Catalan holiday

Just got back from a family holiday in Catalunya. We spnt a week up in the Pyrenees, then a few days in Barcelona. We met up with our good friends the Chittendens, who drove in all the way from the UK. From a family perspective, it was a perfect holiday - stunning scenery, great activities, excellent food. Brownie points secured. Especially when these family activities include encounters with Lammergeiers and Dipper.

It was enjoyable just to hang around in the garden, that was full of birds. Western Subalpine, Western Bonelli's and Melodious Warblers seem to have all bred there. Pied Flys, both redstarts, Crested Tits and Short-toed Treecreepers - quite good fun.

Western Bonelli's

Western Subalpine

Short-toed Treecreeper always being a nightmare to photograph

Crested Tit

Baby Common Redstart

The garden was buzzing with butterflies, especially the unmown sections. I was using only my 400mm/f5.6 which isn't great for butterflies...

Lang's Short-tiled Blue

Chalkhill Blue

Wall Brown on a wall

Life is good, drinking a cold cerveza while enjoying such views

My morning birding sessions were a bit challenging. Thanks to Franco and his support of the Nazis in WW2, it was dark until 7am! Therefore I had limited time for birding before the family activities began. I spent a couple of early mornings on Rasos de Peguera, the nearest ski resort. It wasn't high enough up there for proper mountain birds (1900 m), but certainly had this high-altitude feel, distinctly different from the mid-elevation village where we stayed. 

Most dominant birds up there were Crossbills - flocks were moving around noisily, some perched nicely. I enjoyed watching them in their different ages and plumages - they're not a bird I am very familiar with. In Israel they are very rare and irregular. Also in Norfolk they aren't too apparent. It was good to take in their flight calls and silhouettes.

Someone's ringing them up there - two of these random birds I photographed were ringed. 

Another quality bird (for me) up there was Citril Finch. This is another species I haven't seen many times before, and never managed to photograph. Even this photo isn't great - at least it's something.

Butterflies were abundant there too, including many Grizzled Skippers and the magnificent Cardinal.

This photo was taken by my son Uri:

Pyrenean Chamoix

Then it was down to scorching-hot Barcelona. I acted like a stupid tourist for a bit, however typically while admiring the Segrada Familia I was more interested in the Peregrine flying above.

View of the city from Parc Güell at 40 degrees

The little birding I did in Barcelona was half productive. Annoyingly, Delta del Llobregat doesn't open up before 9am (!), when the heat was already unbearable. I did spend a relaxed and muy fun morning with my close friends Rafa and Alejandra (Rafa - it's A-Le-Jand-Ra, OK?). Birding was nice, nothing too especial.

Audouin's Gull 8M95

Even though I don't really do Category C birds, It would have been rude not to look for the small population of Black-rumped Waxbills that have taken up residence in Parc del Turó del Putxet. So I did, to maintain the checklist streak. And Mitred Parakeets were abundant.

Thanks to my family and to the Chittendens for all the fun we had together!

Ticks and treats

It's been two weeks now since we arrived in Portugal. We are still working in northern Alentejo, based in Campo Maior. The weather is heating up, the grass is drying fast, and we need to find creative ways to stay focused and motivated to endure the long days in the field. New phenomena are the increasing amount of ticks we peel off, and the violent bee attacks we suffer. Living on the edge.

Work is going fine, but the birds seem to repeat themselves somewhat. So we seek for new playing fields in the little free time we have. Yesterday was our day off. We went to Alqueva dam which was quite a waste of time. We really did not see anything of interest, but we did add some trip ticks (or lifers for Dan and Re'a), such as Rock Sparrow, Short-toed Treecreeper, Egyptian Goose (boom!) and this stunning male Western Subalpine Warbler:

In the evening we tried for Red-necked Nightjar at Caia reservoir.  We heard one singing male in the distance, but couldn't connect with it. I am not satisfied yet with my encounters with this species. YET.

Another way to keep motivated is to try and improve my photos of the regular birds we encounter. Not easy when I'm always on foot, but at least I have lots of opportunities to try.

 Calandra Lark

The ubiquitous Corn Bunting - first one I bother to photo this year

Those eyes... 

An early morning stretch for this sweet Red-rumped Swallow: 

Sometimes when it gets especially slow, I do what European birders often do, and start paying attention to bird food, AKA butterflies. Dan enthuses me to try and ID them - he's really into that stuff.

Brown Argus

Iberian Marbled White

This evening I worked in an especially slow box. However there was a micro-fall of Northern Wheatears - 7 individuals! Bloody hell. This one actually did not perch on a fence! Just by a fence.

Campiña Sur

Another full day out in the field doing bustard work. Today we wroked in Campiña Sur, in SE Badajoz. We worked in some leks in this extensive cereal bowl. Intensively cultivated landscape, but still holds a good amount of bustards. We had about 100 males today - not bad. Unfortunately, in normal fieldwork conditions, there are no photo opps of bustards. Either they are too distant, or they fly over from site to site:

Had too few Little Bustards, but this displaying male was nice:

In the afternoon we spent some time near La Encinilla, west of Campillo. We enjoyed great views of a pair of Spanish Imperial Eagles (lifer!). At first the male caught a partridge, and perched on a dead tree to eat it. Then the female joined, he passed the partridge to her, and she continued munching on the partridge. Very cool scope views but way too distant and into the sun so no photos.

Then we checked Embalse de Azuaga and the bridge where Rio Satillo crosses the road towards Andalucia. It's a good site for White-rumped Swift but they probably hadn't returned yet so we didn't see any. It was pretty good there though, with a couple of Choughs, and a Western Subalpine Warbler - never seen this subspecies before:

In the evening we checked the wetland at Esparagalejos, NW of Merida, where a Crested Coot had been present for the last week or so. We couldn't find it but there were quite many birds around - about 10 nice and rosy Water Pipits, a couple of Yellow Wagtails (one was Iberian), and quite many shorebirds.

After dusk we looked for Red-necked Nightjars near Don Alvaro but none were present - they probably hadn't returned yet either.