Spain road trip week 3 - Picos de Europa and Cantabria

We're now back in the UK, safe n sound, not as sun kissed as we'd like but that's another road trip under the belt - its been good to check out some familiar locations later in the year and also to check out a few areas neither of us have been before in a birding capacity. Northern Spain and the Picos de Europa is the main focus of this post and I'm pleased to report we had the sun shining for most of it!


For those that are interested in such things we ended up with a grand tally of 216 bird species for the 3 week trip, not too shabby! There's a link at the end of this posting with a full list.



Picos de Europa foothills from Potes

Anyone who's flown to Spain will doubtless have gazed down upon the Picos De Europa and marvelled at those jagged snow topped spurs, I know I have many a time, and often promised myself an explore there. Some of the scenery in and around the 'Picos' is truly jaw dropping with many peaks well over 2,000m and equally impressive gorges and caves. This was just the view from the campsite we stayed at nr Potes (pic right)




The wildlife was non too shabby too with Redstart, Firecrest, Hobby, Northern Bullfinch, Dipper and Wryneck all around the campsite with the last 3 all new species for the trip. I thought I had my first live snake of the trip whilst I was bumbling along a forest trail but it turned out to be one these little fellahs ... a Slow Worm or if you like a Legless Lizard


Slow Worm, Potes, 15/05/16

Cable car, Picos de Europa

By my reckoning those last three new birds took us to 199 species with still 4 or 5  days to go ...get in! Still,  if you want to tick off birds like Wallcreeper, Rock Thrush, Alpine Accentor and Snow Finch you have to get up high and in amongst those snow topped peaks and the only way to do that in the Picos is to take the car!

Snow Finch, Fuente De, 16/05/16

Sadly no Wallcreeper .. it was always gonna be tough on the tourist trail, no Rufous Rock Trush either but we sailed past the 200 mark with another 4 new species for the list .. Water Pipit, Alpine Chough, Alpine Accentor and a 'lifer' for the both of us - Snow Finch. Surprisingly big for a finch, we had a pair immediately we were up there and then Mark was lucky enough to have c25 fly right past him. In flight, the pure white patches in their wings was nothing short of dazzling!

The Alpine Accentors were confiding, relatively numerous and a few were ringed as were some of the Alpine Choughs



Snow Finch, Fuente De, 16/05/16

 



 

Alpine Accentors, Fuente De, 16/05/16

Water Pipit, Fuente De, 16/05/16

Alpine Chough, Fuente De, 16/05/16



Northern Wheatear, Fuente De, 16/05/16

Northern Wheatears have been almost ever present wherever we've been so I shouldn't have been surprised to see a few up here, however incongruous they seemed surrounded by all that snow!

A nice male Black Redstart, one of several, topped off a cracking couple of hours birding above the tree line and up amongst the clouds and, as expected, the landscapes were simply breath taking!

Black Redstart, Fuente De, 16/05/16

 

Fuente De, 16/05/16

Fuente De, 16/05/16

Fuente De (view from), 16/05/16



Long Lipped Tongue Orchid, Cantabria, 17/05/16

From the Picos we headed back towards journey's end and Bilbao, but not before a couple of days chilling out on the Cantabrian coast near the fishing town of Santona. En route there we stopped at a lay by for some lunch and spotted these amazingly shaped orchids in with red clover.

They're 'Long Lipped' Tongue Orchids, fairly widespread around Iberia but a first for me. Weird looking aren't they?







Long Lipped Tongue Orchid, Cantabria, 17/05/16



Peregrine Falcon fledglings, Montehano, 18/05/16

We camped out across the bay from Santona at Montehano, an historical mound, where there's an old quarry and a monestary, La Convento de Montehano. The weather had turned sour again and the bay held precious few of the many wading birds we'd been expecting here but the distinctive shrill 'kee-ark' call of a Peregrine hinted at a nest site and something to look at. Took a wee while but finally we located 3 fledglings high up on a grassy ledge.

Very average 'record' pics in poor light and at distance, but you can clearly see that they're all well developed and I would say almost ready for the off. We watched the site for a couple of hours or so hoping for one of the adults to return with food but it never happened so we withdrew in case they were spooked.

Peregrine Falcon fledglings, Montehano, 18/05/16

A few small flocks of Whimbrel turned up the same day, incredibly our first of the trip, and we also had Ringed Plover, Curlew, Redshank in small numbers plus a Black Necked Grebe on one of the many water courses around the marismas here. I walked around the monastery snapping a few more wild flowers then climbed the Montehano hill and got some landscape pics of the area.

Mountain Kidney Vetch, Montehano, 18/05/16

Fairy Foxglove, Montehano, 18/05/16

Ivy Leafed Toadflax, Montehano, 18/05/16

Santona (from Montehano)

Escalante (from Montehano)



Marismas de Santona (from Montehano)

Convento de Montehano

With a ferry to catch the next day it certainly felt like journey's end but what a journey - from the North to the South of Spain and back again, a distance of appx 2,500 kilometres in 3 weeks and in total 214 bird species recorded. It was non stop, even the ferry back brought us 3 more birds - Guillemot, Turnstone (on the ferry itself!)and Arctic Skua and just off the ferry at Southsea I had a fabulous photographic finale with a summer plumaged adult Mediterranean Gull feeding on the beach with common Black Headed Gulls.

 

 

Mediterranean Gull, Southsea, 20/05/16



Mediterranean Gull, Southsea, 20/05/16

 

Mediterranean Gull (Left), Southsea, 20/05/16

Mediterranean Gull, Southsea, 20/05/16

What a beauty!

 

As promised then here's the final species list for the whole trip - just click on the link 

Spain 2016 species list 

 



Spain road trip week 2 - Tarifa to Villafavilla

Spain Road Trip week 2

Here we are again then back in Southern Spain, the destination of many a birding trip between the pair of us. Its great, its invigorating, and its absorbing but we've had a bit of bad luck with the weather .. you'd think anywhere in Spain in the middle of May would bring nothing but sun, sun 'scorchio' sun; instead we've had storms from the SW and lots of rain. Still we've made the very best of the good weather and with 195 bird species recorded to date the race is very much on to crack 200 and beyond!

So, having beat our way all the way down here, this posting includes our return trip back up towards Northern Spain - from Tarifa on the southern coast, westwards towards Sanlucar, back up through Extramadura again, the Sierra de Gata and the Rio Duero gorges and then on to Villafavila.










I've spoken of Tarifa many times before so wont dwell except to say that I'll probably end up there one day in one way or another. Surf town, windy town this time round but it provided the goods once again in the shape of 4 Lesser Crested Terns in amongst 30 or so Sandwich Terns.



Lesser Crested Tern (top right) with Sandwich Terns, 09/05/16

Seen them in Morocco a few years back but a new Spanish bird for me, these are essentially African terns that occasionally stray in to Europe on southerly winds. Similar in size and shape to our familiar Sandwich Tern except for that gloriously dagger like orange bill.

Lesser Crested Tern (left) with Sandwich Terns, 09/05/16

Pallid Swift, Tarifa, 09/05/16

Lots of Swifts down here and a fair few of them are Pallid Swifts, paler and in my opinion easier to photograph!















Along with the terns on the beach there were maybe 30 or Audouins Gulls, this neck of the woods is one of the few places left where you can see these rarest of  gulls.


Audouins Gull,Tarifa, 09/05/16

Backtracking just a tad, back in El Rocio whilst I was writing up the last blogpost in a hotel room, I was let out for a few hours and snapped this nice Spotted Flycatcher along with a Bea Eater at nearby Rocina


Spotted Flycatcher, Rocina, 08/05/16

Bee Eater, Rocina, El Rocio, 08/05/16

 A brief sunny interlude on the straits around Gibralter at Punta Secetra provided an opportunity for some wild flower and seascapes ... 

Wild flowers, Punta Secreta, 09/05/16





Wild flowers, Punta Secreta, 09/05/16



Rock of Gibralter

Punta Secreta, looking out on Morocco

Storm clouds rising over Africa

Egyptian Vulure, nr Facinas, 09/05/16

Just a bit further around the coast near Facinas we were on the hunt for a mega bird species known to breed around these parts - White Rumped Swift. We failed, but got a great 2nd prize of the best views and pics ever of the increasingly rare Egyptian Vulture ... a pair that appeared to be nesting in the cliffs and just drifted in as we were about to depart.



Egyptian Vulure, nr Facinas, 09/05/16

Fantastic to see the scarcest of the 3 vulture species on show in Spain and in such good light. The most common, although still an endangered species, is the Griffon Vulture of course and although I rarely make much of an effort to photograph these beasts, a chanced upon gathering of maybe 50 or so at the road side was an exception ...



Griffon Vulture, nr Facinas, 09/05/16

Griffon Vulture, nr Facinas, 09/05/16

Wet Black Kite, Bonanza, 10/05/16

Next stop - Sanlucar de Barrameda and the marismas at Bonanza is where the weather really set in and we had pretty much solid rain for a couple of days as we travelled north through Extramadura and the Sierra de Gata.

Not much in the way of pictures for this bit of the journey but some interesting bird species recorded including Golden Orioles flying out of Bonanza and heading north in between the rain bursts, with large numbers of Spotted Flycatchers at the same location. Big numbers of Cuckoo, presumably making their way north and more Golden Oriole doing the same in the Sierra de Gata which also yielded a distant Goshawk.

We added Thekla Lark, Red Necked Nightjar, Spectacled Warbler and a long awaited Cirl Bunting (so unobtrusive at this time of the year!) to the list and headed north again for Villafavila.

Northern Wheatear, Villafavilla, 13/05/16

If I were to recommend an area of Spain where you were guaranteed to see all the best Spanish birds in a very small area I'd say go to Villafavilla. Equidistant between Leon to the north and Salamancar to the south, this curious little township, associated ruins and wetlands is set in prime steppe land, brimming with birds and has real oldy worldy Spanish feel. Twice I've been here, winter and spring and trust me it wont disappoint.

We were camped out on the outskirts, in the ruins and decrepit dovecotes amongst a colony of 20+ pairs of Lesser Kestrels .. how's that for a start?!

This is the last destination for this part of the trip, week 3 will be the Picos de Europas and the Northern coast, so here's the rest of the Villafavilla pics starting with those splendid little falcons ... Lesser Kestrels.

We had 'em hovering, perched, mating, carrying termites and all at close range.



Lesser Kestrel, Villafavila, 13/05/16

Lesser Kestrel, Villafavila, 13/05/16



Lesser Kestrel, Villafavila, 13/05/16

Lesser Kestrel, Villafavila, 13/05/16

Lesser Kestrel, Villafavila, 13/05/16

Old dovecote, Villafavila

Villafavila, deserted church, ruins, wetlands.

Gull Billed Tern, Villafavila, 13/05/16

No pics, they were just too far off, but along with maybe 150 or so Gull Billed Terns, a handful of Whiskered Terns we also had 27 Black Terns drop in to feed over the lagoons ... yet another species for the list!

Great Bustards, Villafavila, 13/05/16



Great Bustards, Villafavila, 13/05/16

More BeaEaters, Villafavilla, 13/05/16

Rounding off, here's the latest wild flower pic quiz ... for me probably when I get around to digging out a field guide but once again please feel free to offer the odd suggestion. Some or all are probably common as muck around here, but not to me!