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 

 



Bird surveying in North Yorks produces rocking horse shit around these parts .... breeding Redstarts!

Blogging my stuff has had to take a back seat for the past few weeks ... as even the less observant of you may have noticed but life has been hectic recently to say the least. In short I've sold my old camper, acquired a bigger and better one and have decided to sell my house and live in the new van  over the summer, probably winter in Spain again and then look to buy a smaller house next year. That's the plan anyway and if my house sells soon and I can negotiate a 9 month contract with Yorkshire Wildlife all the better!

So .... busy busy busy, tarting up the house, buying, selling, dealing with unhappy lodgers, not to mention a host of family issues to manage has created the most stress I've experienced in years and to cap it all my best mate Mark has just been involved in serious motorbike accident and has a badly broken leg. We were due to set off on a road trip to the Somerset Levels this week and any feelings of disappointment I have are totally dwarfed by his total abject misery at having to call the trip off .. in all the years we've been hanging out together I've never known him so enthusiastic and 'up' for the cause. He's so pissed off right now.

My thoughts are with him and hope as he does that the orthopaedic surgeons are cooking on gas when they go to work in the next day or so and that he'll be up and running for some mega trip in the Autumn.

So, its been an ok Spring so far, weather's been reasonable and although I've had this constant feeling of missing lots of stuff I have had a few trips out. One of the highlights was being asked to participate in an early breeding bird survey over 2 days back in April on YWT land in the Vale of Pickering at Low Carr farm and Appleton le Moors. My good friend Robin Marrs organised this and jolly good time we had ... still collating all the results but here's a few photos from the gig starting with the undoubted highlight, probable breeding Redstarts at Low Carr.

Didn't manage a decent pic of the female and both seemed very wary so I didn't push it ... need to pop back there soon to confirm breeding but this is a good record for the area.



Little Owl, Low Carr fm

Always good to catch one of these cheeky chappies too ... Little Owls are not as common as they once were and we had a definite pair.

Stacks of common warblers recorded - Willow Warbler, Chiff Chaff and Blackap but sadly no Whitethroats on this occasion. A handful of Sand Martins and Swallows were about and a Kingfisher plus a  pair of Bullfinches on what is essentially arable land was a bonus.

Other notable breeding species including good numbers of Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, at least 2 pairs of Song Thrushes, Common Buzzard of course but also Kestrel.

Several pairs of Curlew and Lapwing and a distant flock of Golden Plover which we couldn't really count, but sadly no Snipe in some good looking wet fields on the site, but Rob has some on moorland behind his house and still being a bit of a novice birdwatcher we had a laugh about him being freaked out by hearing their strange 'drumming' mating call - he thought aliens had landed in his back garden!

Breeding Curlew at Low Carr fm



 

Male Brambling, Appleton

Bit of a busman's holiday for me this and although my job was to just shout out all the birds it was strenuous enough ... up at the crack of dawn both days and walking all day. No complaints from me though and day 2 at Appleton le Moor was just as enjoyable. No real surprises here but some wonderful woodland habitat with the forest floor covered in Anemones, Bluebells and Wild Garlic. Nuthatches everywhere (we reckoned on 20 plus pairs), more warblers, all the common tits plus a probable Willow Tit amongst at least 3 pairs of Marsh Tit. Several pairs of Great Spotted Woodpecker (now this is a bird that's doing well!) and a single Green Woodpecker. On the river we had Goosander with chicks and a Grey Wagtail, Treecreepers in abundance, Goldcrest, Siskin, more Bullfinches and although just passing through a small flock of Bramblings were the star birds .... one very resplendent male in near full on breeding plumage was particularly photogenic, albeit through a mass of twigs and branches .... not bad for April 19th in North Yorks!

 

Male Brambling, Appleton

Female Goosander with chicks on the River Severn, Appleton

Marsh Tit, Appleton



?Willow Tit, Appleton

All in all a splendid couple of days, good weather, great company and something that needs to be repeated soon so we can get a better picture, many of the breeding birds of both area were yet to arrive ... cuckoo, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, swift, etc and I could have sworn I heard a Wood Warbler at Appleton and those Redstarts need checking out again before everything goes quiet in mid June.

I'll leave you with a few snaps of YWT staff hard at work (our survey coincided with lambing time at Low Carr!) plus a couple of Rob's very nice wild flower pics ....

Rob with his hands full!

Surveying at Appleton

Surveying at Low Carr

Hard work this lambing .... but I suspect they were up all night!!

Forget me Not

Sloeberry flowers

The last leg ... a Wallcreeper moment in Jaca, vehicle worries but all done and back safe n sound!



Trip progress - Fuentes de Nava (A), La Grajera (B), Jaca (C)

Ok here's my last post from the Spain trip plus a bird report of all the birds I saw - the report took me ages to compile and not perfect but started to get a bit OCD about it so stopped, had a drink or 2 and decided it was 'good to go'! Here it is - Roadtrip (Spain, Nov / Dec 2013)- bird species - all comments welcome.


Grey Headed Woodpecker, La Grajera

So then, the final leg of my journey - from the Fuentes de Nava in Castilla y Leon, via La Grajera and Jaca, then back through the Pyrenees and into France, though tinged with a bit of sadness at leaving Spain and a significant degree of anxiety over the noises emitting from my van (more later), was relatively tranquil and did in fact bring me 2 new 'lifers'. First of which was a splendid Grey Headed Woodpecker at the  La Grajera reservoir, nr Logrono - a bit of a park with golf course attached, an empty car park and several suspicious looking blokes wandering around (never had I been so concerned about my vehicle!). By now of course I was on the hunt for new species and thought this place looked good for Crossbills. None seen sadly but the Grey Headed Woodpecker in a children's play area was a terrific bonus! Thought I might have had one of these a couple of years ago in France but after watching this one - the way it looked and behaved, totally different from a Green Woodpecker, I'm satisfied I didn't.

Grey Headed Woodpecker, La Grajera

Red Squirrel, La Grajera, Castilla y Leon

Such a bleak feel to this place ...bare trees, cold winds and stacks of berries in the bushes were a stark reminder that although my skin was brown and hair sun kissed, it was in fact winter and I was heading north and right into it! There were Blackbirds, Song Thrushes galore here plus 20 or so Redwings and a distant flock of 20 or so unidentified thrushes that looked suspiciously like Fieldfares to me but could just as easily have been Mistle Thrushes or Blackbirds. No Crossbills, but at least 5 Firecrest along with Coal & Long Tailed Tits, 10ish Blackcaps and several Red Squirrels busily foraging for nuts on the forest floor .. yep it was winter that day alright!


Onwards and upwards I pushed, trying to ignore the horrendous noise in the van ... by this time I was pretty sure it was a big bearing gone on the driveshaft - disconcerting to say the least and as I passed back into Aragon the frailty of my vehicle was such that I passed up on the opportunity to drive up to the deserted village of Esco, abandoned in the year I was born (1959) after the damming of a stretch of the Aragon river created the Yesa resevoir and ruined the livelihood's of the farming community there (all General Franco's work!). Got an awesome pic of the place though ... light was just right with the setting sun highlighting the mountain ridge behind which I think is called Sigues


Esco (deserted village) at last light

Embalse de Yesa, Aragon

Eventually I reached Jaca and the nearby birding hotspot of San Juan de Pena, high up in the pre Pyrenees, a place I commend and highly recommend ... 





Jaca itself is a splendid place, although a popular destination for Spanish holiday makers and winter sports (the city was in the running to host the 2014 Winter Olympics), its well enough off the beaten track and not at all touristy, and thoroughly Basque! I stopped at a campsite here for a couple of days to explore the mountainous habitat up nr the monastaries of San Juan de Pena, primarily for a last chance of grabbing a Wallcreeper sighting .... I was lucky and got one, just one and sadly I wasn't savvy and alert enough to get a pic, but what a lasting image I will have in my mind's eye! Ok so why did I nearly wet my pants? Birdwatchers everywhere will understand this but to the non initiated a sighting of a Wallcreeper is a bit of a 'holy grail' experience ... its a bit like a treasure hunter discovering a Viking helmet on a beach, or an antique dealer coming across a piece of genuine Thomas Chippendale furniture .... it's just special!

Now I've searched and searched for a pic of Wallcreeper in the same aspect as I saw mine but couldn't find one so you will have to imagine. Here's the setting - I was looking out from a viewpoint nr the old monastery at San Juan de Pena -  it was mid morning in bright sunlight and I'd stood there for an hour because the light and the view was so inspiring, didn't see much .. a couple of Jays and some distant finches flying through the trees that's all ...


Viewpoint from San Juan de Pena

Then I saw a bird that I initially took to be a Great Spotted Woodpecker floating across the valley, took a look through the bins and got an eyeful of red / pink colour that didn't look right, it's almost fluorescent pink for god's sake ... saw the same colours on flamenco dresses in a shop in El Rocio! Its a f****** Wallcreeper flying right across the valley right in front of me and backlit in the sun! Where's the camera? oh shit it's gone!  Just imagine this magnificent thing ....

Wallcreeper, (google images)

..... flying across that valley in the sun. I don't expect non birders to understand why I nearly wet myself but the sheer beauty of the bird and the setting made for magical moment. The way it was, it could even have been a bird migrating  down from the mountains into the warmer climes of the valley (as they do in the winter). Alongside the Great Bustards and the Lammergeiers that was just about my best birding moment of the whole trip and one of those memories that is permanently etched on the brain!



Old monastery, San Juan de Pena

I had a wonderfully invigorating stroll around up here, both the old and new monastaries were interesting .. here's the old one (circa 920) - in the shadow of the same cliff face it was built from (that's where my Wallcreeper was heading and you can maybe see why!)









Now look, I'm neither an architect or town planner but impressive as it is I wouldn't have passed this ......

Old Monastary, San Juan de Pena

... and this is the new one, not sure when this was built, less impressive than the old to my mind but higher up and surrounded by forest and mountain views I'd certainly consider giving up all my vices and accept a retreat there!

New monastary, San Juan de Pena

 .... some nice seasonal Holly berries up here too


Holly, San Juan de Pena

.... and just about the weirdest image of a Treecreeper I've ever taken ... in the grounds of said monastery.



Treecreeper in the snow, San Juan de Pena



Bar, Jaca

  

Back down in Jaca it was warmer and before I hit this bar and got a bit giddy with some of the locals with my limited Spanish, my last good birding moment in Spain was a Peregrine Falcon chasing a Lapwing over the town and towards those mountains and monasteries. Another awesome moment to go with the rest!





My kind of bar, Jaca (nearly made an offer for one of those Strats!)

By lunchtime the next day I was well into France and heading for my sister's place in the Poiteau Charente. Toyed with the idea of taking in a coastal site on the way to grab a couple of birds I hadn't yet seen - Oystercatcher (can you believe that!), Ruff & Balearic Shearwater but decided against. I was looking forward to some catch up time with my sis and Mark, a hot shower and the opportunity get drunk and play some music .... oh and a chance to get the van seen to. I got all that and it was great to spend some time again in France with my old musical comrades ... good times!!

It was a wrecked bearing on the driveshaft .... diagnosed and repaired within 48hrs at a Ford dealer in Chauvigny - 280 euros (could have been a lot worse!).

So that's that .... I did it, it was something I promised myself when I retired and planned for 6 months. Worth it? I'll say .... where next!!??

Post script and slightly amusing little anecdote ..... when I got back to Jane & Mark's in France, whilst I was doing a bit of sorting out in the van, I happened to be looking at the car stickers on the back window, attached by a previous owner of the van no doubt and things I'd only half looked at before, and blow me ... of the half a dozen stickers, 2 were from Jaca and 2 from Salamancar! That van's done this journey before!!!! True ... weird or what!!