Homage to Catalonia

Seven days in Catalonia with Martí Rodríguez and Marcel Gil; in excess of 180 species, including 23 lifers... And a good time all round.

Birding started almost as soon as Martí had picked me up from Gerona airport. We headed towards the coast, to the Aiguamolls de l'Empordà area. Hoopoes, Bee-eaters and Cattle Egrets were exciting for me, although it wasn't too long before I got fed up of such common birds! The rice fields at La Gallinera held more egrets and White Storks, but not the hoped for Caspian Tern. Zitting Cisticolas were in the fields and several Crested Larks were along the track.

At el Matà we added Whiskered Tern and some distant Greater Flamingos to the list. Several Great Reed Warblers were singing away, though none showing, and more Zitting Cisticolas were zitting overhead... Yellow Wagtails consisted mainly of iberiae race birds, although we did have one that looked good for cinereocapilla.

Iberian Yellow Wagtail:


At el Cortalet, the sound of Nightingales in the car park was deafening. A pair of Baillon's Crakes had recently been seen on the reserve and we were hoping we would get lucky. Several hours later and we were still crakeless. However, it wasn't a complete waste; in that time I had seen 3 lifers - a male Little Bittern that flew across in front of the hide, a Purple Gallinule that made it's way across the back and a Great Reed Warbler that finally showed itself, albeit briefly, as well as a group of juvenile Penduline Tits and a Hobby.

Next, we headed towards Cap de Crues and into the hills. At Vilajuïga we saw Sardinian Warbler and Woodchat Shrike but very little else. At Mas Ventós, after a bit of a wait, I had my 4th lifer of the day - a pair of Western Orphean Warblers.
Also in the area, yet another lifer: a juvenile Bonelli's Eagle.
Martí continued to deliver and at Sant Pere de Rodes we came across my first Ortolan Bunting (after one singing distantly at the previous site), which was soon chased out of the tree by another lifer, a female [Rufous-tailed] Rock Thrush.

The worst ever picture of an Ortolan Bunting?:


Rock Thrush:


On the road further down, we nearly hit my eighth tick of the day - a very smart Rock Bunting that flew up off the road and onto the hillside.

Rock Bunting:


Back at Aiguamolls de l'Empordà, there was still no sign of the crake, although a family of Mute Swans were now in front of the hide.

Final stop of the day was at Verges. Finding the target bird was easier than expected - Martí spotted a falcon from the road and, after pulling off onto a track that went a bit closer, we were enjoying good views of a rather nice dark morph Eleonora's Falcon.

Eleonora's Falcon, digibinned through the windscreen:


Unfortunately, it was soon chased of my a Magpie. Driving further down the track though, closer to the river, we found a loose flock of about 10 more Eleonora's Falcons hawking for insects over the water and nearby fields. A wonderful end to the first day.

That evening we were joined by Marcel .

Friday morning, we headed for the Pyrenees. First stop was at Collada de Toses where a small flock of Crossbills was at the side of the road. Never one to miss an opportunity for a chance to bodge some amateur taxonomy, I recorded them with my camera in an effort to sort out the type/form/species/subspecies/dialect of them when I got home. You can listen to the recording here. And here's a sonogram of a few of the call notes (after about 11sec in the recording):

So, what does that tell us? Well it doesn't really tell me much, I'll be honest. The first problem was, looking through The Sound Approach, I was focusing on the excitement call (Ec) sonograms. The other calls given by Crossbills are flight calls (Fc) but, as these birds were settled when I recorded them, I assumed they wouldn't be flight calls. But they were...
A few of the Fc graphs in the book sort of fitted, but you had to use your imagination a bit. Next I tried ditching the technology and using my own ears. That didn't really work either, so I sent the recordings to Lindsay Cargill. Thankfully, he knows what he's on about when it comes to these things and informed me that the birds are 1A type Commons. This 'type' is not represented in The Sound Approach, although it is similar to 'British' type E and 'Parakeet' type X, which are also both classed as 1A. So there you go. And here's the culprit (one of them, at least):


A wander around added Short-toed Treecreeper and Crested Tit to the trip list and it wasn't too long before we came across our first Citril Finches. A Griffon Vulture drifted overhead.

At the base of the ski lift at Coll d'Ares, we found plenty of (very pale looking) Northern Wheatear along with a Tawny Pipit, a male Red-backed Shrike and several Black Redstarts. A small flock of [Red-billed] Chough flew over. Slightly further on, a Short-toed Eagle was hanging in the air above the road and was soon joined by a second bird. Mammal interest was also provided by a lone Pyrenean Chamois.

Wheatear:


A drive up Collada de Fontalba saw us seeing more Griffon Vultures and some lovely cows...



At the top was a small flock/herd(?) of Pyrenean Chamois and a pair of Citril Finches were feeding in the car park.

Pyrenean Chamois:


Citril Finch (male):



Back in Osona and not far from Martí's house, we stopped by the river to have a look at a breeding colony of herons that Martí has been monitoring. With plenty of Night Herons, 20 or so pairs of Little Egret and a few Grey Herons it was quite noisy and just a bit smelly. Interestingly, for me at least, several of the Little Egrets were in full summer plumage and had bright red feet and pink lores - something I had never seen before. A dark morph Booted Eagle passed overhead.

Booted Eagle:


On a factory roof nearby, we took a look at the roosting/breeding Yellow-legged Gulls. A Larid ID lesson, with practically the full range of ages present. Here's a selection of photographs, starting with a juvenile and working up in ascending ages to adults:









Saturday morning we headed in land. First stop was just outside Anglesola where we watched a pair of Montagu's Harriers over the arable fields.

Driving the tracks near Belianes, we soon spotted our first Little Bustard, a male, but, no sooner had we stopped the car, it disappeared back into the tall vegetation. Several Red-legged Partridges were on the edge of the orchards and a couple of Rollers were flying over the fields. Further along we came across a small flock of Little Bustards out in the open, though distant.

Little Bustards (male, right & female, left):



On the other side of the main road was a pair of sharpei Green Woodpeckers. I was actually quite impressed with how different they sounded... a lot faster than British Green Woodpeckers and slightly less varying in pitch. Looks wise though, they were nothing to rave about!

South of Balaguer we found more Little Bustards, including one with some young chicks. A Lesser Kestrel was on an old farm building with another flying about. A wander around a weedy field produced a Stone Curlew and a Calandra Lark. We had just about given up on anything else and were heading back to the car when a helicopter flew over and put up three Black-bellied Sandgrouse from the edge of the field we had just walked around! They gave good views as they flew towards us, circled over our heads and then flew off into the distance.

Just outside Lleida we found plenty more Iberian Green Woodpeckers, a family of Penduline Tits and a much wanted tick for me... Monk Parakeet.

Penduline Tit (juv):


Monk Parakeet (juv):


Iberian Green Woodpecker (juv):

Female, I think... Not half as interesting as an adult in the hand would have been. Mind you, you don't find many of them flapping about in the undergrowth unable to fly yet!

South of Lleida, near Timoneda d'Alfés, we found our first Rock Sparrows of the trip and a Short-toed Lark. While I was watching the lark, the other two spotted a male Pin-tailed Sandgrouse in the same field, only yards away from us! A strong heat-haze meant pictures weren't great, but this was a stunning bird and we watched it until it made it's way into the next field and out of sight.

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse:


At Aspa we found a family of Black Wheatears and some Spotless Starlings, though none of the hoped for Black-eared Wheatears.

Black Wheatear:



Stopping in Amposta to stock up on reserves took longer than expected. It wasn't that we didn't know where the supermarket was; it was that we didn't know how to get to it. The whole town seems to be made up of one-way streets that all just lead back around into each other!

Something tells me we shouldn't have been trying to drive down there:


Finally, we found our way out and headed out into el Delta de l'Ebre. Gull-billed & Whiskered Terns, Purple & Squacco Herons and Audouin's Gulls were all common road side birds...

From the hide at la Tancada we saw Kentish Plover, Greater Flamingo and quite possibly my first ever truly wild Red-crested Pochard (an eclipse drake). Two families of starlings were nesting in the rafters of the hide.

Starling (sp.):


Kentish Plover:


Further along at Salines de Sant Antoni we found a small number of Redshank, but not the hoped for Marsh Sandpiper. The resident [presumed] Western Reef x Little Egret was feeding in one of the creeks close to the road but flew off before we had chance to digiblast it. Marcel picked up a Caspian Tern distantly over the back ofn one of the lagoons but it disappeared as quick as it had appeared, before Martí and myself had time to get onto it...

On the track at Platja dels Eucaliptus we found a family party of Lesser Short-toed Larks. They showed well, when they weren't dodging cars.

Lesser Short-toed Lark:

^ © Martí Rodríguez

And my slightly poorer effort:


Lying on the road...


At Pont de Través, L'Encanyissada, there were several Night Herons showing very well and a female Little Bittern flew by.

Night Heron:


Clearly escaped birds:


A Savi's Warbler was reeling in the reed bed and gave good 'scope views, even if it was a little distant for pics.

Savi's Warbler:



An evening seawatch from the beach at Migjorn was slightly surreal, not least because there was some sort of all-night party starting up around us... Good numbers of Cory's Shearwater were lingering off shore, half a dozen Balearic Shearwaters passed by, as did a handful of Gannets and an Oystercatcher was on the beach.

Making our way up the track to Illa de Buda, to where we would be stopping the night, a Collared Pratincole flew over. Further up the track there were masses of wetland birds: our first Great White Egrets and Glossy Ibis as well as more Purple Herons and Purple Gallinules than you could shake a stick at and the usual Squacco Herons and Whiskered Terns...

That evening, a Scops Owl was calling outside the house, though none of us could be bothered to go and have a proper look for it...

The next morning started pretty much the same as yesterday had ended, with hords of herons and Gallinules from the track on the way out, plus a female Shoveler.

We stopped briefly at the side of the road for go at photographing some of the Squacco Herons in the paddyfield.

Squacco Heron:


La Tancada was much the same as yesterday, as was Salines de Sant Antoni though with the addition of a Slender-billed Gull. The hybrid egret stayed still long enough for a couple of (out of focus) pics.

Slender-billed Gull:


Presumed Western Reef x Little Egret hybrid:



At el Goleró we found more Slender-billed Gulls and a scattering of Yellow Wagtails. Of the two we looked at in any detail, one was a [presumed] iberiae x cinereocapilla hybrid and the other appeared to be a pure cinereocapilla. We tried recording them for later analysis but the distance, the breeze and the poor recording equipment meant it didn't really work...

Presumed Iberian x Italian Yellow Wagtail hybrid:


Apparent pure Italian Yellow Wagtail:


At les Olles there were very few birds, bar a male Little Bittern that flew in from of the car. 'Excitement' was provided by a slightly intoxicated chap to came up to us convinced we were paparazzi (our 'scopes being cameras), asking which famous person we were photographing. When we told him we were looking at birds and that our 'cameras' were telescopes but he didn't believe us and became quite aggressive, swinging punches in our direction! It culminated in Marcel taking a smack to the head before the bloke finally decided to leave it and join his friend back in their car... And I thought birding some places in Britain was a bit risky!

On the beach at el Fangar, the heat haze made viewing the tern colony very difficult. A couple of Common and Gull-billed Terns showed well close to the track though. A Bar-tailed Godwit was on the lagoon.


Common Tern:


Gull-billed Tern:


At el Garxal we took it easy and sheltered from the midday sun in the hide, while Martí sketched one of the Swallows that was nesting on the beams. Large numbers of Greater Flamingos and Great White Egrets were on the pool and a couple of Lesser Short-toed Larks flew over.

Greater Flamingo:


Swallow:


Unfortunately the Swallows weren't cooperating and kept flying off before Martí could finish sketching them, so he turned his attention towards Marcel instead...


A last ditch attempt to find a Marsh Sandpiper or Caspian Tern before we left the delta took us back to Salines de Sant Antoni. We found neither, though there was a smart Spotted Redshank and another Bar-tailed Godwit.

Spotted Redshank:


Back in Osona, we stopped at a breeding site for Egyptian Vultures where we had two birds sat at the entrance to the nests.

Egyptian Vulture:


Martí had shown me some pictures a while ago of a reservoir with a church sticking out of the water... As it wasn't too far from his house, we made an evening visit. It was well worth it as well with a Black Tern being present - a county tick for Martí.

Pantà de Sau:



It was all too much for Marcel:


Monday morning we headed to Cap de Crues to clean up on what Martí and myself hadn't had time for on Thursday. First port of call was Pla de Gates, just outside Roses, where we soon found one or two female Spectacled Warblers as well as several Sardinian Warblers and a Dartford Warbler.

Pla de Gates:


A family of Thekla Larks were at the bottom of the hill and a Tawny Pipit flew over.

Cleopatra, comin' at ya:


The butterfly list could of actually been quite good if I'd known/taken the time to find out what I was looking at. A massive ant-lion scared me slightly as it flew up from by my feet and fluttered off back into the vegetation.

Before I had arrived, we had been looking on Google Earth at some of the places we would be going and we found this....



Intrigued by what was actually under the brown blanked-out area near el Pení, we went to have a look and found this:


I just hope there's no one from the Spanish military reading this. It wasn't that great actually; just a radio mast and a couple of spheres. Obviously there's more there than you can see. Like underground bunkers maybe, or a Thunderbird 3 style launch pad.

Nearby, our only Southern Grey Shrike of the try was on telephone wires and male Lesser Kestrel was in the air.

Southern Grey Shrike:


On the road from Cadaqués to Cap de Creus we stopped to watch a Red-rumped Swallow that was nesting under one of the road bridges.

At Punta del Cap de Creus, a brief seawatch was fairly quiet. A couple of Shags were on the rocks and 3 Cory's Shearwaters passed by. Common & Pallid Swifts were feeding overhead .

At Aiguamolls de l'Empordà we had a brief seawatch from Sant Pere Pescador beach. Several Shags and a single Cormorant were on the sea. They were soon joined by a Baleraric Shearwater that began fishing. A rather subdued feeding frenzy ensued with Yellow-legged Gulls joining in. It wasn't long before another shearwater was attracted in, this time a Mediterranean Shearwater. It (and possibly a 2nd individual) gave good views side-by-side with the Balearic Shearwater.

La Gallinera was much the same as the first afternoon, though with the addition of a pair of Gull-billed Terns and a Roller.

In the visitor centre at el Cortalet we wasted some time reading the information boards and I tried to photograph the fish in the tank...

Fish:


Another try for the crake was again fruitless. A female Little Bittern flew backwards and forwards past the hide and a Great Reed Warbler showed relatively well. A Pond-turtle was a reptile trip tick.

Aiguamolls de l'Empordà:


Great Reed Warbler:


Crake-less (again):


Pond Turtle:


We finished the day at Verges for Eleonora's Falcons again. Down by the river we found a single light morph bird. A pair of Hobbies was on a nearby pylon. Driving back to the road we spotted a pair of Eleonora's Falcons on telephone wires, again both light morph birds. Unfortunately, they were soon chased off by a couple of Carrion Crows, though they did fly directly over our heads...

Hobby:


Watching Eleonora's Falcons:


Eleonora's Falcon overhead:


For our final full day, the three of us headed into the Pyrenees again. Masses of Griffon Vultures again, plus another Egyptian Vulture. A Red Kite flew over us and Marcel & myself had a Golden Eagle. Unfortunately Martí missed it, being preoccupied at the time finding out the complete life story of one of the locals, including how the church was build, how one of the villagers refused to pay for the road to be resurfaced 4 years ago and how to skin a sheep...
A male Golden Oriole that flew across the road was a 'plumage-tick' for me (having previously only seen green females and subads) and was the first one we'd actually managed to see during the week. Invertibrate interested was provided by some Owlflies Ascalaphus libelluloides (syn. Libelloides coccajus) hawking over the road side. More Chough and a few other bits finished the day off quite nicely.

Griffon Vulture:


Stopping at a river between Gurri and Vic on the way home, we found 2 or 3 Green Sandpipers.

Putting the car away in the garage, it decided it had finally had enough of being driven 1000's of km with the AC on, the radio going and being constantly stopped and started and it gave up the ghost. Consequently, Wednesday morning was spent sat round waiting for it to come back from the mechanics. Marcel left to catch a train back to Barcelona and Martí & myself were left to entertain ourselves locally.
With the car back, we went to have a look for some Western Bonelli's Warblers. We thought we had one, singing, then we realised it was a Cirl Bunting......

After a bit of lunch, we headed out again, this time to see if we could get some photos of Crested Lark. One showed well at the back of a pig farm, although it could be a bit flighty at times.

Crested Lark:


On the river, one of the Green Sandpipers was still present and a male Little Ringed Plover was also there.

Little Ringed Plover:



Final stop was a small colony of Bee-eaters. One pair showed very well and, despite being such common birds, were still a delight to see.

Bee-eater:





Massive thanks goes to Martí for doing all of the driving over the week and showing me (most of) the birds he promised he would. Also huge thanks to his mum and dad for accommodating and feeding me! Moltes gràcies!

You can find more information about the birds in Catalonia here & more about visiting the region here