Tuesday 17 December 2013

Into Extramadura... Great Bustards, Great Scenery and the Vultures of Monfrague


Extramadura bound!
Long past Extramadura now of course, in fact I'm now back in France, but as ever blogging on the road involves lots of catch up and the last few of my posts will be me looking back and reflecting on what has been a truly memorable trip. Not without its problems ... my vehicle for instance is now making some horrendous noises and I suspect a gearbox problem that I may need to get fixed here before I travel back.... eek, French repair costs are not cheap! Still, that's vehicles for you and that's life!




Lets forget about it and return to Extramadura!



I passed the Rio Tinto en route and was pretty impressed, gobstruck in fact, by how red it really did look, tainted with the abundance of mineral deposits hereabouts. Shame I couldn't stop and take a pic but it would have been a hard shoulder on a motorway jobbie and I just don't like that these days.


Rio Odiel


Nearly as reddish in hue is the Rio Odiel, a sister river to the Tinto ... and a pull off place.








Great Bustard, Extramadura








Destination reached by nightfall and I'm now a good 300k further North.

 ...so far I've grabbed 5 'lifers' (birds I've never seen before) and although the pics are very indistinct here's one of them, my first Great Bustard .... it's nearly a kilometre away!!

So these were taken at a smallish local reserve nr the village of Nuevo Villanova and the Embalse de Cuncas, just a few kilometres from the Portuguese border. I kinda stumbled upon it as it was where I left the van the night before!

No better pic but if you look closely there are other birds there too which through the scope didn't look like females (which can be up to a third smaller than the giant, turkey sized males) ... they looked like Little Bustards to me.



As luck would have it, a chap called Alphonso drove up and in our respective woeful grasps of each other's languages he confirmed this for me. A wildlife photographer too and some kind of park ranger to boot he was such an enthusiast and we found a common language in our pictures of birds .... who needs Esperanto!







Ok, feel duty bound now after those pictures of fields with dots on, to post some kind of pic to show you the Great Bustard in all its glory... here's one in full breeding plumage lifted from google images.
Great Bustard in full breeding plumage

In retrospect this was a cracking little place, I had both Black Bellied and Pin Tailed Sandgrouse plus Calandra Lark,  none of which I saw again on the trip, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper, Jack Snipe, and a ridiculous number of Cormorants there but such was my eagerness to spend a wedge of time at Monfrague I saw that little haul as riches enough and pressed on.
Cormorant, Embalse de Cuncas
On the margins of the Embalse de Cuncas




Monfrague bound!


En route I stopped around Hornachos and picked up a solitary Ring Ouzel plus Lesser Kestrel, Dartford Warbler and en route I was seeing small flocks of Golden Plover along with bigger flocks of Lapwing, many Red Kites (just like travelling up and down the motorways in the UK!), and many big flocks of larks, finches and StarlingsGrey Partridge, several Southern Grey Shrikes, Marsh Harriers, Common Cranes, White Storks and Griffon Vultures and the occasional Hen Harrier.



Hornachos

Stacks of birds in other words and who knows what one could pick up if you had the luxury of stopping and scanning every time you come across such gatherings.

The Spanish love to get out and walk in such places, especially of a weekend, and of course they flock to their beloved Monfrague! Not complaining, not really ... I just cocked up my timings and, early mornings aside, really struggled to find the kind of tranquil environment in which this beautiful place and it's wildlife could reveal itself .... (sounds so much better than what I automatically wrote ... 'in which to pick up birds'!)


Castillo de Monfrague
The scenery there was stunning, really stunning, especially from the top of the Castillo de Monfrague, where I found myself on a cold and frosty morning on the 7th Dec.

Its high ... the car park here on the pic is already 1500m up! I had to walk to the top, 'by gum it wer cold though, but some of the early morning vistas were breath-taking ..... too cold to be swapping lenses all the time so most of this is me having fun with the Samsung!

Views from Castillo de Monfrague

Thank God for Health & Safety ... where would I have been without this helpful notice!
Views from Castillo de Monfrague ... yep that's frost on the boardwalks!
Views from Castillo de Monfrague


Views from Castillo de Monfrague

Views from Castillo de Monfrague
Views from Castillo de Monfrague


..... and as the mist began to clear over the damned rivers of the Tajo & Tietar

Views from Castillo de Monfrague

...... the Vultures that had previously been mysterious and slightly eerie shadows in the sky showed themselves in some majesty!


Griffons at dawn, Monfrague


Griffons at dawn, Monfrague


I'd noticed them swooping into the cliffs at a certain point and coming in quite close, so set myself up for one 'coming in' .... could have done with a tad more light but I like the sunrise effect!
Here's a few of the 30 or Griffon Vultures I was looking down on from the top of the Castillo... bit distant but smashing light and atmos!!

Griffon landing!

Black Vulture, Monfrague

Later on in the morning I managed a few reasonable shots of the half a dozen or so Black Vultures that were knocking about ..... flying beds they've been described as, and you can kinda see why!


Black Vultures with Griffons, Monfrague



Hawfinch, Monfrague
 


.... bagged the first Hawfinch of the trip here too, typically reclusive and never sitting proud, this was my best effort of an always tricky bird to photograph.


Rio Tietar

So I spent the best part of a week end from there on driving around trying to track down good birding possibilities but not really succeeding... if it wasn't walkers it was shooters and there was just as many of the latter! Not for one minute though am I suggesting that this isn't a haven for wildlife and countryside lovers (and ramblers!), it surely is... many a flora n for a tour bears testament to that and if you get the chance go go go! Just click on any of the Extramadura links for more info

I have a few more pics from here that I may get around to later, but for now .... its wine time in France and my guitar is calling me!!!!
 






























Monday 9 December 2013

Donana, Villmanrique ... warmth and succour!!!


Ah but I was spoilt at that hotel in El Rocio ... felt like easy livin for a while, what with steak & chips, coffee, beer on tap and a nature reserve just beyond your window!
 
I'm now far to the North, having done Extramadura and found it full of Spanish walkers (fair do's ... I was silly enough to visit on a w/e!) .... I've experienced snow and freezing fog around the plains of Salamanca and Zamora ... so extreme that it wasn't worth staying, especially since the forecast for the next 3 days was for the same. Well behind on updates of course but as I sit in a bar some 30k north of Burgos and approaching the Pyrenees again this is as much a recollection of warmer times as it is that promised photo catch up of Donana.

Lets start with some non birding pics and I can't believe it was just a week ago I was watching these Deer (Fallow I think) going head to head just outside El Rocio.

Fallow Deer, El Rocio

 .... and believe me they were really going for it, think I was quite lucky to witness this

 
To be brutally honest, the usual haunts around El Rocio .... Acebuche, Acebron and Rocina were all a bit quiet birdwise, as was Matalascanas, but the flooded fields and dykes around Villmanrique and the Jose Valverde reserve proved quite fruitful .... already posted a bit from around here with pics from my mobile but here's a few more ...
Drainage dyke nr Villmanrique


Black Shouldered Kite, Vilmanrique
 


Never quite got close enough to this Black Shouldered Kite, but as distance pics go this ain't too bad, especially since this one chose a prickly pear cactus to perch on!

Great White Egret, Vilmanrique

Grey Heron, Vilmanrique


Purple Swamp Hen, Jose Valverde .... run away!!
Purple Swamp Hens I like ... big, blundering and noisy as f*** they may be, these giant purple coots, but actually very shy once you get within shooting distance and I struggled to get a full on decent pic of the several I've seen down here. Here's my best couple of efforts ......


Purple Swamp Hen, stomping into the reeds!..... bad light on this one.

Stacks of birds around Villmanrique ... all the usual Storks, black and white, common waders, Bluethroats, lots of Greylag Geese (and I mean lots .... c2000!), Raptors too with Red & Black Kite, Kestrel, Lesser Kestrel, Peregrine, Marsh & Hen Harrier, Griffon Vultures and my first Short Toed Eagle of the trip ... pic is too bad to post! 

On my last day down here I took an early morning walk around the lagoon at El Rocio and popped into Rocina too, enjoyed the light and the sense of calm this place bestows on the traveller ..... here's a few choice pics
Black Tailed Godwit, El Rocio
Cattle Egret .... on a horse's back, El Rocio
 
I really wanted to get that 'glossy' look on the many Glossy Ibis that were feeding around the fringes of the lagoon ...

Glossy Ibis, El Rocio

Glossy Ibis, El Rocio

This Common Teal was looking good and attracted some good light too ......

Common Teal, El Rocio
This is possibly one of my best efforts at photographing the tease that is the Hoopoe!
Hoopoe, Rocina
  
 .... and always there when there's nothing else to photograph ..... so much prettier than our own but I'm sure just as voracious, Azure Winged Magpies always evoke a sense of Southern Spain.
Azure Winged Magpie, Rocina

Azure Winged Magpie, Rocina

..... and to round off this post of what seems like a million miles away now that I'm freezing cold in Northern Spain, here's a few landscape and pics of the famous horses that roam wild around El Rocio. 

El Rocio, Dec 2013

Horses of El Rocio... Greylags in the foreground, Parcel Pines in the background
Stray Parcel Pines in the middle of a sunset lit field, nr Rocina

Here's a couple more pics of El Rocio, the first of which is the famous Hermatige and home to the Virgin of El Rocio, a small carved and much venerated statue that is the destination of many on pilgrimage to this historic site.

Hermitage of El Rocio

El Rocio
 
Ok, that's me ... getting the nod for closing time at yet another bar so have to sign off ..... pics and report from Extramadura next ... some nice Black Vultures that's for sure! Here's a sign off pic of yours truly, still looking reasonable I think after 4 weeks on the road ....