ – however, the cards he did buy were wrinkly and warped from being in the sun as, obviously, no one (apart from Mr H) sends postcards anymore.
We’re staying in an old part of the town, in a low ceilinged, narrow staircase, stone building of apartments. The owner showed us round our three bedroomed, one bathroom, multiple, complicated doors, living area and claimed the frescoes on the walls were from the 17th century! We have no reason not to believe him - they do look like they’ve been there for 300 years. It’s actually a really cool place to stay, but the parking is unbelievable. I reckon we should just leave the car where we have managed to park it until we move in in three days. I’m afraid that if we move it out, we won’t be able to park it anywhere later….
Lifers – 16 (B), 4 (M) New European – 20 Spanish - 149
Day 16 – 9.2.19 (Saturday)
We were out before dawn and heading to some side roads near Caceres where, thanks to some research on EBird again, we had seen recent reports of both Bustards and both Sandgrouse.
Hopes were high as we steamed down the motorway in front of the rising sun.
The bitumen turned into a potholed, stony road after about a kilometer and I spent the next 8 hours navigating around some axle twisting holes looking for named species.
We had a couple of Great Bustards fairly quickly in the hanging mist/fog. Great Bustards aren’t supposed to be the commoner of the two but here they were emerging from the white haze, 300 meters away. OK, we thought that’s not a bad start!
Soon afterwards Mr H picked up two distant Black-bellied Sandgrouse flying by – I didn’t see them and things were quiet between us for a while….
We moved on up the road and stopped and scanned every 100-200 meters.
Fortunately, for both my sanity and Mr H’s future life, I managed to fluke two Black-bellied Sandgrouse on the ground! They were still 200 meters away, but were good in the scope. Thank God – otherwise I might have had to leave him there.
Good! Things were going well, but the mist wasn’t – going that is. The further up the road we crawled the thicker it became, until we could barely see 100 meters in front of us. There were, to be sure, hundreds of Calandra Larks, Corn Buntings, Northern Lapwings, European Golden Plover and Crested Larks, but no sandgrouse or bustards and the limited visibility surely put them out of reach. At one point we believed we did hear Pin-tailed Sandgrouse fly overhead in the mist, but didn’t see them.
We sat for an hour or so, hoping the weather would clear – it was very still, not a breath of wind, warm in the sun, cold in the shadow, frosty on the ground, and the soup wasn’t clearing.
At 11.30, we turned and drove back down the road where it seemed to have got worse so we decided to give it away and drove towards Caceres to find coffee. Just before we left the side road, we found a flock of 32 Great Bustards and 2 Sandgrouse sp again on the ground – most likely Black-bellied, but too far away to be 100% sure. We went and had coffee at a basic café beside a service station and stocked up on more food as we expected everything to be shut tomorrow.
We returned to the rocky road and found the mist had finally pissed off, so we worked it thoroughly, crawling along, checking every blade of grass, rock and field, all the way along the approx 20 km length without seeing any Little Bustards or any more Sandgrouse.
We did see a flock of 74 Great Bustards, a Spanish Imperial Eagle, several Iberian Grey Shrikes, quite a few Hoopoes, Black and Eurasian Griffon Vultures and the waders, larks and buntings mentioned earlier, but at 17.00 we decided to call it a day and headed back to Tujillo.
On the road we had also briefly met a young Spanish birder. We now bumped into him in the main square where I was going for coffee and Mr H wanted to visit the church. Najid (?) came and shared a coffee with me and the then, when Mr H had finished in the church, we sat and chatted birds and birding for an hour or so. Najid’s English was pretty good and, although in his early twenties, he had travelled quite extensively in Spain and had a good knowledge of sites and specialties. As we sat there our second trip list bird for the day flew overhead – a Common Swift, an early returnee.
By 19.30 we had had enough and retreated home to our dinner and note making – and the more expensive Vino Tinto we had purchased earlier – this carton came in at E1 and went down nicely….
Lifers – 17 (B), 4 (M) New European – 21 Spanish - 151
Day 17 – 10.2.19 (Sunday)
We woke to a dull, grey, warmish (8 degrees) morning, had breakfast and then the CDEF (aka Colin & Dermot Expeditionary Force – or Farce, as cruel people may call it) creaked into action again.
Yet again we had interrogated E-Bird (I really should stop saying the things I say about E-bird) and …….
Yet again were on the hunt for Alpine Accentor and Black Bleedin’ Wheatear.
We’d found reports of birds THIS YEAR – on two mountain top kinda places about 40 kms away. Following our long day yesterday on the plains Bastard hunting (yes, I did type ‘bastard’, cause that’s what they are) we thought a change of scenery would do us good – and Mr H had a not-so-secret desperation to see AAs.
We arrived at the very cute, mountain-side village of Cabanas del Castillo, backed by the sheer cliff-type rock topped off by the Castillo – or ‘Castle’ for those of you who don’t speak Spanish….
We started off by climbing the rough, slippery from the thin rain that was falling, rocky path to the Castillo seeing a flock of Azure-winged Magpies and a single Red-billed Chough on the way. It looked good for our targets.
Then we climbed half way down again and followed the track, as described in the book, around the back of the rock. All good, the track a bit hard to follow at times, but we worked our way right round and saw – nothing. Not one bird on the rock. The only birds we saw were 20 Eurasian Griffon Vultures who glided around overhead waiting for one of us to die.
We returned to the car and decided to try the second location we had identified – a mountain top on the opposite ridge, with a communications mast on it. No real name – but its above the town of Guadalupe. The road from Guadalupe appeared to be a private or official closed road, but we found a different road on the opposite side from the town that appeared to go up to the top.
We drove around the valley through picturesque villages on excellent rally car roads to turn off onto this ‘back’ road access to the mast. We thought it might have been a dirt track, but it was, in fact, a good quality cement road and we went up it’s sharp curves and steep inclines happy that we didn’t have to walk it. Eventually we reached a point where the road did degenerate a bit into old bitumen and stones in tar, so we parked up and started to walk the last 1.9 kms. I forgot to mention – as we ascended the mountain the cloud descended and by the time we parked up, the vis was about 20 meters. We were enveloped in a damp, swirling rainy mist and the wind had picked up too. Miserable weather for birding, but CDEF manfully struck out.
The first bird we saw, 50 meters from the car was……….a Dunnock! I mean, really?? Really??? Here we are looking for Alpine Accentors and we find a Dunnock! We made 100% sure it WAS only a Dunnock, but, sadly, it was. The second bird we saw 500 meters later was…………..also a f……g Dunnock! Yes, folks, Birds – 2,
Dunnocks – 2, Alpine Accentors – 0. CDEF - 0
We continued almost to the top, but decided we’d had enough and walked back down to the car. We didn’t see ANY other birds, not even a Dunnock….
We headed back to the closest village and consoled ourselves with piping hot coffee in the café in the middle of the main road/street.
On the way back to Trujillo we used minor back roads and saw some repeat stuff, but the only thing of real interest were 4 animals that ran across the road in front of us. Initially we thought they were Otters, long, low, slim shapes with long, low tails – but when we stopped beside them, they sat on the bank and peered back at us for a few seconds before turning their long tails and disappearing – they were Mink. Having now done some research it is obvious they were American Mink Neovison vison - the introduced feral species.
Well, it’s a tick of sorts for me anyway. That was about it, really, the day continued dreary and damp and we chose to go for an early meal at a restaurante – that’s ‘restaurant’ for those of you who don’t speak Spanish – outside Trujillo and then have a siesta – that’s ‘rest’ for those of you who don’t speak Spanish.
I know, I can be a dick at times – that’s ‘dickhead’ for those of you who don’t speak English.
Lifers – 17 (B), 5 (M) New European – 21 Spanish - 151
Day 18 – 11.2.19 (Monday)
Packed and left by 8. We had planned to re-visit the roads near Caceres to try for the Little Bustardo, but there was a heavy, wet fog in the town and surrounding area and we decided there was little point so I pointed the car northeast and headed for our next destination – Ciudad Real.
We had a location where both bustards and sandgrouse had been reported recently so pinned our hopes on that. Two hours or so and we were entering the plains area southeast of the town. We drove the, good quality, dirt roads for three hours.
We found several small flocks of Great Bustards, in a all abut 80 birds, and a total of 7 Black-bellied Sandgrouse, several on the deck providing good scope views at approx 200 meters, but no LBs or Pin-tails. We saw Red-legged Partridge, Calandra and Crested Larks, Corn Buntings and Meadow Pipits, Northern Lapwings and Spotless Starlings, picking them all up at up to 500 meters range in the scopes without any problem, so did we miss LBs? Half of each of us says, no, but the other half wonders…..did we? The fields were either newly sown, ploughed or just plain stony. There was nowhere for a pheasant-sized bird to hide and, as I said, we were picking up Sandgrouse at 3-400 meters and they are much lower to the ground and smaller.
We also saw two Hares and several Rabbits. Mr H commented on the Hares’ ears and when we checked, European Hare is not present in Spain, so we got a mammal tick of Granada Hare Lepus granatensis. In fact we should have ticked it two days ago when we had one in the Caceres area, but we didn’t realize it was a new species.
Back to el Bustardos. Very, very frustrating. And exhausting.
By 15.30 we were both just knackered. We decided to give the fields a break and headed for Laguna de Navaseca near Las Tablas de Daimiel, but smaller and closer, with easy access, hides and good birds. The pond is not very big, but had a heap of waterfowl – best being White-headed Ducks in good numbers (~30), Black-necked Grebes coming into summer plumage, Pied Avocets and our only new (bird) trip tick for the day – Black-tailed Godwits. We also had heaps of Spanish Sparrows and one Zitting Cisticola in the reeds beside the carpark hide.
We didn’t venture further, just slumped in the sun and scoped the water, we were just too f….d.
At 16.30 we headed into Ciudad Real and met our next host at the apartment block in a slightly seedy looking part of town. The apartment was on the ground floor and tiny, but two bedroomed and adequate for our one night stay.
We took the car to find a hands-on car wash, but ended up doing it ourselves for E6 with vaccum and spray gun. Then back to the apartment for dinner and a crash.
Lifers – 17 (B), 6 (M) New European – 21 Spanish - 152
Day 19 – 12.2.19 (Tuesday)
We were, as usual, packed and on the road by 8. We had debated returning to the area we had visited yesterday looking for Bustards, but, having met a local birder-type at the pond yesterday and interrogated him regarding the best possible place to see Little Bustard, we headed, on his advice, for La Solana, a town just off our main drive of the day.
It was our last ditch, final, throw-it-all-to-the-wind, take-a-chance, hope-for-the-best, give-it-all-we-had, doubt-we’d-be-successful-but-what-the-hell, the what-else-are-we-going-to-do-anyway? try for the Little Bastard of a bird.
We arrived on site at 9 and started to drive along reasonably decent dirt roads into obviously good Bustard/Sandgrouse habo. We drove for about 10 minutes at about 15 km/hr stopping to scan every field – again.
We were both on the verge of giving up. It just seemed so déjà vu. Another day, another freaking (empty) field. Then, yes, out of the blue, 7 birds took flight from an unsighted spot on our right and we immediately knew we had our quarry. LITTLE BUSTARD!! At last! Our patience (really?), perseverance, (Yes, definitely) and persistence paid off. They flew around and landed about 200 meters away behind a grassy bank. We set off on foot with bins and camera only. Getting half way across a soft mud field, we stopped and scanned and could see them, watching us over the top of the bank – still 150 meters away. I went back for the scope – we hadn’t believed we’d see them on the ground so…., grabbed mine out of the car and started to walk back. Almost there and the original 7 took flight again, accompanied by another 7 birds and, believe it or not, a single Pin-tailed Sandgrouse! Mr H had them in the bins and I quickly got onto them with the scope and tracked them till they landed a km away behind another bank. We hurried back to the chariot and set off in pursuit. We got to where we were sure they’d landed by another circuitous track – but couldn’t find them. They had, to all intents and purposes, vanished. We searched several fields for them, but now think they must have flown again soon after we saw them land, probably while we were walking back to the car, cause they certainly hadn’t flown while we were driving as we’d kept a close eye on the general area. We flushed three Stone Curlews and several Red-legged Partridges in our search.
We had to give it away. We had a long drive in front of us and another stop for another bird on the way. It wasn’t the best of views, but, as I’ve said before, what has been seen cannot be unseen and a tick is a tick.
Mr H took over and drove the 300 Kms to Valencia where we found our way, south of the city, to a lagoon area where we had been led to believe, by Najid, the dude in Trujillo, there were wintering Audouin’s Gulls.
We searched the beaches and the one area where we could see into the lagoons, but no luck. In fact, Gulls, as a family, were almost non-existent, just a few Black-headed and a couple of Yellow-legged. We had the usual bread stick, cheese, spicy sausage & olives for lunch on the deserted trendy looking esplanade, then I took over and we set off on the second leg of the 600 km drive back to Barcelona.
First Greece, now Spain, the Audouin Gull Odyssey is on-going. We had decided to use the motorway/toll road to save time as it was a comfortable minimum 120km/hr two lane motorway where other drivers sometimes passed us doing at least 150km/hr. The first toll we paid, as we excited the motorway at Barcelona 4 hours later, was E31 (A$50), the second a few minutes later was E4 (A$6) and the third (!) 10 minutes afterwards was E7 (A$11) – A$67 in total. Was it worth it? Yeah, probably. It saved us time and some fuel and, despite driving for the whole day, more or less, we weren’t completely knackered. If we’d driven toll-free it would have been a lot more stressful and tiring.
Our last Spanish Air BnB was a small two bedroomed unit in a well-to-do area with relatively cheap furniture and basic amenities, but it was, again, adequate for the job. The guy sent us videos of how to open the doors, manage the shower and, when we asked, a video on turning on the heating and hot water….kids and their electronic obsessions……!
We visited the local supermarket for a couple of things then settled in to finish off some of the grog.
Lifers – 19 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 154
Day 20 – 13.2.19 (Wednesday)
We headed for Montserrat, a sheer rock projectile buried in the hills behind Barcelona. We had found records of….yes, you guessed it, Alpine Accentor there in previous winters. It involved a cable car ride up the face of the rock and then a vertical funicular train up to the ‘top’. I say ‘top’ because Mr H assured me it was a plateau and to get to the peak it was a simple 4 km dawdle across the plateau. Yeah, right! We boarded the cable car (E23 return for both), then jumped the funicular (E15 one way only) as we planned to walk back down to the cable car after our ‘dawdle’ across the plateau. Plateau me arse! The walk from the funicular was a continually rising, stony, ankle-twisting, step-ridden, track that wound around the projecting rocks, through rough scrub and exposed rock slopes. It took us an hour and we saw f-all. A few Firecrests, European Blue Tits & Robins, and Common Chaffinches and that was it. Then we started back down…….. If you like banging your head against a brick wall cause it feels good when you stop. Go for it! Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it.
There must have been 500 steps on the return loop, some of them so steep they required a hand rail. By the time we got back to the monastery at the top of the cable car I was ready to throw both of us off the cliff and save the trouble of getting the car back down.
However, a couple of cups of coffee and I was right again.
We wandered around the monastery grounds and footpaths but never an AA did we find. We didn’t find anything else either. We got the cable car back down and drove back in the helter skelter traffic to our apartment – it was a wild ride.
Then it was into the city by train & tube to La Ramblas the famous shopping/tourist area and we spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening wandering around picking up things-to-take-home for family & friends. It was an uneventful evening, apart from me being ejected from a souvenir shop because I dared to question the price of a Barcelona FC t-shirt (well, he wanted E29 and when I said it was too expensive he asked me how much I would pay? I told him E10 as the first figure that came into my mind and he went off his tiny brain. We ended up shouting at each other in the street outside the shop, although I, surprisingly maybe, kept my cool. We thought it was funny, but he was deadly serious – a rude little man).
We got ‘home’ at 20.00 and packed in preparation for our flight back to Dublin the next day.
Lifers – 19 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 154
Day 21 – 14.2.19 (Thursday)
We were outta da joint by 8 and headed for the wetland area we had birded in the first few days of the trip – El Prat de Llobregat.
We walked half way down the river track, then turned off and back, by another parallel track, to the car by 10. Mostly the same sort of stuff we have seen, the only unusual sighting was a single Hooded Crow flying across and, later, back across the river. Unusual in Spain, there have been recent records of a small number in this immediate area – ship assisted, no doubt….
We got to the airport, traded in the hire car with the usual cursory inspection and pleasant smile from the check-in chick. Established we had driven 5,462 kms in the 3 weeks and headed for the check-in. Processed through that, security and passport control, then sat and waited two hours to fly.
The flight left on time and arrived early. We got off, got the bags without incident and then I said goodbye, once again, to my friend of 50 years. Mr H was getting the bus back to Belfast and I was picking up my 4th hire car of the trip – this time from Budget. I got a Toyota Auris (manual, diesel) that was scratched in several places. Good! Another scratch won’t be noticed! I took pictures of all, just in case….then drove home to my 93 year old Mum’s place.
Lifers – 19 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish – 155
Summary: Not a bad result for 3 weeks in a mild winter Spain? We were, relatively, happy. Better views of Wallcreeper would have been especially welcome, but it is what it is – and at least we saw one. Similarly the Iberian Lynx. The Alpine Ass was a real bogey bird and very frustrating - we spent a lot of time and energy without result. I don’t really know how easy other vagrant birders get on. The Snowfinch was a highly desirable – but we hadn’t really held out much hope – and weren’t surprised. The Black Wheater WAS a surprise – thought it would be easy, not so!
However, all in all, a total of 155 species, 19 Bird lifers and 6 Mammals (for me) and the adventure, excitement and laughs made it more than worthwhile.
For any further clarity, enquiry, complaint or enquiry please do not hesitate to contact me at jangles14@optusnet.com.au.