Hi,
Those of you of a certain age (and with too much time on your hands!) may recall my inaugural trip to Extremadura in May 2007... I was so taken by this experience that myself and 3 friends decided to repeat the trip this year and take in some more of the fantastic scenery, countryside and birdlife that this country has to offer.
Itinerary this time was slightly different – we were to fly into Alicante and stay in Oliva with Jules Sykes of Olivaramatours.com for 3 days coastal birding, before moving off to Extremadura for 4 days with an overnight stop-over at Calera y Chozas to break up the journey and to enjoy another fantastic area which we felt that we had under-done last time.
We would then fly home via the Gredos mountains and Madrid airport.
Weather throughout the holiday was mixed, with a few sunny days, a few days of heavy rain and quite a few days that were chilly and gloomy. Dawn was about 7:00am and dusk at about 21:30.
All admin for the holiday worked fine – flights were OK and we hired a Citroen Berlingo in order to cope with our waistlines, optics and luggage... which was fine, assuming that you enjoy driving a wardrobe!! At least it did cope admirably with some of the dodgy roads. It did occur to me that there must be a gap in the market for a car/van specifically designed for birdwatching-type holidays – they could probably call it a Citroen Wagtail (geddit!)
Anyway – I digress.... We arrived with Jules late morning, so after we had dealt with a great lunch that he had provided for us at the pension, we decided to head out and do some birding...
Day 1 – 6th May - Oliva Area
About 25km or so S of Oliva is an area of pine forest, low scrub and a large rocky outcrop called Montgo – this was our first stop. On emerging from the car all seemed quiet at first with little activity beyond the droning of insects in the heat of the early afternoon. A bit of persistence on our part and we soon started to pick up a few bits and bobs in amongst the pine scrub – Pied and Spotted Flycatcher, Common Redstart and Cuckoo being notable. A Woodchat Shrike was perching on a particularly attractive looking dead tree and we were all looking at it when it was evicted from its perch by a female-type Golden Oriole – a nice ‘scope-double’ we thought.
Emerging into more open country, we added Whinchat, Stonechat, Sardinian, Fan-tailed and Dartford Warblers to the list and Raven, Red-billed Chough, Peregrine and Woodlark all passed over. A medium sized Falcon was seen distantly but we couldn’t nail the id... but I think that we established later on that it was almost certainly an Eleanora’s but we couldn’t really tick it.
There were also quite a few butterflies flying about and I photographed a few of them – later to be identified as Spanish Gatekeeper, Ilex Hairstreak and Blue-spot Hairstreak.. this latter of some interest since none of the 4 of us or Jules had ever heard of it!
Next stop was the coast at the Cabo San Antoni where we couldn’t see anything moving at sea other than a few Yellow-legged Gulls. We did see a fine pair of Black Wheatear though and also a pair of Blue Rock Thrush. A colony of Pallid Swifts live in a cave here and we enjoyed fantastic views of these and their common cousins emerging from the cliffs below our feet.
Time was pressing, and we wanted to have a look around Pego Marsh before dinner. This is a wonderful network of drivable tracks, waterways and agricultural fields set around a massive reedbed and never disappoints when it comes to birds. Today was no exception and we added Squacco, Purple and Grey Herons, Little, Cattle and Great White Egret, Glossy Ibis, Little Bittern, Osprey, Whiskered Tern, Audouin’s Gull, Marbled Teal, Wood Sandpiper, Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers and Nightingale as notable ticks before it got too dark to bird any more!
We had also seen quite a few good birds from the car, notably Monk Parakeets, Red-rumped Swallow, Bee-eater and Hoopoe, so we had had a good day and retired to the local tapas bar to preen and take on fluids....
....to be continued.....
Great start to your trip Ray,
Looking forward to the next instalment.
Regards
John
Hi Ray
Literally just back from the Pyrenees having had a fantastic week despite some interesting weather!!!. Everything went to plan, which was alledgedly more luck than management and I cannot really argue this point.
Anyway my friend very good to see you and your pals, very much looking forward to reading the rest of this epic.
All the best Jules