Lynne and I had decided on a short break to Spain in the hope of some decent weather and a bit of birding, and we thought that the Valencia/Alicante region had much to offer. We had heard good things about Oliva Rama Tours – a company who offer accommodation and birdwatching breaks – so our decision was an easy one.
Olivaramatours is run by Jules Sykes, who has been resident in the area for a number of years and knows the area very well – not only does he know the birds, but he knows where to find them as well! Jules is a great bloke and he will leave no stone unturned to make your birding break a memorable one and to try to deliver on target species etc. We only had 2 days paid birdwatching with Jules, but he took us out for short trips to some of the local areas on 2 other days as well, to try to help us connect with Moustached Warbler. This is typical of the care and enthusiasm that Jules brings to his work, and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend www.olivaramatours.com to anyone thinking of a great break in this bird-rich area.
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We flew Easyjet from Gatwick to Valencia and hired a car through a company called Centauro. Prices for the car were good, but a word of warning….. their terms of business are that they charge you for a full tank of fuel (at inflated prices!) and expect you to bring the car back empty. This would probably not be easy to achieve at the best of times, but we did little mileage – being ferried around by Jules most of the time – so we ended up giving them back half-a-tank of free fuel and no refund. This made it decidedly NOT a cheap car-hire!!
Oliva is just about an hour down the toll motorway from Valencia so we arrived at the pension without incident, to be greeted by Jules who showed us to our comfortable room.
After dumping our stuff off, we fancied a little walk to stretch our legs after the journey so (typically) Jules gave us some gen and maps for some good birding spots down by the beach, so we were able to clock up Grey Wagtail, Spotless Starling, Ring-necked Parakeet, Black Redstart and Sanderling in a short walk before it got dark.
Day 1 – 20th October
Plans for today were a full day’s birding with Jules on the steppe area near Petrola – Lynne had not seen any of the main steppe species and I had dipped on Pin-tailed Sandgrouse in Extremadura in Spring, so the pressure was on for poor Jules!
The area that we had in mind was just over an hour from Oliva (and approx 1,000m higher) so an early start found us winding our way up through the hills in gloomy conditions, before stopping for an excellent coffee to kick-start the system.
First port-of-call was an area just off the motorway where Jules had seen some Little Bustards recently. None to be seen today, but we did get excellent views of mixed flocks of Corn Buntings and Rock Sparrows (best I’d ever seen these handsome birds) as well as Hoopoe, Southern Grey Shrike, stunning views of a male Merlin and several Kestrels, which had to be closely grilled in the slim hope that we might find a late Lesser Kestrel – but no joy.
A feature for me was the number of Calandra Larks in this area – I’d seen these before and would have expected to see them here, but not in these numbers where we saw several large flocks, probably totalling several hundred birds – a very impressive sight as they were wheeling around, showing off their black and white underparts in the sunshine which was just starting to break through.
We then proceeded to drive a number of small roads and rough tracks in the area, and as is often the case when birding in Spain, it is tempting to stop the car every few hundred yards as some other potentially interesting sighting presents itself. In this way, we spotted several Stonechats perched up and a single Northern Wheatear, before seeing our first Great Bustards – a group of 3 at quite close range who stayed put as we got out of the car and set up a scope for some good views.
A bit further along, we saw another larger group of 17 Great Bustards and at a nearby pool, our first 3 Black-bellied Sandgrouse (which I initially called as Grey Plover - the shame!!!). On the pool itself we saw a flock of a dozen or so Greater Flamingoes, several Lapwing and a Green Sandpiper.
Jules has got sharp eyes, and was soon screeching to a halt at the sight of something interesting in a nearby field. We could definitely see that they were Sandgrouse, but they were a fair way off and all resolutely sitting with their backs to us. A little bit of patience and they started to move around and feed and we were able to confirm 12 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse – cheers all round, as this was our #1 target for the day ticked off. Two birds seen in flight disappearing over the brow of a hill were suspected to be Stone Curlews, and a similar sighting on a subsequent day enabled us to confirm this to be the case.
Had a nice (large!) lunch in Petrola compliments of Jules and then it was off to the local Laguna which seemingly held every Mallard in Spain, plus a few Shoveller, Pintail and Teal. A group of waders at one end proved to be mainly Dunlin and Kentish Plover, and Jules spotted a Black-winged Stilt disappearing behind some reeds.
Several more stops were made during the afternoon and we ended up with final totals of 66 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, 25 Black-bellied and 49 Great Bustards – a great day!!
Hi Ruby
I have just been reading your trip from another angle - Jule's diary!
Its really good to see both sides. It didn't dawn on me as I read that it was yourself - funny I always think of you as Ruby and not Ray!
I will agree with you and thoroughly recommend Jules to anybody thinking of doing what you did...a few days in Espana with a couple of days with Jules.
I've spent several day and longer trips with Jules and he is a great bloke, top birder and nothing is too much trouble for him. He really wants you to see all the birds.You have a target? He goes the extra mile or 6.Best of all when you do connect it is usually for good views.
I am looking forward to the rest of your trip reports.
Great first installment Ray, the pleasure was all mine.
Please don't leave out that you and Lynne (aka Hawkeye) actually found plenty of birds yourselves.
The Hoopoe photo is brilliant, definitely a good piece of digi-scoping that.
Take care and thanks for the recommendation.
All the best Jules