23.2.19
Minnippi
Picked up Mr P and we arrived on site just before 6. A mellow, comfortable morning with cyclone Oma sitting 600 kms off the coast. We had wanted to go to Straddie, of course, but the ferries were all shut down. We thought maybe something would be blown inland? But the winds were relatively small and there was no threat to bird or beast.
A fairly normal summer morning at Minnippi – a single Oriental Dollarbird, 7 Wandering Whistle Ducks, a Latham’s Snipe and a Black Kite from the raptor viewpoint. The lake level had dropped somewhat exposing a narrow mud bank and the most notable sight was 30-40 Little Black Cormorants sitting on the mud – an unusually high number for this site. Whether due to the current weather, and subsequent rough waters in the Bay, or whether they anticipate a fish death as the water levels drop remains to be seen, I guess.
We retired to Belesis for the usual breakfast and bird-chat.
26.2.19
Sandy Camp & Lindum
My main purpose was to get Long-toed Stint on my site list so I started at the school oval. There were 10 Sharp-tailed Sands there, but I couldn’t turn one of them into the stint so dipped again at this location (last tried in December after heavy rain….) I’m not sure when it was last seen here – most likely a couple of weeks ago, per Mr P.
Decided, as I was here, might as well wander around Sandy Camp itself. The water on the first pond was pretty busy – the usual stuff poking around. On the raised track between the ponds 2 Peaceful Doves were in the open – don’t think I’ve seen them like that here before? The second pond was very busy. A mixed flock of at least 50 Egrets and Spoonbills were feeding in the very low, muddy water. Comprised of 20 Royal Spoonbills, 16 Intermediate Egrets, 11 Great Egrets, 3 Little Egrets and 1 Glossy Ibis in the background – not a common sight in such a restricted zone. A second Glossy ibis was on the main pond. No sign of any Bitterns.
Thinking I might have a chance on a weekday morning of Black Bittern on the back pond I headed that way. However, 2 gung-ho, City Council, quadbike riders zoomed past me and circled the pond doing God knows what before I could get there – eliminated almost any chance of seeing any Bitterns. I think they were spraying pesticide for mosquitoes – they had leaking drums on the back of the quads, but they must have done it very quickly because they weren’t hanging around.
Anyway – not much else to report from there.
Had baby-sitting duties at 9.30 so stopped only briefly at Lindum. 45 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers – none of them looked any different to me (i.e. reported Cox’s Sandpiper recently), but I may have overlooked the thing from the distance. 4 Red-kneed Dotterels, 12 Marsh Sandpipers, 160 White-headed Stilts, 15 Red-necked Avocets, 1 definite (male) Chestnut Teal and approx 30 Teal sp I didn’t bother trying to ID.
So, no Stint, no Sandpiper, no Bitterns. Not the most inspiring of mornings, but otherwise it was OK.
Day 41 - 1.2.19 (Friday)
We had breakfast, packed up and left Fijoles at 8.10. It had rained overnight and was still spitting. The rain increased as we drove southwest and for the first hour was pretty heavy. We had to abandon plans to drive a minor back road in a last chance attempt at Citril Finch, sticking to the main roads until the rain cleared and we headed towards Vessants de la Noguera, just north of Alfarras.
We had identified another, last ditch, site for Wallcreeper from recent records in Ebird – 2 had been seen in the gorge on 21st. After this we would be too far south.
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| Organya to Alfarras |
We parked up and walked in along the narrow tunnel-strewn access road that ended at a dam wall. The sides of the gorge were not too high – our side easily visible, the opposite side across the outflow river from the dam, more difficult. We walked slowly along, scanning the cliffs again, bare-eyed and with bins, watching for a telltale flicker.
We reached the end of the gorge without any success and I scanned the dam wall hoping against hope – my hopes were dashed, nothing moved. Bolstering our optimism we headed back along the road still looking, looking, looking.………
Mr H was scanning a cliff on the opposite side of the river where half a dozen Spotless Starlingswere hanging out around an apparent roost or nest site, when he said the words we had both being dying to say ‘I’ve got one’.
I managed to get onto it very quickly – unusually, as Mr H’s left and right often get confused and the cliff was a mass of misleading descriptive points – and we both watched a tiny grey shape flutter up the vertical wall for a short time through our bins before we both went for our scopes and…………..lost it.
Jesus Christ on a cliff face!!
We spent the next two hours trying to re-find the little grey shit, but never did see it again. Man, it was frustrating. If we’d got the scopes on it it would have been a reasonable view, as it was with just the bins it was very unsatisfactory. It WAS a view, but it was a poor one. All that time and effort for this?
You know what its like, no point in belaboring it.
We decided to walk back to the car and drive up to the same spot and keep looking. Almost back at the car we met a Spanish couple who were sharing one pair of bins and one scope and didn’t speak any English. She was looking at a raptor perched on top of the nearside cliff and we had a look at it, within a few seconds it took off and glided across the gorge to the opposite face where it perched up on an apparent nest site providing cracking scope views of a Bonelli’s Eagle.
After we’d watched our fill – the bird was still perched up, but the lure of a better Wallcreeper was too much to bear – we drove back up to the spot, parked up and ate lunch between taking turns to scan The Cliff. All to no avail and eventually we accepted (partial) defeat and headed out.
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| The Wallcreeper buttress - the bird was on the rock face just to the left of the big 'cave' |
Driving south towards our next destination in Chiprana (near Caspe) we stopped off at a spot Mr H had researched which promised some good stuff.
Just out from the village/town of Bujaraloz, a narrow bitumen road runs across the agricultural plains. About a kilometer along this bird movements in the fields beside the car brought us to a standstill and we quickly identified my third lifer for the day – Calandra Larks. Lots of them flying around over the fields reminding me of Black-fronted Dotterels back home, landing and disappearing as they blended in so well with the recently ploughed soil. We did get some views on the ground however, which was satisfying.
A few minutes later we picked up 3 Great Bustards about 300 meters away, then another group of 3, then 10 more flew in! Brilliant!! An impressive bird and my fourth lifer for the day (Mr H had two – this bird and the earlier obvious one).
We explored the road further, but really the first kilometer was the best, although we did pick up 30 Common Cranes in the salt lake about 2 ks further on.
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| Alfarras to Chiprana |
Heading back to the main road we continued on towards Chiprana, stopping off once more at a couple of lagoons just outside the town. There wasn’t much there – a few Northern Mallard & Eurasian Teal, but 18 Green Sandpipers together was an interesting statistic. We also saw 2 Great Egrets which, according to the book, are not supposed to be in this area. (And yes, they definitely WERE Great Egrets, despite my single, historical failure to correctly identify an egret, which some people never let me forget….)
We finished the day at our next Air BnB in Chiprana. A nice enough place, but pretty boring compared to where we have been staying – one bedroom, twin beds, en-suite shower and toilet, shared kitchen and sitting/eating area. It’s all ours, though, as no one else is staying here so that’s OK.
We unpacked, stuffed around for a while while we waited for the only restaurant/café in town to open at 19.00, then walked down the street to it, to find they weren’t actually serving food tonight!
F..k me, I’ve never had so many problems trying to buy a freaking meal! What is it with this place? I mean the people are lovely – generally – and the food is good – when you can get it. But, if they’re not open, they’re starting to serve after we plan to be asleep, now they’re open, but they’re not cooking at all!!
We walked back to the car and drove 10 kms to Caspe where we did find a café and we did get a nice meal – I had grilled chicken which came with an omelette, small side salad and chips, Mr H had a ‘beefsteak’ which was accompanied by the same, but a fried egg in place of the omelette. A glass of wine for him, water for me, as designated driver, and a coffee = E27 or A$45. We got lost in the old city on the way back while looking for a supermarket. We didn’t find one but did eventually find our way back out to the main road and home.
Trip Total – 169 Lifers – 10 New European – 11 Spanish - 116
Day 42 - 2.2.19 (Saturday)
We left early – 7.45 – with intention of being on site at potential Dupont’s lark habitat at or even before dawn. On the way across the plains, on a narrow, bouncy road, a large raptor crossed ahead of us and resolved into an imm Golden Eagle - we saw another later in the day - both distant views. When we did get to the area the wind was blowing a gale and it was raining, cloudy, grey and dull. On the open plains on foot we had little or no hope of seeing an elusive, thin-on-the-ground species.
We moved to a new area, - El Planeron - between Belchite and the almost deceased village of Codo – and drove the tracks slowly, at just above walking pace, watching for bird flocks. We stopped a couple of times and walked good-looking habitat, struggling against a wind you could lean into. Every time we put something up – it was gone, blown to hell and back on the fiendish gale. A difficult, frustrating process, especially with larks, for God’s sake! We did find a small flock of Lesser Short-toed Larks to start off the ticks-for-the-day list, but didn’t get particularly good views at the time.
After an hour or so of this we moved to a different area on the other side of the motorway and again drove the rough, stony tracks slowly and carefully, watching and stopping for any birds that seemed interesting or, in fact, actually landed within view. By now the rain had stopped - and it stayed dry – the sun was breaking through, but the wind was still rockin’ the car.
This time Mr H sat in the back while I drove so we could both scope from the windows without disturbing the birds too much. This worked well and eventually, after much discussion, we identified a small handful of Thekla Larks from among the hundreds of Crested Larks. It did take some doing and having both species in the same scope view really helped. We also had ground views of Lesser Short-toed which made up for the poor views of earlier in the day. However, no Dupont’s nor any Sandgrouse sp showed at all.
Moving between two locations somewhere, an Iberian Grey Shrike flew across the road. We didn’t see it land, but it was an obvious identification. Later in the day we had one perched on a grass bank, which was a good follow up.
We also had two huge flocks of Stock Doves totaling, we estimated, 250 birds, a couple of flocks of Western Jackdaws and a singleHen Harrier – all firsts for our Spanish list.
Late in the afternoon we headed back to the roads near Bujaraloz to see the Greater Bustards again and, hopefully, get some photos. We did see 8, but they flew almost immediately and the best I could do was distant flight shots.
We thought we would sit near the drying salt pan lake up the road with hopes of sandgrouse coming in to drink before dark, but it was cold, still very windy and the lake was really too big to cover, so we gave it away and headed back towards Caspe to pick up dinner. On the way, a Little Owl was sitting in the middle of the road and lackadaisically flew off, landing a few meters form the car – the wind was obviously giving it hell, but after glaring at us, staring at it - while I fumbled for my camera - it blew away with the wind into the distance.
Trip Total – 173 Lifers – 13 New European – 14 Spanish - 122
Day 43 - 3.2.19 (Sunday)
Today was, essentially, a moving day. We had a slow start, long breakfast and it was 9 before we hit the road.
Mr H had researched Alpine Accentor locations and so, after an hour and a bit, we started trying to get to some of these places.
The wind was still blowing tobacco out of cigarettes and the north side of Reserve National de Puertos de Beseit, just inland from the Ebro delta, was, we thought, blown out. We made a half assed attempt at access near Horta de San Joan, but quickly moved on through a very scenic pass and round to Roquetes where we thought it might be calmer.
A long winding drive up the mountain to 1,000 meters followed. We tried to drive to the peak at 1,400 but patches of ice appeared on the corners above the residential, holiday home area and we decided caution was the better part etc, parked up and set off on what Mr H described as a 1.5 km walk………
More than an hour and a half and 3.7 kms later, having braved an evil wind of apparently gale force strength at times, that tried to blow us to our deaths and steep sections that made tears come to my eyes, we reached a point just below the summit. Sometimes you just have to keep on putting one foot in front of the other.
We had only seen Common Chaffinches on the ‘walk’ (needless to say there were no AAs - they weren't as stupid as we were, they were somewhere warmer and calmer....) but agreed to give it away without going right to the top, as, going further, we felt, was honestly too risky.
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| Near the top - the wind is howling and the trees are ice blasted. |
It took us another hour to get back down and even that seemed dangerous at times as that evil minded wind did everything to sweep us off our feet or cause us to break into a run down ice spotted road.
We retired quickly to a local café for much needed refreshment before heading back down the mountain and on to the Ebro delta.
We headed for the south side and drove right out to the beach.
That f…….g wind followed us and was blowing a hurricane. It was impossible to hold the scope steady and I was pretty pissed off. Mr H was more determined and we stopped and scoped at several locations, seeing nothing new, but adding a few good birds to the trip list – Glossy Ibis, Black-winged Stilt, Red Knot (1), and Sanderling included.
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| Chiprana to The Ebro area |
We had to meet our next Air BnB host just down the coast at Les Cases d’Alcanar, about 15 minutes south of the Delta in an apartment near the beach. We got there and waited a few minutes before she showed us in and around. Then we decided we needed milk.
We wandered around the immediate area without success – no supermarkets or mini markets even visible, never mind open. The cafés and restaurants were all closed or looked pretty flash and when Mr H Googled the nearest supermarket-type place that was still open (19.00 Sunday evening) it was 25 minutes away in Vinaros.
We drove there and he navigated me around and down and up and in and out of winding, one-way, narrow streets to find, the market was not just closed, but had ceased to exist altogether……dam Google!
As we maneuvered our way back out of town, a small greengrocer-type shop appeared and I parked in a disabled spot while he ran in and got milk. Then it was back to the apartment.
A load of much needed washing was on, I was tinkering with the coffee machine and ‘pop’ all the lights went out.
Donning head torches we investigated and found a circuit breaker ‘down’.
No problem!
We turned it back up.
Problem.
It wouldn’t stay up.
We couldn’t figure out what was wrong so, reluctantly, called the host. She sent her husband round and, after he had pulled the plug on the water heater, the safety switch stayed up and the lights came on. He promised to have the water heater fixed tomorrow.
I am so over this f..........g wind.
Trip Total – 176 Lifers – 13 New European – 14 Spanish - 131
Day 44 - 4.2.19 (Monday)
The wind dropped overnight, Thank Christ, and we were out by 8.15, on our way to the north side of the delta, via the coast as much as possible, as we checked harbours and beaches for one of our target birds – Audouin’s Gull.
We arrived at the far side of the delta without success – and the day continued in the same vien. Our other targets – Moustached Warbler and Red-crested Pochard were as elusive as …. Well, I can’t think of an analogy that I could print, but you get the picture, I’m sure.
We searched all apparently suitable habitat for all three birds, but the reed beds seemed too sparse (for the Warbler), the lagoons too shallow (for the duck) and there just weren’t any bloody A’s Gulls anywhere!
We noticed a sign for a supermarket and went in to refresh some supplies. While there we looked for Ponche – a Spanish type of brandy that Mr H had introduced me to a week or so ago. We drink it straight and its very nice! We’d finished the bottle and had been trying to get some more. There wasn’t any in the Lidl or the Dia supermarkets so we asked the staff. They dragged a guy out of the back room and he told us in broken English where we could buy some, so off we went to that supermarket and bought 3 bottles of the stuff. (Yaaaahhhhay!!) (At E5.99 a litre bottle it’s not a huge expense!)
Somewhere between the delta coast, the Ponche search and heading north, a large raptor flew over the car and we ground to a quick halt to identify a nice, soaring, light phase, Booted Eagle. We’d had one in Greece in 2017, badly, this was much better and a nice list addition.
We drove 60 kms up the coast on a vague report of the Gull in the harbour at Cabrils and we did see a lot of Mediterranean Gulls, but no A’s. We had a late bread and cheese lunch on the foreshore and decided to head back home via the south side of the delta where we had been yesterday. As the wind was almost non-existent today (Hurrah!) we wanted to see the delta in real action.
Our first stop off was a hide at a lagoon we actually hadn’t visited yesterday. There were the usual thousands of Greater Flamingos, Eurasian Coots, Northern Mallard, Northern Shoveler and a few other bits and pieces.
I had kinda given up hope and was making smartass comments such as ‘OH LOOK, another Shoveler” and similar, when Mr H said ‘Guess what I can see’?And, yes, on the far side of the lagoon, about a kilometer away, 2 male Red-crested Pochard sulked along against the reed bed. Excellent!
10 minutes later and he’d pulled a Moustached Warbler out of his a….. well, not quite, but he found one in a nearby channel! I’d be lost without this guy! Unreal! A bird we had both almost given up on and we had decent scope views of it, about 50 meters away, in and out of the reed bed. Yeah, good stuff! We finished off the delta visit with a Slender-billed Gull at another hide - my contribution....
By this time it was after 16.00, the sun was setting, the Ponche was calling, so we headed home and had microwaved meals from Lidl along with a 99 cent Vinho Tinto that came in a milk carton before cracking a bottle of Ponche and planning tomorrow.
An exasperating, hard work day, but, as Mr H, said "Alls well that ends well - and we got more Ponche!'
Trip Total – 181 Lifers – 15 New European – 16 Spanish - 139
Day 45 - 5.2.19 (Tuesday)
Another moving day. This time 600 kms southwest, down the coast, past Valencia and inland to Lynx country near Andujar.
On the way we stopped off at the seaside village of Torrenostra, not far down the coast from our starting point. There was a lagoon/wetland area behind the beach at the south end of the esplanade that Mr H thought was worth a look.
And it certainly was!
Right where we parked the car, approx 200 Crag Martins were using an apartment block as a warm-up spot in the sun.
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| Crag Martin |
We walked the 100 meters to the entrance and found several well-watered lagoons surrounded by dense reed beds, a solid dirt track making access easy.
At first it looked like a waste of time – the first ponds were empty - however, we soon had a new trip list bird – Zitting Cisticola - in scope view, along with a couple of Cetti’s Warblers giving typical Cetti-shit views.
I scanned a little further and picked up a familiar shape/colour combo in a far distant pond – Red-crested Pochard. We had 9 males and 2 females, still 500 meters away, but much better views than yesterday. I got some poor record shots. I’d love to get closer – the males are stunning.
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| Red-crested Pochard |
We walked a little further and Mr H pricked up his ears and said he could hear a Moustached Warbler singing. I tried a bit of playback and we got him up the reed stems, checking us and the phone out at about 15 meters range. Really cool!
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| Moustached Warbler |
There wasn’t much else in the wetland area, but it was well worth the diversion, nothing new, but great to get better views of stuff we had yesterday, and we celebrated with coffee at a beachfront café before setting off on the rest of our day’s journey.
I drove the first half, Mr H the second. For the most part it was a pretty boring drive, sitting on 120 k/hr, past hundreds of acres of vines, millions of olive groves and vast quantities of orange trees heavy with fruit, but we had several Red Kites and Common Buzzards, one Booted Eagle and one Iberian Grey Shrike along the way. We used a toll road as part of the trip and paid E10.85.
Arrived at our destination – Marmolejo, or Marmalade Town as Mr H referred to it - a few ks past Andujar, found our next Air BnB in the town, and checked in with the grandmother who owns the place.
We have two bedrooms and a shared bathroom – but there are no other guests. We share the kitchen with herself and her husband. It’s all very grand – marble staircase, sweeping handrails, heavy furniture, wooden framed pictures, but she is lovely even though she has no English, I have no Spanish and Mr H confuses both of us – but he does manage to communicate in some fashion, somehow, although I have no idea what's happening in the 'conversation'.
We unloaded and went for a walk – to find somewhere to eat of course, it’s 17.30.
We wandered around for a while, found the town square, saw a few Common House Martins, found an ‘open’ restaurant,...............
to find it was just closing .................
and wouldn’t be serving food again till 20.30.
to find it was just closing .................
and wouldn’t be serving food again till 20.30.
Bugger that! Again!
We picked up some fresh bread, eggs and chorizo type sausage and headed home to, once again, use the emergency rations we had put aside for just this eventuality – a jar of cannelloni beans, fresh green giant beans, a green capsicum/pepper thing, courgette, shallots and chopped up sausage in a tomato based sauce on rice. Perfect!
Trip Total – 183 Lifers – 15 New European – 16 Spanish - 141
Day 46 - 6.2.19 (Wednesday)
We were on the road by 8, before the sun which rose as we drove up into the national park, Sierra de Andujar. Our mission today, which we had accepted, was finding an Iberian Lynx.
There are basically two roads one can drive along, both of which are described in great detail in various trip reports and books so I will simply refer to them as the Lower road, which runs alongside and then just above the river, for about 2 kms, and the High road, which runs high along the side of the valley for about 10 kms giving commanding views of the surrounding hills. Both finish at dam walls – the lower the smaller of the two.
We started on the Low road and drove in about a kilometer to the main lookout point where the road rises and there is a wooden fence. It was a cool, frosty morning and we settled down to watch the opposite side of the river and river bank in hopes of seeing a Lynx come down to drink. Within 10 minutes a splashing in the river 40 meters or so below us attracted our attention and we had great views of 2 Eurasian Otters diving and feeding in the river. At last! For me my first Otter – a long awaited experience! Brilliant start.
We hung there for an hour or so but saw little else as the Otters moved downstream out of sight.
We drove up to the dam wall and met a couple of UK birder/mammal watchers who gave us updates on Lynx sightings and suggested the High road was the better option.
We drove back and, as we did so, a flock of Azure-winged Magpies flew and landed alongside. My first european AWMs – they're a smart bird – and were to be a feature of the day.
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| Azure-winged Magpie |
We headed in towards the High road, turning off at the farm described in the literature, and ground our way, in first and second gear, slowly along the atrociously potholed dirt road.
We came to, what I would call, the ‘first’ lookout and pulled in behind a 4WD. There were 3 young guys there and they told us they had had a Lynx sighting 50 minutes before over on the opposite slope ‘near those 4 boulders’. We set up and scanned and looked, and scanned and watched. We picked up a single Mouflon sitting down high on the opposite hill, small numbers of both Red and Fallow Deer and a Little Owl sitting on a rock, but no Lynx.
Time dragged on, people came and went, all our companions eventually moving on to other lookouts further down the road. I got some photos of a Sardinian Warbler nearby, but other than that it was pretty slow, and, as the sun warmed us up to 19 degrees, we dressed down to t-shirts for the first time on the trip and some butterflies came out.
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| Sardinian Warbler - a decent photo at last! |
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| Large Tortoiseshell Nymphalis polychloros |
We were about two hours in and a small group were walking back up the road towards us when Mr H and I heard a strange gull-like coughing. It appeared to come from high on the opposite slope. As we pondered the call and started looking, the group of people arrived including a tour guide for a Lynx spotting company. We described the sound we now believed was a Lynx calling and pointed in the general direction of where we thought it had come from. The guide immediately spotted a Lynx and we all got onto it briefly before it moved through bush and disappeared. Wow!! It was much closer than we had thought, but still probably 300 meters away? Much bigger than I had anticipated and was a tawny colour, deep bodied animal – very cool! (The tour guide said he believed it was a male). Within minutes there were 15 people gathered around us, some saw it, most didn’t, but it seemed everyone else had had other views on other days.
Once again, like the Wallcreeper, we would have wished for a better or longer view, but a view is a view is a view, what's seen cannot be unseen, if you can't lick it, at least you can tick it!
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| Lynx watchers |
We hung around for another hour or so, watching the spot it had vanished into, but it didn’t re-appear and gradually, again, everyone drifted away. A group of Vultures appeared above us and we picked out a couple of Black Vultures from the Eurasian Griffons to add to the trip lists.
We had some bread & cheese for lunch, then decided to drive to the dam at the end of the road and did so, slowly and painfully negotiating the potholes – they are horrific!
Not a lot at the dam apart from about 500 Crag Martins on the walls and in the air.
We started heading back and noticed another group of Vultures circling high above the mountains.
Stopping on the side of the road we again found a couple of Blacks among the Griffons. We were about to move on when Mr H said – ‘Is that a vulture?’ referring to a bird lower down – no, it wasn’t. It was a Spanish Imperial Eagle and we had another one within the next few minutes! Cool! Another lifer for me and we are now free tomorrow and don’t have to return to the mountains and this horrendous road!
We reached the bitumen, eventually, thankful we hadn’t broken an axle, and headed down towards Andujar to find a café for lunch. We were determined to beat the opening hours and succumb to the Spanish style, rather than cook again tonight. We found a roadside place and for E9 each had a three course lunch with wine for me, water for himself, as designated driver, and coffees. I’m not sure what I had. I think the starter was artichoke hearts, I don't know, but the whole meal was tasty and filling and the service was prompt and efficient.
We headed back up to the Lower road and spent the rest of the light walking the road from the lookout to the dam wall and back, but saw nothing new or even very much at all. We did hear a Tawny Owl from the lookout – it was on the opposite side of the river, so we didn’t pursue it.
We got ‘home’ at 19.30 – a big day, but well worth it.
Trip Total – 187 Lifers – 16 (B), 4 (M) New European – 18 Spanish - 145
Day 47 - 7.2.19 (Thursday)
Trip Total – 189 Lifers – 17 (B), 4 (M) New European – 19 Spanish - 147
Day 47 - 7.2.19 (Thursday)
A bit of a boring day with a lot of driving and frustrating birding.
We were on the road by 8.
Yesterday, while watching for the Lynx, we had struck up conversation with a second UK birder who described a small lake 2 hours/200 kms, away that had had numerous White-headed Duck. We had decided that, as we had seen the Lynx, we would drive to this lake and tick the duck. Last evening Mr H had looked at the route, researched his books and picked two other small wetland areas that claimed to also have the Duck. They were ‘on the way’ to the lake described by the birder and if successful, would save us 100 kms drive each way and the resulting time difference. He had also discovered some info regarding Alpine Accentor and Black Wheatear in a mountainous area also in the general direction of the wetlands so we had a plan of sorts.
The first lake we stopped at was an established set up – Laguna de Zonar, near Aguilar – we parked up and walked to the hide (incidentally the road has changed since the book, Where to Watch birds in Southern and Western Spain, was printed, follow the signs on the main road.)
It was the first hide I have seen with a tiled floor.
There were no White-headed Ducks there, just Common Pochard, Northern Shoveler, Great Crested Grebes and Eurasian Coots.
We moved on to the second of the two lakes he’d found – Laguna de Rincon – not far away on a different road out of Aguilar.
The info described the road in as ‘probably not suitable after rain unless you have a 4WD’. We didn’t and it hadn’t rained, but we abandoned the car after 100 meters or so and set out to walk the ‘750 meters’ to the lake. It was closer to 1.5kms through the olive groves and we were both pretty silent through the walk.
The lake, however, turned out to be OK. The visitor center they had built was long abandoned, the ‘fence and roof’ type hide very low – had to use the scopes sideways - but we did have a Hen Harrier and 6 White-headed Ducks. A lifer for both of us, but, as Mr H put it, the least inspiring tick he’s ever had, with them being about 200 meters away across the lake and mostly sleeping.
Anyway, we trudged back to the car through the thick clinging mud, got outta there and headed for Aguilar for what we believed was a well deserved coffee or two.
It took us 20 minutes to find parking and only after I drove the wrong way into one-way streets twice. Then we walked for another 20 minutes trying to find a café. We found one, but the owner wouldn’t let us in, mumbling something about a ‘medical situation’. We trudged on and finally found a café in what resembled the main square and I had two badly needed coffees before we found our way back to the car and got the hell out of dodge.
Note here regarding Spanish towns……I always imagined a central square with café’s and shops and markets and bustle and activity. We have found it very, very difficult to locate the center of anywhere and café’s are either closed or appear abandoned. The towns appear spread out all over the place and people seem to just wander haphazardly around. There will be one or two shops in a street but they’re not connected to anywhere else. It’s a bit bizarre.
And parking? We’ve, generally, tried to find a café and then find parking. Maybe it’d be easier the other way round. Parking has proved very challenging and usually miles away from any coffee place. The street system in most towns has been unclear and as the streets are very narrow, we’ve been concentrating on just not hitting any other vehicle or pedestrian and missed one-way signs at times…….luckily no one drives particularly fast in town, so no accidents occur – or maybe they are just as confused as we are? Anyway, going into town for a coffee has been a bit of a nightmare – and not the experience I had imagined. Maybe its just us?
After coffee we headed out of town into the olive groves. Now, let me tell you, in this area these olive groves cover millions of square acres. They go on and on and on, over hill and over dale as far as the eye can see. A very sterile environment on the whole and yet, I don’t associate Spain with olives? Greece, yes. Spain – its oranges isn’t it? Yet here we are neck deep in olive groves and they went on and on and on….,….
We drove to an interesting rocky outcrop of a place, called Ermita Virgen de la Sierra, a monastery on top of the hill. A rock strewn, scrubby bush area perfect for wheatears, accessed by a winding, steep-cornered road, up which we drove at 5 kms/hr, scanning the hillside for movement. This looked good!
Yeah, right!
We saw a few Black Redstarts and heaps of Common Stonechats and that was it. We wandered round near the top but turned up nothing else of any interest.
Strike one.
The next place looked good too. A cute little village, Zukeros, perched high above the ubiquitous olive groves. An old castle was part of the whitewashed village, a holy cave of some sort at the end of the road, sheer cliffs on the way up, bare rock and stony ground everywhere. We parked up before the end of the road and walked into a stony, well cropped grass area with high hopes.
Dashed again.
We had a few Crested Larks, Common Chiffchaffs, a distant Iberian Grey Shrike and a couple of Sardinian Warblers. The only thing of interest was the carpet of garlic bulbs scattered across the ground, presumably left out to dry.
Strike 2.
We retreated to the, apparently, only café in the village for yet more coffee and discussion about what to do next.
It was now 15.00 and we decided to head back to Marmalade town (home) and take a drive into the hills there. We did that and Mr H went for a walk while I sat and smoked. I was feeling a bit drained after 9 hours on the road, 5 hours driving, and was happy to sit in the evening sun and relax for a while. He saw some Woodlarks on his walk, but that was about it and we headed back down to the town, a shower, home-cooked dinner and a milk carton sized, 88 cent, Vino Tinto followed by the good ol’ Ponche……
Trip Total – 189 Lifers – 17 (B), 4 (M) New European – 19 Spanish - 147
Day 48 - 8.2.19 (Friday)
Another day, another birding destination….
We were ready to go at 8, said goodbye to our hosts who waited to see us leave, and headed outta town. It was only a 300 km drive to our next bed in Trujillo and we took it fairly easy.
We stopped for coffee and then stocked up with some more food and sidetracked a little to Ermita de Belen, near La Serina, where we managed to scratch a single male Spanish Sparrow from among the House. The hermitage has a large breeding colony during the season and, luckily, we thought, at least one had hung on for the winter.
Later, around Trujillo, we saw about another 99……
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| Spanish Sparrow - I know its shit, but its the best I got.... |
Anyway, target acquired and destroyed, we moved on into Extremadura.
We drove very slowly along 90 km/hr roads scanning the fields on each side, for about two hours, looking for Bustards and Sandgrouse. We did see hundreds of Common Cranes, White Storks and Corn Buntings - we didn’t see any of either target - but we didn’t give up hope.
No siree.
We have two days here and we will find them, or die in the attempt (that’s the Ponche talking now….)
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| Corn Bunting - it took me ages to get one to stay on the fence beside the car.... |
At 16.30 we gave it away and retreated to the main square in Trujillo for coffee and a gawk. The church is pretty old and impressive with White Storks standing on empty nests, clacking their bills, on the main tower. We had coffee and then wandered around the town following the maze of narrow streets, looking for somewhere to buy stamps for Mr H to send his postcards. I don’t know why he bothers, but he says ‘at least I know people’, like THAT worries me! The cards he did buy were wrinkly and warped from being in the sun as, obviously, no one (apart from Mr H) sends postcards anymore.
We’re staying in an old part of the town, in a low ceilinged, narrow stair-cased, stone building. The owner showed us round our three bedroomed, one bathroom, multiple door-ed, apartment and claimed the frescoes on the walls were from the 17thcentury! We have no reason not to believe him - they do look like they’ve been there for 300 years.
It’s actually a really cool place to stay, but the parking is unbelievable. I reckon we should just leave the car where we have managed to park it until we move on in three days. I’m afraid that if we move it out, we won’t be able to park it anywhere when we come back….
Trip Total – 190 Lifers – 18 (B), 4 (M) New European – 20 Spanish - 149
Day 49 - 9.2.19 (Saturday)
We were out before dawn and heading to some side roads near Caceres where, thanks to some research on EBird again, we had seen recent reports of both Bustards and both Sandgrouse.
Hopes were high as we steamed down the motorway in front of the rising sun.
The bitumen turned into a potholed, stony road after about a kilometer and I spent the next 8 hours navigating around some axle twisting holes looking for named species.
We had a couple of Great Bustards fairly quickly in the hanging mist/fog. Great Bustards aren’t supposed to be the commoner of the two at this site, but here they were emerging from the white haze, 300 meters away. OK, we thought, that’s not a bad start!
Soon afterwards Mr H picked up two distant Black-bellied Sandgrouse flying by – I didn’t see them and things were quiet between us for a while….
We moved on up the road and stopped and scanned every 100-200 meters. Fortunately, for both my sanity and Mr H’s future life, I managed to fluke two Black-bellied Sandgrouse on the ground! They were still 200 meters away, but were good in the scope. Thank God – otherwise I might have had to leave him there.
Good! Things were going well, but the mist wasn’t – going that is. The further up the road we crawled the thicker it became, until we could barely see 100 meters in front of us. There were, to be sure, hundreds of Calandra Larks, Corn Buntings, Northern Lapwings, European Golden Plover and Crested Larks, but no sandgrouse or bustards and the limited visibility surely put them out of reach. At one point we believed we did hear Pin-tailed Sandgrouse fly overhead in the mist, but didn’t see them.
We sat for an hour or so, hoping the weather would clear – it was very still, not a breath of wind, warm in the sun, cold in the shadow, frosty on the ground, and the soup wasn’t clearing.
At 11.30, we turned and drove back down the road where the visibility seemed to have got worse so we decided to give it away and drove towards Caceres to find coffee. Just before we left the side road, we found a flock of 32 Great Bustards and 2 Sandgrouse sp, again on the ground – most likely Black-bellied, but too far away to be 100% sure.
We went and had coffee at a basic café beside a service station and stocked up on more food as we expected everything to be shut tomorrow.
We returned to the rocky road and found the mist had finally pissed off, so we worked it thoroughly, crawling along, checking every blade of grass, rock and field, all the way along the approx 20 km length without seeing any Little Bustards or any more Sandgrouse.
We did see a flock of 74 Great Bustards, a Spanish Imperial Eagle, several Iberian Grey Shrikes, quite a few Hoopoes, Black and Eurasian Griffon Vultures and the waders, larks and buntings mentioned earlier, but at 17.00 we decided to call it a day and headed back to Tujillo.
You know you've had a frustrating day when you say 'we ONLY had Great Bustards.....' But the bloody things aren't supposed to be common here? WTF? or rather, Where TF........ are the Little Bustards? 8 hours and no sign? Every field scanned up to a kilometre away? You can be assured we weren't calling them Little Bustards anymore.....
On the road we had also briefly met a young Spanish birder. We now bumped into him in the main square where I was going for coffee and Mr H wanted to visit the church. Najid (?) came and shared a coffee with me and then, when Mr H had finished in the church, we sat and chatted birds and birding for an hour or so. Najid’s English was pretty good and, although in his early twenties, he had travelled quite extensively in Spain and had a good knowledge of sites and specialties. As we sat there our second trip list bird for the day flew overhead – a Common Swift, an early returnee.
By 19.30 we had had enough and retreated home to our dinner and note making – and the more expensive Vino Tinto we had purchased earlier – this carton came in at E1.00 and went down nicely….
Trip Total – 192 Lifers – 19 (B), 4 (M) New European – 21 Spanish - 151
Day 50 - 10.2.19 (Sunday)
We woke to a dull, grey, warmish (8 degrees) morning, had breakfast and then the CDEF (aka Colin & Dermot Expeditionary Force – or Farce, as cruel people may call it) creaked into action again.
Yet again we had interrogated E-Bird (I really should stop saying the things I say about E-bird) and …….
Yet again were on the hunt for Alpine Accentor and Black Bleedin’ Wheatear.
We’d found reports of birds THIS YEAR – on two mountain top kinda places about 40 kms away. Following our long day yesterday on the plains Bastard hunting (yes, I did type ‘bastard’, cause that’s what they are) we thought a change of scenery would do us good – and Mr H had a not-so-secret hard-on to see AAs.
We arrived at the very cute, mountain-side village of Cabanas del Castillo, backed by the sheer cliff-type rock topped off by the Castillo – or ‘Castle’ for those of you who don’t speak Spanish….
We started off by climbing the rough, slippery from the thin rain that was falling, rocky path to the Castillo seeing a flock of Azure-winged Magpies and Red-billed Choughs on the way. The habitat looked good for our targets.
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| Cabanas del Castillo |
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| The Castillo |
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| Red-billed Chough |
Then we climbed half way down again and followed the track, as described in the book, around the back of the rock. All good, the track a bit hard to follow at times, but we worked our way right round and saw – nothing. Not one bird on the rock. The only birds we saw were 20 Eurasian Griffon Vultures who glided around overhead waiting for one of us to die.
We returned to the car and decided to try the second location we had identified – a mountain top on the opposite ridge, with a communications mast on it. No real name – but its above the town of Guadalupe. The road from Guadalupe appeared to be a private or official closed road, but we found a different road on the opposite side from the town that appeared to go up to the top.
We drove around the valley through picturesque villages on excellent rally car roads to turn off onto this ‘back’ road access to the mast. We thought it might have been a dirt track, but it was, in fact, a good quality cement road and we went up it’s sharp curves and steep inclines happy that we didn’t have to walk it. Eventually we reached a point where the road did degenerate a bit into old bitumen and stones in tar, so we parked up and started to walk the last 1.9 kms. I forgot to mention – as we ascended the mountain, the cloud descended, and, by the time we parked up, the vis was about 20 meters. We were enveloped in a damp, swirling rainy mist and the wind had picked up too. Miserable weather for birding, but CDEF manfully struck out.
The first bird we saw, 50 meters from the car was……….a Dunnock!
I mean, really?? Really??? Here we are looking for Alpine Accentors and we find a Dunnock! (It’s a birding joke, for those who aren't birders).
We made 100% sure it WAS only a Dunnock, but, sadly, it was.
The second bird we saw 500 meters later was…………..also a f……g Dunnock!
Yes, folks,
Birds – 2,
Dunnocks – 2,
Alpine Accentors – 0.
CDEF - po'd/suicidal/vulture meat.........
We continued almost to the top, but decided we’d had enough and walked back down to the car. We didn’t see ANY other birds, not even a Dunnock….
Ahhhh Christ…….
We headed back to the closest village and consoled ourselves with piping hot coffee in the café in the middle of the main road/street.
On the way back to Trujillo we used minor back roads and saw some repeat stuff, but the only thing of real interest were 4 animals that ran across the road in front of us. Initially we thought they were Otters, long, low, slim shapes with long, low tails – but when we stopped beside them, they sat on the bank and peered back at us for a few seconds before turning their long tails and disappearing – they were Mink. Having now done some research it is obvious they were American Mink Neovison vison - the introduced feral species.
Well, it’s a tick of sorts for me anyway.
That was about it, really, the day continued dreary and damp and we chose to go for an early meal at a restauranta – that’s ‘restaurant’ for those of you who don’t speak Spanish – outside Trujillo and then have a siesta – that’s ‘rest’ for those of you who don’t speak Spanish.
I know, I can be a dick at times – that’s ‘dickhead’ for those of you who don’t speak English.
Trip Total – 192 Lifers – 19 (B), 5 (M) New European – 21 Spanish - 151
Day 51 - 11.2.19 (Monday)
Packed and left by 8.
We had planned to re-visit the roads near Caceres to try for the Little Bustardo, but there was a heavy, wet fog in the town and surrounding area and we decided there was little point so I pointed the car northeast and headed for our next destination – Ciudad Real.
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| Our AirBnB in Trujillo - doesn't look like much from outside, but was great! We were upstairs. |
We had planned to re-visit the roads near Caceres to try for the Little Bustardo, but there was a heavy, wet fog in the town and surrounding area and we decided there was little point so I pointed the car northeast and headed for our next destination – Ciudad Real.
We had a location where both bustards and sandgrouse had been reported recently so pinned our hopes on that.
Two hours or so and we were entering the plains area southeast of the town.
We drove the, good quality, dirt roads for three hours.
We found several small flocks of Great Bustards, in all abut 80 birds, and a total of 7 Black-bellied Sandgrouse, several on the deck providing good scope views at approx 200 meters, but no LBs or Pin-tails. We saw Red-legged Partridge, Calandra and Crested Larks, Corn Buntings and Meadow Pipits, Northern Lapwings and Spotless Starlings, picking them all up at up to 500 meters range in the scopes without any problem, so did we miss LBs? Half of each of us says, no, but the other half wonders…..did we? The fields were either newly sown, ploughed or just plain stony. There was nowhere for a pheasant-sized bird to hide and, as I said, we were picking up Sandgrouse at 3-400 meters and they are much lower to the ground and smaller.
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| Red-legged Partridge |
We also saw two Hares and several Rabbits. Mr H commented on the Hares’ ears and when we checked, European Hare is not present in Spain, so we got a mammal tick of Granada Hare Lepus granatensis. In fact we should have ticked it two days ago when we had one in the Caceres area, but we didn’t realize it was a new species.
Back to el Bustardos.
Very, very frustrating.
And exhausting.
By 15.30 we were both just knackered. We decided to give the fields a break and headed for Laguna de Navaseca near Las Tablas de Daimiel, but smaller and closer, with easy access, hides and good birds. The pond was not very big, but had a heap of waterfowl – best being White-headed Ducks in good numbers (~30), Black-necked Grebes coming into summer plumage, Pied Avocets and our only new (bird) trip tick for the day – Black-tailed Godwits. We also had heaps of Spanish Sparrows and one Zitting Cisticola in the reeds beside the carpark hide.
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| Zitting Cisticola |
We didn’t venture further, just slumped in the sun and scoped the water, we were just too f….d.
At 16.30 we headed into Ciudad Real and met our next host at the apartment block in a slightly seedy looking part of town. The apartment was on the ground floor and tiny, but two bedroomed and adequate for our one night stay. (There were also two coffee mugs - but Mr H smashed one, so we'll have to share....)
We took the car to find a hands-on car wash, but ended up doing it ourselves for E6 with vaccum and spray gun.
Then back to the apartment for dinner and a crash.
Trip Total – 192 Lifers – 19 (B), 6 (M) New European – 21 Spanish - 152
Day 52 - 12.2.19 (Tuesday)
We were, as usual, packed and on the road by 8. We had debated returning to the area we had visited yesterday looking for Bustards, but, having met a local birder-type at the pond yesterday and interrogated him regarding the best possible place to see Little Bustard, we headed, on his advice, for La Solana, a town just off our main drive of the day.
It was our last ditch, final, throw-it-all-to-the-wind, take-a-chance, hope-for-the-best, give-it-all-we-had, doubt-we’d-be-successful-but-what-the-hell, the what-else-are-we-going-to-do-anyway? try for the Little Bastard of a bird.
We arrived on site at 9 and started to drive along reasonably decent dirt roads into obviously good Bustard/Sandgrouse habo. We drove for about 10 minutes at about 15 km/hr stopping to scan every field – again.
We were both on the verge of giving up.
It just seemed so déjà vu.
Another day, another freaking (empty) field.
Then, yes, out of the blue, 7 birds took flight from an unsighted spot on our right and we immediately knew we had our quarry.
LITTLE BUSTARD!!
At last! Our patience (really?), perseverance, (Yes, definitely) and persistence paid off. They flew around and landed about 200 meters away behind a grassy bank. We set off on foot with bins and camera only. Getting half way across a soft mud field, we stopped and scanned and could see them, watching us over the top of the bank – still 150 meters away.
I went back for the scope – we hadn’t believed we’d see them on the ground so…., grabbed mine out of the car and started to walk back. Almost there and the original 7 took flight again, accompanied by another 7 birds and, believe it or not, a single Pin-tailed Sandgrouse! Mr H had them in the bins and I quickly got onto them with the scope and tracked them till they landed a km away behind another bank.
We hurried back to the chariot and set off in pursuit.
We got to where we were sure they’d landed by another circuitous track – but couldn’t find them. They had, to all intents and purposes, vanished.
We searched several fields for them, but now think they must have flown again soon after we saw them land, probably while we were walking back to the car, cause they certainly hadn’t flown while we were driving as we’d kept a close eye on the general area. We flushed three Stone Curlews and several Red-legged Partridges in our search.
We had to give it away. We had a long drive in front of us and another stop for another bird on the way. It wasn’t the best of views, but, as I’ve said before, what has been seen cannot be unseen and a tick is a tick.
Mr H took over and drove the 300 Kms to Valencia where we found our way, south of the city, to a lagoon area where we had been led to believe, by Najid, the dude in Trujillo, there were wintering Audouin’s Gulls.
We searched the beaches and the one area where we could see into the lagoons, but no luck. In fact, Gulls, as a family, were almost non-existent, just a few Black-headed and a couple of Yellow-legged. The lagoons looked worth exploring further, but we couldn't really afford the time and were unlikely to get anything new for this trip anyway. There was one Booted Eagle high overhead - our third of the trip.
We had the usual bread stick, cheese, spicy sausage & olives for lunch on the deserted trendy looking esplanade, then I took over and we set off on the second leg of the 600 km drive back to Barcelona.
We had the usual bread stick, cheese, spicy sausage & olives for lunch on the deserted trendy looking esplanade, then I took over and we set off on the second leg of the 600 km drive back to Barcelona.
First Greece, now Spain, the Audouin Gull Odyssey is on-going - watch this space....
We had decided to use the motorway/toll road to save time as it was a comfortable minimum 120km/hr two lane motorway where other drivers sometimes passed us doing at least 150km/hr.
The first toll we paid, as we excited the motorway at Barcelona 4 hours later, was E31 (A$50), the second a few minutes later was E4 (A$6) and the third (!) 10 minutes afterwards was E7 (A$11) – A$67 in total. Was it worth it? Yeah, probably. It saved us time and some fuel and, despite driving for the whole day, more or less, we weren’t completely knackered. If we’d driven toll-free it would have been a lot more stressful and tiring.
Our last Spanish Air BnB was a small two bedroomed unit in a well-to-do area with relatively cheap furniture and basic amenities, but it was, again, adequate for the job. The guy sent us videos of how to open the doors, manage the shower and, when we asked, a video on turning on the heating and hot water….kids and their electronic obsessions……!
We visited the local supermarket for a couple of things then settled in to finish off some of the grog.
We've had an interesting discussion/friendly argument regarding Rock Doves in Spain. Mr H ticks Feral Pigeons as Rock Pigeons. As you know, I don't.
I don't regard Feral/Rock Pigeons as wild birds anymore than I would a chicken or a Guineafowl in a farm yard or a Dumped Duck on a manmade pond in a public park. The only Rock Doves I consider 'real' - right or wrong - are in the west of Ireland and the north coasts of Scotland where small populations exist uncontaminated by horny feral pigeons, simply because they are too isolated from local town playboys.
During our trip we have seen numerous flocks of 'Rock Dove/Pigeon types'. But none in remote mountains or isolated sea cliffs where I think they probably do exist. Some of them, admittedly, looked good for real Rock Doves, BUT, most moved in flocks with hybrid type birds and obvious non-real Rock Doves.
Therefore my Spanish list remains one less than Mr H's because he ticks Rock Pigeon. Go figure! But its his list and my list and my snobbishness or desire for purity and his less specific philosophy and general sloppiness.
But we're still friends.
We've had an interesting discussion/friendly argument regarding Rock Doves in Spain. Mr H ticks Feral Pigeons as Rock Pigeons. As you know, I don't.
I don't regard Feral/Rock Pigeons as wild birds anymore than I would a chicken or a Guineafowl in a farm yard or a Dumped Duck on a manmade pond in a public park. The only Rock Doves I consider 'real' - right or wrong - are in the west of Ireland and the north coasts of Scotland where small populations exist uncontaminated by horny feral pigeons, simply because they are too isolated from local town playboys.
During our trip we have seen numerous flocks of 'Rock Dove/Pigeon types'. But none in remote mountains or isolated sea cliffs where I think they probably do exist. Some of them, admittedly, looked good for real Rock Doves, BUT, most moved in flocks with hybrid type birds and obvious non-real Rock Doves.
Therefore my Spanish list remains one less than Mr H's because he ticks Rock Pigeon. Go figure! But its his list and my list and my snobbishness or desire for purity and his less specific philosophy and general sloppiness.
But we're still friends.
Trip Total – 194 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 154
Day 53 - 13.2.19 (Wednesday)
We headed for Montserrat, a sheer rock projectile buried in the hills behind Barcelona. We had found records of….yes, you guessed it, Alpine Accentor there in previous winters. It involved a cable car ride up the face of the rock and then a vertical funicular train up to the ‘top’. I say ‘top’ because Mr H assured me it was a plateau and to get to the peak it was a simple 4 km dawdle across the plateau.
Yeah, right!
We boarded the cable car (E23 return for both), then jumped the funicular (E15 one way only) as we planned to walk back down to the cable car after our ‘dawdle’ across the plateau.
Plateau me arse!
The walk from the funicular was a continually rising, stony, ankle-twisting, step-ridden, track that wound around the projecting rocks, through rough scrub and exposed rock slopes. It took us an hour and we saw f-all. A few Firecrests, European Blue Tits & Robins, and Common Chaffinches and that was it.
Then we started back down……..
If you like banging your head against a brick wall cause it feels good when you stop. Go for it! Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it.
There must have been 500 steps on the return loop, some of them so steep they required a hand rail. By the time we got back to the monastery at the top of the cable car I was ready to throw both of us off the cliff and save the trouble of getting the car back down.
However, a couple of cups of coffee and I was right again.
We wandered around the monastery grounds and footpaths but never an AA did we find. We didn’t find anything else either.
We got the cable car back down and drove back in the helter skelter traffic to our apartment – it was a wild ride.
Then it was into the city by train & tube to La Rambla the famous shopping/tourist area and we spent the rest of the late afternoon and evening wandering around picking up things-to-take-home for family & friends. It was an uneventful evening, apart from me being ejected from a souvenir shop because I dared to question the price of a Barcelona FC t-shirt (well, he wanted E29 and when I said it was too expensive he asked me how much I would pay? I told him E10 as the first figure that came into my mind and he went off his tiny brain. We ended up shouting at each other in the street outside the shop, although I, surprisingly maybe, kept my cool. We thought it was funny, but he was deadly serious – a rude little man).
We got ‘home’ at 20.00 and packed in preparation for our flight back to Dublin the next day.
Trip Total – 194 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 154
Day 54 - 14.2.19 (Thursday)
We were outta da joint by 8 and headed for the wetland area we had birded in the first few days of the trip – El Prat de Llobregat.
We walked half way down the river track, then turned off and back, by another parallel track, to the car by 10. Mostly the same sort of stuff we have seen, the only unusual sighting was a single Hooded Crow flying across and, later, back across, the river. Unusual in Spain, there have been recent records of a small number in this immediate area – ship assisted, no doubt….We also had a very nice Eurasian Sparrowhawk overhead.
We got to the airport, traded in the hire car with the usual cursory inspection and pleasant smile from the check-in chick, established we had driven 5,462 kms in the 3 weeks and headed for the check-in. Processed through that, security and passport control, then sat and waited two hours to fly.
The flight left on time and arrived early. We got off, got the bags without incident and then I said goodbye, once again, to my friend of 50 years. Mr H was getting the bus back to Belfast and I was picking up my 4thhire car of the trip – this time from Budget. I got a Toyota Auris (manual, diesel) that was scratched in several places. Good! Another scratch won’t be noticed! I took pictures of all, just in case….then drove home to Dale Rd.
Trip Total – 194 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
Day 55 - 15.2.19 (Friday)
The bright spot of the day was at 5am with a long distance phone call that made me happy.
Spent the day doing stuff for Mum - the optician for her driving license (a big maybe yes, maybe no response), the library to print off stuff (come back in an hour we're closing for lunch...) the city to replace a faulty toy (which they managed to make work when I got there, but gave me a replacement when I cried) and (the only actual success of the day) fixed the 70 year old bathroom tap (55 year old washer replacement) with a pair of multi grips as my only tool.
No birding - but did see a Grey Squirrel as I stormed up to the Luas to go to the city.
Trip Total – 194 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
Day 56 - 16.2.19 (Saturday)
Didn't do much in the morning. Started writing the Spanish trip report. Around lunch time drove down to my sister's place in Wicklow and spent the afternoon, then went to her friend's place for a latish dinner and got back to L's place after midnight.
Had a lovely male Eurasian Siskin on the bird feeder at Dale rd - a first for this trip and saw a Red Kite over the road as I exited the M50 at Wicklow.
Trip Total – 195 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
Day 57 - 17.2.19 (Sunday)
Basically drove home to Mum's place for her 93rd birthday.
We all went for lunch together, then hung out at home for the rest of the day.
Trip Total – 195 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
Day 58 - 18.2.19 (Monday)
Did bugger-all. Just spent time at home with Mum, Lorraine & Aisling - and packed. Deciding what to leave for the next time and packing all the kid's presents....
Day 59 - 19.2.19 (Tuesday)
Up at 3am. Left as soon as I was dressed. The M50 was empty - like driving a racetrack - at 140 k/hr. Got to the rental car drop off at 3.50 - closed. Not a person or light in sight.
What do I do now?
I'd nominated 5am as my return time - didn't think too much of it 3 months ago, assumed it would automatically be a 24 hour service. Wrong!
Not having a lot of luck with rental cars these days.
OK - drove to main car park at the airport, parked up, took my bags and went to the Budget counter. No-one there. Left the keys, paperwork, parking ticket and a note explaining, then checked in and went through to departures.
Flight for Amsterdam with KLM left at 5.55. In Amsterdam for a couple of hours, then on to Abu Dhabi, (6 hours, again with KLM), another 90 minutes wait, then Brisbane with Etihad - 13 hours -landed at 17.30 (Day 60 - Wednesday 20th) to 25 degree sweaty heat.
Was stopped by customs and my bags searched - they had seen the 4 packs of Spanish cigarettes I had in my backpack. They took them cause I declined to pay the duty. Pretty silly really, considering you can't get Dukados cigarettes here and they were only for my own use, but at E4.70 a pack, not a big loss.
I'm probably marked now as an international smuggler.
Got an Uber home through the toll tunnels due to the time of day - $51 ($15 of which was tolls and airport fee).
Trip over!
Trip Total – 195 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
Day 56 - 16.2.19 (Saturday)
Didn't do much in the morning. Started writing the Spanish trip report. Around lunch time drove down to my sister's place in Wicklow and spent the afternoon, then went to her friend's place for a latish dinner and got back to L's place after midnight.
Had a lovely male Eurasian Siskin on the bird feeder at Dale rd - a first for this trip and saw a Red Kite over the road as I exited the M50 at Wicklow.
Trip Total – 195 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
Day 57 - 17.2.19 (Sunday)
Basically drove home to Mum's place for her 93rd birthday.
We all went for lunch together, then hung out at home for the rest of the day.
Trip Total – 195 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
Day 58 - 18.2.19 (Monday)
Did bugger-all. Just spent time at home with Mum, Lorraine & Aisling - and packed. Deciding what to leave for the next time and packing all the kid's presents....
Day 59 - 19.2.19 (Tuesday)
Up at 3am. Left as soon as I was dressed. The M50 was empty - like driving a racetrack - at 140 k/hr. Got to the rental car drop off at 3.50 - closed. Not a person or light in sight.
What do I do now?
I'd nominated 5am as my return time - didn't think too much of it 3 months ago, assumed it would automatically be a 24 hour service. Wrong!
Not having a lot of luck with rental cars these days.
OK - drove to main car park at the airport, parked up, took my bags and went to the Budget counter. No-one there. Left the keys, paperwork, parking ticket and a note explaining, then checked in and went through to departures.
Flight for Amsterdam with KLM left at 5.55. In Amsterdam for a couple of hours, then on to Abu Dhabi, (6 hours, again with KLM), another 90 minutes wait, then Brisbane with Etihad - 13 hours -landed at 17.30 (Day 60 - Wednesday 20th) to 25 degree sweaty heat.
Was stopped by customs and my bags searched - they had seen the 4 packs of Spanish cigarettes I had in my backpack. They took them cause I declined to pay the duty. Pretty silly really, considering you can't get Dukados cigarettes here and they were only for my own use, but at E4.70 a pack, not a big loss.
I'm probably marked now as an international smuggler.
Got an Uber home through the toll tunnels due to the time of day - $51 ($15 of which was tolls and airport fee).
Trip over!
Trip Total – 195 Lifers – 21 (B), 6 (M) New European – 23 Spanish - 155
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