Our Country Cousins

Every day here in Asturias we’re seeing and hearing stacks of Redstarts. There’s at least one pair nesting in every village we visit. It’s a real delight because back in Villanueva de La Vera (Cáceres) we have to hike 2 hours uphill to find one. Here are a few snaps taken in the nearby village of Bode.

A WEEKEND OF CONTRASTS

Saturday was a long trudge. We walked up from our own house, at a height of 500 m, to about 1200 m in search of our favourite middle-altitude hillside birds: Pied Flycatcher and Redstart. It was very hard going, walking through virgin brush and rock without trails and with a final slope of about 50%. But it was all worth while because we found 10 pairs of Pied Flycachers on the way up and then two gorgeous male Redstarts singing at the top of the climb where the oakwood thins out.

Sunday was a lazier day. We drove to the Llanos de Cáceres to see the grassland species. In the nestboxes hanging from the telegraph posts we saw 6 species nesting: Spotless Starling, Jackdaw, Common Kestrel, Lesser Kestrel, Little Owl and, the most beautiful of all, the Roller with its spectacular display flights. In all we saw about a dozen Rollers.

And here's a photo of the Little Owl.

We found another Montagu’s Harrier Colony and I got this snap of a quartering male:

Among other raptors we saw a young Bonelli's Eagle at dawn and an adult at midday. The big grassland species put in quite a good showing, with about 8 Great Bustards, some doing their courtship ritual, 2 Stone Curlews, singing at times, and loads of Quail singing - and, miraculously we even managed to see one! Little Bustards were everywhere but we never managed to catch one glimpse. A flock of 3 Black-Bellied Sandgrouse flew over but we didn’t see any Pintailed Sandgrouse.

As for the small grassland species, Calandra Larks were always up the sky singing, accompanied lower down by Thekla Larks, Crested Larks and Corn Buntings, with their indefatigable jangle. Here’s one at it:

Two very different days but both splendid in their different ways.

Today (Monday) I'll be going up to the Gredos mountain range to see if there's any luck with the high mountain species. I'll let you know how it goes.