BELEN PLAIN – LLANOS DE TRUJILLO – SANTA MARTA DE
MAGASCA – MONROY – TALAVAN RESERVOIR – CASARES PLAIN
Another day of hot, sunny weather, again the
mid-afternoon heat was a little too much but we kept out of the sun as much as
we could.
Our first early morning excursion found us at the
Belen Plain just as it was getting light at 7am. Our first stop produced Little
Owl, Hoopoe and lots of larks. The air was full of bird song, Thekla Larks were
very numerous as were Calandra Larks and Corn Buntings, Hoopoes seemed to call
from all directions. Our second stop which was on a higher ridge gave us a good
vantage point from which to scan the open grassland and it wasn’t long before
we located pour target species the Little and then the Great Bustards. Several
male Little Bustard were displaying, giving
their ‘raspberry’ call from all directions, some were even taking to the air
and performing their flight display. The Greater Bustards just strolled around
majestically, their displaying season was over by now, the largest find was a
flock of twenty.
Black Kites, White Storks and Lesser Kestrels roamed
the fields and several Southern Grey Shrikes, sitting on top of bushes and a
single Stone Curlew was seen in flight. Soon it was time to leave this magical
place and head off back to the finca for breakfast.
The rest of
the morning was spent in the region of Trujillo, we visited the Llanos and the
pool area where we found Black-winged Stilts and a Little Grebe, a short stop
at an old bridge that spanned the old Casares road was quite productive. We all
had great views of a Great Reed Warbler, it was singing from a large bush over
the water. A Cetti’s Warbler was also quite showy and a pair of Kingfishers
perched nicely for us, but it was a Lesser Kestrel that stole the show as it
perched on a nearby pylon and gave us excellent views, what a little gem.
We then we
drove towards Santa Marta and stopped to view the open fields there. Our best
sightings included a flock of a dozen or so of Black-bellied Sandgrouse, a
couple of Montagu’s Harriers, Short-toed Larks and more Great Bustards.
The next
couple of hours were spent visiting various bridges over the Rio Almonte and
the reservoir at Talavan. The river
produced great views of Alpine Swifts visiting their nests under the bridge, a
pair of Black Wheatears and a distant Rock Bunting. At Talavan we added a good
assortment of birds to our list, all three grebes were found there as well as
Collared Pratincole, Great Reed Warbler, Redshank, Little Ringed Plover,
Black-Winged Stilts. a Lapwing and Gadwall. Many Hoopoes, Bee-eaters,
Crested Larks and Black Kites made up
the numbers.
We drove home via Casares and stopped on the Santa Marta road to view Rollers, there were many that had taken over the nest boxes put for them along a line of telegraph poles, super birds with superb colours. This concluded our first full day out so we set off back to the fince to prepare for another great dinner and local wine.
After dinner we took a short walk up through the olive groves and almond orchards to look for night birds. Just as it was getting dark we saw a Red-necked Nightjar flying around and we heard at least 4 Scops Owls and 1 Tawny Owl but we couldn't locate them in the trees.
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