Spain - Day 3

We set off in the wee small hours again the next day, this time in search of the secretive Dupont's lark.  Its shyness meant us standing in line motionless on the site off the road to La Yunta in near freezing temperatures. Well we heard it clearly enough but it seemed to have disappeared by the time there was reasonable light and we only saw one or two bits and bobs on the way back for breakfast. 

Setting off again in the van we stopped briefly for some common cranes that were posing nicely in a field, not daring to get out in case we disturbed them.

Cranes posing

This was on the way for a walk in the hills near Tornos looking for larks, which were well-camouflaged and the one I definitely saw was Thekla's Lark.  Unfortunately my photography skills were again much challenged as many sightings were at considerable distance and several photos came out blurry.  Hopefully I can find an app to rescue some of them

Later we headed to the other side of the laguna, where there were some flamingos at reasonably close range, mainly keeping their heads down.  I think this is the best view I've had of flamingos to date.

Flamingos

There were a good deal of both marsh and hen harriers around and another walk near Las Cuerlas, after a period of seeing bits and pieces at distance, we hit on an area where a large number of raptors were flying overhead, almost as if participating in an air display.  In addition to those already encountered, they included a totally new sighting, the black-shouldered kite (never heard of!) and, almost as an afterthought, a couple of golden eagles...

Of all of them I got nothing but blurry silhouettes so it was a bit of a surprise, on returning to the lagoon near Dirigida, that I managed to get a passable shot of a mass of cranes right on the far side of the lake, many hundreds of yards away.  I must have got the zoom spot on for once.

Cranes at distance

When we first got there, there was also a nice white wagtail close by but the main birds in evidence where great and cattle egret, the latter showing no yellow as still in winter plumage.  I learned you can still tell them apart by the fact that the great egret has a much longer neck.

Great Egret

Cattle Egret

White Wagtail

Great egrets are starting to be seen in the North of England but cattle egrets are still a rarity, though I saw lots of them in the West Indies.  The white wagtail is also infrequent.

However the strangest thing we saw on stopping further down was three roe deer that had apparently decided to swim the whole length of the lagoon in very cold water.  We saw the last part of their journey, lasting several minutes with one pulling ahead to leave the other two straggling behind.

Roe Deer

Also sighted in this area and on the way back to the hotel were: little bustard, stonechat, linnet (lots of), black redstart and spanish sparrow.

In the evening I had a bit of reflection on the photography angle and decided to increase the focal length of the birdwatching auto facility on the camera.

Of course serious birdwatching photographers will tell you you really need to use manual settings...

Improving Slightly

Typically, the day after my previous post, there was a minor invasion of long-tailed tits on the suet balls, which was exactly what I hoped would happen when I put them out in the first place.

Long-tailed tits

There have been a few visits since but only in small numbers.

Otherwise sightings have been unremarkable, having been too preoccupied with other matters to chase up some of the rarities turning up at the coast, notably the pied wheatear that hung around entertaining the tourists at Whitley Bay skate park for several days.

Yesterday was better. I took a ride to the Cheese Factory via a very flooded Prestwick Carr. Disappointingly the feeders at the Carr were empty but there were several suspected redwing around, which I eventually managed to confirm with the binoculars though the resulting photos were poor.

Redwing

On the way out I noticed a couple walking along with a tripod and, sure enough, on the way back there was a small group of twitchers clustered on the track.

The main reason for the excitement was a couple of female hen harriers, one of which showed nicely for a while and I tracked it in the binoculars, getting mobbed at one point by a  crow. There were also several stonechats and a distant sparrowhawk but no sign of the short-eared owl. The redwings had also largely moved on.

But the strangest thing I saw was actually this orange peel fungus growing out of the Cheese Factory building edge.

Orange Peel Fungus

I’ve no idea how common these are but I’ve never seen one before. It was so intricate, I even wondered if it had been sculpted by an artist, possibly from Red Leicester cheese…

Wednesday 5th May

Last Thursday I decided to brave the weather and take a fishing trip to Brenkley Pond, partly as I still had some usuable maggots from several weeks ago and was happy enough to catch a few smaller fish on waggler in view of the ongoing near-freezing temperatures at night.  That was exactly what I got - 6 small perch and 6 small roach, some of which rivalled the ones at Milkhope for minuteness.

Even on fine tackle bites were infrequent and finicky and had a knack of arriving at inconvenient moments when I was pouring a coffee or fiddling with gear, so I should probably have caught more.  At least the presence of perch is likely to weed out some of the smaller fish over time.

Covid travel restrictions having been relaxed I took the opportunity to meet up with Alex and Vicki at a certain Scottish moorland last Friday in search of birds of prey.  Maximum temperature forecast 9C, actual temperature on arrival 3C, enlivened by strongish wind and a squally shower.

Within half an hour of arrival, we spotted what we thought was a barn owl hunting and soon there were two or three on the go.  Then hen harriers started to appear, both male and female, overall about a dozen sightings though some may have been the same birds returning.  Some of the males were displaying by zigzagging up and down on the horizon.

Not really dressed for the  cold, I was more interested in fiddling with a flask of tea and a pork pie than the camera, so left it to Vicki to provide the photos.  

Male Hen Harrier

Short-Eared Owl

It transpired on closer inspection that the photos were of short-eared owls, though I suppose it's just about possible that both were present.  At one point two owls were together and there was a clear size difference and all sightings were at some distance.  However the habitat certainly makes short-eared owl a good deal more likely.  We had also hoped for peregrine falcon or merlin but neither showed up, not even on returning later in the day.  Still, having only ever seen one male hen harrier before, it was great to see several on the same day.

Meanwhile, on a brief walk up a nearby valley, we encountered numerous meadow pipits, the first two swallows I have seen this year, a few pied and and one grey wagtail.  I had a notion there might have been a white wagtail but it didn't hang about, neither did one larger pipit on the stream which I suppose was a rock pipit.  On the return walk, there were a number of willow warblers around and one reed bunting as well as a pair of stonechats back on the moor.

I suspect this Spring will turn out to have been a disaster for butterflies and there have been remarkably few on the wing these last ten days.  Today a white landed that was either a female orange tip or a green-veined white.  After it departed a male orange tip appeared.  Otherwise there has been nothing apart from a single speckled wood at the tennis club on Sunday.

Orange Tip

Sunday 17th November

Walk from Mossdale to Loch Stroan as there are supposed to sometimes be hen  harriers there.  No sign of much at all except for some long-tailed tits and, not for the first time over the past few weeks, a suspicion of some redwings fleeing from the trees but not clear enough view to confirm.  I wonder if the hen harriers concentrate more on the shoreline if the tide is out.