Biking to Puig Estela and Sant Miquel Castle

This is a short demanding route, only 14km and an IBP 41.58, but 450m. It will lead you through two of the most beautiful valleys surrounding Girona, Sant Daniel Valley and Galligants Valley, and, at the top of Sant Miquel Castle, you will enjoy great views of Girona city, Empordà Plain and Pyrenees. The route starts at Sant Pere Square, and climbs the Sant Daniel Valley. During this first piece of the route you will have nice views of Sant Pere de Galligants Monastery, the Girona Cathedral, the Sant Daniel Convent or the Sant Daniel orchards. Then it turns right following the Galligants Valley until it reaches the Font dels Lleons (Lion's Fountain). After this point the route starts climbing until it reaches the Puig Estela. This is a great climb, through magnificient forests and old abandoned farmhouses. At the Puig Estela the route turns west and it climbs up to the Sant Miquel Castle. Eventually, there is a fast and funny descent that will lead you to Girona once again.

Little Crake

Today I've had a flash visit to Empordà Marshes Natural Park. I've been lucky enough to see a couple of Little Crakes (male and female) at the Europa Pond. Other interesting sights have been Purple Swamphen at the same pond and some Spotted Redshanks, 2 Wood Sandpiper and 2 Kentish Plovers at El Matà Pond.

Biking at Serra de Bossols

Today we have gone biking at Serra de Bossols. In a previous post, we described a hiking route. Now I will describe this route, that makes a tour to the Serra De Bossols, discovering wild areas and impressive landscapes. It has an IBP of 99.87 an 1077m elevation gain, thus it is not an easy route, even if it it has not technical difficulties. We have started at Albanyà village. We have followed a dirty road that goes by a camping. At 2.4Km there is a crossroad, we take the road to the right. The one to the left will be the one used on the descent. After the crossroad it starts the hard climb that will lead us to Coll del Pincaró (5.1km). We take the road to the left, which is climbing hard for about 500m until it reaches the Pla de la Teuleria (5.6km). The road continues its way up, but not as hard as before. It goes winding on the north face of Serra de Bossols until it reaches the Collet de Ras (8.8km). After a short descent, the dirty road becomes harder until it reaches the Coll de Bassegoda (13.5km). Then it starts the descent. We have visited the Sant Miquel de Bassegoda Hermitage, a romanesque building, not on our way down but worth visiting (17.6Km). At 22.4 Km there is the Collet de Teia, where it starts the trail that leads to Sant Joan de Bossols (see previous post). Finally, we arrive at the initial crossroad (27.1km) and, eventually, we return to Albanyà village (29.48Km).

Birding at Cap de Creus Natural Park and Empordà Marshes Natural Park

Yesterday we had a birding day at the most eastern area of Catalunya. We visited Cap de Creus Natural Park, which offers dramatic landscapes and good chances to see specialities rare on other areas, such as Lesser Short-Toed Lark or Bonelli's Eagle. On the afternoon, we visited some poor known areas on Empordà Plain and we ended the day visiting a couple of places on the Empordà Marshes Natural Park. We started the day at the Cap de Creus Point. It is the most eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula and offers great chances of seeing interesting seabirds, as well as cetaceans. However, yesterday was a poor day, having views of few birds: Pomarine Skua, Parasitic Skua, Northern Gannets and Sandwich Tern were the more interesting. However, we saw a couple of Peregrine Falcons. Then we moved to a little ponds beside the road that leads to the Point. There we saw some Sardinian Warblers, Dartford's Warblers, Thekla Larks and two Peregrine Falcons. Our next stop was Mas Bufadors, a mountain over Cadaqués and Port de la Selva with a peculiar landscape that offers good habitats for interesting birds. You can reach it from the roundabout at the higher part of the road from Cadaqués to Port de la Selva. There we saw 2 Spectacled Warblers and a single Lesser Short-toed Lark. It is interesting to note that there was a huge migration of Black Redstarts. Having finished there, we followed the road to Port de la Selva and then we climber to Sant Pere de Roda. At the middle of the climbing we stopped to have lunch to a proper place to see the Bonelli's Eagle hovering. We saw an adult, and we heard a couple of Western Bonelli's Warblers. After having lunch we went to Sant Onofre Hermitage. To reach it you have to follow the road from Sant Pere de Roda to Vilajuïga. A coupe of kilometers after leaving the road from Port de la Selva there is a dirty road signposted Sant Onofre. It is a bad road, so if you prefer you can park on a parking lot a few meters after the dirty road on the left of the main road. At the beginning of the bad road there are some trees which are good for migrating and breeding passerines. On the road to Sant Onofre we saw Short-toed Eagle, Northern Goshawk, Blue Rock Thrush, Rock Bunting, Sardinian and Dartford Warblers,... This is a good area for Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush, but it was a little bit early in the season. Our next stop was already on the plain, at Delfià. There is a colony of Lesser Kestrels breeding over there, so it's easy to see them. Please, do not disturb them if you go! We saw also a Honey Buzzard and 8 Tawny Pipits. Then we went to the Pedret i Marzà irrigation pond. It is a strange place, but it can produce some surprises. Yesterday we saw 5 Red Knots, a single Common Ringed Plover and an inmature male Common Pochard. We continued to Vilaüt Pond, which had plenty of water (it has been dry for many time!). There were Garganeys, Northern Pintails, Green-winged Teals, Green Sandpipers and a Booted Eagle and Skylarks on the surrounding areas,... We went to Tres Ponts where we saw a Great Bittern and we ended the day at Europa Pond looking for rails, but we saw none of them.

Snowshoeing to Pic de la Dona

Today we have climbed at Pic de la Dona with our snowshoes. It is an easy route, that allows you to begin snowshoeing. It starts from behind the main building of Vallter 2000 ski resort. It climbs north to Portella de Mantet and then the route turns east to reach the summit. It has no difficulty at all, although that in winter you should always check the avalanche forecast. Furthermore, the route offers good chances to see some mountain bird specialities. Today we have seen up to 4 Snowfinches, a single Ring Ouzel, Citril Finches, Coal Tits, ... We've missed Griffon Vulture and Lammergeier, although it is a good place to see them.

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Wet day and first spring migrants

Yesterday we had a morning visit to Empordà Marshes Natural Park. It was a rainy morning, so we did few things. Our first stops were at the huts on the mail trail. At least we were dry there! There was much waterfowl, but the best thing is that we saw our first Barn Swalllow of the season! Another curious bird was an scape, a Cinnamon Teal. It was my first bird ever, but I don't really count it. Then we stopped at El Matà meadows, were we saw some waders: Black-tailed Godwits (4), a single Spotted RedShank and last, but not least, many Little Ringed Plovers. Spring is comming!! Just before leaving, we met our good friend Ponç Feliu and we had really good views of a Jack Snipe. It was not a lifer but almost, I had never seen it so well! As it was raining then and we had an appointment to have luch, we ended our birding by the time.