Great weekend

This was a great weekend for me. I did two trips, one to a pelagic on Tarragona and one to Remolar-Filipines.
On saturday, my mum and me took the 7:33 am train and traveled to Tarragona. Once there, we took the boat and we started to sail. on the harbour we saw a Shag, a quite unusual species. We continued and reached the end of the harbour, there, the guides started throwing the fish they had brought to attract birds. The first Audouin and Mediterranean Gulls started following us. After some time, the first Shearwaters and Common Terns joined the Gulls. We continued sailing until someone shouted "Reed Warbler". I found it a bit strange as we were some miles to the nearest coast. I asked where it was, looking at some point of the sea until someone told me that I should look at the ships antennae. There was a very tired Reed Warbler indeed. Someone managed to capture it after it had been sitting a while on a man's shoulder. They put it in a bag and released it once we were at land.
I asked my mother for the camera to make some pictures of the gulls. When I had just returned it to her, observing a Shearwater, a guide localised two Puffins,  a scarce species in the Mediterranean and a lifer to me.
After some time, we had seen a lot of species, including some Storm Petrels, Cory's Shearwater, a Great Skua and a couple of Parasitic Skuas but the main attraction of this trip, the Pomarine Skua hadn't shown yet. I asked my mum for the camera again and went down to the inferior level to make some shots of the Shearwaters an then finally the Pomarine Skuas appeared. Three at the same time were following the boat, and we could localise another one. I made a lot of shots of this really beautiful birds. They followed us almost until we reached the harbour where they was another Shag.


On sunday, I went to the Remolar Filipines reserve. I took my mum's camera, who wasn't coming with us. As I was walking to the hides I heard a very familiar and nice noise, Bee-eaters. At the hides there wasn't much going on except for some Collared Pratincoles, some Litlle Terns and some Little Grebes who had their babies. There were also Squacco Heron, Hoopoe, Purple Gallinule and some others.
After the hides we went to the beach, but there were only some Terns.

 Common Tern

 Audouin's Gull

 Balearic Shearwater

 Pomarine Skua

 Yellow Wagtail

 Black Winged Stilt

 Little Grebe

Delta del Llobregat 07/05/2011

Yesterday I was in Cal Tet again, looking for the Smew that had been seen this week.
I asked at the information point but they told me the bird hadn't been observed this day. I went to the Cal Tet hide and I mounted my scope. There weren't so many birds as last week but it still was nice. There was a Great Crested Grebe only a few meters from the hide, a Gull-Billed Tern, some Geese and even a Purple Heron flew past.
After some time observing and taking photos of the swallows I decided to go to the beach observation tower. On the way, you go paralel to the rivermouth. As I was walking there, I saw two birds flying very close to me, they were terns. I looked with my binoculars and I could ID them as Black Terns, a lifer. I climbed up to the tower and started looking. There were some waders, like Dunlins, Grey Plovers or Oystercatchers and some Ducks.

 Barn Swallow

 Black Tern

 Coot

Great Crested Grebe

Delta del Llobregat 30/04/2011

Yesterday I was at Cal Tet.
I went looking for the Laughing Dove which had been seen.
When I arived, I looked at the place where it had been seen, but I din't see it. I continued. I asked at the information center for what I could see, and I was told that there were some flooded meadows, where I could see waders.
Once there, I started to look. I saw lots of Squacco Herons and Cattle Egrets. I also saw a Purple Heron. I continued looking and I saw some waders like Redshank, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Ruff, and much others.
I continued and arrived at the Cal Tet hide, where I spent the rest of the afternoon. There were a lot of species, including some very nice ones, like Spoonbill, Temminck Stint, Sand Martins, Purple Gallinule, Oystercatcher...After some time I noticed the first Whiskered Terns of the year. A Great Crested Grebe showed very well too. While observing a pair of Whiskered Terns, I noticed a strange Tern. I looked and found it very dark for Whiskered. It was a White Winged Tern, a lifer, I was very surprised by this, because I didn't expect it here. It's a rare bird in Spain.
Finally I also saw a very nice male Garganey.

     Great Crested Grebe

                                                                        Oystercatcher

                                                                            Sand Martin

                                                                           Spoonbills

                                                                   Squacco Heron

                                                                  White Winged Tern

First common swift at school

Today at maths I could observe the first common swift of the year at my school.

Alpine Swifts

I hate finishing early an exam. You hand it out to the teacher and you must wait and bore all the rest of the time.
Yesterday, I had a french exam, it all went well and I had some time. Luckily, I was sitting next to the window so I could see the playground. Suddendly, some birds appeared, Alpine Swifts, which I sometimes see at my school. I observed them some time and I noticed that some of them stopped at their nests, which were in the building next to the playground. I localised three or four nests, so I'll be able to do something in boring classes and exams ;)
I also saw twice today a pair of Jackdaws which are always around school.
It was a good day :)

Delta del Llobregat 27/03/2011

Last sunday I went to the Delta del Llobregat to look after the Lesser Scaup (which finally didn't show up) that had been seen.
On the way to the hides, there were some interesting species like Little Grebe or Red Crested Pochard.
I went first to the Bassa dels pollancres hide (where the Lesser Scaup had been seen), but first I took a look at some wood walls with holes so you can observe. There were lots of Black-Winged Stilts and one Glossy Ibis which was only three or four meters away.
At the hide, I took my scope and started looking. There were lots of waders and ducks like Common and Red Crested Pochards, Dunlins, Temminck's Stint, Little Ringed Plover and much others...
After some time in the hide, a man told me there was a Jack Snipe on the Maresma hide, so I went there. Unluckily, once there, we dind't find it. At the maresma hide there wasn't much activity, but after some time I had discovered Avocets, Garganey, Black-Necked Grebe and Audouin's Gull.
Finally we went to the beach, but there weren't any birds except for a group of Sanderlings.

 

Delta del Llobregat 20/03/2011

Last sunday (20/03/2011) I went to the Delta del Llobregat (Remolar-Filipines).
It was a very nice day. We parked and we started to walk. On the way to the hides I saw some Little Grebes Red Crested Pochard and some Cetti's Warblers.
At the information pointI asked if there was something interesting, but they didn't report anything special.
We first went to the Bassa de Pollancres hide, but there wasn't anything special, so we moved on to the aguait de la Maresma.
At the aguait de la Maresma, I saw some interesting stuff, like the first Avocets and Black-Winged Stilts of the year. There were some other waders too like Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Common and Spotted Redshanks...
A Sparrowhawk flew past and flushed some birds. While looking with the the scope at some Shelducks, I found something weird. A garganey (later I found five males), I love these ducks.
Some time later I noticed something at the end of the lagoon, medium-sized and brown. Glossy Ibis.
Finally we went to the beach, to look for some Razorbills. Tere wasn't anything on the sea except for two Great Crested Grebes. While I was leaving, I took a last look. There was a larger group. I observed it with the scope and I noticed there weren't only Great Crested Grebes, it was a mixt group with two Velvet Scoters.

Latest sightings

On the past days, I haven't been birding, but I've got some nice observations.
On sunday I went to Tarragona with some family's friends. After having dinner we did a little walk and I saw my first Barn Swallows and House Martins of the year. They were already bringing material to the nests. After some time, I noticed two huge birds flying. I looked with the binoculars and...Cranes! I hadn't expected them there.
Yesterday, I was in school. I looked out of the window and I saw the first Alpine Swift of the year. After observing it some time, i noticed two other birds. Jackdaws, there's always a pair around my school but I hadn't seen them in long time.

Aigüamolls de l'Empordà

Yesterday I went to the Aigüamolls de l'Empordà with my dad.
We made a whole day trip and we also visited the abocador de Pedret, where Rough-Legged Buzzard and Sea Eagle had been seen.

We arrived at el Cortalet (informationand starting point from the trip) and I was informed that some Cranes passed yesterday.
First we went to a hide, very close to el Cortalet, where we saw Black-Tailed Godwit,Spotted and Common Redshanks, Ruff, other waders, some ducks, and the first Marsh Harriers of the day.
We continued and few minutes after going out of the hide we saw a little Crane group (6-8, only seen them twice before), and the usual Storks (they breed and pass the winter there, large numbers), in a field there was also a Cattle Egret on a cow.
After this, we arrived at the Estenys del Matà, where there wasn't much activity (no waders).
On a hide near them, there were two Tufted Ducks (male and female, splendid views) and a Crested Grebe.
We finally arrived at the beach, where we had lunch, and we stayed at an observation tower some time.
I was looking at the sea for Shearwaters or Razrbills when I suddendly saw to big birds swimming, i focused my scope and Arctic Divers!
After looking at them some time, we decided to walk along the beach one the search of waders, which we found. There was a little mixt group with Sanderling, Grey Plover and Dunlin, and some other 4-5 bird groups of Kentish and Great-Ringed Plover.
The way back hadn't a lot of birds, because we had to hurry if we wanted to go to the abocador de Pedret.
While we were driving, I saw Black Kite and Merlin (a female or a young bird sitting on an electric cable).
Unfortunately, at the abocador we didn't see anything. There was a raptor sitting on a trash mountain, but it flew away before we could ID it.

Pelagic from Tarragona

Finally birding again!
During winter, autumn and spring, aproximately once a month the Gepec organizes a little Pelagic from the Tarragona harbour.
The last one was the 26/02 and here's the report.
I arrived at the train station with my mother and we met some birding friends. We walked to the harbour (which is very near to the station).
We went on board and, some minutes later we sailed out of the harbour.
There had been seen a Bonaparte's Gull very close to there but unfortunately it didn't show up.
The guides had brought fish for the gulls and soon we had a big amount of them following the ship.
Only a few minutes later the first Gannet appeared, and started folowing the ship, some time later we had about fivo or six behind us. one Great Skua showed itself too.
It wasn't a very good time for Shearwaters and we only saw one single Balearic.
The other most important species we saw were Audouin's Gull, Herring Gull (scarce in the Mediterranean), Mediterranean Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Collared Dove...