Extremadura Birdwatching Tour 3rd 10 th April 2012

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Tobias Nicholson
5 years ago
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1 TOUR OVERVIEW This trip offered a great overview of some specialist Spanish & European species, Little Bustard, Great Bustard, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, Black-winged Kite, Eagle owl, Azure-winged Magpie, Black Vulture, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Bonelli s Eagle, plus add to great birds such as Bee-eater, Roller, Hoopoe, Montagu s harrier, Black-eared Wheatear, Bluethroat & it is obvious to see why this is such a great & popular destination. Over the 7 days we recorded 151 species FUTURE TOURS 2012 Winter Tour 12 th 19 th November 2013 Spring Tour 8 th 15 th April Please us for further details. AUTUMN TOUR COST 680 per person, single room supplement of 125 excluding flights. Includes all transport, guding accommodation & breakfast. Packed lunches & evening meals are excluded. SPRING TOUR COST 725 per person, single room supplement of 125 excluding flights. Includes all transport, guding accommodation & breakfast. Packed lunches & evening meals are excluded. ACCOMMODATION Your trip is arranged in a large beautiful Self-catering house with a plentiful continental breakfast provided. We purchased individual provisions from the local supermarket & made up our packed lunches each day which we took out with us during the day whilst birdwatching. We stay in a 3 storey white washed house in a small mountain settlement, there are 2 double rooms, plus 2 Twin bedrooms & 1 single room. The house is a lovely traditional example set in a typical white walled, narrow streeted Spanish mountain village. Evening meals were not included in the cost of the tour, but were arranged each evening at the local bar & on average a 3 course meal (simple Spanish food) with a couple of glasses of wine cost 16 euros per person. FLIGHTS Easyjet flight from Luton to Madrid were approximately in Early booking is advisable for the best prices.

2 DAY ONE ARRIVAL & COLLECTION FROM AIRPORT I met up with group in Madrid, with everyone arriving on different flights with a couple of hours between all of us. Eventually we headed west in the minibus, the journey uneventful with a few WHITE STORK, BLACK KITE, RED KITE, CORN BUNTING & BEE-EATERS noted en-route. A short stop for toliets etc nr Navalmorral proved to be rather successful, a quick walk produced lots of CORN BUNTING, 10 BLACK KITE, 2 BOOTED EAGLE, 2 CALLING QUAIL, CRESTED LARK & incredibly one of our target birds a stunning BLACK-WINGED KITE hunting the nearby fields great start!! We arrived at Cabezabellosa & were greeted by Marco & Ricardo Montero, the owners of our accommodation for the week. We had a first meal in the local bar, again typical Central Spanish fare, washed down with some of the local wine. DAY TWO MONFRAGUE NP We breakfasted around 7.30am & headed out around 8.30, a couple of stops in the village of Cabezabellosa proved worthwhile CUCKOO, 2+ BLACK KITE, c20 PALLID SWIFT, a male CIRL BUNTING, SARDINIAN WARBLER & several singing WOODLARK. We headed west to an area of cork oak & pools I have visited before the first roadside stop produced nice views of nest-building RED-RUMPED SWALLOW, SOUTHERN GREY SHRIKE, HOOPOE & MEADOW PIPIT. The 2 nd stop by some small pools proved fruitful LITTLE EGRET, LITTLE RINGED PLOVER, 2+ GREEN SANDPIPER, GREENSHANK, COMMON SANDPIPER, KINGFISHER, 2 WHEATEAR, SPANISH SPARROW, QUAIL calling, loads of CORN BUNTING & CRESTED LARK, 10+ WHITE WAGTAIL, WHITE STORK, 2 FLAVA WAGTAIL probably Iberian (the only one s of the trip) plus 2 ROCK SPARROW. We made a couple more stops & then headed to the famous Monfrague NP. We explored one of the trails near the Visitor centre area & walked a 3 mile circular walk, which produced a whole load of really good birds highlights were SHORT-TOED EAGLE, GRIFFON VULTURE, 2+ WOODCHAT SHRIKE, 2-3 HOOPOE, CRAG MARTIN, SARDINIAN & 12+ SUBALPINE WARBLER, WOODLARK, CRESTED LARK, SHORT-TOED TREECREEPER, plus many CORN BUNTING & single CIRL & ROCK BUNTING. We then moved on to the watch-point at Salto del Gitano from here we had the most amazing views of GRIFFON & BLACK VULTURE. The GRIFFON colony several 100 strong! Also great views of close RED-RUMPED SWALLOW, BLUE ROCK THRUSH, CRAG MARTIN, BLACK REDSTART. Higher in the skies we also picked out PEREGRINE, 3 CHOUGH & 3 BLACK STORK. We finished the afternoon at one of the other watchpoints, the first birds to be seen were the spectacular EAGLE OWLS, an adult with 2 chicks. The skies here again filled with

3 VULTURES, constant scanning produced EGYPTIAN VULTURE, BLACK VULTURE, 2 ROCK BUNTING, BLUE ROCK THRUSH & eventually stunning views in front of the cliff face of 2 SPANISH IMPERIAL EAGLE. We then headed into Plascencia where we purchased our provisions for packed lunches, before finishing the day with a Tapas meal. The only species we didn t see today were the Bonelli s Eagle & Western Orphean warbler which the weather forecast good for tomorrow we decided on a repeat visit to Monfrague. DAY THREE As we headed out of the village I stopped suddenly, alerted to 2 HAWFINCH feeding by the roadside, they flew up into the trees, although everyone got reasonable views. Another stop n-route to Monfrague for c20 AZURE-WINGED MAGPIE & a very showy HOOPOE. Our return visit started off very successfully, with an hour we were getting great views of a singing male WESTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER, plus views of NIGHTINGALE heard the previous day. We took the opportunity of looking again at the Vulture colony & some of the group spent a couple of hours taking shots of the vultures as they cruised by us at eye level. Again BLUE ROCK THRUSH, CRAG MARTIN, BLACK REDSTART, 3 CHOUGH & 3 BLACK STORK. EGYPTIAN VULTURE, BLACK VULTURE, ROCK BUNTING, & BLUE ROCK were all much in evidence. We tried several points for the Bonelli s Eagle but this was proving elusive. I was pretty sure I had a distant bird, very high so we headed up to the Castillo a very high vantage point with amazing views across the valley. Still no luck, but great scope views of a displaying BOOTED EAGLE superbly skydiving & roller-coasting in front of us. Also migrant BEE-EATER past overhead, plus a RED KITE, SHORT-TOED EAGLE & more CHOUGH. We headed back for a final lookout for the Bonelli s! It took around another hour & eventually a BONELLI S EAGLE cruised down the valley, eventually perching in trees on the far side of the valley affording good scope views! Success at last! CHM images - from left to right Griffon Vulture, Black Vulture, Corn Bunting, White Wagtail, Hoopoe & Great Bustard.

4 Extremadura Birdwatching Tour 3rd 10th April 2012

5 DAY FOUR We had breakfast around 7.30am before heading off at 8.30am for a day of birding in the plains areas. We started birding at the westerly area of Embalse de Talavan & from here we slowly headed east on the minor tracks, making many stops throughout the day & finishing in the area of Torrejon El Rubio. It was a successful start to the day with 60 PIN-TAILED SANDGROUSE, 100 s of CALANDRA LARK & SPANISH SPARROW. WE searched all the rough tracks in this area making regular stops we eventually located 3 GREAT BUSTARD & also had great views of 6+ MONTAGU S HARRIER, 1pr MARSH HARRIER, 2 BLACK VULTURE & heard QUAIL again. We then headed south on the minor roads, taking you to the East of Caceres. Regular stops & lots of scanning eventually proving very successful GREAT BUSTARD, 7 LITTLE BUSTARD, GOLDEN EAGLE,1 LESSER KESTREL, 20+ MONTAGU S HARRIER, 2 SHORT-TOED EAGLE, BOOTED EAGLE, BLACK, VULTURE, 12 GRIFFON VULTURE, COMMON BUZZARD, LAPWING, GREENSHANK, 1 GREEN SANDPIPER, 10 HOOPOE & lots of SPOTLESS STARLING, SOUTHERN GREY SHRIKE STONECHAT & 1 ROLLER We finished the day with an evening meals & wine in the village of Cabezabellosa. DAY FIVE We had breakfast around 7.30am before heading off at 8.30am, our destination for today was Arroyocampo an area with hides around a wetland reserve. Before leaving the village we were afforded excellent views this time of 4 HAWFINCH feeding at the roadside on fallen beech mast. The whole surrounding area as well as the hides is worthy of birding & I have founmd this site to be very productive with a concerted effort around all the areas. On arrival we had distant views of BLACK-WINGED KITE. At the Arroyocampo reserve we quickly located PURPLE SWAMPHEN, plus several MARSH HARRIER, WATER RAIL was heard, a reeling SAVI S WARBLER eventually gave excellent views. A SQUACCO HERON showed well, 40+ CATTLE EGRET gave close views & several PURPLE HERON plus 2 GREAT EGRET also flew over. Several species of commoner wildfowl were added to the list, but a SPOONBILL was a better bird seen only in flight before disappearing into the reedbed. We moved to the other end of the reserve & noted 10+ AZURE-WINGED MAGPIE from the car. A roadside stop with some pools produced, BLACK-WINGED STILT, GREEN & COMMON SANDPIPER. A look on the main body of Reservoir produced 2 GULL-BILLED TERN. A further stop off the main track & a short walk produced excellent views of BLACK-WINGED KITE, 20 BEE-EATER proved very photogenic, 6 HOOPOE & a roosting LONG-EARED OWL made for an excellent afternoon s birding. We also added REED, SEDGE & CETTI S WARBLER. We finished the day with pizzas, garlic bread & ice cream at the house, washed down with some wine of course. CHM images - Azure-winged Magpie, Black Redstart & Bee-eater

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7 DAY SIX We had breakfast slightly later before heading off at 9am. First stop was in a park in Plascencia where after a bit of searching we managed to locate a pair of LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER. We then we then walked up to the cathedral area where we were treated to wonderful views of c20 LESSER KESTREL, plus nesting WHITE STORK. We allowed ourselves a midmorning stop for coffee s before heading out to an area of rice fields & gravel pits. We made a series of stops here adding quite a few additional species to our growing list! Notable birds were 2 WOOD SANDPIPER, 1 LITTLE STINT, 2 GREENSHANK, 35 BLACK-WINGED STILT, 2 LITTLE OWL, 2 WATER RAIL, showing well, GREAT REED WARBLER, 20 RED AVADAVAT. We picnicked in the nice sunshine & then headed higher up to search the olive groves around Ahigal, here we located 6 BLACK-EARED WHEATEAR beautiful stunning plumaged birds with both forms noted. Also 4 THEKLA LARK, CIRL BUNTING, SHORT-TOED EAGLE, BOOTED EAGLE. A final stop at some gravel pits lower down in the river valley near Ambroz provided a few more species great views of LITTLE BITTERN, 1 NIGHT HERON & 1 COMMON WAXBILL. This evening the SCOPS OWL was calling in the village & I had brief flight views from the verandah. DAY SEVEN After breakfast we headed up into the Hervas mountain areas, searching the forest areas & mountain heathland. We stopped firstly in some deciduous woodland & here we located IBERIAN GREEN WOODPECKER, 1pr LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER, c10 AZURE-WINGED MAGPIE, SHORT- TOED TREECREEPER & GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, 4 LONG-TAILED TIT & numerous BLACKCAP. Higher up we stopped in a coniferous area here we located 2 CRESTED TIT, c12 FIRECREST & COAL TIT. Higher up the mountain towards Garganta we stopped again & here we located 2 singing WESTERN BONELLI S WARBLER. We finally arrived at the top & a series of short walks produced CROSSBILL, SKYLARK & wonderful views of a singing BLUETHROAT (Spanish cyanecula form with completely solid blue throat very nice!! We finished the day in the lowland cork oak area below the mountains & eventually located 2 GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO, a fitting species to end this wonderful trip on. This being our 151 st species of the trip! CHM images - Spanish imperial Eagle, Rock Sparrow, Red-rumped Swallow, Blue Rock Thrush & Roller Robert Carr images Purple heron,

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9 DAY EIGHT Departed the accommodation, & transported back to Madrid airport for flights back to the UK. Correspondence Norfolk Birding Lilac Cottage Foxley Road Themelthorpe Norfolk NR20 5PU Tel:

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!#$%&'()&*+,)'-&#./,01** 23()*4 0' *5*6 #/ *78),9* ---:03);39<=,)',01:.3% OVERVIEW OF THE EXTREMADURA TOUR This will be a great opportunity to see some of Central Spain s special & most sought after birds. The main emphasis of the tour will be on locating the Extremadura steppe