Western Palearctic Birding
Chris Lansdell
Portugal and Spain, 15 – 18 June 2009
With the possibility of several new category C birds and a long staying WP mega in the form of a Ruppell’s Vulture we had no hesitation in quickly arranging this 4 day special.
Our original plan had been to travel from Lisbon right up to the NW corner of Spain for the now resident Pied Crow but a detailed look at the map (and distance!) combined with the category D status of the bird on the Spanish list made us unanimously change our minds!
Flights were booked with Easyjet from Luton to Lisbon at c£60 each with the hire car (a spacious Renault Megane estate) a snip at £125 for 4 days. Accommodation was, as usual left to chance but armed with the Rough Guides to Portugal and Spain and also several youth hostel details we envisaged few problems. We were proved completely wrong on our 1st night though. Having tried hotels in Montijo and Alcochete and politely declining them at 50 euros pppn we then tried 2 more in the port city of Setubal only to find them both full. At about 22.00 we finally found the Hotel Residencial Mar e Sol in the main boulevard. At 60€ for a 4-bedded room including breakfast we almost bit their hands off! The other 2 nights were spent at the Hostal Leon in Trujillo which was excellent at 18€ pppn and had the added bonus of friendly and attractive girls on their staff!
We purposefully left our itinerary quite flexible as we knew the Ruppell’s Vulture could take a while (even a couple of days) but in the end followed our planned route:
Day 1 – Barroca d’Alva, Rilvas and Carcevelos (all near Lisbon)
Day 2 – Rilvas, Vila Velha de Rodao, plains near Caceres, Belen Plains
Day 3 – Sierra de Villuercas, Madrigalejo Bridge, Monfrague
Day 4 – The Monroy Loop (near Trujillo), Rilvas
15 June 2009
Our flight touched down about 30 minutes late from the scheduled arrival of 09.40 but we negotiated customs, baggage claim and car hire formalities quite quickly and headed over the long Vasco de Gama bridge over the River Tejo to our first port of call.
This was the reedy ditches and paddyfields at the Barroca d’Alva (GPS N038 43.680, W008 54.300) near the town of Alcochete. Within just a few minutes we’d located several Black-headed Weavers and then in a cluster along a dyke a fantastic group of 7 Yellow-crowned Bishops. We spent a stifling hot 3 hours at this excellent site just wandering up and down the lane between the bridged ditches. By far the most entertaining were the Yellow-crowned Bishops with their amazing ability to puff themsleves up to appear twice their normal size! In all we had 30+ with 20+ Black-headed Weavers. Common Waxbill proved a little harder to get good views of but perseverance paid off with a total of about 10. Other common birds in the area were Serins, Stonechats, Fan-tailed Warblers, Spanish Wagtails, Reed Warblers, Cattle and Little Egrets whilst we also recorded 3 Great Reed Warblers, 2 Cetti’s Warblers, c6 Bee-eaters, 2 Crested Larks, 1 Short-toed Lark, a Kingfisher, 2 Little Terns, 5 Purple Herons, Little Ringed Plover and both Marsh Harrier and Booted Eagle. Scarlet Darter and Red-veined Darter were also positively id’d.
The next site at Rilvas was only about 3 miles away (GPS for parking N038 42.099, W008 52.596) and following directions kindly provided by Chris Batty/Rich Bonser we negotiated the barbed wire gate by the car park spot and followed the field edge to the right for about 200 meters. Despite this we failed to find any Black-headed Munias and bearing in mind all the other species we winkled out of the area we were confident we’d have located then if there were present. Our list boasted 2 Great Reed Warblers, 1 Subalpine Warbler, 1 Sardinian Warbler, c5 Melodious Warblers, 2 Whitethroats, 1 Blackcap, c10 Common Waxbills (showing nicely here), 2 Fan-tailed Warblers, Nightingale, Serins, 2 Booted Eagles and a Common Buzzard as well as the ubiquitous White Storks, Little Egrets and Bee-eaters.
With the afternoon getting on we decided to navigate our way round to the west side of Lisbon to the seaside resort of Carcevelos and our next category C target. En-route a brief Black-shouldered Kite and Common Buzzard were see near Montijo. On arrival in Carcevelos we scored before even getting out of the car as Crested Mynas hopped around on the grass by the car park just east of the fort (GPS N038 40.560, W009 19.380). In all we had c15 of these curious birds plus a Red-rumped Swallow.
With a stop for a meal at a roadside diner and the phaff trying to find accommodation that just about wrapped up our first day.
16 June 2009
The idea of staying on the east side of the River Tejo was to enable us to return to Rilvas in the morning for 2nd dabs at the Black-headed Munias. So after the luxury of a sit down breakfast at our hotel in Setubal we drove the 20 or so miles back to the site.
Once again there were no Munias but a superb couple of Black-shouldered Kites performed nicely and c12 Spoonbills flew through. Other than that it was mainly the same species as the previous day. This time though Common Waxbills were very obvious with at least 30 buzzing about. 4 Black-headed Weavers and a single Yellow-crowned Bishop were also present and several False Ilex Hairstreaks allowed photography. Turtle Dove and Kingfisher completed the picture before we cut our losses and headed NE on the 2 and a half hour drive to what we hoped was going to be the highlight of the trip.
Common Waxbill, Rilvas
False Ilex Hairstreak, Rilvas
From the car we clocked c10 Black-winged Stilts and several Little Egrets at the Reserva Natural de Estuaria de Tejo and then as we drove NE it began to rain. And it kept raining until we just about reached Vila Velha de Rodao. Amazingly it cleared just before we got to the site and a stop in a layby below the Griffon Vulture colony (before we reached the published viewing platform) revealed the Ruppell’s Vulture perched on a ledge within 30 seconds of getting out of the car! The bird was watched well before we ventured further up the road to the viewing platform for more views as it sat preening. After about an hour it finally took to the wing allowing lengthy scope views of the underside of the wings before it settled on the cliff below us and out of view. The luck was with us at last! c40 Griffon Vultures, 2 Red-rumped Swallows, several Crag Martins and a Swallowtail competed for our attentions but failed!
Having bought ourselves a bit of time we decided to strike eastwards and into Spain with hopefully a little time in the evening for some birding on the plains near Trujillo. The picturesque drive yielded a few goodies – 3 Short-toed Eagles, 50+ Griffon Vultures, and 2+ Black Vultures plus several Red-rumped Swallows, Golden Oriole, Woodchat and our first Azure-winged Magpie of the trip. With a little time to spare we stopped briefly just east of Caceres and quickly found 3 Great Bustards plus Calandra Lark, Woodchat and a pale Booted Eagle. At least 12 Rollers on roadside wires also proved that the telegraph pole nestbox scheme is doing the business.
In Trujillo town we found the Hostal Trujillo locked up but their loss was our gain as we found the excellent Hostal Leon just round the corner. After checking in swiftly we drove the short out of town to the Belen Plains and spent a thoroughly pleasant last hour of daylight watching 8 Great Bustards, c20 Lesser Kestrels, 2 Stone Curlews, Little Owl, 2 Hoopoes, 2 Calandra Larks, c50 Corn Buntings, a single Southern Grey Shrike and rather oddly a fly past Green Sandpiper.
Forgetting the time difference between Portugal and Spain we wandered down to the main square in Trujillo to find all the restaurants closing up. Thankfully Jus knew a pizza place up a nearby cobbled street where we duly gorged ourselves silly.
17 June 2009
Breakfast time, Hostal Leon, Trujillo
This morning we made our way east from Trujillo to a range of limestone hills known as the Sierra de Villuercas. Where to Watch Birds in South and West Spain recommends the summit road for Western Orphean Warbler but despite hearing 2 singers they were both well back from the road and frustratingly not seen. Very frustrating for Jus and Andy for whom it would have been a tick. Nonetheless the birding was pretty good with great views of a singing Iberian Chiffchaff, a showy Subalpine Warbler, 1 Dartford Warbler, 1 Melodious Warbler, several Sardinian Warblers, 2 Rock Buntings, 3 Woodlarks, 3 Nuthatches and several ‘irbii’ Long-tailed Tits. Butterflies were very well represented with Iberian Marbled White, Spanish Gatekeeper, Grayling, Great Banded Grayling, Wall Brown, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Purple-shot Copper, Clouded Yellow and a single lemon yellow specimen thought to be a Berger’s Clouded Yellow. As we made our way down 6+ Griffon Vultures, 1 Egyptian Vulture and a Honey Buzzard circled over the road.
Our 2nd stop was at Madrigalejo Bridge a bit further to the east. This lush overgrown river is a well known site for Red Avadavat and we found them very easy to see here looking both ways from the bridge. All in all we had c20 of which several were full red adult males. Family parties of Woodchat and Stonechat showed well on the telegraph wires and several Spanish Sparrows buzzed about and were obviously nesting in the underside of an occupied White Stork nest. A Penduline Tit flew past and over the bridge and at least 2 Little Bitterns eventually gave everyone some views. Other than that we clocked up Green Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Cetti’s, Reed, Great Reed and Fan-tailed Warblers, Kingfisher, Azure-winged Magpie, Serins, Red-rumped Swallows, Booted Eagle and a ‘heard only’ Water Rail.
Having had our fill at Madrigalejo we moved on to the famous Parque National de Monfrague about an hours drive to the north. Although this fantastic reserve has loads of goodies our main target species is represented there by only a couple of pairs at probably the most northerly limit of their distribution. After making the very steep climb up the steps to the Castillo in the afternoon heat we emerged onto the roof of the tower (be careful here – there are no barriers!). Within a few minutes Jus called ‘swifts’ and we quickly got onto 2 White-rumped Swifts which went to drift away after a few minutes only to return a little while later to give some mind-blowingly good views as they hurtled back and forth. After that success and some time spent photographing a Two-tailed Pasha at the Castillo we were able to relax and spend the rest of the day taking in the other specialities scattered throughout the reserve. We visited Tietar Cliff, Penafalon and a couple of viewpoints in between. Griffon Vultures and Black Kites were exceptionally numerous with c10 Black Vultures, c5 Egyptian Vultures, 1 Short-toed Eagle and 2 Booted Eagles also being notched up. Pride of place had to go to the superb adult Spanish Imperial Eagle sailing majestically over Tietar Cliff allowing lengthy scope views. Non raptors included many Crag Martins and Red-rumped Swallows, 3 Alpine Swifts, c5 Blue Rock Thrushes, a couple of Black Redstarts and Kingfisher whilst a stop at a belt of woodland near the dam yielded several Azure-winged Magpies, Turtle Doves, 2 Nuthatches, Short-toed Treecreeper and 2 Golden Orioles. Black Stork nests were located low down at both Tietar Cliff and Penafalon.
White-rumped Swift, Monfrague (copyright Lee Gregory)
The Castillo ridge, Monfrague
Two-tailed Pasha, Monfrague
Spanish Imperial Eagle, Monfrague
Black Storks, Monfrague
Griffon Vulture, Monfrague
Red-rumped Swallow, Monfrague
Having done the rounds and also stopped for a bocadillo at Villareal de San Carlos we made our way back to Tietar Cliff for dusk and having probably scanned past them several times finally located 1 then 2 fully grown Eagle Owl fledglings. These impressive if slightly comical birds entertained us for ages before flying strongly to the right.
Eagle Owl fledgling, Monfrague
With darkness almost upon us we drove back through the park and on the off chance stopped for Red-necked Nightjar near the site of the former ‘white hut’. Almost immediately Jus and I had 2 distant large nightjars and then in response to Lee’s MP3 we had a hugely impressive pair of Red-necked Nightjars performing up and down the road and over our heads. The look on Lee’s face as he stopped his MP3 but the calling continued was a classic!
On the happy drive back Red Deer were numerous and a Red Fox allowed us to leave the car and walk almost up to it before it sloped away. Best of all however was a Beech Martin across the road just before we reached Penafalon. What a day!
18 June 2009
Our last day and a drive through the plains north of Trujillo (known as the Monroy Loop) seemed in order before we headed back towards Lisbon. 2 Lesser Kestrels bid us farewell from Trujillo and 4 Great Bustards gave themselves up without a fight which set the tone for the next couple of hours. 3 Little Owls, c6 Southern Grey Shrikes, many Woodchats, 1 Calandra Lark, 1 Short-toed Lark and several Azure-winged Magpies were the pick of the passerines. Jus and I then got onto 2 distant flying Black-bellied Sandgrouse and we were treated to point blank views of several Montagu’s Harriers. Other raptors included 1 Black Vulture, c5 Griffon Vultures, 1 Booted Eagle and Short-toed Eagle but the location of a Spanish Imperial Eagle sat on its nest on a pylon has to remain undisclosed for obvious reasons.
Dehesa habitat on the Monroy loop
The long journey westwards to Lisbon was on toll dual carriageways and generally dull a birdless. The only noteworthy sightings were out only Portugese Black Vultures, Raven, Sparrowhawk and a single Booted Eagle.
The reason for wanting to get back to the Lisbon area with a little time to spare was to have one last bash at Rilvas for those damned munias. Needless to say we failed again with much the same birds being seen as before. An adult and juvenile Black-shouldered Kite livened up an extremely hot couple of hours (40 degrees!) and this time we also had 2 female Black-headed Weavers, Short-toed Treecreeper, 4 Common Waxbills and the last trip tick in the form of 3 fly-over Rock Sparrows.
It then just left us to change out of sweaty clothes, have a cold drink and get packed at a nearby service station before we headed back to the rather plush airport and our flights home to a cold Blighty.
Personally I’d scooped 7 new WP species with the option of returning for the Pied Crow at some point in the future.