EXTREMADURA - 7 DAY TOUR - DAY 4 - MAY 18TH 2012

MONFRAGUE NATIONAL PARK

This is always my favourite part of the tour, Monfrague is a truly wonderful place and a very special global area for raptors, we just had the most prefect weather for our day there. An early breakfast was followed by a 45 minute drive to the park, our first stop was the Castillo de Monfrague.

THE GROUP AT THE CASTILLO DE MONFRAGUE

 We parked just below the Castillo and no sooner had we got out of the bus when a shout of 'White-rumped Swift' went up. Sure enough a couple of these rare breeding swifts were circling high above us! Well what a start to the day. On the cliffs just above us several Griffon Vultures were perched and a Blue Rock Thrush sang from on high and performed its display flight a few times.

BLACK VULTURE

The walk up to the Castillo produced more excellent views of up to 3 White-rumped Swifts and, at times, the sky was full of House Martins, Crag Martins, Barns and Red-rumped Swallows, Common Swifts and Pallid Swifts. From the top near the Castillo the views were absolutely amazing, the light was just fantastic and a lovely cool breeze wafted over us. You could see for miles over rolling hills and rivers, 'dehesa' stretched as far as the eye could see in several directions. The huge rocky outcrop called 'Salto del Gitano' (roughly translates to Gypsie's leap) was covered in Vultures. We watched many Griffon and Black Vultures drift over the cliff face, they were joined by the occasional Black Stork and Egyptian Vultures. It was hard to draw ourselves away fom this magical place but we did and we drove round to the car park at the base of Salto del Gitano. From there we found a Rock Bunting, more Blue Rock Thrushes and we could see into a few nests of the Griffon Vulture.

A couple more stops around the park before lunch produced Turtle Dove, Golden Oriole, lots of Azure-winged Magpies, Long-tailed Tits, but generally the woods were very quiet. But the lack of ground species was compensated for by raptors in the sky, everywhere you looked you could see birds over every hill. We often saw all three vultures with the ubiquitous Black Kite sometimes joined by Red Kites and the odd Booted Eagle. Twice we found Bonelli's Eagle saoring on high but never saw a falcon other than Common Kestrel.

We ate our lunch at Portilla del Tietar which is another similar rocky outcrop to that found at Salto del Gitano, however this area has been famous for hosting breeding Eagle owls and Spanish Imperial Eagles over the years. This year both were present, we had outstanding views of the Imperial Eagles visiting their nest to feed a well developed chick, they gave superb views as they drifted in and out of view.

GRIFFON VULTURE CHICK

We couldn't locate a roosting eagle owl so after we had eaten our picnic lunch we walked into some oak woods, it was now getting warm so the shelter of the trees was most welcomed. Our walk produced some good birds, Golxden Orioles, Hoopoe, Woodchat Shrikes, Long-tailed Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Mistle Thrush, Robin, Bonelli's Warbler, Blackcap and several common species.

Before we set off for the finca we decided to have another look for the owl, it was a good decision because one of the chicks was in view, it stood at the entance to a small cave and looked quite comical as it blinked at us, its grey and white downy feathers were falling off to reveal a deeper brown colour underneath, it looked a total mess! Whilst we watched the owl a Subalpine Warbler put on a superb display for us as it sang from an open perch, excellent!

SUBALPINE WARBLER

Over drive back was interrupted by a stop at the bridge over the river Almonte, it was lovely in the late afternoon light to watch several species in and around the clear water. White Wagtail, Zitting Cisticola, Grey Heron, Cattle Egret, Little Egret and many Corn Bunting were seen there and along the route back to Trujillo.

We arrived back in the early evening and spent a relaxing time before dinner, some went for a short walk whilst other sat drinking tea outside their 'casitas' whilst others went swimming in the cool water of the finca's pool, a perfect end to a fantastic day.