Back to Spain 4th September - 8th October 2017 Part 2 Tarifa to the French Alps

From Tarifa on the 17th we headed north for Granada, we made a few stops and added Dipper, Grey Wagtail and 4 Rock Bunting to our trip list. on the 18th we drove up to the ski village of Sierra Nevada. Not many birds here but much cooler and great views also plenty of Crag Martins feeding around the ski village.
Continuing our northward journey we next stopped at Motril where I visited the small reserve of Charco Suarez which is still one of the best places in Spain for Crested Coot, thanks to a reintroduction programme. There was some interaction between the two species of coot and it seemed to be the Cresteds that were chasing the Eurasians. The photo shows the pale trailing edge to the wing due to the paler secondaries which is restricted to just the secondary tips in Crested, Also has Purple Swamphen, a single male Ferruginous Duck and several Spoonbill.

Crested Coot chasing Eurasian Coot

Crested Coot

Next stop was the rocky headland of Cabo de Gata, a place I had heard of but never visited before. It is famous as one of the only places in Spain and Europe where Trumpeter Finch can be found. I searched the headland around the lighthouse but without success although a Black Wheatear showed nicely. I always think of them as birds of the mountains but they are just as happy on the coast.

There is a large hill just inland from the lighthouse, the vegetation on the coastal side had clearly been damaged by fire which didn't look good but as I started to walk around its lower slopes I disturbed a small finch, a Trumpeter Finch. I remained motionless and scanned the hillside picking up several more until I had counted 20 of them!

Trumpeter Finch

We stayed on a campsite a few kilometres inland and from there I could walk over some rough ground to a coastal pool called Rambla Morales. Here I saw Southern Grey Shrike, Subalpine and Spectacled Warblers, Black-necked Grebe, White-headed Duck and several Red-rumped Swallows. Gulls were coming to bath in the fresh water and as I got closer I could see that they were all Slender-billed. Almost all were adults and some were very pink on the breast and outer primaries.

Slender-billed Gull - adult

Continuing up the coast for another 150km we stopped at Mazarron, just short of Cartagena. The rough dry scrub between the town and the coastal port was typical of the area and produced more Black Wheatears and at least a dozen Subalpine as well as 4 or 5 Spectacled Warblers which I spent some time trying to photograph.

Subalpine Warbler juv - they yellow flowers have given this bird a yellowish cast to mantle

Spectacled Warbler - juvenile

Spectacled (left) and Subalpine Warblers

Spectacled Warbler

Black Wheatear

We did the short distance from Mazzaron to Cartagena on the 24th September and stayed in the town for a couple of nights. From here we visited the lagoon at San Pedro del Pinatar. This was amazing for Black-necked Grebe I estimated 600 on the first visit and then counted 740 on my second visit which included two leucistic birds.

Black-necked Grebe including leucistic bird

The area was also very good for Slender-billed Gulls with some birds very close to the promenade which crosses the lagoon. 

I counted 30 on the first day but over 100 on the second but surprisingly I only saw 2 birds in first summer plumage which are pictured below.

Slender-billed Gulls - both first summer

There were a few shorebirds, mainly Sanderling which again were very confiding but I also had Little Stint and Kentish Plover.

Kentish Plover

Next stop Calpe, similar birds with plenty of migrant Subalpine Warblers in the scrub on the outskirts of town. Alpine Accentors move down from the mountains to winter here but it will be sometime yet before they arrive. A flock of Yellow-collared Lovebirds were in the trees by the campsite when I arrived, I'd seen Monk Parakeets in most of the towns on the Mediterranean coast but these were new for me.

Yellow-collared Lovebirds - I think the blue one is a colour morph

We carried on the Ebro Delta, I was here in Spring 2016 and it's a fantastic area with a huge breeding colony of Audouin's Gulls but by 27th September when I arrived I only saw about a dozen birds and all adults. At least 500 Greater Flamingo were a real spectacle, especially as they left the lagoons in small groups on a morning presumably to feeding grounds on the coast.

Greater Flamingo

In the bushes there were a few migrant Pied Flycatchers and Common Redstarts and in the evening Scops Owls called from the small wooded campsite where we stayed but day-time searches failed to reveal them. I looked for a Pacific Golden Plover which had been seen in recent days but the weather had turned and it was raining and I couldn't find it so spent some time photographing a yellow wagtail. I think this is a 1st winter male Blue-headed Wagtail.

Blue-headed Wagtail - 1st winter male

Pam was flying home from Barcelona on 2nd October and we had planned to stay over in the city before she left but with the Catalonian independence election taking place on 1st October and demonstrations planned we decided to stay over in Tossa de Mar. The was quite a bit of trouble in Barcelona but the elections went off peacefully in the smaller villages we visited. Not many birds to add here but nice views of Firecrest and I caught up with a Two-tailed Pasha in the hills above Tossa. Not the freshest example but they are superb butterflies.

Two-tailed Pasha

Having dropped Pam at the airport I headed north in to France finally stopping on the top of the Col du Galibier. After the heat of Spain it was quite a contrast to be in the French Alps. The temperature dropped to a frosty -3°C overnight which made quite a pleasant change! As I drove up to the col a small group of passerines flew across the road and proved to be Alpine Accentors and with the sun shining I managed some decent photos.

Alpine Accentor

I also had a group of 20 White-winged Snowfinch but they remained distant on inaccesible slopes so sadly no photos. The only other birds on the col were Water Pipits which appeared to be crossing the col and Alpine Chough. Leaving the col and after a coffee and croissant at the restaurant I stopped in the valley at Bonnenuit and had barely exited the van when a Lammergier crossed overhead.

Lammergier or Bearded Vulture

I stopped for a few days at my brothers just outside Samoens before the final drive to Calais and the ferry back to Dover getting home on 8th October after another great trip.

Back to Spain 4th September - 8th October 2017 Part 1 Drive to Tarifa

I left the UK in the camper late on Monday 4th September and caught the 01:45 ferry from Dover to Calais. From Calais I headed south past Le Mans, Tours and Bordeaux stopping at Bayonne close to the Spanish border. 
The following day I drove to Villafafila and was soon watching flocks of Great Bustards, some quite close on the Villalpandol road.

Great Bustard

I stopped overnight at Otero de Sariegos where I had watched Lesser Kestrels the previous Spring. There were still one or two Lesser Kestrels around but most had already left the breeding site. Some nice Booted (including adult and juv dark phases which made a nice comparison) and Short-toed Eagles passed over and I took photos of the Spotless Starlings which now included some fairly spotty juveniles.

Booted Eagle adult (left) and juvenile (right)

Spotless Starling juv moulting to 1st winter

Parties of Bee-eaters passed overhead, mostly heard rather than seen. 

Sunset Otero de Sariegos

At dusk both Barn and Little Owls were calling and I caught up with the Little as the sun rose the following morning.

Little Owl at dawn

Rock Sparrows were coming to drink at a small pool and I counted at least 15 but they were surprisingly flighty. 
As the sun rose so did the temperature and it was 37℃ by early afternoon when I headed off for Monfrague. Several Two-tailed Pasha butterflies crossed the road in the National Park and I was soon watching large groups of Griffon Vultures (50+) and a handful of Blacks. At the Pena Falcon a pair of Black Stork still occupied a nest cave but were two far away to see whether these were adults or young. A Blue Rock Thrush  came out of the shade briefly to snatch some scraps from the footpath but the Western Subalpine Warbler feeding in the bushes stuck to the shade.

Blue Rock Thrush

I drove on to Trujillo and spent the night by the Bull Ring but this time all the Lesser Kestrels and Pallid Swifts were gone so the area was much quieter. Thousands of Spotless Starlings came in at dusk to roost much as our Starling does in the UK.
I spent a few days exploring the Steppes around Trujillo and saw several parties of both Black-bellied and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse and managed some flight photos once I had worked out which pools they were drinking at. 

Black-bellied Sandgrouse - female

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse - male

Two Little Bustards were the only ones I saw but there were more Greats. The plains were full of larks with several hundred Calandra and lesser numbers of Short-toed. A Dotterel flying over calling was unexpected.
From Trujillo I drove to Malaga where I was due to pick up Pam from the airport on 9th September. With time to spare I went to the conveniently located Guadalhorce reserve where again I had good views of White-headed Ducks plus a few migrants including a nice male Bluethroat. Pallid Swifts and Red-rumped Swallows were passing through here as were several Booted Eagles. Red Avadavats and Monk Parakeets gave the area an exotic feel.

White-headed Duck - male and female

Having collected Pam from the airport we continued south down the coast to the Meson de Sancho hotel close to Tarifa.
Tarifa in the autumn is a fantastic place for birding. There is always evidence of some birds moving south and if you are lucky with the winds the birds of prey can pass vary close. Most days started at the Cazalla watchpoint above Tarifa but then depending whether the raptors were moving and their line of flight we might move to one of the other watch points. The Trafico watchpoint where the Spanish Fundacion Migres is based can be the best for photography as birds are funnelled down the coast before starting the crossing to Morocco. Around 50 to 100 each of Booted and Short-toed Eagles were seen most days plus smaller numbers of Honey and Common Buzzards, Black Kites plus 1 or 2 Montagu's Harriers. One day we had 46 Egyptian Vulture which was amazing.

Egyptian Vultures - adult and juvenile

In addition to the raptors parties of Bee-eaters passed overhead and several groups of Black Stork.
The beach at Los Lances is covered with people flying kites but visits early morning generally produced a few Audouins's Gulls and a few waders including Kentish Plover, Sanderling and Bar-tailed Godwit.

Audouin's Gull - moulting adult

In Tarifa itself I added Common Bulbul to my European bird list where there is a small population of this North African species.
We met Mick and Viv Cunningham who are birding friends from the UK and I was pleased to get a call from Mick to say he had found a roosting Red-necked Nightjar at La Janda. This bird has roosted in more or less the same spot for several years and is quite famous but still is very difficult to locate amongst the fallen leaves.

Red-necked Nightjar

It was general windy at La Janda making birding difficult but it did help me to get some nice photos of juvenile Montagu's Harriers as the wind held them almost stationary over the track.

Montagu's Harrier  - juvenile

Part 2 covers Tarifa to the French Alps.

The long road home - 25th June to 6th July

We had decided that rather than retrace our route back through Finland and in to the Baltic States we would travel down through Sweden crossing 'The Bridge' in to Denmark and then through Germany in to Holland for a North Sea crossing.
We stopped over again at Vestre Jakobselv where a single Short-eared Owl was one of only two I saw on the whole trip.  first stop was still in Finland. The feeder at the campsite attracted a dozen Mealy Redpoll but nothing that looked good enough for Arctic.

Mealy Redpoll

We left Norway heading for Rovaniemi close to the Swedish border. Rovaniemi is on the Arctic Circle and has a large shopping mall devoted to Santa Claus and is the HQ for the Santa Claus post office where all letters sent to Santa end up. Of more immediate interest to me was a large landfill site just down the 78 towards Kivitaipale which had a wintering Steppe Eagle. I had directions from Jan and specific instructions not to drive in to the tip even if the external barrier was open. I arrived at the tip in light rain and parked by the external barrier, which was open, I then had a 3km walk to the inner fence surrounding the tip. As a neared the tip I saw at least 30 Raven and 50 Hooded Crows along with parties of Common Gulls. There was no way in to the tip so it meant viewing over the fence, I soon picked up 2 distant eagles but they were just dots several kilometres away. There was a single car park outside the gates and after 30 minutes or so the occupants returned who were three Finnish birders. They had been round the edge of the tip and confirmed that my two distant eagles were Golden but they hadn't seen the Steppe. The offered me a lift back to the outer barrier which I gladly took, as we approached the outer barrier we now found that it had been closed which was the reason the Jan had advised not to drive in which now proved excellent advice as I parted from the 3 Finns who were now stranded inside the barrier.
It rained almost continuously for the next couple of days so other than posting cards from Santas Post Office and visiting the Polar Museum in Rovaniemi there was not much else to do so we headed off for Sweden.
I made a visit to Gammelstadsviken, a small nature reserve where a Grey (Red) Phalarope had been reported but saw very little other than a few flocks of Little Gulls and several Pied Flycatcher and had what was virtually my only encounter with significant numbers of mosquitoes which kept Pam in the van.
Continuing south on the E4 we stopped briefly at the Skuleskogen National Park which was very busy and with a single track boardwalk not easy to get round. We finally stopped at the Mavikens campsite near Mjallom where the sky finally cleared and we enjoyed several days of sunshine and summer like warmth!
There were at least 6 pairs of Slavonian Grebes close to the campsite which had already started their post breeding moult. It was difficult to know where they were in the breeding cycle as all the birds seemed to be in pairs and there was quite a bit of threat displaying and chasing.

Slavonian Grebe - threat display

Slavonian Grebe - fighting

On the lake I also had a pair of Velvet Scoter,and several Red-breasted Merganser and Eider. The woodland were strangely quiet with no Chiffchaff or Willow Warbler singing and just the odd Whitethroat and Pied Flycatcher around the campsite.
Further south we had our first juvenile Osprey just north of Vallvik where we stopped overnight.

Osprey - juvenile

A Willow Warbler was notable here in that I hadn't seen or heard any for awhile.
As we neared Stockholm we spent a couple of nights at Vaxholm. Here there were several Honey Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Crested Tits, White Wagtails with young and a few Greylag and Barnacle Geese.
Remaing on the E4 we crossed the southern tip of Sweden stopping at the huge Vattern Lake where it was very windy and the only birds of note were Red Kites.
Heading towards Malmo and the crossing to Copenhagen we were passing so close to Falsterbo that I couldn't resist having a look at this migration hot spot. I saw no birds of real note but Swifts were in large numbers over the village and perhaps already looking to head south.
We crossed 'The Bridge' made famous by the TV crime series of the same name then stopped in Copenhagen before driving across Germany and catching the Hook of Holland to Harwich ferry ending a fantastic journey around northern Europe and completing my two year birdwatching trip around all the hotspots of mainland Europe.