Return leg - Plains of La Serena, Monfrague, Villafafila. Imperial Eagle mobbing Great Bustards, Montagues Harrier & Sandgrouse.

17th - 21st March La Serena, Monfrague & Villafafila

On the return journey back up through Western Spain now and have to say at the outset that it's good to have a travelling companion in the shape of Mark along for the last few legs. Maybe something else to point out at the outset is that the moment we headed into inland Spain the weather and the light deteriorated vastly! I've done my best with the pics without taking away the true nature of the conditions (its very obviously still winter in the middle of Spain!)


Our first destination, the plains of  La Serena is a huge area of largely untouched 'steppe' land and with a total area of 1025 sq miles it is the largest piece of uncultivated land in Western Europe.



The Plains of La Serena

The Plains of La Serena

 A wild and awe inspiring place but I suspect in the middle of Summer it'll be unbearably hot and this river, one of the main water sources in the area will almost certainly run dry.

Rio Guadalefra, La Serena

Quite rocky in parts too with some strange looking lichen covered outcrops

....there's that same grey sky again and that same strange bloke in my van!



Great Bustards, La Serena, 17/03/15

Yep, a big place and some equally big birds. This is one of the best places in Spain for seeing Great and Little Bustards and we got an eyeful of both.

Shame the light was so dismal for the Great Bustards because they'd all just about got into breeding plumage - check out the 'tash on the prancing one!

This Little Bustard was one of 2 males that were flying around together and calling ...chasing each other maybe? We concluded that it must have been some kind of territorial spat. The only pics I've ever managed of flying Bustards anyway!


Little Bustard, La Serena, 18/03/15

 .... easier to photograph on the ground but even though these nicely posed males look distinctive it wasn't until we stopped the car and scanned the terrain that we saw them plus 30 or so of the much drabber females.

Little Bustards, La Serena, 17/03/15

This is a rubbish pic of a flock of 20 or so Great Bustards taking off. They were obviously agitated and it takes a lot to bother these giant 'turkey sized' birds but worried they were and with good reason.....



flushed Great Bustards

Juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle, La Serena, 18/03/15

In the distance we saw the culprit - juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle lording it over the plains and looking very menacing! It's a a way off in this pic but you can clearly see it looking down on those Turkeys! Like Golden Eagles, Imperial Eagles will take young goats so a Great Bustard .. why not?

We watched in awe as this monster cruised above both us and the Bustards. With a global population of circa 350 breeding pairs  this is one of the world's rarest eagles - more info here, and although I'd spotted one of the breeding individuals at Donana (easy enough as they have scopes trained on the nearest ones), to stumble across one in a more wild environment was just awesome. This young bird came a bit closer and afforded some great views and half decent pics ...

Juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle, La Serena, 18/03/15



Juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle, La Serena, 18/03/15

Juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle, La Serena, 18/03/15

Male Montague's Harrier, La Serena, 17/03/15

That was definitely the stand out moment of the trip to La Serena. You don't see Imperial Eagles or Great Bustards every day but to see some dangerous interaction between the 2 was truly memorable but that wasn't all that this remarkable place had to offer. The day before, we had our first good views of Montagues Harriers, a female and 2 males and one of them put on a very good hunting show...


Male Montague's Harrier, La Serena, 17/03/15



Male Montague's Harrier, La Serena, 17/03/15

Male Montague's Harrier, La Serena, 17/03/15

Male Montague's Harrier, La Serena, 17/03/15

Male Montague's Harrier, La Serena, 17/03/15

Black Bellied Sandgrouse, La Serena, 18/03/15

Nearby nr the small town of Campanario, we had both Black Bellied and Pin Tailed Sandgrouse flying over at regular intervals ...

Unfamiliar to most casual birdwatchers, Sandgrouse, as the name suggests are creatures of dry and dusty plains, deserts and other arid / semi arid parts of the world. Strong and fast fliers, as they have to be in order to seek out watering holes which can be many miles away from their nests, adult birds have the unique ability to store water in their belly feathers which they then use to 'drip feed' young chicks.




Pin Tailed Sandgrouse, La Serena, 18/03/15



Other good birds here included a pair of Bonellis Eagle, Black Stork, Lesser Kestrel, Pallid Swift, 2 Egyptian Vultures and lots of Calandra Larks 

Calandra Lark, La Serena, 17/03/15



  



Monfrague

A faulty memory card did for all my bird pics from Monfrague but if I can get it fixed the 8 or so Black Vultures we saw here should be worth the effort. In truth I'm not a huge fan (too many tourists) and I did a piece on the place last time I was here



Villafafila, 21/03/15

With more bad weather forecasted (including heavy snow) it was time to start putting in some miles if we were to get anything at all out of the Pyrenees, but not before a return trip to Villafafila, a series of lagoons set in steppe land nr Zamora (Castilla y Leon).










Dense freezing fog did for any meaningful exploring last time around and the elements weren't much better this time ... grey skies and a howling North-easterly wind. It certainly wasn't sunny Spain!

Villafafila, 21/03/15

Finding shelter, hats & gloves and hot tea was the order of the day for what turned out to be the last major birding site before we crossed back into France. Man it was cold! Got some good birds here though including 27 Great Bustards (distant), 2 Merlin, 4 Hen Harriers, c400 Avocet, c40 Ruff, c250 Black T Godwits, 2 Golden Plover, 1 Northern Wheatear, 6 Spanish Sparrows and plenty of ducks including 12 Wigeon and a curious looking female Tufted Duck that was ringed on its bill as well as its leg ...not a Ring Necked Duck because it has a tuft but maybe some kind of hybrid that's been marked out? It was the only decent bird pic I took such were the conditions!



Tufted / Ring Necked hybrid, Villafafila, 21/03/15





Tufted / Ring Necked hybrid, Villafafila, 21/03/15



A curious place with much dilapidation. Villafafila itself was pure 'shanty town' and there was a whole deserted village nr the reserve as well as several of the multi storey mud and straw pigeon coops that the area is renowned for.

Multi storey pigeon coop, Villafafila





Villafafila through a bird hide!

Sadly, poor weather and worse forecast cut short our stay on the border so we 'snuck' across the Pyrenees in a hasty fashion. In the snow nr the ski resort of Formigal, both of us bothered by the glare from the white stuff and slightly anxious about the state of the road, we had a solitary Alpine Swift, House Martins and a flock of Goldfinch around the ski lifts and added a couple of new species for the trip - 40 or so Alpine Choughs and 5 Snow Bunting - all from the van which we were both reluctant to stop and try for pics!

Over the Pyrenees nr Formigal, 23/03/15

Back into France, the weather a little better but you know how it is at the end of a long trip and after stacks of driving; Our combined energy levels were low and home was calling. We did a few sites in the French Pyrenees, Mark had a lifer in the shape of Black Woodpecker in La Foret de Cardeilhac plus some probable Ortolan Buntings, 6 Brambling (another new species for the trip) at Gresigne and 6 Dipper in the Valle D'Ossau were the stand outs, and then a total of 6 Hen Harriers in miserable weather at Narse de Lascols an added bonus with the latter site (a raised peat bog in the Auvergne) worthy of further exploration in the future.

So the trip ended with a flurry of new birds and more than a flurry of snow! 210 bird species in total which I'll list in my next post along with some pics that I couldn't fit into previous posts.





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!!

My best pics of 2011

Here we are then 2 days into the new 'leap' year 2012, the designated year of sustainable energy to all, the international year of 'co-operatives', the year of the London Olympics and according to the Mayan culture the year the world as we know it will end (on Dec 21st apparently!) ...... best not think about it!

As is the the tradition at the end of one year and the beginning of the next I thought a spot of reminiscence should be in order, bit late (that's my own tradition) but here are a few of my favourite photographs from my first 9 months in France, some of which have found their way into other blog posts but mainly these are unpublished.

I arrived here in March just as trees were beginning to bud and took a series of photographs of garden birds out of the back of the barn, these 2 of blue tit and goldfinch were amongst the best.

Later in the month I went over to the coast at Isle De Oleron and although seagulls are maybe not the most photogenic of birds, these couple of Lesser Blacked Backed Gulls negotiating the incoming tide made for some good shots

In April we, that's me Jane & Mark, spent a week or so down in the Pyrenees. They wanted some chillout time from the barn restoration project and I just fancied a trip somewhere to celebrate my retirement. Some half decent landscape photographs of La Pic de Ger and Le Pont D'espagne here plus one of Mark after an evening of fine wine tasting and singing and one of me the day after looking decidedly hung over (but still smiling!)

 

The bird pics are of Red Kite ..... one of a pair that hovered over us one day while we were camping high up in the mountains and Griffon Vulture of which we saw many patrolling the skies

Later on that month, back at La Macherie I saw a Western Whip Snake on the road as I was walking Balloo ....not seen one of these before and at the time wasn't sure if it was one of the poisonous ones so kept my distance and kept the dog away, still managed a couple of good shots though (the close up is with the zoom!)

 

Into May and peak breeding season for birds, stacks going on of course but here's just a couple of my favourite memories - first a pretty good overhead shot of a migrating Osprey in the Limousin (right) and below are 2 of many close up pictures I got of a pair of Black Redstarts that were nesting in the barn and that I tempted into using a home made perching post just outside .....judging by the huge array of food they brought back to the nest, if I'd taken more I could have compiled a half decent pictorial record of all the insects in the garden!

June saw me down in the south of France and although I somehow managed to time my trip down to the Camargue with some of the heaviest and most violent electrical storms certainly I've ever witnessed there were enough bright interludes to allow some good photographic opportunities.

Flamingoes are photogenic at the best of times and the good numbers on the Camargue allowed many good shots. I've also picked out a good shot of a Kentish Plover I took from the car and some excellent dragonflies that came out in the sun after yet another downpour.

At a nearby location (Plaines de La Crau) I managed this cracking good shot of a Black Kite (right) along with a speciality bird of the Mediterranean area, the splendidly exotic Roller

July and August were quiet months but this photograph of a Grey Heron and Little Egret squabbling over food was memorable for the interaction alone whilst coming across a family group of white horses walking towards me and then having them follow me on my local patch was one of those encounters that was both quaint and disturbing in equal measure!

Autumn here was marked by plenty of late summer sunshine with temperatures of 30 degrees C not uncommon well into October. Goodish rather than spectacular bird migration with late warblers, redstarts, whinchats and a half decent passage of Red Kites coming through providing daily interest in terms of birds but a high flying wandering Black Stork (right) over the barn spotted by my mate Mark was a highlight for me.

Blooming wild flowers in the meadows and  almost into November! (pic left)

Short Toed Eagle on passage nr Montmorillon (pic right)

Nice and pretty lucky shot of a Marsh Tit in flight in the Autumn sun here ..... been looking for an opportunity to showcase this pic!

More bird passage in November with masses of Common Cranes flying south over the village but equally impressive to me was the Wood Pigeon passage with big flocks in the early winter sunshine looking splendid (pic right)

Into December and still relatively mild with hardly any frost yet, I had Common Cranes still migrating south on Boxing Day with 35 south over the village and this picture of a Ewe with lamb (pic below) would normally be unremarkable had it not been taken on Dec 17th!

Ok folks that's my year with some of my best pictures. It seems fitting to end the post with an end of the day shot and here's a nice shot of reeds at my nearest wetland habitat, L'etang de Beavoir.