PYRENEES TOUR - DAY 1 JUNE 17TH

MADRID AIRPORT - EL PARDON (MADRID COUNTRY PARK) - BELCHITE STEPPE

The tour started like dream, everyone turned up on time, everyone was raring to go and the weather was hot but smashing!

I collected Mike, Ross, Geraldine, Jason, Steve and Roz from their hotels in Barajas, Madrid at 9am and we set off for a morning excursion to a local country park on the north side of Madrid. 

We stopped first near the town of El Pardo for a walk along the river but before we even got there we had logged: White Stork (a pair are breeding in the plaza in the centre of Barajas), Collared Dove, Serin, Common Swift, Eurasian Magpie, Carrion Crow and Wood Pigeon.

Our walk started and ended in a flourish: we quickly found Serin, Golden Oriole, Reed Warbler, Blackcap, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and we heard several Nightingales. Further along the walk we found Cetti’s Warbler, Melodious Warbler, Eurasian Nuthatch, Blue Tit and Great Tit.

Above several vultures drifted over they were Griffon and Black Vultures, they were joined by Black Kites and hundreds of swifts, both Common and Pallid.

On the return journey we ventured into a copse of pine trees and enjoyed good views of Short-toed Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit, Crested Tit, Coal Tit and we got glimpses of a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

We drove to another spot on the other side of El Pardo and spent our last hour looking for eagles. We did find Booted Eagle and we also added Song Thrush, Hawfinch and Linnet to our list.

We had to be back at the airport by 1pm to pick up Paul our last remaing group member and so we set off at 12:45pm to collect him.  Paul arrived dead on time and by 1:30pm we were on our way to Zaragoza. Birds seen along the route were few and far between but we added Red Kite, Crested Lark, Woodchat Shrike and Short –toed Eagle. A couple of stops produced Northern Wheatear, Marsh Harrier and Spotted Flycatcher.

We checked into our hotel around 6pm and went out almost immediately to look for new species on the steppe near Belchite. It was raining, big thunder-storm spots and it was still 30C. The rain shower quickly ended and we drove to La Lamazas steppe natural park. We had only 40 minutes there so we didn’t see much, it was a little windy but we managed to find several Lesser Short-toed Larks and a couple of groups of Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, all of the group saw them in the scope, a good result. A Little owl and a Red-legged partridge were seen by me, the driver but no-one else got onto them.

We got back at the hotel for dinner at 8pm which after some confusion in translation was enjoyed by all.