Great Iberian adventure
Two intrepid ‘lady birders’ spent seven months travelling around Spain and Portugal by campervan, taking a whistle-stop tour of Iberian hot-spots. Sally Westwood tells the tale of their epic journey.
Two intrepid ‘lady birders’ spent seven months travelling around Spain by campervan, taking a whistle-stop tour of Iberian hot-spots. Sally Westwood tells the tale of their epic journey.
We are Sally and Stephanie, the ‘lady birders’. Back in October 2019, we headed to Europe in our campervan, determined to see as many birds as we could in a sevenmonth adventure visiting the hot-spots of Spain and Portugal. It was our Grand Iberian Birdwatching Tour and we were lucky enough to be supported by ZEISS. The journey began in northern Spain, turning right when we arrived in the country, into Santona, Cantabria. We stayed a couple of days and visited a mixture of habitats – flooded rice paddies, marshland, lagoons, woodland and coastal waters. We saw a great variety of birds, including small flocks of Greater Flamingos, Western Cattle and Little Egrets, Whimbrel, Blacktailed Godwit, Red-billed Chough, Northern Gannet and Mediterranean Gull, as well as good numbers of Zitting Cisticola and Common Kingfisher.
Next we travelled back past Santander and onwards to Galicia. It rained a lot during the three weeks we were there. We went birding around the O Grove Peninsular, a vast area of wetlands. We saw excellent numbers of waterbirds, adding Eurasian Oystercatcher and Eurasian Spoonbill to the list.
Following that wet interlude, we got back into the campervan to drive down to Portugal, stopping at a campsite near the Rio Minho on the Spanish Portuguese border. We spent a few pleasant hours watching a Western Osprey and Sandwich Terns fishing and saw a large flock of Common Waxbills in the bushes edging the river. Afterwards, we travelled back to Spain, across to Extremadura and passed through Monfragüe NP – we planned a longer stop on the way back. Here were Griffon Vultures and Blue Rock Thrushes.
Birthday treat
We decided to go across central Spain to the west in time for my birthday on 10 November. Our destination was Gallocanta, Aragon, where we saw thousands of Common Cranes return to roost at sunset to Laguna de Gallocanta. They stop off there in November and February on migration between summer and winter areas. Surrounding fields held Hen Harrier, Dupont’s Lark, Rock Sparrow, Little Bustard, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Black Redstart and Corn Bunting.
We tore ourselves away from that delightful spectacle to travel south to Delta de l’Ebre, Catalunya. Flooded rice fields here provided opportunities for viewing Glossy Ibis, Northern Lapwing, White and Black Storks, White Wagtail and Black-winged Stilt. We also watched Hoopoe and Common Chiffchaff.
A visit to the SEO’s Riet Vell nature reserve and visitor centre produced Greater Flamingo, Western Swamphen, European Serin and Bluethroat at the laguna. A short drive from the reserve brings you to Laguna de la Tancada. Huge groups of Greater Flamingos were gathered on the laguna, here. There were several Moustached Warblers in the foliage on the banks of the water channels around the laguna.
A little further on, at the spit of El Trabucador, were Caspian Tern and Audouin’s, Mediterranean, Lesser Black-backed, Yellow-legged and Slender-billed Gulls. We found more Moustached Warblers at Laguna de l’Encanyissada. This was also a good site for Bluethroat, Zitting Cisticola and Water Rail. The adjacent rice fields had Western Cattle, Great and Little Egrets, Northern Lapwing, Glossy Ibis and Black-headed Gull. If you’re planning on visiting, remember your mosquito repellent. We drove on towards Murcia, where we visited El Clot de Garney. This is a large nature reserve in a residential area. It has four hides and a small laguna. A pair of White-headed Ducks was present, along with Iberian Grey Shrike, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Western Swamphen, Hoopoe, Common Snipe and Eurasian Teal.
A trip further south took us to El Hondo de Elche, near Alicante.
This nature reserve is famous for its Marbled and White-headed Ducks, and reintroduced Red-knobbed Coot, all of which we were lucky enough to catch up with. We followed a walkway overlooking Laguna de Elche and surrounding pools. The highlight was a Pallid Harrier harassing Black-winged Stilts. We also saw Western Swamphen, Eurasian Teal and Bluethroat.
Continuing south, it was getting warmer now. The mud baths at San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, are old salt pans that have gradually filled with incoming silts. They offered up close views of Black-winged Stilt, Sanderling, Avocet, Audouin’s and Slender-billed Gulls, Black-necked Grebe and yet more Greater Flamingos. We saw Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the spit, while Northern Lapwings and Black-tailed Godwits were feeding on fields.
Our next stop was La Marjal de Pego-Oliva, Valencia – an area of water channels and high reeds, fringed by flooded rice fields. Over a period of three days we saw Booted Eagle, Western Marsh Harrier, Griffon
Vulture, Black Redstart, Bluethroat and White Wagtail.
Southern reaches
Onwards down to Cabo de Gata, Almeria in southern Spain. Las Salinas de Cabo de Gata had a large flock of Greater Flamingos, as well as Audouin’s and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Black-winged Stilts. The marshland provided Dartford Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, Trumpeter Finch, Sardinian Warbler and Thekla’s Lark. The last refused to remain still for a photograph!
Travelling further round the coastline, we stopped inland at Tabernas,
Almeria. The birds here are specialists of arid desert, rocky terrain and driedout riverbeds. We managed to see a Bonelli’s Eagle, Black Wheatear and Rock Bunting.
After a short stay at Santa Maria in Cadiz, with sightings of Little Swifts, we arrived at Los Lances Beach,
Tarifa. This site overlooks the coast of Africa, 15 km away. It is a hot-spot for migrating birds. It has sand dunes, marshland and pine forest.
Lockdown struck while we were at this site, and we made the most of the time to see many species. A Western Osprey hunted over the laguna, while Kentish and Ringed Plovers were seen in the marshland. Spotless Starlings, Crested Larks and Sardinian Warblers were resident. We saw Caspian, Little and Sandwich Terns, and a single
Lesser Crested Tern, as well as Spanish Sparrows, Audouin’s and Yellow-legged Gulls and Balearic Shearwaters.
A Great Northern Diver turned up one morning, along with a Great Skua. Later we saw many breeding species including European Bee-eater, Melodious Warbler, Short-toed Snake Eagle, European Honey Buzzard,
Black and Red Kites, Griffon, Black and Egyptian Vultures and Lesser Kestrel. We identified three subspecies of Yellow Wagtail in the marshland. We added Grey Plover, Woodchat Shrike, European Serin and Golden Oriole to the list, but sadly only heard Eurasian Scops Owl.
La Janda, Tarifa, is like a small-scale Delta de l’Ebre. It has rice paddies in the winter months and sunflower fields in summer. An extensive canal system irrigates the fields. Two Sociable Lapwings have been present on separate occasions on the flooded fields in the last couple of years. Unfortunately we didn’t see them. But we did score Red-necked Nightjars and a Gull-billed Tern. We saw several breeding species including European Turtle Dove, Western Subalpine and Great Reed Warblers, Little Ringed Plover, Purple Heron, Collared Pratincole and Eurasian Penduline Tit.
Our journey continued eastward to Doñana NP, Andalucía. In the surrounding areas of this huge national park we saw Woodchat Shrike, Garganey, Red-knobbed Coot, Hen Harrier, Barn and Short-eared Owls, Western Osprey, Hoopoe, Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt, White and Black Storks, Glossy Ibis, Zitting Cisticola, Sardinian and Savi’s Warbler, Wood Sandpiper, Penduline Tit and Spotless Starling. A surprise find was an Isabelline Shrike in the reeds at the laguna in El Rocio.
We took a trip down to Odiel Marshes, Huelva, to twitch a Western Reef Heron feeding with Little Egrets. We also saw Audouin’s Gull, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Black-necked Grebe, Western Subalpine Warbler, Black-eared Wheatear, Greater Flamingo, Blackwinged Stilt and Eurasian Spoonbill.
Return trip
Now it was time to revisit
Monfragüe NP. This time we stayed a while. We watched the majestic Griffon Vultures returning to their roosting rock, Peña Falcon. We also saw Egyptian and Black Vultures, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Blue Rock Thrush, Woodlark, Thekla’s Lark,
Rock Bunting, Rock and Spanish Sparrows, White and Black Storks, Purple Heron, Dartford Warbler, Bonelli’s Eagle, Lesser Kestrel,
House Martin and Swallow. We were particularly pleased to see a Rüppell’s Vulture. Lingering in Extremadura for a time, Cáceres has a mixed habitat that includes steppes, cork oak forests, wetlands and rocky slopes. Of the many species we logged, new for the list were Spectacled Warbler, European Roller, Black Kite, Great Bustard, Short-toed Treecreeper and Greater and Lesser Short-toed Larks. We left Extremadura to travel to the plains of Castilla y Leon. The mix of rocky slopes and wetlands produced several Montagu’s Harriers, as well as Great Bustard, Common Buzzard, Rock Sparrow, Griffon Vulture, Northern Wheatear, Crested and Dupont’s
Larks, Eurasian Stone-curlew and Tree Sparrow. Again, we only managed to hear Eurasian Scops Owl.
Almost at the end of our epic journey, we headed to northern Spain and Picos de Europa, Asturias. We travelled on the Fuente De cable car, up 753 m in about three minutes to the top of the Picos de Europa mountain range in Cantabria. Birds of high altitude here included Alpine Chough, Alpine Accentor, White-winged Snowfinch and Wallcreeper. Surprisingly, there were also Black and Common Redstarts. There is a restaurant near the cable car at the bottom and another at the top, providing fantastic views of the mountain range. There were Marsh Tits and Eurasian Nuthatches in trees near the Fuente Dé car park.
This brought our Grand Iberian Birdwatching Tour to an end. We clocked up 270 species, covering a total of 18,000 km in our trusty campervan. We also managed several lifers, including Isabelline Shrike, Black Wheatear, Wallcreeper, Citril Finch, White-winged Snowfinch, Rufoustailed Scrub Robin, Common Bulbul, Alpine Accentor and Middle Spotted Woodpecker. Now we just want to do it all again … ■