JUNE 13TH 2014 - PYRENEES & PICOS DE EUROPA - 9 DAY TOUR - DAY 1

MADRID AIRPORT - TO BELCHITE WITH STOPS ALONG THE WAY.

I arrived at Madrid airport at 10am with Mervyn, the driver of the second bus. We met up with Conor and Ann who arrived from Dublin at 10am. The majority of the group (10 members of the Cheltenham Bird Club) arrived from Gatwick at 11am. we all loaded onto the two minibuses and set off for Belchite.

During the trip we saw White Stork, Eurasian Magpie, Common Buzzard, Spotless Starling  and Crested Lark.

some of the group on the bridge at Villanueva

 We stopped for a lunch break along the autovia where we added Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle and Greenfinch to the list. Our next species on the list were Turtle Doves, Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves, all were seen perched on wires in the countryside and near farms.

The stop at Villanueva was quite productive, the first bird we saw was a WRYNECK, unfortunately it flew off before all of group saw it. We also added Egyptian Vulture, White Wagtail, Spotted Flycatcher, Serin, Goldfinch and we heard Common Nightingale, Golden Oriole and we saw Common Swifts.

record shot of a Spotted Flycatcher

Further along the route we added Cirl Bunting, Calandra Lark and Barn Swallow. At our hotel near Belchite we settled into our rooms and took a short walk before dinner. It was very dry and hot and a little windy but we saw a few more species. A Rock Sparrow was nice to see but distance, but better views were had of Short-toed Lark, Skylark and an amazing 'flock' of Eurasian Hoopoe, we saw eight together!!

We had a very a delicious dinner and a nice cold beer before retiring for our first night, over 40 species were in the bag.