Griffons galore at the Foz de Lumbier, snow around the Irati forests, Northern thrushes mingling with warblers and a rip off camp site but at least I got a shower!



Progress , though I ain't gone far!

Posting from a public library in Arguedas because the wifi signal in the local bar here was just too feeble. I've made decent progress through Northern Spain and now find myself just outside the Bardenas Reales ... just done a quick reckie and have to say this is one of the most surreal places I've ever been! I can see now where the Spanish Steppes got their name and perhaps also where Salvador Dali got some of his inspiration! That's all to come tomorrow and for a later post so here's a bit of catch up.

The day after I last posted I woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground, it didn't last for long but while it did the countryside views were dazzling!

Redwing, Roncesvalles

I did't much fancy venturing too far away from Roncesvallles in case the weather got worse so I spent a morning tramping the woods again ... it was bloody freezing! One or two good birds about though, plus a Red Squirrel across the road.

Best birds of the morning was a huge flock of 300 Bramblings in the forests around Roncesvalles and some great looking Redwings, quite a few thrushes here in fact with both Song & Mistle Thrushes in amongst the Blackbirds. No Fieldfares though.







Bullfinch, Roncesvalles

Now here's a bird I've never seen in Spain before, its just a Bullfinch but hey 2 cracking males in a forest in the Pyrenees with snow on the ground and the sun coming out was just magic! Had a couple of Chiff Chaffs and a strange sounding woodpecker in the same sheltered spot..... bit like a Lesser pecker, but not quite?? We'll never know!

Chiff Chaff, Roncesvalles

Black Redstart, Roncesvalles

Black Redstarts all over the place as expected, but none more handsome than this one in the car park at Roncesvalles


　

　

　
















Eating quite a lot of this ... very nice with a hunk of cheese and some decent bread!

Chorizo Sausage

The weather cleared up in the afternoon so I headed off to my next destination - the Foz de Lumbier, one of two massive gorges around here that are said to be good for Lammegeir and Wallcreeper. No joy with either as it turned out but I did find a half decent camp site, so was able to wash and get my tackle together with some degree of much needed civilised order!



Foz de Lumbier

The gorge at Lumbier was spectacular to say the least, hence the tourists ... hence I suspect no Wallcreepers but if you like to see Griffon Vultures this is the place to come. I counted just shy of 250 on the cliffs. I had Dipper and Firecrest here too to take my species list over 100 but generally I'm finding the birds very tricky to see let alone photograph! The Griffons were reasonably easy though ... so I filled my boots!

Here's a couple of the Gorge itself ..







Foz de Lumbier





Griffon pose ... some say these are the ugliest birds going?

Griffon fly past

Perfect metropolis for Griffons!

Griffon fly past2

Griffon fly past3

Griffon party ... almost a caption contest here!

Like I said, the Griffons were easy ... perched around on the cliff faces and floating over the gorge all of the time.



Camp site cost me close on 40 euros for 2 nights ... yes I had electric hook up but still that's a bit steep I thought for what must be low season, got charged VAT, some other 10% tax ....felt ripped off and it was some time before I regained my normal cheery self!



En route ... somewhere in the Navarre!

At some point the sun came out as I was driving and as luck would have it I was passing some lovely looking cliff faces and outcrops in the Navarre ... surely the prettiest part of the Pyrenees...













Next up was Las Canas, a wetland area just outside of Lograno. Not a bad little spot and I had some good birds there, just a shame it drizzled all day and with black clouds overhead the light was appalling ..... too bad, I had cracking views of 2 male Hen Harriers, so good in fact I could see the bright yellow legs on one when it conveniently perched in the middle of a stubble field (with hindsight I should just have forgotten it was dusk and taken a picture anyway because I didn't see 'em again the next day!). Not processed any pics from the last 2 days yet but with this gloomy light and persistent drizzle I'm not expecting much.

New birds for the trip here were Lesser Short Toed Larks .... stack of them (200 I reckon), Woodlarks (20+), Red Crested Pochard, Merlin and some probable Citril Finches but they do look so vedry much like Siskins!

I'm in good spirits, and so I should be ... what a wonderful adventure I'm having and its only lack of time and opportunity to post that prevents me from including more of my experiences over here. Maybe I need a camp site with wi fi access so I can sit down and do this from the van.... ah the luxury of that thought!

Upper Teesdale - beautiful scenery, wild moors, old lead mines, limestone pavement and more!

Any area of the UK that's been recommended to me from not one, not two, but three guys I've met recently as a great place for wildlife and photography just had to be given some 'van time'! The area we're talking about is around Middleton in Teesdale in county Durham and those guys weren't wrong ... I spent an excellent few days there last week, just me and the van exploring the beautiful scenery, flora & fauna of Upper Teesdale. Oh and I had a piece of feedback from someone whilst I was working on Askham Bog .... 'like the blog mate but you need more photographs' .. and I suspect he meant less rambling discourse too but was too polite to say! Fair comment mate, more pics in this post and making a conscious effort right now not to babble on! Here's a few introductory scenic photographs.


River Tees with Mickleton and Romaldkirk Moor in the background



River Tees at Forest in Teesdale, upstream

River Tees at Forest in Teesdale, downstream

Looking South from Middleton in Teesdale towards Romaldskirk Moor

Bowlee Beck, Bowlees

 Pretty nice I think you'll agree, that last pic of Bowlees Beck is where I had a pleasant snooze in the sunshine and awoke to see a Sparrowhawk, one of several I saw during my time up there, swoop down the valley in search of some poor unsuspecting passerine.



Wheatear - immature female?
 

Ah yes, birds, my first love! Well the middle of August is never the best the times for bird spotting but I had a few good moments with resident breeders. I expected and got some reasonable distant shots of Wheatears .... this was one of a family party I stalked for ages looking for a decent shot but they were well shy. Think this is an immature female but not sure.













Good to see plenty of young Lapwings about on the upland slopes and moors ... it looks like they've bred well after a very poor year in 2012.

Hundreds of Starlings about too, I've noticed that they often hang around with Lapwings in the countryside and they often move around together ... if you look closely there's even one that's snuck onto the above shot!



Juvenile Mistle Thrush

Upland areas are also usually good for Mistle Thrushes too and at this time of year they gang together in big family parties. This one, probably a young un, was one of 26 in a single field.
















Juv Spotted Flycatcher, Bowlees

Best of the birds I managed to snap was this Spotted Flycatcher, again it was one of a family group (of 4) and probably a youngster judging by it's tameness. Not the most picturesque of settings but they do like barbed wire fences as launching pads for catching passing flies, this one was taken just outside the visitor centre at Bowlees.

Spotted Flycatchers have declined rapidly in the UK over the past few years but I suspect this has been a good year for them. I had another family party on my way back to Yorkshire nr Riveaux Abbey and I know that they've bred at Askham Bog this year too.












A few other birding highlights of the trip that obviously eluded my lens included a single Black Grouse and a Hobby up at Cowgill Resevoir, a single Peregrine at Bowlees, Red Kite just outside Middleton and a fleeting but pretty special Merlin flying off a fencepost and away on Harwood Moor.
 
Bit of Flora anyone? No not margarine silly .... wild flowers and the like!

Always good to stumble across something you haven't seen before or you can't put a name to, and having not paid nearly enough attention to the plants and flowers I've walked past over the years (mainly because my head is usually in the clouds looking for birds), I'm finding that I stumble across allsorts of things that require a google search. How great is that ... a whole new raft of things to find out about, and that's without my new found interest in dragonflies, butterflies, moths!

Ok, yes my friend on Askham Bog, I'm rambling again and there have now been precisely 115 words of babble since the last photograph so without further ado here's my couple of flower ticks for the week.

First up is was this totally unexpected flower growing in some profusion alongside this little stream nr Bowlees. It looked so extraordinary, incongruously colourful in an otherwise bleak landscape of rock and moor. Its common name, somewhat disappointingly is Monkey Flower, and its a hybrid form of Mimulus, a native flower of North America.

Mimulus (Monkey Flower) hybrid

Mimulus (Monkey Flower) hybrid

 



Mimulus alongside a babbling brook in Upper Teesdale

I don't know enough about it of course, but from what I can gather it's a fairly common garden flower and maybe it's just escaped into the wild up here, but whether its an invasive or a semi naturalised species I love it and who can argue with its presence in such a setting?!





















Here's a little flower I nearly trod on whilst I was walking a bit of the Pennine Way nr the Forest in Teesdale before deciding to have a closer look. Its called Bright Eye and one of those 'micro flowers' that often get overlooked but up close and personal it's a true beauty.


Bright Eye, beside the River Tees

Teesdale is also stack full of industrial and archaeological history, too much to go into any detail in a mere blog, but its amazing what you see around and about whilst walking about.

Take this for instance ...its an old and discarded lead mine. Hard & dirty business up here during the 19th century but 200 years on, easy pickings for us 21st century photo tourists!


Old lead mine, Ettersgill.

Even further back in time (and I think we might be talking really big numbers here!) here is a mighty fine example of 'Limestone Pavement' .... a geological phenomena caused by the scarring of the land by retreating glaciers during the last ice age some 10,000 years ago (told you we were talking big numbers!). Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales is probably the biggest and best known example in this country but this small area at Whorleton is a good example.

Limestone Pavement, Whorleton



 Whorleton was one of the places that was recommended to me to visit as a place of beauty, I wasn't expecting the limestone pavement, that was a bonus, and being the middle of the day there wasn't much bird action but wow what a beautiful place ....  so secluded, perfect for a swim, and I'd been on the road for 3 days without a wash so why not! 





Whorleton, Upper Teesdale

All in all a very pleasurable and profitable few days and for sure I'll be back now that I know where to find breeding Black Grouse and Merlin. For anyone that's interested this is the general area I explored (just click on this link .....Upper Teesdale) ... and many thanks to Robin Marrs for his hospitality on day 1, showing me around Fen Bog and for giving me an insight into Bing maps ... awesome mate! I'd be doing Fen Bog an injustice if I tagged those pics on to the end of this so will cover it a separate post.

 

Last but not least, here's the Van shot!

The van, just outside Middleton in Teesdale