JUNE 17TH 2014 - PYRENEES & PICOS DE EUROPA - 9 DAY TOUR - DAY 5

HECHO VALLEY TO ANSO VALLEY TO RONCAL VALLEY - BELAGUA PASS - PIERRE DE LA ST. MARTIN (FRANCE)


A cracking day with some fantastic sightings and made all the better when we realised that we had made the right decision yesterday about postponing this trip until today, the weather was just dandy!

We set off after breakfast. at about 8:45am, the leading bus had to wait a while on the road near the hotel for the second bus to appear and whilst we waited a LAMMERGEIER drifted over the ridge, how lucky was that? We then drove through Hecho village and across to the Anso Valley, we stopped to look at a Red Kite on a pylon, a Black Kite in a field, an Egyptian Vulture circling and a few Red-backed Shrikes on bushes.

Our first official stop was at the head of the Anson valley near the Zoriza camp site, from there we saw a couple of Dippers and Grey Wagtails in the river, a Black Redstart on the buildings and a GOLDEN EAGLE circling high over the ridge. Common Buzzards, Ravens and Red-billed Chough were also noted, but best of all was the scenery, it was truly amazing.

a view at Zoriza

We continued onto the road that leads to the Roncal Valley and we stopped midway to look for Black Woodpecker, alas none appeared but we did see Great Spotted Woodpecker and more Red-backed Shrikes

lunch time

At the head of the Roncal Valley the road tales a winding path, climbing all the time, the temperature dropped to 8.5C but it wasn't windy and the cloud base was quite high. We climbed to 1800 meters and stopped to scan the open mountainside which was covered in flowers, including the beautiful English Gentian.

English Gentian?

 We started listing alpine birds as soon as we got out of the buses, many Water Pipits were singing and performing their parachuting display flight, lots of small flocks of chough, of both species, were dashing about or feeding on the grass slopes. We also saw Northern Wheatear, Black Redstart and Dunnock.

Our next stop, which was quote close to the French border, produced one of our main target species the ROCK THRUSH, this beautiful gem sang from several song-posts in a small gulley just below us, fantastic. 7We saw more Dunnock, Water Pipit and a superb male Bullfinch, another gem!

ROCK THRUSH - voted bird of the day by the group

Just over the border we stopped in a small shallow gorge which had extensive views over into France, a LAMMERGEIER drifted towards at a low level giving us all fantastic views, the bird drifted gracefully passed us showing off its huge wingspan and diamond-shaped tail. A good number of Alpine Chough cam very close too and we also logged Linnets, Serin and Black Redstart.

the terrain at St. Martin

From there we drove down to the Alpine Village of Pierre de St. Martin, at this time of the year this ski resort is totally deserted and full of birds. Usually the village in enshrouded in thick cloud but today the cloud base was much higher. We found a nice sheltered gully to sit and eat our picnic lunch whilst watching birds.

two record shots of CITRIL FINCH

 

 Many species were flitting about including the beautiful Citril Finch, what a star performer, a must-see species seen well by all the group. Over the next two hours we watched a good number of species without walking too far. Crested Tit, Coal Tit, Marsh Tit, Goldcrest, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Common Crossbill, Mistle Thrush and several of the distinctive sub-species 'alpestris'  RING OUZEL. Yet another LAMMERGEIER sighting was made, this time two birds drifted high over us, amazing.

RING OUZEL - subspecies alpestris

We had to drag ourselves away from this magical spot, we had seen all of our target birds except the Black Woodpecker so we left with enough time to have another look for one back down in the valley.

 

 

Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, it did. As we drove down to exit the village we stopped to watch more Citril Finches and just after loading back into the bus yet another LAMMERGEIER was sighted, but this one was at eye level and drifted towards us. We quickly abandoned the buses in the middle of the road and moved to get good views of the bird. It drifted away and then turned and came back right over us, absolutely fantastic, everyone had stunning views of this majestic and most enigmatic creature.

Well the bus was buzzing for while after that! We drove back into Spain and down through the Roncal Valley and onto the road to Anson where we stopped at a small village for coffee and/or ice-cream. It was now a comfortable 21C, we enjoyed our break whilst watching both Grey and White Wagtails along a stream, a family party of Black Redstart, with the cutest fledglings flitted about, also a Garden Warbler sang and showed well.


the Mary Celeste of birding?

We ran out of time so we drove straight back to the hotel arriving at 6pm, everyone was still in a buoyant  mood so we decided to go for an after dinner Owl-Prowl.

At 9pm we loaded up the buses and drove to Puente de Reine and onto a side track to wait for Owls and Nightjars. As it got dark we heard at least three European Nightjars calling but none showed and neither did the hoped for Eagle Owl. We then drove round to a small village where the huge church is lit up every night and where Scops Owls sit out in the open.

We fared better there, a Scops Owl did, in fact show and it made it's strange call, we also had the bonus of seeing a Little Owl as it flew back and forth to it's nest hole.

Well that was that, the end of a fabulous day, we drove back to the hotel arriving at 11:30pm, a little tired by now!!