The journey back pt1 ... Castilla y Leon, freezing fog around Madrid, a different goose and some sheep!

Road-trip progress: 8th - 9th Dec 2013

And so to my 10th and penultimate post from the late autumn/ early winter trip to Espagne, and what a trip it has been. Memorable in so many ways but I'll save the round up till I've knocked up some kind of report / species list and gathered together all the best pics on some kind of gallery ....I don't mind spending a chunk of my xmas day doing that, strange bod that I am!




Christmas in Seville

Talking of Christmas .... MERRY XMAS EVERYONE! and all that follow my little blog on here and on #bagginstim..... thank you for your time.





After the dramatic scenery of Extramadura and the relative calm of Sevilla, I encountered some horrendously inclement weather as I tracked up west of Madrid .... freezing fog and lots of it settling on my windscreen made for 'uncomfortable' driving, especially at night and with local cars on the tail of a dawdling Englishman in a slightly broken Transit van!

So in less than 1/2 a day's driving (albeit northwards) I went from this lovely sunshine in Northern Extramadura, and me enjoying it ....

Lovely autumn colours nr El Torno, Extramadura

Yes enjoy that son boy 'cos it ain't shining up north!

..... to this the next morning

Wake up call, it's Winter! 8.30am, Zamora car park.

.... I so wanted that shop in the pic above to be selling hot coffee! (it wasn't). Van started first time though and it was definitely time to move on. The forecast was for more of the same for the next 3 days around these parts which was a shame because I'd really wanted to take in Vilafafilla for my last chance of more Great Bustards and other steppe birds, and I did drop in but it was hopeless ... the whole area was in a deep freeze and cloaked with thick fog, so absolutely no chance of seeing another one of these. If your Christmas turkey could fly it might look a bit like this!

Great Bustard in flight ... so wish I could have seen one like this!

I hadn't seen much for the past couple of days, northern Extramadura was pleasant but quiet apart from large lark & finch flocks, including another Citril Finch and the curious site of c40 Meadow Pipits and c20 Chiff Chaffs feeding together whilst above them maybe 400 Starlings perched on telegraph wires, this was nr some unremarkable water course between Toril and Serrejon, but somehow synonymous as far as the density of these particular birds.

I was in going home mode for sure but I was still yearning for at least another couple of days of good weather and good birding ... and indeed I got them. Travelling up through Castilla y Leon, the fog suddenly lifted and somehow (no satnav remember!) I navigated myself to Fuentes de Nava, nr Palencia - a piece of reclaimed agricultural land and now one of the most important wetland sites in Northern Spain.

The omens were good, en route, stopping for break somewhere nr Palencia, a bird on a wire I'd initially taken for a Kestrel turned out to be a Merlin (one of several I've seen recently) but none as photographable as this one.... nice!

Merlin on the wire, nr Palencia

Fuentes de Nava with flying Teal in the foreground

De Nava itself isn't as picturesque and dramatic as some of the other wetland sites I've visited on this trip but oh man it was just nice to feel some warmth again and be able to get out and walk some distance.

Fuentes de Nava_9dec2013

Not quite the diversity and numbers of birds either but certainly plenty of wintering Greylag Geese that's for sure .... never easy to estimate such numbers but I guesstimated about 2500! There were maybe half a dozen Spanish birders / photographers knocking around and as I found further south, this annual invasion of tens of thousands of geese really seems to take their fancy ... are we in the UK missing something here or what?

Wintering Greylags at Fuentes de Nava

..... or maybe they were attracted by something a little more unusual because (and here's the thing and I think benefit of taking stacks of pics) when I was reviewing said pics later something caught my eye. Take a look at this initially discarded photo of the same flock of Greylags -

Greylags at Fuentes de Nava .... check out the goose extreme left!

.... here's said goose on the left and it's definitely a White Fronted .... and I'd scoured the whole flock on the day for a 'different goose'!!!

Half a White Fronted Goose .... havin it!

Fuentes de Nava .. sun was shining but there's ice in that dyke!

... hehe, i'll have to rummage through the rest of my geese pics for more or maybe even a stray Bean Goose!!


Nice place this was and just what I needed ... somewhere big and rangy to walk about in with the sun on my back .... after that dreadful freezing fog it was almost heaven!








Teal across Fuentes de Nava

The light was superb late on in the afternoon ... just look at the colour on these Teal flying across one of the lagoons there.













Marsh Harrier over Fuentes de Nava

Other notable sightings from around here were at least 8 Marsh Harriers, 1 Hen Harrier, another Merlin, 1 Black Kite, a Water Rail (heard), 30ish White Storks, good numbers of common ducks - Teal, Wigeon, Shoveller, Gadwall, 1 Green Sandpiper, 20 or Dunlin, 1 Common Sandpiper and a Jack Snipe amongst 10 or so Common Snipe, 1 Water Pipit, 20 or Skylarks amongst the many Crested Larks and a singing Blackcap (albeit sub song, it was nice to hear).

White Stork overhead, Fuentes de Nava

Later on, as I was sat outside my van enjoying the sun and a sandwich, and thinking about where to go the next day, a local herdsman with his dog and his sheep made their way across the field, flushing geese as they went. It made for a lovely picture ....

Sheep herding amongst the geese, Fuentes de Nava

Looking at that picture above and all it says to me, it feels slightly odd as I sit here back at home in the UK watching the Simpsons at Christmas (best tv I could find!), posting about events that even now, less than 2 weeks later, seem a world apart! One of my lodgers just told me about grown men staggering drunk around the streets of York wearing xmas tree and advent calendar costumes, singing crappy old Slade songs ..... reckon you'd catch the herdsman in the picture doing that?

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 Starlings, Grey 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!!!!

 

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 ....