Fall migrations begins

Today we've had an early working meeting in the Empordà Marshes Natural Park. After the meeting, we've gone birding in the park a couple of hours. We have visited a couple of our favourite hotspots in the park, Europa Lagoon and El Matà Meadows. Despite the late start and the heat, we've seen a good range of breeding and migrating spices, including, Black-crowned , Squacco and Purple Heron, Common Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, ... It seems that fall migration has began!

You can check the birdlist here.

Hiking to Puigmal and Segre Peak

This is a classical hike that will lead you to the highest peak in the Girona province, the Puigmal (2913m). Moreover, it rides over the ridge, climbing the Segre Peak, until the Coll de Finestrelles pass before going down to Núria Sanctuary.

We parked the car at the Fontalba meadows. We started walking to the west and turning slowly to the north, until we reached the south ridge of the Puigmal. First, we climb the Cim de la Dou peak (2471m). This is a very small peak on the main ridge, but it offers a good view of our trail. Then the track continues climbing, easily at the beginning and quite hard later. After the hardest part, you reach the summit plateau and, after some meters, you reach the Puigmal summit. From there we had a great view from the Oriental Pyrenees and the nearby valleys. Then, we walk the ridge to the north, which slowly turns to the east. First we climb the Pic Petit del Segre peak (2812m) and then the Pic del Segre (2481m). We continued riding the ridge until the Coll de Finestrelles pass (2604m). From there, we turn south leaving the ridge to the Núria Sanctuary (1960m). We had lunch there, before taking the track to Fontalba. This is quite a nasty trail, going up and down before arriving to the cars.

Hiking to Pastuira Peak from Pla de la Molina

Today we've had a great hiking day. This route has a 1200m elegation gain, thus it is not a route for beginners. Starting at Pla de la Molina, we climbed the Coma de l'Orri valley until we reached the upper pass. There, we turned west and walked the ridge to the Pastuira summit. Then, we walked back to the pass, but then followed east to the Coll de la Marrana pass. Then, we followed the GR11 trail which goes by the Ulldeter Refuge to the Pla de la Molina, where we had the car. It is a great route, allowing us to explore a very unknown area while climbing a very unfrequented peak.

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.