COTO DONANA AND EXTREMADURA - 9 DAY TOUR - DAY 5 - 1ST MAY 2014

TRANSFER DAY – COTO DONANA TO EXTREMADURA WITH STOPS AT;  EMBALSE ALENGE – VEGAS ALTAS – RIO PIZZAROSA AND LLANOS DE ZORITA

We ate a leisurely breakfast at 8am and set off at 9am for the 400km journey to Finca Santa Marta which is situated some 14km south of Trujillo in Extremadura. I set my passengers a target of 25 ‘journey birds’ which they achieved easily reaching a total of 32, a new record for this trip.

At Embalse Alenge we made our first stop, we spent half an hour looking for Bonelli’s Eagle which breeds there but unfortunately one failed  to turn up. We had great views of Alpine Swift as many of them wheeled around the dam area with Barn  Swallows and Red-rumped Swallows. On the rocky pinnacles at the side of the water we saw Rock Bunting, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear and Crag Martin. Several Gull-billed Terns ‘hunted’ over the water and in the distance we saw Black Kite, Short-toed Eagle and lots of Griffon Vultures.

 At our next stop we ate our picnic lunch whilst sitting on a bridge over a small stream near to the village of Vegas Altas, lots of White Storks were nesting nearby and in the reeds and hedgerows we saw Great Reed Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler, Common Nightingale and a couple of Golden Orioles. A few Nightingales were seen by single observers, Common Kingfisher, Little Bittern and Common Waxbill were seen by a few of the group. A large flock of Collared Pratincoles was seen in the distance flying over the rice fields.

As we drove on we found several Hoopoe and our first Rollers were seen attending nest boxes put up on telegraph poles, these beautiful birds caused quite a stir, especially our first ones. Many raptors began to appear over the hills or on the thermals we added Marsh and Montagu’s Harriers our lost and several Common Buzzards.

We spent a short time at the rice fields just north of Madrigalejo where the highlight was the finding of several European Tree Frogs!! However we did find the small colony of Red Avadavats (escaped caged birds now breeding freely in the area), along with more Common Waxbill, several pairs of  time Common Stonechat, Iberian (Southern) Grey Shrike, Tree Sparrows and not much else.

European Tree Frog

 

The Rio Pizzarosa gave us the opportunity to look for Penduline Tit, none appeared but we enjoyed great views of Common Cuckoo, Long-tailed Tit, lots of European Bee-eaters and we enjoyed the afternoon sunshine.

Finally we spent some time at Llanos de Zorita, an area of open grassland, we were hoping to see any of the Bustards, I couldn’t believe the height of the grass which had grown a foot since my last visit less than two weeks ago. No Bustards appeared but we found Raven on a rock and lots of Calendar Larks, as we were getting back into the bus a shout went up as two GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOOS flew right over us, they landed about 100 meters away and settled in a bush, from a reasonable distance we all got superb  views of these enigmatic birds.

We were now not too far from our destination so another 15 minutes on the road found us at Finca Santa Marta, we arrived at 5:30pm.

I checked the Hoopoe nest that we found during my last visit only to find two healthy chicks and one dead one, they were almost ready to fledge so we quickly retreated and left them well alone.

Dinner was noisy and full of laughter, the local wine went down well at dinner!