EXTREMADURA - 7 DAY TOUR - DAY 4 - MAY 25th 2012

MONFRAGUE NATIONAL PARK

Monfrague is famous for its beauty, its bird life and especially its great variety of raptors, it certainly lived up to its reputation, the group loved their day out today!

We left the finca at 8am and drove straight to the park passing through Trujillo and Torrejon el Rubio before pulling into the top car park at the Castillo de Monfrague. We actually parked just below the car park and searched the cliff face on which the castle sits. The sky was, as usual full of hirundines, Crag Martins, House Martins, Barn and Red-rumped Swallows, but no swifts. We spent some time watching Griffon Vultures on the ledges of the cliff and then in the sky with Black Vultures and our first Egyptain Vulture, all three could be seen at once, magical. They were joined by Black Storks and Black Kites and a Raven. We found Blue Rock Thrush on the pinnacles of the rock face and a coupole of Hawfinches flew over us. Just before we set off for our climb to the castle a White Rumped Swift flew over and circled for a while before dashing off, what a result, this was one of our main target species everyone had good views of it, smashing!

We climbed the steps to the castle and enjoyed the superb panoramic views from there, it was stunning,
we faced the rocky pinnacle called Salto de Gitano (Gypsie's leap) which was covered in birds, all three vultures, Black Storks and Black Kites. A little closer we watched Blue Rock Thrush, Black Redstart and a couple more White-rumped Swifts.

Next we drove down to the car park beneath the Salto de Gitano and watched from there, we had great views of Rock Bunting, Black Redstart, Red-rumped Swallows and vultures. Then a shout went up "Golden Eagle" and sure enough a superb 1st year bird flew into view and circled the salto with the vultures, it was stunning and so pleasing for the group. Then a Peregrine Falcon did the same and showed brilliantly for us too!    

We made a couple more stops before we found some picnic tables where we ate our lunch in the shade of some trees. During lunch we saw Red Deer but not much else, especially in the bird world. Just after lunch we drove a little way, over a dam, and into some pine woods. A short walk there produced Coal Tit, Turtle Dove, Golden Oriole, Cirl Bunting. Serin, Blue and Great Tits.

At the Portilla  de Tieter (another rocky cliff-face similar to the Salto de Gitano) we had superb views of Spanish Imperial Eagle, both at the eyrie and in flight. We then went for a walk in some cork oak woodlands where we saw a good variety of species which included:Golden Oriole, Turtle Dove, Mistle Thrush, Short-toed Treecreeper, Eurasian Nuthatch, Hoopoe, Bee-eater and many Azue-winged Magpies. But the best bird of all was the last one we saw, it was an Orphean Warbler, it was singing from the canopy and it took a short while to locate it. Its song is beautiful and the bird was a great addition to our tally.

We left for the finca at 5pm, well satisfied with our great day out in the superb Monfrague Park.