Showing posts with label Reptiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reptiles. Show all posts

Thursday 2 June 2016

Spain road trip week 3 - Picos de Europa and Cantabria

We're now back in the UK, safe n sound, not as sun kissed as we'd like but that's another road trip under the belt - its been good to check out some familiar locations later in the year and also to check out a few areas neither of us have been before in a birding capacity. Northern Spain and the Picos de Europa is the main focus of this post and I'm pleased to report we had the sun shining for most of it!


For those that are interested in such things we ended up with a grand tally of 216 bird species for the 3 week trip, not too shabby! There's a link at the end of this posting with a full list.




Picos de Europa foothills from Potes

Anyone who's flown to Spain will doubtless have gazed down upon the Picos De Europa and marvelled at those jagged snow topped spurs, I know I have many a time, and often promised myself an explore there. Some of the scenery in and around the 'Picos' is truly jaw dropping with many peaks well over 2,000m and equally impressive gorges and caves. This was just the view from the campsite we stayed at nr Potes (pic right)




The wildlife was non too shabby too with Redstart, Firecrest, Hobby, Northern Bullfinch, Dipper and Wryneck all around the campsite with the last 3 all new species for the trip. I thought I had my first live snake of the trip whilst I was bumbling along a forest trail but it turned out to be one these little fellahs ... a Slow Worm or if you like a Legless Lizard

Slow Worm, Potes, 15/05/16
Cable car, Picos de Europa
By my reckoning those last three new birds took us to 199 species with still 4 or 5  days to go ...get in! Still,  if you want to tick off birds like Wallcreeper, Rock Thrush, Alpine Accentor and Snow Finch you have to get up high and in amongst those snow topped peaks and the only way to do that in the Picos is to take the car!






Snow Finch, Fuente De, 16/05/16




Sadly no Wallcreeper .. it was always gonna be tough on the tourist trail, no Rufous Rock Trush either but we sailed past the 200 mark with another 4 new species for the list .. Water Pipit, Alpine Chough, Alpine Accentor and a 'lifer' for the both of us - Snow Finch. Surprisingly big for a finch, we had a pair immediately we were up there and then Mark was lucky enough to have c25 fly right past him. In flight, the pure white patches in their wings was nothing short of dazzling!

The Alpine Accentors were confiding, relatively numerous and a few were ringed as were some of the Alpine Choughs


Snow Finch, Fuente De, 16/05/16

 


 
Alpine Accentors, Fuente De, 16/05/16

Water Pipit, Fuente De, 16/05/16

Alpine Chough, Fuente De, 16/05/16


Northern Wheatear, Fuente De, 16/05/16
Northern Wheatears have been almost ever present wherever we've been so I shouldn't have been surprised to see a few up here, however incongruous they seemed surrounded by all that snow!

A nice male Black Redstart, one of several, topped off a cracking couple of hours birding above the tree line and up amongst the clouds and, as expected, the landscapes were simply breath taking!


Black Redstart, Fuente De, 16/05/16

 

Fuente De, 16/05/16

Fuente De, 16/05/16

Fuente De (view from), 16/05/16





Long Lipped Tongue Orchid, Cantabria, 17/05/16
From the Picos we headed back towards journey's end and Bilbao, but not before a couple of days chilling out on the Cantabrian coast near the fishing town of Santona. En route there we stopped at a lay by for some lunch and spotted these amazingly shaped orchids in with red clover.

They're 'Long Lipped' Tongue Orchids, fairly widespread around Iberia but a first for me. Weird looking aren't they?






Long Lipped Tongue Orchid, Cantabria, 17/05/16



Peregrine Falcon fledglings, Montehano, 18/05/16
We camped out across the bay from Santona at Montehano, an historical mound, where there's an old quarry and a monestary, La Convento de Montehano. The weather had turned sour again and the bay held precious few of the many wading birds we'd been expecting here but the distinctive shrill 'kee-ark' call of a Peregrine hinted at a nest site and something to look at. Took a wee while but finally we located 3 fledglings high up on a grassy ledge.

Very average 'record' pics in poor light and at distance, but you can clearly see that they're all well developed and I would say almost ready for the off. We watched the site for a couple of hours or so hoping for one of the adults to return with food but it never happened so we withdrew in case they were spooked.

Peregrine Falcon fledglings, Montehano, 18/05/16

A few small flocks of Whimbrel turned up the same day, incredibly our first of the trip, and we also had Ringed Plover, Curlew, Redshank in small numbers plus a Black Necked Grebe on one of the many water courses around the marismas here. I walked around the monastery snapping a few more wild flowers then climbed the Montehano hill and got some landscape pics of the area.

Mountain Kidney Vetch, Montehano, 18/05/16

Fairy Foxglove, Montehano, 18/05/16

Ivy Leafed Toadflax, Montehano, 18/05/16

Santona (from Montehano)
Escalante (from Montehano)



Marismas de Santona (from Montehano)
Convento de Montehano

With a ferry to catch the next day it certainly felt like journey's end but what a journey - from the North to the South of Spain and back again, a distance of appx 2,500 kilometres in 3 weeks and in total 214 bird species recorded. It was non stop, even the ferry back brought us 3 more birds - Guillemot, Turnstone (on the ferry itself!)and Arctic Skua and just off the ferry at Southsea I had a fabulous photographic finale with a summer plumaged adult Mediterranean Gull feeding on the beach with common Black Headed Gulls.
 
 
Mediterranean Gull, Southsea, 20/05/16


Mediterranean Gull, Southsea, 20/05/16
 
Mediterranean Gull (Left), Southsea, 20/05/16

Mediterranean Gull, Southsea, 20/05/16
What a beauty!
 
As promised then here's the final species list for the whole trip - just click on the link 
 


Saturday 28 February 2015

The big salty lake at Fuente de Piedre - Cranes, Sandpipers & Flamingoes then some Raptor migration in the raw at Tarifa



Without taking a ferry across to Morocco (been seriously toying with the idea), I've gone as far south as I planned to do and now kicking my heels in the Kite surfing capital of Europe .. Tarifa.


Kites at Tarifa, feb 2015
Barn Swallow, Fuente de Piedre, 23rd Feb 2015
En route I stopped off at Fuente de Piedre after a long drive from Almeria and was immediately into House Martins, Barn Swallows and the odd Red Rumped Swallow buzzing around my head. I've tried and failed so many times to get decent pics of Swallows and other hirundines but in the perfect late afternoon sunshine that greeted me here I was partly redeemed ...

House Martin, Fuente de Piedre, 23 Feb 2015
After spending 30 minutes trying to get what I thought would be my best ever Wood Sandpiper pic, it turned out to be a pale Green Sandpiper, never mind, the pic wasn't that good anyway but the many Black Tailed Godwits were very photogenic in the last rays of the setting sun ...


Black Tailed Godwit, Fuente de Piedre, 23 Feb 2015

Black Tailed Godwit, Fuente de Piedre, 23 Feb 2015
 
 After so much windy weather it was a joy to have at least one day of calm and although it didn't last long it was good to rest up and explore in relatively kind conditions. I stuck around for a couple of days here and traversed the whole reserve. Birds of note included a female Hen Harrier, 4 Golden Plover, 6 Little Ringed Plover, 2 Water Pipits, 4 Ruff and a flock of 20 or so Spanish Sparrows. This large inland mainly saline laguna (over 1500 Hectares) is world famous for it's resident Greater Flamingoes (up to 50,000 some years .. during my visit a mere 3000 or so!) and wintering Common Cranes (I counted a max of 360).

Access to the very best bits is limited and regularly patrolled by the SEO (bird life Spain) but there are several viewing areas and the whole lake is easily circumnavigated by minor roads. The visitor centre just outside of the village of the same name is an obvious place to start any visit but if you're a birder its best to avoid weekends when the Spanish and their offspring go a walking!

Common Cranes over Fuente de Piedre, 23rd Feb 2015
Common Cranes in the fields surrounding Fuente de Piedre, 23rd Feb, 2015

Fuente de Piedre, (West side)

Spanish Sparrows, Fuente de Piedre, 24 Feb 2015




Golden Plover gaining its Summer pl, Fuente de Piedre, 24 Feb 2015


Water Pipit, Fuente de Piedre

Common Sandpiper, Fuente de Piedre, 23 Feb 2015


Fuente de Piedre (from the West)


 
Singing Corn Bunting, Fuente de Piedre, 24 Feb 2015
 Lots of common Spanish birds around and about the fields ... Stonechats by the dozen, Chiffchaffs, Crested & Short Toed Lark (impossible to photograph!) and lets here it for the humble Corn Bunting ....the day I come to Andalusia and fail to see one of these 'dumpsters' will be a sad one indeed. Their jangly song (likened to a rattling of keys) is already a rare sound in my own corner of the UK due to habitat loss and I wonder how long they'll be as common here. It'll win no beauty contest in the avian world but I love 'em even more for that so here's 3 for the Corn Bunting gallery including one singing ...



Corn Bunting, Fuente de Piedre, 24 Feb 2015
Corn Bunting, Fuente de Piedre, 24 Feb 2015
An overnight stop and a brief morning explore around Alora and the El Chorro gorge produced more Swallows, Little Ringed Plovers and another Teminck's Stint on the Rio Guadalhorce and a rather tasty Black Crowned Night Heron perched on a telegraph wire at dusk.

timbobagginsabroad, spain 2015
Black Crowned Night Heron, Rion Guadalhorce at Alora, 25th Feb 2015
Cliffs above El Chorro

Tarifa meanwhile has been a tad disappointing so far from a migrant point of view with just one brief moment of major passage on the 26th Feb ... with White Storks, Griffon Vultures, Black Kites, a few Common Buzzards, Barn Swallows and a probable Ring Ouzel braving the enduring Westerly winds

Migrating Black Kite, Tarifa, 26th Feb 2015


Migrating White Storks rising on thermals, Tarifa, 26th Feb 2015


Oystercatchers, Tarifa, 26th Feb 2015

I'm sure there are plenty of these knocking about in my home county right now but they're not a common bird anywhere in Spain and I was pleased to tick these Oystercatchers off the list!














In the increasing warmth of the SW a few butterflies are on the wing, Clouded Yellows being the most obvious amongst the 'whites' and here in Tarifa I've had several of these winged beauties - Monarch Butterflies ... normally associated with North America, there is an Iberian / Canary Isles population and very welcome they are too flying around on huge slow wings like small colourful bats!

Monarch Butterfly, Tarfifa, 26th Feb 2015
Clouded Yellow, Alora, 25th Feb 2015


...... and clinging on to the undersides of a drainage pipe some kind of Geko?
 
Geko sp, Tarifa, 26th Feb 2015
 

 
 
 

Migrating Short Toed Eagle, nr Tarifa, 28th Feb 2015
Today (28th Feb) has been better for raptor migration with some impressive Black Kite movements early this morning with appx 100 in off the sea at 09.00ish. I looked up and the sky was suddenly filled with winged shapes! All over within 3 mins and I was so busy watching I didn't get a single shot off. More through the day and in total maybe 250 over the straits of Gibralter with the occasional Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard, plenty of Griffons moving across and 3 Short Toed Eagles. There was also a steady movement of Barn Swallows and House Martins.


Migrating Short Toed Eagle, nr Tarifa, 28th Feb 2015
Griffon Vulture crossing over from Africa, nr Tarifa, 28th Feb 2015
Been quite a day and to cap it off 40 or so more Black Kites in over Tarifa town itself at dusk. The weather is set fine for a few days with little or no wind so I expect more and anticipating Pallid and Alpine Swifts any day!
 
... and to round off here's a couple of birds that are totally everywhere and thus tend to get passed over ... Stonechats are a speciality bird in Yorkshire and Crested Larks none existent!
 
Stonechat (male), Tarifa
 
Singing Crested Lark, Fuente de Piedre, 23 Feb 2015