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 

 



Pre Spring mish mash ... various Yorkshire trips out and about in Feb / March

At long last I've decided to move back into the property market, nothing too grand (beggars can't be choosers!) but my oh my its taken over the first 2 and a half months of this year. Maybe its my age but all of the deliberations, decisions and 'u turns' involved in what should be a relatively straightforward process has distracted me massively and left me frazzled!

Almost Spring now - so enough is enough, its time to take the plunge! No worries, this post will not  in any way resemble an episode of 'location location' but it is a bit of mish mash of late winter / early spring around my way.

I spent a much needed break with gud fellah No1, Mr Mark around his patch on Hatfield Moor last month and got some great landscapes on a still and clear day....


Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Stonechat (female), Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

as well as a rather nice pair of Stonechats that were flitting about and looking to set up a territory .. more and more of these birds are being recorded on Hatfield as the habitat develops and matures.





Stonechat (male), Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16



 

 

 

Its been the Duck season of course and I've popped out to the Lower Derwent Valley a few times and seen lots, and I mean 1000's .. Teal, Wigeon, Pochard, Tufties and the like but there's nothing more appealing I think, than a few of these mainly overwintering wildfowl pairing up and getting into breeding mode!

 

 





Shoveller pair, North Cave Wetlands, 16/02/16

This pair of Shoveller for instance look as if they're going places! Not in the Derwent as it happens but during a visit to North Cave Wetlands.

 .... and here's some Gadwall action...of all our ducks these seem to me act the craziest at this time of year with little groupings of boys chasing boys chasing girls (there might be a song in there somewhere?!)

Gadwall action, North Cave, 16/02/16

 

At the same location I spotted my first ever Green Winged Teal (it had been there a while) but it never came close enough to photograph. Interesting though and though at first glance this American version of our own Common Teal looks almost the same, that vertical chest stripe really is quite distinctive!



Green Winged Teal (pic courtesy of Ian Davies)

So, what else have I had recently? Well as the winter tails off without much of cold blast this year, I've seen many of our northern birdies depart of late ... Fieldfares and Redwings gathering in the tops of trees have been a common sight and many flocks have passed over north along with small flocks of Starlings. I had a couple of big flocks of Pink Footed Geese heading in the same direction over Fangfoss late Feb, one of which flew over early morning as I was heading out for a shower and prompted one of my mates to 'tut tut' me for not having my camera to hand! Best of all though was a big flock of calling Whooper Swans (I estimated c140) heading north over the Wolds last week (10/03) too distant and misty to get a shot but great to see and hear .. another flock passed over my caravan earlier in the morning (heard them but couldn't see 'em) so I guess there must have been a major passage that day.

 

Barn Owl, nr Sutton Forest, 5/03/16

Seen a fair few day flying Barn Owls of late too with regular sightings in the Lower Derwent Valley, the Wolds and around Fangfoss. This individual I came across nr Sutton on Forest after a good day's recruiting at Moorlands ... both reasonable captures but rather marred by interfering twigs and telegraph wires!



Barn Owl, nr Sutton Forest, 5/03/16



Redpoll, fangfoss, 02/03/16

On my local patch at Fangfoss  I'm still getting the odd Redpoll in with bigger flocks of Yellowhammer, Chaffinch & Tree Sparrow. Thought at first this one looked a bit pale and maybe a 'Meally' race but on closer inspection turned out to be just a Lesser.

Redpoll, fangfoss, 02/03/16



A few weeks ago in mid Feb during a mild spell everyone was marvelling at early Daffodils and the birds were showing breeding intent like this impressive looking cock Yellowhammer and a nest prospecting little Wren at Askham Bog.

Yellowhammer, Fangfoss, 11/02/16



Wren, Askham Bog, 14/02/16

Snow on the Wolds, 02/03/16

As is often the case though, a remarkably early promise of Spring was halted in its tracks by a cold spell, the daffodils retreated and there was snow covering the ground for a few days up on the Yorkshire Wolds.

Starkness and a bitter chill for the first couple of weeks of March put pay to any hopes of an early singing Chiff Chaff and here we are in the middle of said month with hardly any early migrants to speak of, the fields are bare though not without some degree of photographic appeal ...

Bare corn field, Fangfoss, Feb '16



Goldeneye, Tophill Low, 14/03/16

...and even a tramp around Tophill Low, a regular spot for early Sand Martins produced little other than winter ducks. This nice male Goldeneye was displaying but the female of the species looked like they were saying 'no'! 




Goldeneye, Tophill Low, 14/03/16

A house hunting trip to Hull combined with a couple of hours at Spurn Point produced a Long Eared Owl flushed from the roadside (nr Sammy's Point) and a nice Merlin fly by nr the Blue Bell cafe, but no spring migrants. Jolly nice skeins of Brent Geese though and here are just a few of appx 1100 on the reserve ....

Brent Geese, Spurn, 18/03/16



Brent Geese, Spurn, 18/03/16

 ...and some reassuring numbers of our old calling friends the Curlew with upwards of 500 on and around the estuary .. here's a nice one that flew past quite close


Curlew, Spurn, 18/03/16

 Chiff Chaffs, Blackcaps and Sand Martins have now been spotted in Yorkshire at various locations over the past week or so of course, but not by me! There's always next week!