Gracias al trabajo de nuestro colaborador en el Reino Unido, Len Clark, este año tendremos tres grupos de pajareros procedentes de Bristol. La primera de estas tres entregas tuvo lugar la semana pasada en tierras de Andalucía y Extremadura. Visitamos el Parque Nacional de Doñana, las marismas del Odiel y lagunas costeras como la Primera de Palos, junto a la ciudad de Huelva. Esto durante los tres primeros días. Para la segunda parte de la semana nos esperaban las dehesas de Trujillo, Monfragüe y los llanos cacereños...
Con un tiempo inmejorable durante toda la semana, rozando en ocasiones temperaturas veraniegas, pudimos ver la mayoría de especialidades de cada región aunque nos falló alguna especie importante como focha moruna y búho real. Me temo que este año no va a ser bueno para observar ninguna de estas dos especies en los sitios habituales que conocemos. En cualquier caso los humedales de Doñana lucían sus mejores galas tras un otoño y comienzo de primavera muy lluvioso con una colonia nueva junto al Caño de Guadiamar, que desde que voy por Doñana nunca había visto. La marisma bullía de vida y color, pocas veces he visto los campos tan llenos de agua y con tanto verde y flores por todas partes.
En Extremadura las jaras ya comenzaban a abrirse intuyendo un manto blanco que a buen seguro tapizará las laderas de sus sierras. La hierba, sin embargo, muy alta para estas fechas nos impidió ver con comodidad a los sisones, aunque tengo la impresión que esta especie está en claro declive. Ahora hay que buscarlos cuando hace unos años simplemente aparecían. Ojalá me equivoque.
Muchos fueron los momentos mágicos de esta semana repleta de aves (165 especies diferentes registradas en los apenas siete días de expedición), pero creo que destacaría por encima de todos el momento que vivimos en el mirador de La Portilla en Monfragüe, mientras un adulto de águila imperial marcaba con celo su territorio allí arriba, abajo en las aguas embalsadas del Tiétar, una familia de nutrias daba buena cuenta de los peces capturados por uno de los adultos, seguramente la madre, que con mimo cuidaba de sus dos retoños. Cigüeñas negras, águilas culebreras y alimoches hacían el resto... y todo al unísono.
Las tres especies de buitres, cinco especies de águilas, todas las ardeidas ibéricas a excepción del avetoro, águila pescadora en su nido del Odiel, una gran variedad de limícolas en el sur, observaciones inmejorables de aves tan coloridas como abejarucos, carracas, alcaudones comunes... avutardas y sisones en vuelo con las dos especies de gangas, la ortega y la ibérica, posadas en las pocas manchas de hierba rala de los Llanos... en definitiva, una gran selección de nuestra avifauna meridional en tan sólo una semana. Os dejo un pequeño reportaje fotográfico de este viaje no sin dar las gracias antes a Bridget, Julie, Shirley, Ken, Richard, Rob y Len por haber confiado en Spainbirds.
La aldea de El Rocío / The hamlet of El Rocio
Cigüeñas blancas en Villamanrique / White Storks at Villamanrique
Avetorillo / Little Bittern
Garca imperial en el Caño del Guadiamar / Purple Heron at the Caño del Guadiamar
Lavandera boyera ssp. iberiae / Yellow Wagtail ssp. iberiae
Garcilla cangrejera / Squacco Heron
Terreras marismeñas / Lesser Short-toed Larks
Culebrera europea / Short-toed Eagle
Críalo / Great Spotted Cuckoo
Gorrión molinero / Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Bando mixto con gaviotas de Audouin y sombría, charrán patinegro y correlimos común / Mixed flock with Audouin's and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Sandwich Tern and Dunlin
Águila imperial ibérica / Spanish Imperial Eagle
Curruca cabecinegra / Sardinian Warbler
Una de las tres nutrias de Monfragüe / One of the three otters seen in Monfragüe
Águila perdicera / Bonelli's Eagle
Buitre leonado desde el Castillo de Monfragüe / Griffon Vulture at the castle of Monfragüe
Carraca / European Roller
Murciélago hortelano / Serotine Bat
El grupo en Talaván / The group at theTalavan reservoir
Elanio común cerca de Almaraz / Black-shouldered Kite near Almaraz
Arriving at Málaga airport mid morning on Saturday, the six of us, together with
our guide Santiago Villa of Spainbirds,
set off on a double location tour, first to Doñana and then to some of the key areas
in Extremadura.
During terrible Spanish (and UK
- Great weather! - 7 days of glorious sunshine!
- Great birds - 160 species! including 19 different Raptors, 4 different Herons, 6 different Terns, 7 different Larks, both types of Sandgrouse and Bustard !
- And some superb highlights!
Where
did we go?
We covered a variety habitats in the
Doñana, from lakes, estuaries and reed beds to thick woodland and coastal
beaches. In the Extremadura, the main habitats covered were the river gorges
with their cliffs and wooded hillsides, the ‘dehesas’ which are the extensive fields
with their scattered Holm Oaks, and the vast Cáceres plains.
What
did we see?
At least 160 bird species, which does not
include a few that only some of us saw, such as Iberian Grey Shrike, or the
solitary Pied Flycatcher that only one of us saw (it has been that sort of
Spring - no sign of any Spotted Flycatchers), and we didn’t claim for the
possible Bonelli’s Warbler or the possibly glimpsed Olivaceous Warbler.
But it did include some splendid birds. For example:
Not just one Great Spotted Cuckoo but we
watched three of them on one dusty track in the Doñana and then saw another in
the Extremadura a few days later.
There
were Black Kites everywhere, over fields, hillsides, lakes and even over towns
and villages.
Whiskered Terns seemed to be over almost every
lake we visited, whilst Gull-billed, Black, Common, Sandwich
and Little Terns were all added to our list.
Apart from some special locations, there
seemed to be an almost constant background birdsong, particularly of Corn
Buntings, but also Crested and Calandra Larks and Zitting
Cisticolas (Fan-tailed Warblers). Bee-eaters frequently added their calls giving
us not only sound but also some great colours too.
And although the Spring migration was
somewhat disrupted by the earlier poor weather in Spain
There were also great views of Purple
Herons, some of which came close to us.
Our guide Santiago
The
Doñana has quite a range of different habitats within its area and we enjoyed a
good selection of these - plus the fine weather. Around the marshes, lakes and reed beds, we
had good views of Squacco Herons several Great White Egrets, and Little Bittern (with a quick view of a Nightingale at the same spot) while overhead Booted and Short-toed
Eagles put in occasional appearances.
Flocks of Spoonbills were on several of the
lakesa and there were a number of large flocks
of Greater Flamingo, which added conspicuous colour to the scenery,
particularly in flight. In the
southern part of the Doñana, a superb peaceful woodland location gave us
sightings and the song of both Common and Iberian Chiffchaff, plus Short-toed
Treecreeper, whilst a reed bed in a nearby lake yielded a singing Savi’s
Warbler as we watched several Purple Swamphens as
they moved somewhat ponderously across shallow water.
Azure-winged Magpies flitted around
woodland picnic locations and Woodchat Shrikes were almost everywhere
and a constant delight.
Coastal locations in north-west Doñana gave
us estuary mud, sandy or stony bays and weedy shore lines - and lots more birds
including Audouin’s Gull seen here with Sandwich Terns, Lesser Black-backed
Gulls and a Dunlin. We had
seen a flight of a dozen Collared Pratincoles near our hotel on our first
arrival in the Doñana and now we had further extended views of the this elegant
bird.
Waders included Wood, Green and Common
Sandpipers, plus a Curlew Sandpiper in summer plumage. Sanderlings played along
the edges of incoming waves whilst Kentish Plovers moved more
sedately, as
one would expect of a Plover.
White
Storks were a regular feature both in Doñana and Extremadura and their nest
sites were seen on buildings, in trees and on electricity pylons. Black Storks were not seen until we reached
the Extremadura and here we were treated to some superb views of the bird in
flight and on its nest in a river gorge in Monfragüe Natural
Park Trujillo
At one spectacular viewpoint in Monfragüe
Natural Park, in addition to the Black Stork, we watched Griffon Vultures
circling and landing at their cliff face nest sites and then, from behind the
cliffs, there appeared from time to time Black and Egyptian Vultures, Peregrine
Falcon and some really superb views of Spanish Imperial Eagle.
Red-rumped Swallows, Rock Buntings, Blue
Rock Thrush and Sub-Alpine Warblers added some ornithological balance to these
raptors - and then we were treated to a display by
three European Otters fishing and having fun on the water’s edge below us, with
a young one playing with a fish.
Of the raptors, we saw some big ones like
Griffon Vultures... and
some smaller ones like Black-winged Kites. We had Golden Eagles, including a distant
view of one on its nest (a variation of the Osprey which we saw landing on its distant
nest a couple of days earlier in the Doñana). There were lots of Lesser
Kestrels at several locations, including at a lunch stop in the town of Trujillo
On an early morning visit to the Cáceres
Plains, a male Montagu’s Harrier drifted by on elegant wings, after which we were treated first to a flypast
of 20+ Great Bustards, and then good telescope views of the male Great Bustard
giving its spectacular display - with,
it must be said, little apparent effect on a female standing nearby! Little Bustard, Pin-tailed and
Black-bellied Sandgrouse were added to our list.
As the sun came up from behind the distant
mountains, the temperature was just perfect and the chorus of Corn Buntings, Crested
and Calandra Larks, and occasional Bee-eaters made this particular location
something to remember. It
was not all birds though, and not everyone was scanning the tree tops and the
sky!
Richard Stansfield, who joined us from reading
Some
key memories
The whole tour left us with some great
memories, including lots of nesting birds such as both Black and White Storks, Osprey,
Golden Eagle, Griffon Vultures, Rollers
at their nest boxes on roadside electricity poles… then there were the Night and Purple Herons,
Glossy Ibis and Cattle Egrets whilst we had our picnic lunch and then right towards the end of the
tour we had a Penduline Tit in the process of completing the entrance tunnel to
its unusual nest built around the end of a thin hanging branch.
One particular memory was of a very pleasant
tapas style lunch in the main square of the Trujillo with its 13th
Century church, old Arab fortress – and nesting White Storks on the tops of
surrounding buildings, and both Pallid Swifts and Lesser Kestrels swooping
above us and diving into their nesting holes in the various buildings.
Another memory was of the hunting Bonelli’s
Eagles as one of them dived low over a hillside close to us, flushed a
Red-legged Partridge into frantic flight up the small valley, closely pursued
by both Eagles.
And
what about those Black-winged Kites which flew high into the sky, possibly in
some form of display flight and then one of them kindly came
and landed close to us allowing plenty of time for photos, whilst Black
Vultures drifted overhead and Corn Bunting and Crested Larks sang all around
us.
Some memorable locations, not least for their
sheer contrasting habitats included:
- the wonderful peaceful woodland in the
Doñana with its Short-toed Treecreepers and both Iberian and Common Chiffchaffs
all in song
- and then the scene in the Cáceres Plains
as the sun rose from behind the distant snow covered mountains whilst Crested
and Calandra Larks sang and Great Bustards displayed.
- and the pleasant coffee stop close to
fields of wildflowers, scattered trees, and an Orphean giving its distinctive
song.
A most enjoyable tour in the best possible
weather.
Text by Len Clark
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario