Santa Clemente (local lanes) – Belen Plains – Madrigalejo rice fields – Rio Pizzaro
The high pressure continues with another glorious, cloudless hot day! We set off for a walk just after breakfast at 8:30am, taking the lane near Finca Santa Marta. The bushes were full of Blackcaps, we counted 50 in just a small section! Other migrants in number were Song thrush, Robin and White Wagtail. Some local specialities were also found with Hawfinch, Rock Sparrow and Hoopoe taking the biscuit.
The high pressure continues with another glorious, cloudless hot day! We set off for a walk just after breakfast at 8:30am, taking the lane near Finca Santa Marta. The bushes were full of Blackcaps, we counted 50 in just a small section! Other migrants in number were Song thrush, Robin and White Wagtail. Some local specialities were also found with Hawfinch, Rock Sparrow and Hoopoe taking the biscuit.
We drove the short distance to Belen where vast tracts of open grassland cover a seriously big area. We found Thekla, Calandra, Crested & Skylarks and more Hoopoes (3) two of which were singing!! It took a while but we located, first a single Great Bustard (flying passed) and then party of some 28 Little Bustard, they were very well camouflaged on the ground but easily seen in flight. Other birds of interest were Red Kite (10), Raven (2), Little Owl (2), dozens of Lapwings and good numbers of Griffon Vultures with a couple of Black Vultures.
We then drove into Trujillo to pick up our supplies for lunch and made our way to a disused bridge just outside of the town. We watched Kingfisher, several Chiffchaff, Serin and Green Sandpipers on the river Magasca during lunch.
Finally we decided to spend the rest of the day at the rice fields just outside Madrigalejo and what a lovely time we had there. As soon as we got out of the car we found good numbers of European Tree Frogs, these bright green little gems stood out a mile as they slept on the stems of sedges.
Common Waxbill
Lastly we visited a bridge over the Rio Piszzaro just a couple of kilometres north of Madrigalejo where the clear water drifts slowly through masses of reeds, sedges and reed-mace. This a known haunt for Penduline Tit. It took us an hour to get a nice male and in the meantime we found a lot more Waxbills and Avadavats, a Southern Grey Shrike, Cetti’s Warbler, over 40 Azure-winged Magpies, Common Buzzard, more Cranes, Blackcap, Kingfisher and several other species. We stayed 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed a sunny afternoon bird-watching in a superb area.
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