Spain Day 5

Today was to be the day we caught up with the wallcreepers on the cliffs at Alquézar.  

But first a post-breakfast stroll in the hotel gardens showed it was good for finches too, notably a couple of greenfinches and as many hawfinches as I've ever seen in the same place:

Greenfinch

Hawfinch

It's only the third time I've seen hawfinches. The early morning light from behind doesn't do justice to the colouration of either bird.

When we got to Alquézar I must admit I was pretty much bowled over by the first views of the place - it looked stunning!

Alquézar

So after a brief tramp through the town we settled down on the seats opposite the cliff face for a full day vigil.

Quite quickly someone managed to spot a blue rock thrush, which of course I didn't manage to see until someone else pointed it out in painstaking detail.  Once I found it the picture I got at considerable distance suggested I'd done the right thing by changing the camera settings.  A first for me, it was to turn up periodically through the day.

Then around 11.00 am the wallcreeper was spotted at the far left edge of the cliff face, only for it it disappear behind the cliff edge almost as soon as it had appeared as the rest of the group hurried over to see if they could get it in a 'scope or camera.  And I did actually see it, but just as a tiny black speck against the horizon that I could never have identified.  Then it was gone behind the cliff edge.

I think we assumed it would return.  When it didn't, we moved behind the capella to survey the rocks on the other side.  Here there were quite a few things to be seen - a perching griffon vulture, sardinian warbler, and notably alpine accentor...

Alpine Accentor

Sardinian Warbler

... whereby I'm only showing the warbler because it's the first time I've managed to capture it.  It flew off before I went for the close-up.

After lunch the vigil continued.  Various birds turned up including a lot of vultures on a thermal, a peregrine falcon, numerous crag martins, black redstart and rock dove.

At one point I saw a single honey bee near the foot of a wee tree where we were standing.

I had noticed that most people were surveying the main cliff and the left hand edge where the wallcreeper first appeared.  So I decided to focus on the castella and the right hand cliff where it was known that the wallcreeper had landed on previous occasions.

Well all I got for my pains was more crag martins and blue rock thrushes, though it was fascinating to see how the ivy growing up the rock had been colonised by a mass of blackcaps that kept appearing and reappearing.

Blue Rock Thrush

Blackcap (female)

I think we jacked it in around 5.00 pm.  I later jokingly remarked that we should have persevered for another hour or so but I don't think it went down too well.

In a later debriefing session, one of our guides pointed out that the alpine accentor was a much rarer bird than the wallcreeper.

You win some and lose some I suppose.  At least I can claim I saw both, which not everyone did.

Friday 20th November

An interesting few days have elapsed recently.

On Tuesday a friend and I agreed to make the best of limited time by combining a coastal bike ride with a checkup on some birdwatching spots.  The first spot was Seaton Sluice where astonishingly a swift has been sighted.  I arrived with the news that it had supposedly moved on to St Mary's Island and that I hadn't seen anything noticeable while checking the proposed locations en route.

We decided therefore to give Seaton Sluice a miss and head straight for St Mary's, where we didn't see much of note on looking into the nature reserve apart from a few teal and possibly a couple of tufted ducks - albeit more than I saw on the way up.

We rode slowly along the causeway as I was hoping to possibly see some snow buntings but no sign.  There didn't look to be much on the rocks either but when we dismounted to cross over to the island, what should fly straight over our heads but the aforementioned swift!  Heaven knows what it is doing here when it should have flown to Africa two months ago.

Preparing to feed seal pup

As soon as we started to move, some walkers pointed out that the Seal Rescue Service van was trying to get past us and we arrived at the lighthouse in time to see the seal being fed so it could be released back into the sea.  This didn''t look too pleasant as it involved one guy sitting on it while it was effectively force fed by the other.

Meanwhile the story amongst the spectators was that someone had reported it as having been abandoned and injured although the Rescue Service had found nothing wrong with it.

Eventually it was able to flap over the rocks into the water, where we think its mother may have been waiting for it Difficult to say though as seals were popping their heads out all over the place.

After this unexpected excitement we cycled on to Tynemouth but got there too late to see the black redstart that regularly visits as the tide had come in and covered the pierside rocks.  However two out of three ain't bad...

On Thursday I decided on and out an out twitch and made my way again to Morpeth, where, contrary to my last post, hawfinches have been turning up again.

At the time this seemed a frustrating experience.  The birds were definitely there and I could see them moving about with the naked eye but it was obvious that the other twitchers there were much better at picking them out and were getting close-ups in their big telescopes and photographing them.

I ended up taking photos on the off chance, so it was quite fortuitous when I managed to get four of them in the same shot.

Spot the Hawfinches!

They are of course pretty elusive and my attempts to get shots of individual birds fared little better.  As darkness moved in and people started to pack up the large telescopes, I got a clear sighting of one bird in a separate tree but the light was by now too tricky to show up much detail.

Elusive Hawfinch

Hawfinch at dusk

Overall though a much better session than my earlier visit to Sizergh Castle. 

Things have been happening in the garden too.  The coal tits have been visiting the bird table in numbers again, much to the anooyance of the resident robin.

And today there was a visit from a bullfinch to the neighbours' garden in search of berries - the first since early this year.

Bullfinch

Saturday 25th March

Noting the upturn in the weather, I suspended household duties and took a couple of birdwatching trips out.

On Thursday I drove down to Sizergh Castle on a twitching mission as it is a known venue for seeing hawfinches.  Setting off early I parked about 8.10 a.m. and joined the other twitchers in the cafe area, surveying an area of the car park that had been blocked off with cones..

Ater only about 10 minutes or so, a male hawfinch did appear in the tree immediately in front of me but only showed briefly before moving on.  A half hour later, what looked like it might be a female landed in the top of the same tree but proved to be a nuthatch, as did a couple of other visitors to

Bullfinch

nearby trees.

And that was it apart from a brief stir of excitement when this bullfinch (see picture) briefly visited the same tree. After that it was all tits and chaffinches. So it was a case of very mixed feelings - great to have seen a bird as rare as a hawfinch, but I didn't get a proper look and certainly no chance to get the binoculars or a camera on it.  It reminded me of the time I saw the goshawk at Kielder two years ago, when I did manage to see the bird the warden identified as a goshawk, but only at a mile range using binoculars.

Around the cafe there was talk of how bird food used to be put out for the hawfinches and the car park wasn't cordoned off. One chap reckoned he had been visiting for several years but had taken a long time to get a good sighting.  I had a quick walk around before leaving at 10.30 and met a Welsh lady who reckoned she had just had a hawfinch in her binoculars, but whatever it was had moved on when she looked again.

Today, with good temperatures forecast, I took a run on the bike to Ae and Lochmaben which was quite productive

Along the cycle track to Locharbriggs I heard several chiffchaffs singing, the first of the year for me though I know they've been about for around ten days. Over the moor at Amisfield, there were quite a few meadow pipits to be seen and skylarks to be heard though they seemed to be flying very high. Eventually, I did spot one parachuting down onto far end of the moor, plus a lone buzzard trying hard to find a thermal and a couple of curlew.

At Lochmaben I visited the bird feeders next to the Castle Loch in the hope of getting a view of a

Peacock

willow tit.  That didn't work as other tits and chaffinches again dominated but I did spot a reed bunting foraging on the ground underneath the feeders, not something I would have predicted.

Noting that the temperature was getting as high as 14C (wow!) I had wondered if this might be the day when I would see my first butterfly of the year and sure enough there were three peacocks on the road past Amisfield Tower, two of them sunning themselves on the road.

That alone made it worthwhile getting out and forgetting about the state of the loft for a day or two.