Hardcore birding weekend with Oz

One more year we met with Oz, my friend from Tel Aviv, to go birding. This year we had a hard job, as we had to find some of the most difficult spices of the area such as Dupont's Lark or White-winged Snowfinch.

We met at the Hotel Mas Passamaner at 0:30h (!!!!). While waiting for him I made the first interesting sights, such as Red-necked Nightjar, Scops Owl or Stone Curlew. We he finished his meeting we drove to Belchite Drylands, to visit El Planerón Ornithologic Reserve. We arrived there very late, at about 3:00h. We slept a couple of hours under the stars and at 5:00h we started looking for the Dupont's Lark. There were Stone Curlews and Short-toed Larks calling, but it took quite a long time to hear the first Dupont's Lark. At last, we heard 3 individuals and, even if we tried hard to see them, we didn't success. So that was half a lifer for Oz. We kept looking for birds, and finally Oz had his first Gray Southern Shrike. We also had very nice views of Calandra and Short-toed Larks, and quite a lot of sandgrouses. We saw about 20 Black-bellied Sandgrouses and 30 Pin-tailed Sandgrouses around the lagoon. I had never had such a good views of these birds! Before leaving Belchite Drylands we saw a couple of Aegyptian Vultures. Our next place to visit was the Bujaraloz Drylands, which are said to be very good for Little and Great Bustards, as well as other dryland spices. As expected, it was very hot (39ºC) and the lagoons were dry, so few birds were seen, except 3 Lesser Kestrel and a few Black-eared Wheatears. Then we started our way to Benasque. We had lunch at the Sariñena Lagoon, where we saw a few birds, including the Reed and Great Reed Warblers and a very nice Penduline Tit nest. Before arriving at Benasque we stopped at the Congosto de Ventamillo, one of the easiest places to see the Wallcreeper in Spain. However, we didn't success, but other birds were seen, suc as Eurasian Crag Martin, Alpine Swift, Pallid Swift, Gray Wagtail, White-throated Dipper and a very good surprise: an adult Cinereous Vulture without any tag! Our accomodation at Benasque was the Hostal del Parque Natural. It is a very good value accomodation, with very kind staff and good even not too elaborated cuisine. At the hotel and surroundings we saw Eurasian Crag Martin, Short-toed Treecreeper, Rock Bunting, Gray Wagtail, ...

On Sunday we expected to start at 6:00, but it was raining a lot and we delayed our departure until 8:00. We started at the Vallbierna Valley, trying to see some forest spices. Song Thrush, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldcrest and Firecrest, Coal, Crested and Long-tailed Tit or Dunnock where seen. At 9:30 we went to the Ampriu Valley, where we planned to take the ski-lift and climb El Gallinero Peak. While climbing to the Ampriu Valley with the car we saw many Yellowhammers, a Meadow Pipit, Northern Wheatears and many Marmots. Before taking the ski-lift we made a short tour that allowed us to detect White-throated Dipper, Dunnock and Rock Bunting. We took the ski-lift and start climbing. We had to hurry up, as the weather was getting bad. The climb was easied by many calling and flying Water Pipits and Northern Wheatears. At 2.400m we saw the first White-winged Snowfinch. In fact, I saw it, as when trying to relocate it the clouds appeared and we saw nothing. We climbed a little bit more, to get closer to the area where I had seen the Snowfinch. When the clouds disappeard, we started scanning once again. This time we both saw them. There was not only 1 but at least 8 Snowfinches. Great! Oz had his second lifer. We enjoyed the sights very much, as the birds were hanging around without caring about us. We climbed a little bit more looking for the Ptarmigan, but it started raining and we started going down. On the way, we could see a very nice Alpine Accentor. We arrived at the hotel at 14:00 and, after a quick shower and lunch, we drove to Girona. We did a short stop at Congosto de Ventamillo for the Wallcreeper, without luck. We arrived at Girona at 7:50, and as soon as we arrived, we went to the Deveses de Salt to see the Red-necked Nighjar. On the way to the place we saw a nice Little Owl. When waiting for the nightjar we had a very nice gift: a Western Pallid Warbler, Oz's third lifer! Other spices seen where Blue Tit, Sardinian Warbler, Hobby or Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, just to increase the trip list. It took a while for the nighjar to appear, and when it did it wasn't as active as it was with Tuvia (see previous post). We also had the European Nighjar.

To summarize, it was a very good weekend. We saw 109, which is very good considering the season and the visited habitats (drylands and mountains, not very productive in terms of birds), and Oz had 3 and 1/2 lifers. You can see the full list of the detected spices here.

Stone Curlew Survey

The Stone Curlew is considered a vulnerable spices in Catalonia (see SIOC), and its status is poor known in La Selva and Gironès counties. During this week is being carried a survey on these counties organized by the Ateneu Naturalista de Girona to establish an aproximate number of territories for this spices, and whether it is a breeding area or not.

Yesterday we carried out our itinerary, consisting on 5 listening points, at the Sant Vicenç d'Esclet area. We got 3 Stone Curlews calling. Other spices detected were Little Owl, Scops Owl, Long Eared Owl, Barn Owl and European Nightjar. Unfortunatelly, no Red-necked Nightjar was detected. We also saw some bats, of which at least one could be a Serotine Bat.

More on the survey when the definitive results are published.

Birding with israelians

Last weekend was a succesful birding weekend with a couple of israelian birdingpals, Renana and Tuvia. We had a nice wishlist, with a lot of birds and some interesting places to visit.

We met on Friday 19th. I had just arrived from a workshop at Murcia, and I was really tired, but we had an appointment with the Red-necked Nightjar! At about 20:00h we headed towards the Deveses de Salt, where it breeds. Just after we arrived, it started raining. Fortunatelly, the rain didn't last much, and just after it finished the show began. We saw up to 3 Red-necked Nightjars, plus 3 European Nightjars, a Hobby, an Scops Owl, a Tawny Owl, ...

On Saturday 20th we headed up to the mountains. We had some mountain spices left from their wishlist, so we had work to do there! We went to one of my favourite areas, the Collet de Barraques. This area is very interesting, as it allows you to explore alpine forests for forest birds as well as alpine meadows and rocky areas for alpine birds. We climbed up to 2500m, just below the Puig de Dòrria. We were able to see most of the needed spices, such as Firecrest, Crossbill or Citrl Finch. We could also see other interesting spices spices (even if they had already seen them), such as Goldcrest, Crested Tit or Lammergeier. However, one of the most sought after spices, the Alpine Accentor, wasn't seen. Maybe next time they come! We had lunch at the parking lot, enjoying more nice views of good birds, and after having a coffee at Planoles village, we went to the environmental education center El Molí Petit, at Sant Joan de les Abadesses. There we had fantastic views of Marsh Tits, Nutchatches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, ... It is an amazing place. We have to go there in winter, when feeders should be full of birds. After having great fun there, we headed to Coll de Jou. This is a very intresting place, with decidious forest and subalpine meadows spices, such as Bullfinch, Red-backed Shrike or Grey Partridge. The most interesting birds seen there were Bullfinch and Red-backed Shrike. We scanned the fields for Grey Partridge, but it was very foggy and we saw almost nothing. The best thing there was a couple of Pine Marten almost at the end of the road. Fantastic! After that, we went home.

Sunday 5:00 and the alarm clock starts bothering. After a quick coffee we headed to Cap de Creus Natural Park, where some spices were waiting for us. But it was very windy, which made things harder. Our first stop was at Dolmens Track, at Vilajuïga. There we looked for the Western Orphean Warbler, but the wind was very strong making almost impossible to hear or see anything. I had a glimpse of an individual, but it was not ok for Renana and Tuvia which did not see it. However, they saw a nive Melodious Warbler, another of the wishlist spices. We stopped a little bit further up the road that leads to Sant Pere de Rodes Monsatery, where is another good place for Western Orphean Warbler. Just after we stepped out of the car we heard a bird singing, and the hunt began. It didn't take too long to have great views of an adult one. Great! Our next stop was at Sant Onofre Hermitage, where we expected to see the Dartford's Warbler and the Thekla Lark. However, it was still very windy, and we had no views of Thekla Lark and only bad views of Dartford's Warbler, not enough. The best thing there was a Beech Marten, which sat on a rock for a long time. We continued and, after having breakfast at Port de la Selva, we stopped at Serra de Bufadors. It was still very windy, but we saw many Thekla Larks and a single Spectacled Warbler (not on the wishlist, but a good bird indeed). However, we didn't have a nice view of Dartford's Warbler, and chances were over. After this stop, we headed down to the Empordà Marshes Natural Park. Our first stop there was the Mig de Dos Rius Reserve, looking for Green and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. But it was very windy and nothing was seen. Moreover, there was a high risk of tree falling and we didn't spend much time there. We had lunch at el Forn Vell restaurant (Castelló d'Empúries). After having lunch, we moved to La Gallinera ricefields, where we saw two adult Audouin's Gull (another wishlist bird!). We were a little bit short of time and I wanted to take them to La Senillosa towers, at El Matà, to see the whole marshes. We hurried up. Due to the wind, the landscape was great! From the top of the towers we saw Black-winged Stilts, a Little Ringed Plover, Whiskered Terns, a Ring-necked Phaesant (another wishlist bird), Purple Heron, Northern Lapwings (breeding?), ... We moved to the other side of El Matà, where we saw a couple of Common Pochard (breeding?) and 3 Northern Lapwings. Before going home we tried once more for the woodpeckers at the Mig de Dos Rius Reserve. It was not so windy as in the morning, and we saw 2 Sharpei Green Woodpecker, but no sign of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. This were the last birds of the trip.

To summarize, I think it was a great weekend considering the season and the wind on Sunday. We managed to see 118 spices, with 12 lifers for Tuvia and Renana (they have seen 30 in the whole trip). You can see the complete list of spices clicking here.

Mont-Rebei i Alinyà: vulture's paradise

Last weekend we visited the Congost de Mont-Rebei and the Alinyà Valley. This area is a raptor paradise, specially for vultures. In fact, the Alinyà Valley is the only place in Europe where you can see the four european vultures together: Griffon, Cinereous and Aegyptian Vultures and Lammergeier.

As usual when travelling around Lleida, an stop at Estany d'Ivars (wpt) was advisable. However, due to the late season it was very poor, but we managed to se up to three Little Gulls. We saw none of the Mediterranean Gulls which seem to breed there. We continued our way to Pont de Montanyana, at the Catalan-Aragó border and the place where we spent the night. Our accomodation was the Hostal Condes de Ribagorza (wpt), a very good value accomodation, specially because of its great cuisine. Furthermore, if you order a pic-nic for the next day you will not be disappointed!

The next day, we drove up to the canyon. On our way to the parking, we saw our first interesting spices: Blue Rock Thrush and Woodchat Shrike. We parked the car(wpt) and started walking. Before arriving at the hanging bridge, we could see a couple of Western Orphean Warblers, two Cirl Buntings and, sitting at the top of a nearby ruined tower, a Golden Eagle. It didn't take much time to see the first Griffon Vultures. After crossing the hanging bridge we saw a nice Bonelli's Warbler. The canyon is breathtaking: it's high walls falling into the deep gorge ... There are plenty of Crag Martins and Red-billed Cough and. Other birds seen here were Golden Eagle, Red Kite, Griffon Vurltures or Blue Rock Thrushes. At the other end of the canyon we saw a couple of Aegyptian Vultures. We almost had to run our way back, as the storms were coming and this is not a good place to be when lighting is going on. After a short shower, we arrived to the parking and drove up to Port de Montllobar (wpt), where we had lunch. Almost no birds were seen here. After having lunch, we continued our way to Coll de Nargó, below Alinyà Valley. On our way, we visited the Mare de Déu de la Posa site (wpt), where hundreds of dinosaurs' footsteps can be seen. Just before reaching Coll de Bòixols (wpt), we saw a Lammergeier. Coll de Bòixols offers a nice view of the Alinyà Valley, our next stop. At Coll de Nargó our accomodation was Hostal del Llac (wpt). It's a good place to sleep, but please, don't eat there! Instead, eat at Ca la Lluïsa del Peretó (wpt), as we did! We went to spend the last sunlight at Santa Pelaia Hermitage (wpt), where we saw a juvenile Cinereous Vulture and a 2nd calendar year Golden Eagle. As I have said before, we went to have dinner at Ca la Lluïsa del Peretó (20€). On our way down to Coll de Nargó we saw an European Nightjar sitting in the middle of the road dazzled by our carlights.


On Sunday we visited Alinyà Valley. We climbed up to the Sant Ponç Hermitage (wpt), a vantage point over a midden. We had contacted one of the responsible person of the Cinereous Vulture re-introduction program, whose name is Aleix. He was waiting for us to arrive at St. Ponç and, when we arrived, he filled the midden with vuture meal: lungs, heads, legs and rabbits (this is for the Cinereous Vulture). This allowed us to see a great vulture show, with up to 200 Griffon Vultures, 2 Aegyptian Vulture, 2 Lammergeier and 2 Cinereous Vultures. At certain moments we had the four vultures in the scope field of view. Amazing! While seeing the vultures, Aleix told us about the re-introduction program, asking each of the asked questions. At about 12:00h, we started our way down to Alinyà village and went to the Santa Pelaia Hermitage once more to have lunch. Nothing really interesting showed up while having lunch. After lunchtime, we started our way home, stopping at the Serra Seca lookout (wpt) for its great landscapes.

You can see the full list of birds seen here

My birding atlas

When I started writing my blog, one of my aims was to let people know the places where are I go birding. I have started by introducing the places where I've been and drawing some routes, but there's still lots of information missing. However, I hope you will find it useful.


Mostra un mapa més gran

El Roquetal

Medium hard route, with 43Km, 800m elevation gain and an IBP of 58BB. It is not a really hard route, however its lengthness and its elevation gain make it unsuitable for a beginner. It will allow to discover some of the wildest areas in the county, as well as some of its oldest farm houses.