Oliva Rama Holidays

Plains, Cranes & Wildfowl

23rd - 27th November 2007

23rd November :- I met Brian Conduit and Bernie Taylor in Oliva and set off north to north to greet David Harper arriving into Valencia Airport. The journey north produced one of the biggest surprises of the ‘short break’ when a Black Stork flew over the motorway near the Albufera d’ Valencia. Dave arrived on time and couldn’t believe our good fortune so we quickly drove round to Moro Marsh to start birdwatching in earnest. A few hours here produced many good birds including Black necked & Little Grebe, Cormorant, Little & Cattle Egrets, Grey Herons, Mallard, Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler, Common & Red Crested Pochard, a single Pintail, Coot, Moorhen, Water Rail (heard only), 2 Purple Gallinules, Marsh Harriers, Kestrels, Lapwing, Yellow legged & Black headed Gulls, Kingfisher, Hoopoes, Crag Martins, White Wagtail, Blackbird, Zitting Cisticola, Cettis Warbler, Chiffchaff, Bluethroat, Robin, Stonechat, Black Redstart, Great Tit, Southern Grey Shrike, Magpie, Spotless Starling, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Linnet & Reed Bunting. mid afternoon we continued north and went into Aragon & as the landscape changed so did the birds and a short coffee stop produced our first Griffon Vultures, 30+ Ravens, Carrion Crows, Collared Dove and a lovely flock of 11 Siskins. We carried on to our accommodation with our final new species of the day being a roadside Common Buzzard.

24th November :- Immediately after breakfast we headed out on to the plains of Blancas and our first stop set the tone with a large mixed flock of Linnets and Rock Sparrows, a female Merlin, several Red Kites, Common Buzzards and Kestrels as well as some Carrion Crows and Magpies. We continued on into Blancas adding Little Owl, Raven, Black Redstart, Tree & House Sparrows. From Blancas we spent some time on the high steppes finding 30+ Black bellied Sandgrouse, Thekla & Skylarks, Southern Grey Shrikes, Chough, Griffon Vultures, a gorgeous male Hen Harrier, Red legged Partridges, more Little Owls, Red Kites and Ravens. As we dropped down towards Gallocanta Lake we found our first 300+ Common Cranes plus Grey Heron, Red Kites, 40+ Griffon Vultures, 10+ Ravens, plus a large flock of Goldfinches with Rock Sparrows and Linnets. It was now lunchtime and after an enormous bocadillo in Bello we started doing various areas around the Gallocanta Lagoon. During the course of the afternoon we saw 15,000+ Common Cranes, Common Shelduck, Common Teal, several Pintail, Mallard, Red Kites, Griffon Vultures, 5 Marsh & 3 Hen Harriers, Common Buzzard, Kestrels, a single Merlin, 7 Curlew, 2 Little Stints, Dunlin, Collared Doves, 3 Iberian Green Woodpeckers, Calandra & Skylarks, White Wagtails, Zitting Cisticola’s, Stonechats, House, Tree & Rock Sparrows, Southern Grey Shrike, Chaffinches, 5 Brambling, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Linnets, 40+ Serin, Reed & Corn Buntings. It was time to make our way back to the Hotel & decided to retrace our steps which was a good move as we added another 6 Hen Harriers (including 5 together), Blackbird and better views of Calandra Lark, especially for Dave who had missed them earlier.

25th November :- We left Monreal & headed towards Alcañiz and had one magic moment en-route seeing a Golden Eagle being mobbed by a female Hen Harrier along with 2 Red billed Chough, 2 Roe Deer and a Fox, with 17 Red Kites and a Kestrel in the same general area. The journey to Alcañiz we encountered more Griffon Vultures, Red Kites, a Mistle Thrush, Collared Doves and Spotless Starlings. Just outside Alcañiz we had a breakfast stop, then soon after we stopped at the side of the road and found 2 Cirl Buntings, Crested Larks, Black Redstarts and Chaffinches. Further on towards El Ports Reserve we stopped at the river that ran along the roadside and did really well finding a Great Spotted Woodpecker, lot's of Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Cettis & Sardinian Warblers, Blackcaps, Little Grebe, Chiffchaff, Cirl Bunting, Rock Sparrows, Woodpigeon, a single Kingfisher, Stonechats, Serins and Goldfinches. We headed for Els Ports and drove over the mountain road towards Prat de Comte continuing then through to Tortosa, but the high winds made the birdwatching fairly quiet although David did find a male Iberian Ibex, which was great and the scenery was, of course fantastic. From Tortosa we quickly made our way to the Ebro Delta starting on the north side at Punta del Fangar. Offshore here we saw 300+ Balearic Shearwaters but not much else however, driving through the paddy fields did produce Cormorants, Grey Herons, Great White, Cattle & Little Egrets, Shelduck, Mallard, Moorhens, Lapwings, 2 Spotted Redshanks, Greenshanks, 20+ Common Redshanks, 15+ Wood Sandpipers, Green & Common Sandpipers, 38 Ruff, Yellow legged, Black backed & Black headed Gulls, Hoopoe, White Wagtails, Meadow Pipits and Greenfinch. We finished the afternoon at El Garxel where we were lucky to see 400+ Black tailed Godwits, Common Snipe, 6 Grey lag Geese, Common Teal, Marsh Harriers, Zitting Cisticolas and more Greenfinch. The journey to our hotel near San Carles de Repita was punctuated with two very good stops, one to watch 2 Booted Eagles and the other to see several large gatherings of Common Starling, which must have involve 50,000 birds.

26th November :- Today was spent birdwatching exclusively on the south side of the Ebro Delta visiting the lagoons of Encanyissada, L’Alfacada, Riet Vell and Tancada, plus the acres and acres of paddy fields inbetween finding :- Great Crested, Black necked & Little Grebes, Cormorants, Squacco & Grey Herons, Little Cattle & Great White Egrets, 70+ Glossy Ibis, Greater Flamingos, 20+ Greylag Geese, Shelducks, Mallard, Teal, a single Tufted Duck, Red Crested & Common Pochard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Shoveler, Shelduck, Marsh Harriers, Booted Eagle, Kestrels, 50+ Purple Gallinules, Water Rail, Moorhens, Common Coots, Avocet, Black winged Stilts, 54 Golden, 6 Grey, 68 Kentish & Ringed Plovers, Bar tailed Godwit, Spotted & Common Redshanks, 20+ Greenshanks, Green & Common Sandpipers, Lapwings, Common Snipe, Little Stints, Dunlin, Sanderling, 80+ Ruff, Black headed, Yellow legged, Black headed, a single Audouin's & Slender billed Gulls, a single Gull billed, 6 Whiskered & Sandwich Terns, 10+ Kingfishers, Lesser Short toed & Crested Larks, Skylarks, White Wagtails, Meadow Pipits, Zitting Cisticolas, Cetti's Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Sardinian & Dartford Warblers, Robins, 2 Bluethroats, Black Redstarts, Stonechats, Magpies, European & Spotless Starlings, House & Tree Sparrows, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, and Reed Buntings. A top day as usual in this fantastic area.

27th November :- Our final morning we decided to head back into the mountains before going south to Valencia and with some success. Although our journey to the summit of Mont Caro was halted due to resurfacing work on the road we did manage to find a couple of new species to complete the list that were a pair of Blue Rock Thrush and a Wren. During out stay on the mountain we also saw Griffon Vultures, 2 Raven, Chaffinches, Sardinian Warblers, Blackcaps, Song Thrush and Blackbirds. The journey south went well and arrived back in Valencia to conclude another fantastic weekend's birdwatching.