Hello!
I’m just back from my holiday in the north of Spain after
some time without going out birdwatching.
From the three weeks, I spent one with my dad in the Valle
de Echo in the western Pyrenees and two more with both my parents in Asturias.
On the journey to the Pyrenees (14/07/12) we crossed the
Lleida steppes (where I saw a White Stork from the car) and made a stop at the
Mallos de Riglos. These are some very impressive walls in northern Aragón with
birds like Red-Billed Chough, Griffon Vulture, Raven, Egyptian Vulture, Red
Kite...).
Mallos de Riglos
We arrived at the Valle de Echo and made ourselves
comfortable on the camping site some km far from Echo.
On Sunday 15th we made some “warm up” walks at the Selva
d’Oza (a very interesting forest) and the Garganta del Infierno. At the Selva
d’Oza (at a river of course) I saw my first Dipper of the year which flew past
me like a bullet, in the river I also found Grey Wagtail and in the area I saw
my first spanish Red-Backed Shrike!
Castillo d'Acher
Yellow-Billed Chough
Our first important excursion came on my birthday (16/07/12)
with a walk to the Ibón de Estanés (1925m). It started at the end of the Echo
Valley and got into a secondary valley called Aguastuertas. From Aguastuertas
we continued to a mountain port from which you could see a really beautiful lake
(Ibón de Estanés).
On the way up many Egyptian Vultures showed, some Black
Redstarts and a Wheatear. We had been hearing Marmots all day and on the way
down I finally saw one, I could even approach enough to take an acceptable
picture.
Valle de Aguas Tuertas
Marmot
Ibón d'Estanés
Female Wheatear
The next day we decided to climb up to the Ibón d’Acherito
(another mountain lake). This walk was shorter than Estanés but it had a bigger
difficulty. In Acherito we didn’t see anything special, the usual mountain
species (Black-Redstart, Choughs, Raven, Yellowhammer, Crag Martin).
Pyrenean Brook Salamander???
Ibón d'Acherito
The following days were really hot, so we didn’t climb more,
but I still saw some interesting species; at the village of Echo a Booted Eagle
flew over us, we heard a Black Woodpecker from the campingsite and I observed a
Crested Tit in a Pine Tree.
After almost a week at the Echo Valley we sterted our
journey to the north. We had to stop in Bilbao cause my mother was coming by
plane, but we had an entire day until that happened. We decided to sleep in
Pamplona and to visit the canyons of Lumbier and Arbayún.
We started with the Foz De Arbayún, the most impressive one.
From a plattform, we could easily watch Griffon Vultures, both Kites, Egyptian
Vulture and Booted and Snake Eagles. There were also many Alpine Swifts and
Crag Martins.
Foz de Arbayún
Griffon Vultures
Griffon Vulture
Egyptian Vulture
Short-Toed Snake Eagle
Black Kite
The Foz de Lumbier also produced very nice observations. The
Vultures flew really close to people and many other raptors were present.
Appart from the usual Kites and Vultures a Hobby showed quickly and another
unidentified falcon (prob. a Hobby) flew past.
On the way back from Lumbier, across a bush landscape I saw
a semi-lifer (already observed it but hadn’t identified it), a female Cirl
Bunting from which I show you some photos.
Raven
Griffon Vultures
Cirl Bunting
We picked up my mum and headed west to the western coast of
Asturias (Luarca), remaining there for five days. We spent a couple of days
there visiting beaches mainly, but also did a visit to Cape Busto, with some
observations of Shags, Kestrels and Gulls.
Kestrel
After the west coast we went back to the eastern coast
(Ribadesella), also visiting beaches. The best observation from these days was
a group of 20 migrating Curlews from a cape in a day where we also saw a quite
big (40-50cm), unidentified snake.
The last part of our holidays were spent in the Picos de
Europa, where I saw some alpine species that I hadn’t seen in the Pyrenees.
On the first day there, we climbed up from Poncebos to
Bulnes (one of the last villages in Spain that hasn’t got a road). On this
hike, I could see my first Citril Finch of the year and a very impressive
scene: a Golden Eagle attacked by a group of aprox. 50 Alpine Choughs.
Picu Uriellu (Naranjo de Bulnes) 2519m
We didn’t like the hostel in Bulnes so we decided to get to
Poncebos the next day and find a nice campingsite. We found one in Arenas de
Cabrales and decided to do other hikes in the area the following days. At the
camping site I had one of the best birds of the trip, a Nuthatch, my first for
Spain.
Finally, on the 2nd and 3rd August we went to a place that I
really enjoyed, it was called Vega de Sotres, and it had an important
population of the best bird from the trip, Rock Thrush. Vega de Sotres is a
little village which is only inhabited by a couple of cows and some Chicken. It’s
walls and roofs are an ideal place to see Rock Thrush, Wheatears, Stonechats
and even Red-Billed Chough. Alpine Choughs were also present but didn’t get too
close to the village. I saw again the scene with the Golden Eagle and the
Choughs.
Rock Thrush
Moon
Rock Thrush
Red-Billed Chough
Linnet
I hope you enjoyed my report, now I’m spending two weeks in
Germany with my grandma and then I’ll be one week at the Delta de l’Ebre doing
some volunteer work.
