OCTOBER 22ND – DAY 7 COTO & EXTREMADURA TOUR

Santa Marta de Magasca (open plains) – Rio Almonte – Casares Plains – Embalse de Talavan – Rio Almonte

We got the usual bright and chilly start to the day but it did cloud over and the temperature was decidedly cooler. We set off towards Casares from Trujillo and stopped along the road to Santa Marta de Magasca where open grass fields stretched as far as the eye could see. Soon we located a group of Great Bustards that steadily walked away from us and on a distant ridge we could see a large party of sandgrouse. In the excellent morning light we could see that they were all Pin-tailed Sandgrouse 66 of them!


Our journey throughout the rest of the morning was across a bumpy track that took us across the plains of Casares, what a joy that was. We stopped many times to scan the fields where thousands of larks appeared, the most abundant was the Calandra Lark but we saw many Crested, Sky and Thekla Larks. They were joined by thousands of Corn Buntings, Meadow Pipits, Japwings and we also saw many Hoopoes, Northern Wheatear, Red Kites and the odd Hen Harrier. Ravens and Jackdaws flew over occasionally and Spotless Starlings appeared in their hundreds, Towards the end of the bumpy track we found a party of Black-bellied Sandgrouse, some 25 flew across a ploughed field and was lost to sight, two landed within scoping distance and provided our best sighting. A Hen Harrier then flew across the field. scattering the larks, it attempted to catch one or two of them without success.

At the large bridge over the Rio Almonte we found Black Wheatear (3), Crag Martin (5), Rock Sparrow, Blue Rock Thrush, Serin, Common Sandpiper (3) & Grey Wagtail, this tall brdige and surrounding rocky, steep-sided banks of the Rio Almonte is always a nice place to visit.

The Emblase Talavan still held a little water which was being appreciated by a number of wader species, we found Common Snipe, Black-winged Stilt, Greenshank, Ringed Plover, Little Stint, Common & Green Sandpipers. A few ducks were also there, Mallard, Teal, Shoveler, Pintail, Egyptian Geese? (don’t know why they were there), Great Crested & Little Grebes all on the water. We also noted Cormorant, Black-headed Gull, Grey Heron & Little Egret. Just beyond the shoreline in the grass and scrub there were Meadow Pipits, White Wagtail, Spanish Sparrow, Cetti’s Warbler & Zitting Cisticola.

As we left the embalse we stopped along the roadside to watch a very large eagle that was circling over a nearby field, it turned out to be an adult Golden Eagle!!! We still hadn’t located a Spanish Imperial Eagle on this trip but now we had seen 2 Golden Eagles. This one flew across the road and perched on a pylon, wow! Just as I focused the scope on it, it did the usual trick of flying off and soaring so high that it disappeared from sight – why do they do that?

The return journey was littered with stops the most significant was at the Rio Almonte between Torrejon and Trujillo where we found Southern Grey Shrike, Crag Martin, Black Redstart, Serin, White Wagtail & Common Buzzard.

Well that wrapped up our final day in Extremadura, a slight diappointment fo me as we failed to locate Spanish Imperial Eagle and we missed White-rumped Swift by 1/2 hour! However we had some great sightings and the most glorious weather.We returned to our lovely guest house in Sante Clemente ans settled down to a glass of wine and a tasty dinner.