GREENER GRASS

I suppose we always think the grass is greener on the other side of the street, so for some time now I’ve been eaten up with jealousy reading Ernesto Villodas’s Cantabria blog NO SIN MIS PRISMÁTICOS because of all the stuff he sees up north. But we should also appreciate our own backyard and it wasn’t too bad this morning in Rosarito with the first summer visitors arriving and the first songsters warming up. After the clouds cleared away there were lovely views against the backdrop of Gredos.

As for birds there wasn’t even one Crane left, but we did see 46 Pintail, 7 Spoonbill, a V of 42 greylags migrating overhead, 2 Bullfinches, Chiffchaffs hawking for insects and a beautiful Otter swimming along the river. The first Little Ringed Plovers were calling and one did a lovely display with its tail spread out.

FAREWELL CRANES

This morning we went to the tail end of Rosarito reservoir, arriving just before dawn with Little Owl calling and cranes trumpeting. A group of about 150 grullas flew right over our heads at first light (spinechilling). As the day waxed we saw 1 Sparrow Hawk, 20+ Pintail, 10 Little Stint, a mixed flock of 80 Spanish Sparrow / Rock Sparrow, 1 Bullfinch (heard), 6 Greylags, 1 Great White Egret and about 500 Cranes in all, some of the last of the year. But the weirdest bird of the morning was a leucistic Great Spotted Woodpecker. Its plumage had the normal pattern and even the red underbelly but all the parts that are normally black were a milky brown colour. I paste below a testimonial photo so you can see how strange it looked. After it flew off a Wryneck arrived in the same tree but, idiot that I am, I had already put away the camera becuase of the bad light...

Leucistic Great Spotted Woodpecker

Then we went to a nearby lake where we saw Cranes doing their mating dance, something we always love to watch

Cranes doing their mating dance

Some of the first Swallows

Southern Grey Shrike

SERENDIPITOUS GOOSANDER IN MONFRAGÜE

Here in Villanueva de la Vera we live only one hour from Monfragüe nature reserve and usually go there quite often.

This morning we got to La Portilla at dawn with Blue Rock Thrush singing (not much, as yet) and a magnificent background din of trumpeting Cranes. An Imperial Eagle was perched on one of its favourite Holm Oaks to the right. We heard another one, which soon appeared from the left with twigs in its beak and also in its claws. A Peregrine Falcon suddently appeared, to put the fear of christ into a flock of pigeons. By moving about a bit we finally managed to get splendid views of the incubating Eagle Owl on its nest.

On the way to Tajadilla we saw a big female Sparrow Hawk fly over. In Tajadilla lots of Hawfinches as usual but nothing else. In Salto del Gitano lots of Griffons, another Blue Rock Thrush singing and couple of Song Thrushes who never quite got going (they don't breed here).

After breakfasting in Villarreal de San Carlos we were passing the viewpoint called La Higuerilla, when I suddenly remembered that a female Goosander had been seen there a couple of weeks back and we stopped on spec. As soon as we stepped out of car we saw her flying across the Tiétar and then fishing in the bays at the side of the river. Even though we saw thouands of Goosdanders a day in Norway last summer we still enjoyed seeing only the second ever bird for Extremadura.

There can't be many places in the whole world where you can watch an Eagle Owl incubating on its nest, a pair of Imperial Eagles building theirs, with a Goosander fishing in the water below them.

Although visibility was poor I did manage to get a couple of shots of the Griffons in flight.

 Griffon Vulture

 Griffon Vulture gliding over the water.

Over my head

Overlap Day

 Struggling with lingering flu symptoms, we spent this morning around Valdecañas and El Gordo. It turned out to be an "overlap" day, the last wintering flocks of cranes and geese overlapping with the first swallow and the Storks already ensonced on their nests. Apart from that we saw little else, only 4 Spoonbill and assorted ducks (Pochard, Tufties, Wigeon, Shovelers and Teal). Mind you, while enjoying the antics of the Storks and their delightful bill clacking rituals, we were reminded of the woeful (in our opinion) "report" broadcast this week by the Spanish television channel La Sexta, precisely about the Storks of El Gordo, concentrating almost exclusively on the "nuisance" they cause with their "noise" and droppings. A little more objectivity wouldn't go amiss. We're not all so narrow minded, as it happens.

Anyway, if La Sexta don't like Storks, they can lump it. More photos:

                                    

PIORNAL IN THE SNOW

On Sunday we drove to Piornal in the western part of La Vera for a walk in the snow. The road up from Garganta la Olla was closed. Perfect: we could walk up without car nuisance. We saw some lovely icicle scapes on the way up.

My old man took this photo of me so you can see how handsome I am . . .

                                                   

The roadside and wood was covered in snow, as you can see from this photo.

Halfway up a mist came down, given us some unworldly images

Truth is that hillside Pyrenean oakwood in the snow in winter is not exactly the liveliest habitat. Sepulchral silence reigned (also beautiful in its own way). We only saw Chaffinches, a few Titmice,  a couple of Nuthatches and heard one Lesser Spot Pecker. This fetching little Wren in the snow did entertain us for a few minutes.

A Wild Boar also scampered past in the snow but the photo came out blurry. Better luck next time maybe.