Monday 12 May 2008

Spain (Day 5) – Arecena Area – 22nd April 2008

Our final dedicated birding day, we decided to stay relatively local and generally tour around and pick up local species in the hills. One of the beauties of Spain and birding is that there are so many small roads over large areas and these are very lightly used, so on seeing something from the car there is little problem in stopping and using the car as a hide taking a good look.
The morning started well watching Ravens circling up in some light thermals, then just a bit lower two Black Storks came over, fresh into the breading season. Around Granada de la Rio Tinto we saw Pallid Swift, Blue Rock Thrush and Golden Eagle. Heading further north a longer stop produced Olivaceous Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, Bee Eater and Iberian Chiffchaff, then south again for Dartford Warbler, Wryneck and Griffon Vulture. I have to say one of the most impressive sights of the trip was finding a Black Vulture feeding just over a dry stone wall, it took off with several Ravens and was just the most enormous bird I had ever seen!
For the record the total number of species seen on the trip was 127 of these 74 were new for the year and of these 8 were life firsts for us.
Life bird count: 369 Year bird count: 203 Month bird count: 155

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