EXTREMADURA BIRDWATCHING TRIP REPORT 4 th 11 th November 2013 Tour leaders Chris Mills & Ricardo Montero Participants:- Holly Anderson, David & Linda Bosworth, Maurice Local, & Marian Wootton ACCOMMODATION & FOOD Our trip was arranged on a Self-catering basis with continental breakfast provided. We stay in a 3 storey white washed house in a small mountain settlement, there are 2 double rooms with ensuites, plus 2 Twin en-suite bedrooms with dedicated bathrooms & 1 single room, a large kitchen & reception area plus a magnificent roof-top terrace with stunning views across the valley below. The house is a lovely traditional example set in a typical white walled, narrow streeted Spanish mountain village. Evening meals & packed lunches were not included in the cost of the tour, but were arranged & paid locally at the local village bar. On average a 3 course meal (simple Spanish food) with a couple of glasses of wine cost 16 euros per person. Food was excellent from choices from the Spanish menu, tapas & Spanish Omellete & Paella night. Packed lunches were 9 euros. FLIGHTS Easyjet flight from Luton & Heathrow to Madrid are reasonably cheap. 4th November Extremadura Tour Day One We all met at Luton airport & were soon up & away just after midday en-route to Madrid. Once we had landed we met up with my good friend, guide & host for the week Ricardo. Our route out of Madrid, south west to Extremadura enabled a stop off for around an hours birding. En-route we noted plenty of Red Kite, some Cattle Egret a brief male Hen Harrier & several flocks of Spotless Starling. The stop was late in the day but proved well worthwhile with firstly brief views of Great Bustard, then good views & eventually culminating in 2 flocks totalling c60 Great Bustard! We also had 4 Black-bellied Sandgrouse & a short walk also produced a single Quail, great start. We reached our accommodation, offloaded the baggage & had a lovely Spanish meal over beers before heading for some much needed sleep! 5th November Extremadura Tour Day Two We started the day off just below the village of Cabezabellosa, several Black Redstarts were noted as we were leaving the accommodation, plus Red Kite & several Griffon Vulture soared overhead. On the hillside we were soon into some good birding with a nice flock of Serin, plus great views of several Cirl Bunting, Rock Buntings were noted overhead but refused to perch up for us. A Woodlark flew overhead & lots of Meadow Pipits were noted. A Sardinian Warbler gave fantastic views, a brief Dartford Warbler proved more elusive!
Lower down the valley we took a short walk into some scattered cork oak & rough farmland. White wagtail, Stonechat & Crested Lark were numerous plus several Grey wagtail were all easily found. A Spotless Starling was close by & gave great views in the full sun, the weather looked like being good & so it was, with 20c & blue skies all day! It wasn't too long before we were admiring 2 beautiful Hoopoe, one providing great scope views. Chiff-Chiffs abounded from many of the bushes & after studying several, the call & bright plumage of at least one Iberian Chiff-chaff was located. A calling Short-toed Treecreeper eventually gave itself up & we had great close ups as it fed, circling up a cork oak. Several Jay were noted & Nuthatch was heard. Just as we were leaving a Black Stork was picked up in the distant, a good bird for November as just a few overwinter. We then headed to Plascencia & walked along the Rio Jerte, here we continued to see more great birds, an Iberian Grey Shrike was perched up, lots more Stonechat, White Wagtail & several more Grey Wagtail, a Kingfisher was heard, Cattle Egrets flew overhead, another Short-toed Treecreeper, Siskin, great views of Cetti s & then really awesome views of a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, showed down to 5m & in full view! We eventually also saw 2 Hawfinch but these were a little more elusive. After a late lunch we headed to Gallisteo & after a bit of effort had good views of Red Avadavat, plus Dartford Warbler, we had lots of nice birds here, several Iberian Grey Shrike, 4+ Hoopoe, lots of Cattle Egret, 4 Glossy Ibis, Little Egret, Snipe, Marsh Harrier, Lapwing, a massive flock of 1000 Spanish Sparrow, several Cetti's Warbler. As the light faded we watched the flocks of Cattle Egret going to roost, we located c20 Stock Dove & had c50 Raven heading off to roost, this rounded off a great first day & we hadn't even visited Monfrague yet! 6th November Extremadura Tour Day Three Post breakfast, eagle eyed David spotted a Blue Rock Thrush high up on the Rocky Mountain tops above the accommodation, the views from the rooftop balcony were breathtaking across the valley. Clear blue skies & a little cloud hung over the distant mountains. We left Cabezabellosa around 8.30am & stopped a couple of times as we headed down to the valley, Red Kites & Raven, plus a super flock of c50 Azure-winged Magpie, the first really good views for everyone. Further down we had great views today of 5 Rock Bunting & a showy Dartford Warbler. We then visited the lower level cork woodland in the valley opposite, we were soon screeching to a halt & 2 Rock Sparrow showed nicely along the fence line. Black Redstarts, Stonechat, Corn Bunting & Crested Lark all fairly numerous along the fields here. We next pulled over to admire & listen to around c40 Cranes & then 2-3 singing Woodlark. The skies density of birds along here was wonderful! We stopped next at a more open area with pools, here there was a great mix of birds on the pools, Little Grebe c50 Great Cormorant, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, Little Egret, Kingfisher, & the surrounding fields held Lapwing, Skylark a late Wheatear, plus overhead Red Kite, Raven, 5 Black Stork, 4 Glossy Ibis is & 5 Black Vulture this all too a background of singing Corn Bunting & Wood Lark. We also noted a single Carrion Crow.
We left in blue skies & warm weather for Monfrague & were really surprised as we hit fog & much cooler weather on entering the park. We stopped off at one of the watch points & had superb close ups of Griffon Vulture, Crag Martin, Azure-winged Magpie plus perched views of Black Vulture. Short-toed Treecreeper & Blackcap were also showing very well in the nearby trees. As the weather was bit conducive for raptor watching we headed on south into the plains, lunched & then searched the western plains area. We lunched near Hinojal & from here we added Water Rail, Teal, Wigeon, Mallard, Gadwall, Pochard & Great White Egret. Out on the plains we made several stops & walked short searches, we did fairly well, first we heard Pin-tailed Sandgrouse & then we eventually located around 50 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, we heard Black-bellied Sandgrouse & Holly managed to note four briefly in flight. There were hundreds of Calandra Larks, great to see them flashing their black underwings & giving their rolling calls overhead. Ricardo then located 2 Great Bustard & we got good scope views, before I found 25 Little Bustard, they took to the air but fortunately looped back around & landed in position where several were visible & we enjoyed good scope views of them. En-route back we stopped twice for a total of 3 Little Owls, the last one close to the minibus scowling at us! We rounded off a great days birding with super green salads & very filling Spanish omelettes plus a couple of glasses of red wine! 7th November Extremadura Tour Day Four After breakfast we had a steady journey heading for the mountains in the adjacent provence of Salamanca. As usual we didn't manage to get much beyond the village before stopping, an Iberian Green Woodpecker flew across the road, fortunately we eventually located it & had good scope views as it fed in a dead tree, it was the first of three we saw today! Also near the village we noted Rock & Cirl Bunting, Black Redstart, Red kite, Raven & Buzzard all noted. It's around 3 hrs to the mountain tops so we stopped in a reasonable area en-route & fortunately we located 5 Thekla Lark, we were able to scope & photograph them to note all the subtleties, compared with the many Crested Lark. We also noted Woodlark, great views of Black & Griffon Vulture in this area. We eventually reached the mountains but for the first time were unable to locate Alpine Accentor, but this wasn't so bad with awesome views for miles around, beautiful countryside & fantastic autumn colours. Plus a nice mix of other birds including very close up & personal views of Crag Martin, Black & Griffon Vulture below us & at eye level, around 12 Chough, & very close views of Iberian Ibex. Nearby we found Crested & Coal Tit, Dartford & Sardinian Warbler. En-route back we added 3 Mistle Thrush & had around 70 Azure-winged Magpie plus 3 more Woodlark.
8th November Extremadura Tour Day Five After breakfast we headed out into the first wet & drizzly weather of the trip. Visibility improved as we headed for Arroyocampo & Saucedilla areas. We did a circuit of the tracks & hides around Arroyocampo & despite the showers, we did very well. As we were scanning the fields a smart male Hen Harrier swept past us, sending flocks of Lapwing & Spotless Starling into the air. We eventually pinned down a slightly elusive Black-shouldered Kite & everyone had good scope views of this elegant little raptor. Azure-winged Magpies had become a daily occurrence & another nice flock was noted here, we noted Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail, Green Sand, 2-3 Hoopoe, but Shoveler, Great Crested Grebe were new to the list. More scanning produced a stop for another Black-shouldered Kite & next Ricardo located a superb adult Spanish Imperial Eagle perched on one of the pylons, we watched this large majestic raptor sat looking a bit fed up in the showers! We stopped off on another trail, first 2 Purple Swamphens showed very nicely, then a Little Bittern put in a good if brief appearance. We lunched at one of the hides with good views across the marsh, birds of note were 2 Marsh Harrier, 250 Cormorant, Great White Egret, 2 Purple Swamphens, a Merlin went flashing past & Water Pipit flew calling overhead. We then headed on to the large reservoir Embalse de Valcanas, there was about 100 Gadwall, 30 Wigeon, few Teal & Mallard plus 7 Pintail & 20 Greylag Geese new additions to the trip list. We then found 2 Grey Plovers feeding along the shoreline, a good find & a new bird in Extremadura for Ricardo, so obviously a good find! We finished the day off visiting a steep sided valley with high cliffs close to Saucedilla here we found lots of Griffon & several Black Vulture, also a Peregrine was over the cliffs. But the real entertainment was from 2 superb Spanish Imperial Eagles interacting & showing brilliantly along the cliff edge. We finished the day nearby with good views of a smart Black Wheatear, a busy & long but excellent day! Finished off with fine food & drink back at the village. 9th November Extremadura Tour Day Six We started off in beautiful blue skies at Monfague, although it was slightly cooler this morning. Despite a couple of hours at 2 locations we didn't see Bonelli's Eagle, although this was well compensated for with 100s of Vultures including c20 Black Vulture, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Common Buzzard, Red Kite & Raven were all noted overhead. The nearby bushes provided great views of Hawfinch, numerous Azure-winged Magpie & a Great Spotted Woodpecker. We then headed out to the plains, where we had a wonderful afternoon, the mass of larks, sparrows, finches Lapwing & pipits in this area is just amazing, especially when this is virtually absent from most of the UK farmland! We had just had some Pin-tailed Sandgrouse flyover when I interrupted this with 2 Golden Eagle soaring overhead, but
these was soon out trumped by Ricardo, whom had found Dotterel!! As we watched this bird, another bird came into view, then another & another!! A total of 4 Dotterel & then Ricardo pointed out that these are rare birds in Extremadura, in fact later we discovered this was the 16th record for the region! The birds continued thick & fast, several Hoopoe, flocks of 100+ Calandra Lark, 100s of Corn Bunting, then several Pin-tailed Sandgrouse flew over, eventually we had awesome scope views of 12 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse feeding on the ground. We moved on & made another stop, this time several Black-bellied Sandgrouse flew over several times & eventually 3 landed in view & more good scope views. We started to head back, but were soon stopping again as 25 Great Bustard were in the fields adjacent to the minibus & again great light & views. A fantastic afternoon's birding rounded off with a fine evening of Tapas in the local bar. 10th November Extremadura tour Day Seven We headed out west today & visited a beautiful set of steep sided cliffs at the confluence of rivers. We spent a couple of hours scanning the skies, 200+ Griffon Vulture, 15 Black Vulture, Kestrel, Raven & Sparrowhawk all graced the air, with vultures almost at touching distance! Bonelli's Eagle remained the elusive raptor of the trip! The area also held lots of Larks & Buntings & Wood Larks were constantly heard whilst raptor watching. We decided around midday to try another area, as we left I suddenly noticed a small pale vulture, Egyptian Vulture - everyone swept out of the van & we were able to enjoy good views of an adult, one of a very small wintering population. We arrived at the next a area, in fine blue skies, sunny & very warm weather. We walked a short distance, 2 Thekla Lark were found en-route, plus Black Redstart, Dartford & Sardinian Warbler. We scanning over the valley & were again treated to a mass of vultures, after 30 minutes suddenly I screamed "Bonelli's Eagle" it was a superb adult straight above our heads a really great view. It passed steadily until joining a thermal, we then had scope views before it drifted off, although fortunately a few minutes later another adult Bonelli's Eagle appeared. We then headed north to a reservoir, en-route we find a Black-shouldered Kite. The reservoir held Wigeon, Gadwall, Teal, Great Crested Grebe, Common Sandpiper & a single Dunlin. A Hawfinch showed nearby & a locally rare species was found, a Bullfinch. We finished the day at a Crane roost with around 500 birds coming in just as the light was fading. The trip total was now running to 127 species! 11th November Extremadura Tour Day Eight We had just enough time for a short pre-breakfast birding session. We chose the nearby pools & fields amongst the cork & holm oaks, there was always nice selection of birds in this area. It was another fine, clear morning & the sunrise wasn't something to behold alone, quite beautiful. As the day broke we watched Cranes arriving from their roosts against the orange glow, a perfect situation to enjoy their far carrying & evocative calls.
As the sun appeared we arrived at the pools, overhead several Red Kite, more Cranes & lots of activity along the waters edge. Greenshank, 3 Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpiper, a smart Grey Wagtail, Kingfisher, Little Egrets & Cormorants all in perfect light with awesome mirror images in the glass-like water. Great White Egret & 2 Black Stork passed over the pools, then a small party of 8 Rock Sparrows were found feeding on the ground. Corn Buntings & 4 Iberian Grey Shrikes were singing nearby, plus Black Redstart, Thekla Lark, White wagtails, vast flocks of Starlings & a backdrop to c200 Lapwing & a Little Owl calling & sitting in the oaks behind. Our final morning finished with a non-avian highlight, 2 Otters sat out on the rocks in wonderful light! But the avian wonder of Extremadura was also captured this morning, the pools & fields in this area epitomise the region of Extremadura leaving you feeling good. An experience that encompasses a vast diversity & large flocks of birds, in a quietness & wilderness, within non intensive farmland. This is a feeling & habitat that is sadly lost from most parts of England. We headed back to the accommodation, had a brief breakfast & set off for Madrid, we all said our farewells to Ricardo, thanked him for his hospitality, plus a fine weeks birding. Then joined the queues for our flight off back to the UK Total of 128 species recorded, with all the iconic species seen well! Future Tours If you are interested in joining us in Extremadura then we have tours in April & November 2014 please contact us for details. chrismills@norfolkbirding.com mobile 07876 357677