We spent the whole day in and around the park at Monfrague and had agreat time. We set off at 7:45am , in the car park we saw an Owl fly from a post, in the dark we thought it was a Little Owl, we drove the 60 kilometers to Monfrague without further sightings. It was overcast, a bit chilly and still quite dark when we arrived at the base of the Castillo de Monfrague.
SUN RISE WITH UNCERTAINTY?
ROCK BUNTING
It was amazing because as we arrived we noticed at least 100 Vultures had taken to the air and were circling above the road, we notched two Black Vultures in amongst the masses of Griffon Vultures. By the time we had climbed the steps to the castle it was light and we had logged Hawfinch, Firecrest, Long-tailed Tit and lots of Chaffinches. In the castle ‘grounds’ we found a superb male Rock Bunting showing very well and lots of Blackcaps, also Black Redstarts, Blue Rock Thrush and many Song Thrushes. But the star of the show had to be the WHITE RUMPED SWIFT that flew over and around us and even gave us a fly-pass in the strengthening sunlight, what a gem.
On the way back down we found several Griffon vultures perched, afew Crag martins and more Hawfinch sightings were had. At the Pena Falcon rock we watched more vultures, Black Redstarts, a Short-toed Treecreeper on the rock face? Better views of Blue Rock Thrush were had and Grey Herons were down by the water.
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO - IN COOL MORNING AIR AT CASTILLO DE MONFRAGUE JUST BEFORE SEEING THE MAGICAL WHITE RUMPED SWIFT
Next we stopped at the roadside just passed the main bridge to watch Griffon & Black Vultures at close range and whilst doing so we found a fantastic Bonelli’s Eagle as it drifted over the ridge another WOW! was let out by the lads!
The pine woods above the dam were disappointing but we did see Mistle Thrush , Azure-winged Magpies and several common species. The cork woods just passed the watch-point at Puertillo de Tietar provided our next venue. We quickly found Eurasian Nuthatch and then after some leg work and good detection we found another star bird, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
THE CORK OAK WOODLAND WHERE WE FOUND THE LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER
We took a tapas lunch at a roadside bar and then went back into the park for more birding. We spent from 2:30pm until 5pm revisiting many of the sites and added several birds to the list which included: Raven, Crested Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Red Kite, Common Crossbill and a Green Woodpecker was heard.
On the way back to Trujillo we stopped at a bridge which spanned the Rio Almonte where we found: Kingfisher, Rock Sparrow, Southern Grey Shrike, Crested Larke, Serin, Crag Martin, White Wagtail, Black Redstart and a little further down the road we saw a flock of 7 Red Kites.
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