Spain - Day 7 and Afterthoughts

Typical!  I completely forgot to mention that we ended Day 6 with a visit to the reservoir at Embalse de Calcono de Guarra in another attempt to catch up with the wallcreeper and one was actually spotted by the guides flying over the dam wall before disappearing totally from view as before.  I think only one other person saw it, which definitely wasn't me. Meanwhile a honey bee on a stone bench was looking decidedly unhealthy.

We were back there again early today but again drew a blank in terms of the wall creeper and the honey bee had died. But I did get as a good a view of the many swooping crag martins, which the video unfortunately doesn't do much justice to:

Crag Martins in flight

It was however as close a view of them as I have ever had.

It wasn't too long before we moved on, spotting another another short-toed treecreeper (how do you tell the difference?) near an ancient bridge before settling for lunch at Embalse de Calcono de Guarra.  Afterwards one or two continued to survey the cliffs for the missing wallcreeper while most took a (somewhat hazardous looking path) to see the local cave art, while I mainly foraged in the fields in the expectation of finding a few butterflies.

Actually it was the walkers who found some butterfly action rather than me, even though the crocuses were out.  What I did see was some more grasshoppers and several four-spot ladybirds, apparently common in the area.

Crocus

Grasshopper

Four-spot Ladybird

From there we went to Calle Baye to see the European tree of the year 2021 - a massive holm oak that dates to way back and was too wide to capture in less than three shots.

Part of the Holm Oak

Walking there we did spot a nice clouded yellow that was passing quickly through a field.

But from there it was back to Alquézar for a last ditch attempt on the largely missing wallcreeper.

Unfortunately want we got was more of what we already had, mainly griffon vulture, blue rock thrushes, and a black redstart.  The main excitement was caused by some egyptian vultures flying over the capella, not however for me as I saw them in France. 

Still perpetually surveying the capella and surrounds, I was quietly delighted when a chough landed on the roofing and showed really well:

Red-billed Chough

It was the best view of a chough I've ever had.

As everyone was thinking about packing up, there was a last minute mystery.  I thought I saw another blue rock thrush heading towards a large fissure in the rock face - except that it clearly had russet red underparts.  It settled briefly then flattered around a bit before disappearing into the fissure.

The only possibility I could think of was common rock thrush, which is listed as being a passage bird in the area.  However our guides thought they would all still be in Africa.  With the group already making it's way back to the vans there was no opportunity to wait around for more action.  It'll have to remain as 'unidentified.'

Overall Reflections

I've counted up and reckon I've seen 16 new species of bird, 2 new species of bee and 1 new moth so overall a great success and that excludes Dupont's Lark (heard) - a great experience and the session at the vulture feeding added a sense of theatre.  The holiday held plenty of interest without me feeling overloaded (once I'd got over the jetlag.)  Even though I only saw the wallcreeper at distance, it counts. The general view was the lack of further sightings was just down to rotten luck.

Also I can say that I learned a good deal about using my newish camera, especially for long distant shots.

However the trip confirmed my growing opinion that I'm not a great birdwatcher.  I just don't see things well and in particular found the larks hard to spot. My equipment isn't really up to scratch either but I'm not keen on lugging a scope and a mirrorless camera with a huge lens around with me all of the time.

I think I should probably stick with what I seem to be best at - namely butterflies and bees and save the birds for the winter when there are few insects and for any oddities turning up in the area.

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