Just back from an excellent trip to Northern Spain. Here's the report. It's lengthy, so I've split it into episodes. I hope it's of some use to anyone thinking of visiting the area, so I've included a bit of detaill on some of the locations visited that doesn't appear in the books.
Here goes for Part 1
Catalonia & Aragon Trip
28 April to 12 May 2007
Based at Mora
Our second trip of the year and our third birding visit to this region. We’ve gone there at this time for the past two years before this trip and the area still has plenty to offer. It’s a world away from the clutter and golf-courses of Southern Spain.
Easyjet again from Newcastle at 10.10 on Saturday 28th April. This is a more civilised time for a take-off than our 6.30 flight to Malaga in February and I even got some sleep the night before. The downside is that it would be late afternoon before we arrived at our destination, Mora on the River Ebro – a town perhaps better known to British visitors for its excellent fishing for large wild carp and the huge European catfish. My first trip here for a week and a half in spring 2005 gave me 150 species and a love for the area. We came back in 2006 for two weeks and 174 species, building on earlier experience, so I was hoping for a similar total this time, with a few lifers sadly missed on earlier trips perhaps added in for good measure.
Car hire was pre-booked and paid for with the flights through Easyjet and came to around £194 for the two week’s hire of a diesel Fiat Punto (Barcelona is one of the dearer airports); just the right size for the narrow Spanish roads. For a major airport the car-hire collection at Barcelona is abysmal. The Europcar desk is under-sized and even though there were only about 10 customers in the queue before me it took 45 minutes to get away from the desk with my key. This is normal for this airport. The car was immaculate with only 2700km on the clock, although it went back with a considerably higher mileage when I returned it.
Our base was a small apartment with good facilities in Mora, a double town which straddles the Ebro about 30 miles upstream from the delta and 20 miles from the coast. It’s not at all touristy, (the “real” Spain as those awful travel programmes say – ugh!) but there are a number of apartments etc available because of its popularity with anglers. I chose it because it was handy for the Ebro Delta and also some steppe sites to the north. At two and a half hours to the closest part of the Pyrenees, the mountains are just about reachable. Other bases may be more suitable for the latter, but I’ve grown to like it.
Even though we were quickly off the plane and our bags were some of the first that came off the conveyor the delay in collecting the car meant that it was 3pm before we left the airport. The late start for the 90 mile drive with a promise of a visit to a supermarket at the end of it made me change my mind about popping into El Prat de Llobregat for a quick look as we left the airport. This in hindsight was a mistake. A cream-coloured courser was seen on the beach 3 days earlier and photographed the day after that, but I didn’t know about this until we got back to the UK. Ho, hum.
Day 1, Saturday 28th April 2007.
Weather , Fine, mainly clear skies, 24C.
Barcelona airport to Mora d’Ebre.
A 90 mile drive, mainly on motorway gave little opportunity for sightings beyond the common stuff such as sparrows, pigeons, spotless starlings and swifts, but we did spot our first Woodchat Shrike of the trip sitting on roadside wires. Our arrival at the apartment just after 5pm with our shopping from the supermarket saw Yellow-legged Gull, Black Kite, White Wagtail, Bee Eater, Little Egret and various swallows, martins and some mallard added to the list. We settled into the apartment and had a relaxed meal of Pinxos, spuds and veg with a bottle of Rioja to shake off the trip. Dusk saw us down by the riverside for an aerial display from a Red-necked Nightjar, joined by Scops Owl, followed by a return to the apartment, a bottle of Sangre de Toro and a couple of Bacardis before a well-earned night’s sleep.
Total for the trip – 24 species so far.
Day 2. Sunday 29th April 2007.
Weather. Dull and damp am, 15 deg. Fine later, cool for the time of year at 20 deg.
Ebro Delta
A quick look at the river before we left Mora gave us our first Cattle Egret, sitting sullenly in the rain and mist in a tamarisk bush in the river, which was in flood following one of the wettest springs for many years.
Ignoring the most obvious route to the delta I chose the quicker one, down the road to Rasquera before cutting across to the N340 at El Perello and getting onto the delta just past L’Ampolla, so avoiding the town centre and going straight to the Laguna de les Olles on the southern side of the town. A short visit to the tower hide gave us Zitting Cisticola, Black-headed Gull, Black Winged Stilt, Marsh Harrier, Whiskered Tern, Purple Heron, a fly-past of seven Night Heron, Red-crested Pochard, Coot, Cormorant, Little Tern and finally a Caspian Tern which flew across the lagoon directly towards us.
Driving from here to Deltebre and on to our next stop at Canal Vell, I was struck at how dry the area was. By now the rice fields usually have all been flooded and are covered with thousands of feeding terns. On this visit every field was bone-dry and many were still being worked to a tilth by tractors. The tern species were present, but the numbers were only a fraction of what they would normally be at the end of April. The drive gave us Gull-billed Tern, two Lesser Kestrels, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and Squacco Heron.
Canal Vell held its normal complement of coots and Greater Flamingo along with Black Redstart, Audouin’s Gull, Wood Sandpiper, Purple Gallinule, Great Crested Grebe, four Great White Egrets, Great Reed Warbler, Tree Sparrow, Dabchick, Spotted Redshank, Slender-billed Gull, Glossy Ibis, Black Tern and a group of 8 or 9 night herons that were loafing about on the small island in front of the tower.
El Garxal on the north side of the river mouth as usual held a good stock of birds, including greater flamingos, purple gallinules, egrets, herons, ducks and waders. Among the hundreds of coots one stood out by virtue of the white plastic collar band that it wore, indicative of a Crested Coot from one of the release schemes in various parts of Spain (but not, curiously, the Ebro Delta). This could well be the bird that I spotted at the same time last year on Canal Vell. Other new birds for the list included Gadwall, Crested Lark, Hoopoe and Willow Warbler.
Breaking with my habit of only doing one side of the delta in a day we headed off to the south side. This was made easier by the absence of avian distraction on the dry rice-fields and I was keen to visit the hide at Riet Vell at Eucaliptus, where a pair of little crakes had been reported putting on award-winning performances in the open for the crowds throughout most of April. We added a Mediterranean Gull to the list on our way.
Riet Vell was impressive. I’d previously had no idea it was there, but I’d passed by the entrance without noticing it many times. I know better now.
We spent the rest of the day in the excellent hide eagerly awaiting the appearance of the little crakes, but to no avail. The record book in the hide had its latest entry 6 days before on St George’s day (a big day in Catalonia) and one of them had showed then. No news is good news, so I waited on in the hope that the absence of recent records was because of the absence of observers rather than the absence of crakes. The dry rice field behind the hide held about a dozen Collared Pratincoles, well camouflaged against the dry earth. The field on the other side of the path contained over two dozen purple gallinules. The lake was alive with life. A terrapin about the size of a dinner plate loafed on a log and didn’t budge even when a moorhen walked up the log with the sole intention of annoying it by pecking at its tail and left hind leg. A Redstart hopped around the hide. Egrets, herons and glossy ibis stalked the water. A small group of flamingos fed over to the left, where whiskered and black terns fed over the water. Mallard, gadwall, red-crested pochards and dabchick fed in front of the hide where a wood sandpiper dropped in to allow us to admire its spangled back at close range. The occasional fly-over by a marsh harrier kept the pool’s birds on their toes. The walk back to the car after a crake-less two or three hours added Spotted Flycatcher and Pied Flycatcher to the list.
Back at Mora the raptor count was increased by two Common Buzzard.
Total species so far – 66.
Part 2.
Day 3. Monday 30th April 2007.
Weather. Fine. 25 deg pm.
Mora to Garcia Station.
We decided to stay relatively local today to check out the sites close to base, going first along the riverside upstream from Mora d’Ebre, starting with the park and picnic area beneath the ruined castle. The first Monk Parakeet made its noisy appearance as soon as we got out of the car and a stroll along the bank got us views of the Cetti’s Warbler and Nightingale that had been serenading us. While waiting for one of the vocal Golden Orioles to put on an appearance (didn’t take long) I heard a Wryneck calling nearby. Following the call brought us to great views of the bird calling from the top of a tree. Next came our first Sardinian Warbler, followed by two Penduline Tits in the tamarisk bushed that maddeningly varied from too far to too close for my digiscope.
Moving on up the roadside river towards the closed-down Garcia Station (perhaps the separation of the station from Garcia village by the width of the River Ebro, a Field and the main C12 road had something to do with its demise) took us through a mixture of natural overgrown river bank and fields of fruit trees. Birds included lesser kestrel, Great Tit, Serin, Blackcap, Jackdaw, Raven, Linnet, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Blue Tit and Jay.
Flix
We retraced our path to Mora and took the C12 for the 19km drive upstream to Flix. At first glace as you drive down the bank out of town, passing a large industrial works with various aromatic odours and heading towards the dam that holds back the river you could easily be put off.
Don’t be.
Take the road across the dam and pay attention! Immediately on leaving the dam you’ve got to take a hard left turn into the nature reserve that lies along the north bank. The entrance track is well hidden, lying between the bridge parapet and an automatic car wash. If you are in the carwash car-park you’ve overshot. Take the track next to the bridge and it runs immediately through an area where there are some civil engineering works going on, together with large pipes lying next to excavations taped off with plastic tape, further giving the impression that you’ve taken the wrong turn. You haven’t.
The track soon sorts itself out and runs some distance alongside the reed-bed lining the river until it comes to a visitors’ centre where you can park the car and pick up a pamphlet. A path leads from behind the centre along a boardwalk through the reeds to a hide overlooking a pool. The kingfishers I saw here last year were absent, but a marsh harrier passed by and a great reed warbler went mad from its perch in the reeds.
Back at the car park you have a choice. You can drive on along the track, or you can walk. I prefer to walk. Last year I watched a wryneck calling from wires at a distance of only about 30 yards. The groves of trees in the fields hold larks and other birds. Black kites are low overhead and you get a taste of what’s to come in the form of White Storks that fly around the small colony a mile or so upstream. The walk brought us storks (including one nest) and Greenfinch, Cuckoo, woodchat shrike, and golden oriole before we arrived at the stork colony just to the left of the track. There is another hide here overlooking another reedy pool. A stork was on its nest on the roof of the hide – totally unconcerned at our presence. A black kite sat in a tree opposite, nicely in digiscoping range until I got my gear set up and somebody started up a chainsaw nearby and flushed it before I got a shot.
This disappointment was more than made up for by a small bird that flew across the front of the hide and started feeding actively in the reeds to the right. Chalk up one Savi’s Warbler.
Castellet de Banyoles
Back down to Mora and a short diversion along the road towards Hospitalet de L’Infant for a kilometre or two before turning off at the top of the hill into another well-hidden track that leads to the site of the ruin of this fort that once defended the bend on the river between Mora and Miravet. The limestone track is in good condition and takes you through an area of woodland and bare ground. It’s well worth going along to the end for the view over the river. It generally has something of interest and in the past I’ve had wryneck, honey buzzard and green woodpecker here. Not today though. We saw the expected woodchat shrike and also the species we’d called in for – a Woodlark singing from the power-lines.
Cami del Coll de la Mola
Quickly onto the road south again, but only as far as Rasquera, where we turned off towards El Perello, traveling until we turn off onto a limestone road southwards, just west of the 7km road marker. It’s posted as “Pintures Rupestres 4.2km” from the west, but the approach from the coast shows a grand signpost giving the road its full title. It runs through olive and almond groves for a while and then climbs through an area of low scrub before entering a mixture of farmland and woodland.
One of the first birds we saw was a woodchat shrike that flew up into an olive tree carrying what looked like a centipede that was at least as long as the bird itself. Unfortunately I didn’t have the presence of mind to get the camera onto the scope for a photo. Moving on through the scrub gave us Subalpine Warbler and Dartford Warbler just next to the road. Further on, near a farm called Bedrock Ranch (honest) we saw Corn Bunting and golden oriole, before traveling on to a place with some small fields on the left of the road, separated by dry-stone limestone walls. Here we had great views near to the car of a bird I never tire of looking at – the male of the dark-throated version of Black-eared Wheatear – the prettiest thing on two legs (almost). Two ravens flew overhead and a Red-legged Partridge made its way onto the trip-list. A cuckoo called nearby before flying over. We traveled on until we reached the tower known as Torre del Fullola (well marked with footpath signs pointing along various routes) then turned round and back home for dinner.
So far the day had gone well, but this was not to last. After dinner we went out to a local bar, where over a glass or several of Estrella Damm we watched Newcastle United once again humiliate themselves before the Sky-watching millions as they put on a typically gutless display away to Reading. To round off the evening perfectly we trudged our way back to the apartment through a thunderstorm with rainfall sufficient for those of a more cautious nature to go looking for gopher wood with which to build a boat.
Total species so far - 95
Part 3
Day 4. Tuesday 1st May 2007.
Weather. Poor! Dull after overnight rain. 12 deg at mid-day, struggling up to 15 in the afternoon.
We awoke to find with relief that our decision not to build an ark had been the right one, even though the river was up on its already swollen level. The first day of May had however heralded the return of winter to Catalonia and also to Aragon as we were to find out as we made our first foray of the trip into that ancient land. My chosen attire of T-shirt with a lined fleece over it was not quite up to the conditions and a shirt would have been of use, but being of hardy north-eastern stock I endured. My wife, having more sense had chosen her clothing more wisely and elected to stay in the car at most of the stops we made.
Los Monegros
On our way north beyond Flix to Fraga, we stopped off briefly at a spot 6km north of the village of Maials for a quick look along a track I know, adding Thekla Lark, Carrion Crow and Great Spotted Cuckoo to the list. We then traveled on to the village of Candasnos on the Zaragosa road west of Fraga where our day’s birding began in earnest.
A look at the bird-books will tell you what a great place Los Monegros is. It contains good numbers of most the steppe species – little bustard, both species of sandgrouse, eagles, larks (including Duponts), etc etc. This is nonsense of course, for the simple reason that there is no such bird as the little bustard. It is mythical. As I said in my report from Malaga & Cadiz in March I’ve looked here in Aragon, I’ve looked on the Catalonia steppes, I’ve looked in Andalucia from Almeria to Cadiz and they do not exist (I’ve still to visit Extemadura to prove their non-existence there). Anyone looking for little bustards may as well go Phoenix-watching. They’d be better off. On the presence of the other birds, however I vouch that the books are correct.
The books also tell you that Dupont’s larks are active at night, dawn and dusk. This may be so, but fortunately not all the larks have read the books and some have difficulty sleeping during the day, so don’t give up hope. Our first stop was on the road from Candasnos towards Alcolea, just out of the village, between the new motorway and the railway. I heard (but didn’t see) a Dupont’s lark here two years ago in the middle of the day. Today, as last year I heard only silence.
We went on towards the railway and took a cami rural off to the left, which took us under the railway and northwards for a field before turning east along the bottom of an escarpment. The first field brought us lesser kestrels, Calandra Lark and a pale-throated male black eared wheatear (almost as pretty as the black-throated version that also abounds here). A little further on a male Spectacled Warbler showed in scrub at the bottom of the scarp. Moving further on and turning right at a T junction the road started to climb the slope where we saw a bird in flight display above the road in front of the car. It settled next to the gate to the small reservoir and revealed itself as a second male spectacled warbler. Next was our first Stock Dove and one of the many Thekla larks we were to see. At the top of the scarp we turned south-west and almost immediately my wife saw a large bird flying low, left to right about 4-500 yards away. Stop the car, out with the bins, Golden Eagle in the bag. (My wife did the same thing in this area a couple of years ago, spotting a golden eagle as it took off only a hundred yards from the car – could be the same bird?)
A little further along the track and we came across a mixed flock of finches and three Turtle Doves that flew down from some wires into some of the rare bush-cover in the area. Further along we added Griffon Vulture and Chough to the list. Yet another marsh harrier passed by. Low scrub as we crossed back over the railway line on a bridge gave us Lesser Short-toed Lark. We carried on south, rejoining the main N11 road at a picnic area some 4km west of Candasnos at the same time as a Red Kite flew overhead.
We then headed west to the Laguna de la Playa to have our sandwiches for lunch in the wild hope that we might repeat an experience of last year.
(A brief aside about Dupont’s larks, which are as everyone knows, nocturnal and crepuscular. Further north from Candasnos there is another cami rural, of which more later. Following the experience of 2005 (when we heard a Dupont’s from the nearby roadside north of Candasnos), we had taken this track in 2006 and after half a km stopped to scan the fields for bustards or sandgrouse. As I got out of the car I heard another Dupont’s lark singing from the bank just above us! Two in the middle of the day in consecutive years only a mile apart!
It was to get better. I returned to the same spot a couple of days later to hear another burst of song and I looked up to see a Dupont’s lark bounce overhead before dropping onto the top if the bank and scurrying away to dissolve into a clump of thyme as I watched through my bins. At last I could tick it.
Not finished yet. The next day we came up through Caspe into Los Monegros and went cross country to a place that was just along the road from Laguna de la Playa. We stopped at the ruin at the west end of the dried up lake to eat lunch and I got out of the car to kick some scrub next to the old Salinas below. As I walked across the hard lake bed I was amazed to see twenty yards in front of me a second Dupont’s lark giving a workable impression of a clockwork mouse as it scurried across the lake bed, running to take cover in the scrub I was approaching. Two in two days, in the middle of the day. As I said before not all the larks have read the books).
Brief aside over. This was the experience it would have been nice to repeat this trip. Of course it was not to be. For the first time there was actually some water in the lake, albeit only in a few small pools. These had attracted about a dozen greenshank, which were about the only birds on offer, other than a Southern Grey Shrike.
After our lunch we tracked back to Candasnos, went north again and checked the pool just past the railway, where a Little Ringed Plover strutted its stuff. We carried on, turning right onto the second cami rural beyond the railway – a road I have come to love after a great couple of days birding along it last year. We stopped at the spot where I’d seen my first Dupont’s lark in 2006 more in hope than expectation to hear nothing – except the bubbling call of five Black-bellied Sandgrouse as they flew off over a barley field to the south. Beyond this the road turns south and down, passing beneath the railway again, where I got out to scan the area. I could hear the calls of another group of black-bellied sandgrouse behind a low raised field edge behind me so I drove a way up a track heading west in the hope of getting a view of them, discovering in the process a new patch of good looking scrub habitat that I hadn’t known about. Here two Stone Curlews and a Northern Wheatear were added to the list. Coming back down I stopped to look for the sandgrouse, but my attention was taken by the most curious spectacle, a giant white feather duster was traveling through the air 40 feet up, across the track before us, propelled by a wholly artificial looking wingbeat. Nothing in nature flies like that. The black head at the front looked like it had been put on by an amateur also, altogether un-natural. It flew on for a couple of hundred yards where it dropped to land in the edge of a barley field, where only the black artificial head showed before it melted into the grass. Somebody was having a laugh. It couldn’t be a Little Bustard, because little bustards don’t exist except in myth.
While the shock of finally seeing one of the little b’s was still sinking in the group of 4 sandgrouse I’d actually been looking for broke cover and headed off in the same direction as the myth. “Whey ye bugger!” as we say in these parts.
On we went along the cami, which I found out last year eventually comes out at Ballobar.
A group of sparrows by the roadside turned out to be a mix of house sparrows and Rock Sparrows. A Short-toed Eagle sat on a rock long enough for me to get a few photos while it preened. I bided my time and got a final shot just as it took off towards me. A Little Owl watched us pass from one of the many ruined farm buildings that litter the area. Last year it seemed as if every ruin had a little owl (except one that served as a perch for two rollers). This year we only saw one. A great spotted cuckoo took a dust bath on the ground next to the track ahead, but it departed when I thought that it might make a good subject for a photo or two. I drove on slowly past low barley with the car windows open, despite complaints from the passenger seat about the cold and I was rewarded as we passed a patch of herbs about the size of a tennis court. From a distance so close it sounded as if the bird were sitting on the wing mirror, the loud, drawn out “ tree-weeuuih” (as Collins has it) of the second phrase of a Dupont’s Lark call. I stopped the car. It couldn’t be dawn, nor dusk. No it was precisely 2.14 pm. Although the area of herbs was so small three-quarters of an hour of searching did not reveal the bird, although at intervals there were further snippets of song – just phrases, never the full song, unlike when I’d heard it on the other occasions. I’d already had views of one last year, so this time, unlike in 2005 I was happy to tick the song. This tiny patch of habitat amongst the barley illustrates what a great place for birds this area is. As well as the invisible Dupont’s lark it held highly visible lesser short-toed larks, Thekla larks, Calandra larks and corn buntings.
The Dupont was still calling when I popped back an hour and three-quarters later.
Onward towards Ballobar without any new birds until we came down off the plateau past a bee-eater colony into the river valley west of the village. Here we saw Sparrowhawk, and doubling back along the dried river Blue Rock Thrush, but no sign of black wheatear.
Time to go home, but on the way out of Ballobar it was interesting to see that the garage workshop that stood beneath the cliff at the edge of the village was now only partly standing under the cliff, a large part of which had come down through the roof. A van stood in the garage with a rock as big as itself rearranging its upper profile.
Passing Garcia on the way back a Hobby flew along the river next to the road as we passed.
Total species so far – 120. Lifers 1.
Day 5. Wednesday 2nd May 2007.
Weather. Fine, 25 deg.
Ebro Delta, South side
My wife declared a girl’s day off to spend sunbathing on the terrace and pottering around the shops, so I set off early alone for the delta, arriving at Riet Vell hide by 9am, still hoping for a show by the little crakes. After the chill and cloud of the day before, today was beautiful, clear and calm (wind got up in the afternoon). The water was like a mirror and the only sounds were the calls of the birds. Bliss.
The birds were much as they had been on Sunday, save that the pratincoles were now hawking over the water, swooping in front of the hide. A squacco heron rested on a pole and two glossy ibises wandered about almost within spitting distance of the hide. New birds were Shoveler and a pair of Little Bittern that flopped into the reeds 50 yards away. A cuckoo moved around for an hour or so, adding its own bit to the proceedings. Three hours of peace later, I reluctantly gave up on the crakes for the time being and moved off.
The trip along the north side of El Clot produced a Reed Bunting, but the tower hide there wasn’t available for a stop today because of two van-loads of workmen. The tower between El Clot and L’Encanyissada added a Reed Warbler, while the reeling of a Savi’s warbler was audible over the sound of water running through the sluice. The defunct salt pans on the south side of the road past La Tancada held Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stints, Ringed Plover and Dunlin. A stop at the big white shed to scan the tern roost on the main lake gave Sandwich Tern, little tern, and towering over the sandwich terns, not to mention the little terns were four more Caspian terns.
Next I took to the beach, having an entertaining ten minute’s drive on the hard-packed sand road along the spit towards Punta de la Banya, collecting more slender-billed gulls and Kentish Plover on the way. A mile walk from the car park along the beach brought me to the fence beyond which none may pass and the substantial wood tower hide that overlooks the breeding colonies on the salinas. Here were Sanderling, Oystercatcher, Common Tern, Avocet, Shelduck, hundreds of flamingos, Audouins gulls, slender-billed gulls and out at sea a Balearic Shearwater passed by.
Passing north past La Tancada’s eastern side produced another great white egret and the reddest (or orangest – take your pick) greater flamingo I’ve ever seen. As I scanned the lake I overlooked the bird for a moment, thinking it was a discarded traffic cone or other debris on the opposite bank.
I then set off for the Illa de Buda, collecting a small flock of wagtails on the way, Blue-headed Wagtails of the Iberian race with an Ashy-headed Wagtail. This was only the second ashy-head I’ve seen, the first being on the Northumberland coast over 20 years ago. A Green Sandpiper flew up from a roadside ditch. The tower at Illa de Buda added 3 Spoonbill. Home for dinner.
Species so far, 139 (140 if you count the Ashy headed wagtail).
Day 6. Thursday, 3rd May 2007.
Weather. Dull am, 15 deg. Wet pm, 10deg
South along the Ebro to Els Ports and beyond
After a brief spell of summer yesterday, winter returned today we set off on what was initially intended to be a shortish trip, but a bit of optimistic map reading extended it into the northern tip of Valencia. I had intended to go to Els Ports de Beceite, but in the event I got diverted on the plain beneath the mountains and eventually headed off to the neighbouring Els Ports – Maestrat over the border in Valencia.
We started off with a short trip along the river from Mora to the imposing Knights Templar castle at Miravet. Two years ago the castle wall above the car-park held a breeding colony of rock sparrows, last year I saw none. Today there was one on the wall overlooking the bend in the river during our brief visit. We also had out first Crag Martin of the trip. We pressed on over the back road, joining the main road at Benifallet and following it to Roquetes, where we turned west to head towards Mont Caro in the Els Ports de Beceite. On the way the road crosses a concrete storm intercept channel shown on the maps as the Canal de Xerta (although in reality it comes to an end just south-west of Xerta). A road runs alongside this canal (that contains no water) and crosses several dry stream valleys on the back of the aqueducts built to carry the drain. The groves alongside the canal gave us Cirl Bunting, Chaffinch, Orphean Warbler, woodchat shrike and Thekla lark. The gathering cloud around the tops made it a waste of time to press on back to Mont Caro, so we kept going south towards the El Maestrat mountains west of the village of Cati. Doing so moved us into an area that I hadn’t visited before and also into an area of rain where the temperature plunged from the dizzy high of 15 that we had enjoyed at 10am to 10 degrees by mid afternoon. Despite this we picked up a few new birds. Stonechat* near Anroig, and on the northern outskirts of Cati a pair of Montagu’s Harriers flying together. We followed the road up from Cati to where it ended in the village of L’Avella., gathering views of Short-toed Lark, Tawny Pipit and another male Monty on the way. By now the rain was becoming persistent, but in the hope that it would pass over we went through Cati and headed uphill for Tirig and over to Sant Mateu. The rain didn’t pass until after we had, but nevertheless this bit of road got us two more buzzards, a couple of ravens and a pair of Goshawk. Near Sant Mateu I went along a track in open wood, but saw nothing more than a Sardinian warbler, a host of the ubiquitous serins and female Monty that was showing no sign of a ringtail, presumably because it was too sodden from the constant rain. Home for dinner to find that back in Catalonia north of the delta the sun was shining.
* I don’t know what it is with Stonechats in this part of Spain. Down in Andalucia they are perching on every available bush, but up here they are few and far between.
Species so far, 148