WELCOME TO THE BLOG OF WINGSPAN BIRD TOURS



ALL NEWS, BIRD SIGHTINGS AND TOUR UPDATES WILL ALSO BE RECORDED ON MY WEB-SITE BLOG PAGES FOUND HERE


http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/blog




FURTHER DETAILS OF FUTURE TRIPS CAN BE FOUND ON OUR MAIN WEBSITE:-



http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/






FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT PARTICIPATED IN A WINGSPAN TOUR DURING 2017, THANK YOU FOR YOUR CUSTOM & YOUR COMPANY AND WE WISH YOU HEALTH AND HAPPINESS FOR 2018.

THE PROGRAMME FOR SPRING 2018 IS NOW ON MY

WEBSITE BUT HERE IS A PREVIEW



Jan 2nd - 5th - Somerset Levels

Jan 7th - 20th. - Sri Lanka. £1850

Feb 16th - March 3rd Costa Rica - full

Mar 20th - 30th Morocco - 10 nights. - full

April 2nd - 9th - Andalucia migration tour. - full

April 10th - 18th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - 2 places

April 19th - 27th - Coto Donana & Extremadura - £950 - full

April 28th - 5th May. - Lesvos - full

May 6th - 13th - Portugal - £950 - 4 places

May 15th - 22nd - Northern Greece - full

May 23rd - 30th Bulgaria - £850 - 4 places

May 23rd - 30th - Andalucia birds and butterflies - £850

May 31st - June 7th. - Extremadura and Sierra de Gredos - £950

June 12th - 20th - Pyrenees and Picos de Europa - full


FLIGHTS NOT INCLUDED IN THESE PRICES



BOOK NOW TO SECURE YOUR PLACE SEND AN E-MAIL TO:

E-mail: bobbuckler49@hotmail.com





















Red-throated Bee-eater

Red-throated Bee-eater
join us for a fantastic tour of The Gambia this November

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

OCTOBER 22nd 2012 - COTO DONANA & EXTREMADURA - 9....


Santa Marta – Monroy – Trujillo  - Campo Lugar - Madrigalejo Rice fields  - Moheda Reserve


Today we spent a lot of time in search of sandgrouse as both the Pin-tailed and the Black-bellied species had eluded us thus far. It was a dull overcast day, but it remained dry and got quite warm in the afternoon when the sun eventually broke through.

We began our day at 8:30am by driving up to and through Trujillo then onto the open grass fields near to Santa Marta, we checked a favoured field of the Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Not a grouse in sight but we found 9 Great Bustards, Red Kite, Calandra Lark, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, lapwing and 3 or 4 Hoopoes. For the next two hours we made many stops as we drove to Santa Marta and up to the Monroy – Trujillo road. There were many birds in the fields and the sky always had vultures or kites in view. We came across a dead cow which was surrounded by Griffon Vultures; they were just starting to devour this ‘tasty morsel’.

European tree rog

We also found a Black-winged Kite sitting on a fence post and a male Hen Harrier chasing distant larks. Another dead animal had both Griffon and Black Vulture in attendance whilst a ploughed field held 200+ lapwings and hundreds of Spotless Starlings, we must have seen 10 Hoopoes, 15 Southern Grey Shrikes and thousands of Spanish Sparrows.

We gave up looking for sand grouse at 11:30am and drove into Trujillo to buy lunch and then we headed south towards the rice fields. We turned off the main road onto a country lane that led to Campo Lugar; we stopped to search the fields and to eat our picnic lunch. During this stop we found Raven, Hen harrier, marsh harrier, Red Kite, hundreds of Lapwings and larks and to our great joy we found 3 Little Bustards in the grass not too far from the road. They walked away from us and eventually flew off high to join a huge flock of even more Little Bustards; there were at least 70 of them, a splendid sight. It was whilst we were watching the Bustards that a couple of smaller birds flew across our line of sight. They turned out to be Black-bellied Sandgrouse we watched them until they landed in a nearby ploughed field, we drove nearer but failed to get good views of them as they walked over a brow in the field.

From the open fields we drove to the rice fields near Madrigalejo for our second visit. An hour search produced many sightings of Red Avadavat, Common Waxbill and Zitting Cisticola. We also found Hoopoe, Southern Grey Shrike, two Bluethroat, White Storks, Little Egrets, Serins, Spanish Sparrow, Cetti’s Warbler and Tree Sparrow.

For the latter part of the afternoon we drove to the new ‘Crane Reserve’ at Moheda. We parked near the raised embankment of the new reservoir and as we walked to edge of the embankment we found a couple of Dartford Warblers, a flock of Serins, Sardinian Warbler and we saw some distant Cormorants. Our view of the reservoir was unbroken from the top of the embankment from where we logged: Great White Egret, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Kingfisher, Mallard, Shoveler, Common Pochard, Teal, Northern Pintail, Great crested Grebe, little Grebe, White Wagtail and a few Cattle Egrets flew over.

We walked half way round the reservoir and scanned the surrounding rice fields, this where we found our only Common Cranes of the trip! There was 42 of them feeding in the corner of the nearest field, a great result, but compared to last year, when we found several thousands Cranes in the same location on the same date, it was meagre, to say the least. Further species seen in the scrub included: Common Chiffchaff, Red Avadavat, Blackcap and Sardinian Warbler.

Finally we drove back towards our guest house but we decided to try the rice fields once more. So for half an hour we scoured the fields and hedgerows looking for Penduline Tit but came up with: Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Common Snipe, Water Pipit, Long-tailed Tit, Common Waxbill, Zitting Cisticola and lots of common species. From the rice fields we drove straight back to the guesthouse to prepare for dinner.

No comments:

Post a Comment