Spain Day 1

As mentioned briefly last time, I spent last week in holiday in Northern Spain. It was a birdwatching trip, Wallcreepers and Cranes in Northern Spain with Naturetrek.  The overall verdict would have to be that, while the cranes were available in massive numbers, the wallcreepers proved distinctly elusive and I only got one distant view.  Inevitably though, I saw a lot of birds that were new to me.  I was also attracted by the fact that previous trip reports indicated that there could be a few butterflies...

Day 1 - 11th February

Painted Lady

It became quickly clear after landing at Zaragoza that Spring weather was in the air and we we quickly saw the first griffon vultures, red kites and others from the vans.  After stopping at Daroca, we took our first walk up to the Torre de San Valero, and evidence of butterflies was soon apparent as we saw small white, large white and bath white flying around early on.  As we got near the tower a good number of painted ladies and red admirals.  My suspicion has been for a while that painted ladies can overwinter in the UK and you'd think these must have done so in Spain.

An even better surprise was the appearance of a scarce copper butterfly within the tower wall. I also found a beefly and a bee the apps have identified as Gwynne's Mining Bee, which seems credible enough to me and one I've never seen before.

Gwynne's Mining Bee

This is by no means to say there were no birds around and the ones I saw (others saw more) were crossbill, crag martin, short-toed treecreeper and some singing woodlarks singing above the power lines.

However, the biscuit was duly taken by another butterfly when we saw a queen of spain fritillary sunning itself on a boulder.  This again surprised me but it appears it can be on the wing throughout the winter months.

Queen of Spain Fritillary

We then set off for our first hotel at Allucant on the Laguna di Gallocanta, which is a massive, shallow salt lake and the key winter destination for cranes.  At 1,500 metres above sea level, winter temperatures still applied but during daytime were still well above those being experienced in the UK.

Having not managed to get any decent bird photos, I was well pleased when we came across some corn buntings in the fields near the hotel and in fact they were all over the trees on the way to the laguna.

Corn Buntings in field

Corn Bunting in tree

I reckoned I could see several blackbirds in the trees but in fact they turned out to be spotless starlings (never heard of!) and indeed you can just about make out the iridescence in the snap I got of this one:

Spotless Starling

And what of the cranes?  Well, we could just about make out a few obscured in haze at considerable distance towards the South end of the lake, which was to be our next destination 

Thursday 26th November

The coal tits continue to raid the bird table in numbers and the robin tries in vain to chase them off.  They are very agile and quick and flight and have become a bit of a favourite.

On Wednesday I followed the twitchers again to see if I could get a decent view of the crossbills at Rising Sun Country Park  Not knowing where they were, I followed the Brown Trail and looked out for conifers,

A slight diversion to a small pond just South of the car park revealed four or five gadwall at closer range than the ones I saw at Holywell but shortly after I met a couple of birdwatchers who said they had found the twitchers but the crossbills had disappeared.  I thought they meant permanently.

Gadwall

However I continued with Plan A, figuring that there seemed to be a good deal of conifers around so that the crossbills may just have been displaced to a slightly different area of the park.

So I walked on not seeing anything of note apart from a couple of suspected fieldfare/redwing until near the end of the path I encountered the twitchers who told me that the crossbills had been there until about three hours ago when a sparrowhawk flushed them and they hadn't been back since.

I decided to come back another day and was heading dor the car park when I saw a chap with binoculars peering into some deciduous trees at the edge of a farm field.  Sure enough it was the crossbills warily edging along the woodland border.  

Crossbill

It was a typical lucky encounter - the right bird on the wrong kind of tree in the wrong location.  Having a last minute success when I had effectively given up looking is however something that has happened to me quite a number of times now.

Yesterday we did another joint bike ride in the Mitford area.  I was just relating the story of having spotted a heron at the top of a tree and failing to photograph it when we saw a heron at the top of a tree in exactly the same place.  Once again it made off when the camera came out.  

Averaging 10.3 mph we didn't notice much more until a lot of honking near Dinnington revealed the presence of a large number of geese in a field.  I took a couple of photos to check for pink-footed geese but it seems they were all greylags.

Sunday 19th November

A couple of trips to England to do with my voluntary work plus a long lasting heavy cold have cut back on my nature efforts recently.

Anyway got out on a bike ride on Wednesday and again did not get past the Nith before seeing these little items opposite the sewage works at Troqueer.  At first I thought tufted ducks but notable no tufts and not much like goosanders.  On inspecting the photo taken when they were at some distance, I think they are juvenile goldeneye.

Goldeneye

This ride was notable for the very large number of jays I heard screeching around and the sight of their white rumps as they took flight before me.  I've never known there to be so many to be around.  There must have been twenty on the way to and from New Abbey.

I stopped off briefly at Kirkconnel Flow to see if there were any crossbills around.  I didn't see any but a couple leaving the moss had seen them fly over.  There were also a few long-tailed tits around by the car park. A long-tailed tit also turned up in the garden this week but didn't show any interest in staying around.

Moving closer to New Abbey I took a bit of a detour on the path by Kirkconnell Hall towards the estuary, which revealed herons, curlew and a cormorant but by that time my hands were so cold I was starting to lose interest.

I don't think I'll go on the bike ride this week.  Apart from an increasing adversity to cold weather, the more I have got into cycling round in high vis gear at some speed, the less chance I get to be close to especially birds. So I think I may make a change and try walking a bit more over the next few weeks.

Back in the garden the coal tit has been turning up again, and a large amount of feathers in the area of the bird table hint that the apparently daft cat mentioned in a previous post may nearly have succeeded.  No pigeon has visited the bird table since, even though I moved it.

The last butterfly I saw was on 23rd October but there was one reported on Dumfries and Galloway Wildlike and Birding in early November.

Saturday 14th March

In an attempt to finally see a goshawk, joined the goshawk walk offered at Kielder Forest and led by ornithologist Martin Davidson.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a very good day - generally cold and not much breeze to encourage birds of prey to go on the hunt.  Eventually we managed a few circling buzzards, a kestrel and a couple of ravens.Technically we did actually see a male goshawk too but it was at a range of about a mile and the bird soon disappeared into the clouds.  I managed to spot it as a dark silhouette in the binoculars for about three seconds and had absolutely no idea what it was beyond the evidence of others.  It certainly didn't fit the images one has of birds displaying above a nest or flying adroitly through the trees.

At least there was plenty to learn about goshawks.  It seems there are better chances of seeing them if there is a breeze and that they are seldom seen in the afternoon and hardly at all after the end of March.  Displays are actually quite rare and only result if other birds threaten the nesting territory. Apparently the best plan is to look for buzzards rising above the horizon and look for birds that are stockier, lighter in colour and have longer tails.

Other birds seen were crossbills, siskins, tits, a jay and mixed flock of starling, redwing and fieldfare that was seriously disturbed by the appearance of two army helicopters - though apparently birds of prey take no notice of military operations.  Sightings were virtually all at distance and left me feeling a little disappointed as I had seen all but the redwing at closer range on my recent tours around Dumfries and Galloway.  The main learning in this respect was that, in spite of upgrading my binoculars a couple of years back, others have far better equipment and can identify birds I can only view in outline.

I don't think I'm keen enough to upgrade my gear still further but it is clear that I have about 15 days if I decide to improve on that fleeting goshawk sighting.

Tuesday 8th January

Bike ride to Mitchellslacks.  Frustratingly several birds were seen but not identified during the course of the day.  Great grey shrike not present but a couple of smaller, reddish birds were on one of its perching places - possibly crossbills?  Also one brownish bird of prey gliding between the conifers. Too slight to be goshawk and had pointed wings - merlin??

One bird on skulking on moor by second cattle grid may have been a grouse, but hardly got a look at it.

On way back saw a large flock of thrushlike birds at distance, flitting between trees and grassland. Suspected redwing but could not identify positively.  One bird I saw on the other side of the road appeared to have red head and breast markings in a similar patter to a linnet.  But another with it had a clear white tip to its tail feathers - probably just a chaffinch.

Overall just one of those days.

Tuesday 1st May

Not getting out much for various reasons but managed lightning trip to Kirkconnel Flow hoping to see some butterflies but weather clouded over badly.  But there were some crossbills, male and female, in the scots pines that line the main track.

The Friday after, I happened to see the first orange tip of the season while walking from Penrith to Newton Rigg for work.

Monday 13th February

Long bike ride to Ae and Poldivan, then on over moors to Cample, Closeburnmill, Auldgirth, Kirkton. Two bullfinches and goldfinch plus long-tailed tits on the cycleway.  Just a buzzard or two on Amisfield Moor.  A very yellow looking crossbill just past Mitchellslacks turnoff before Loch Ettrick, only my second sighting although appaently there have been many of them in Ae Forest. This was a very cocky bird that flew down to take grit off the road right in front of the bike at three yards range.

Brief resighting of great grey shrike over lunch on the Poldivan clearing and met Brian Henderson again, who told me that my other target for the area, the merlin, is unlikely to show for a month and suggested looking for the black grouse left of the second cattle grid north.

However the wind got up and it was by then too cold for me to hang around long in cycling gear, or to spot more than a couple of pipits on the moortop. On the way down into the valley saw what I took to be a couple of greylags, except that they had a decided ridge just behind the bill.  I do not think they were white-fronted geese and cannot find any photos of greylags with that beak formation.

Completely exhausted after Auldgirth and virtually just letting the wind push me home, I startled a roe deer by Dalswinton Estate.