Three Days in Prague 8th - 11th January

My first visit to the city of Prague and I couldn't decide whether to bother taking the camera. In the end I took the 300mm lens, 2x converter and 5D III which fit neatly in my carry-on luggage case, which is all I was taking. I was glad I did!
We flew directly to Prague from Manchester with Easyjet on a package booked through Thomas Cook staying at the 4* Hotel Elite on the edge of the old town, which I would recommend, and close to the river. All in for £250 for two is probably as cheap as I could get a weekend in Manchester.
It was cold, around zero degrees on our first day and after a walk around the town we headed for the river Vltava. 
Plenty of Black-headed Gulls and Greater Cormorant, Mallard, around 100 Tufted Duck, 4 Pochard and several Little Grebe. There were several larger gulls on concrete pillars in the centre of the river but as they periodically flew closer I could see that there was a mixture of Herring and Caspian Gulls. Several landed reasonably close to where I was stood and I managed some reasonable shots of first winter and adult Caspian Gull.

Caspian Gull 1st winter

Caspian Gull adult

Crossing the river we entered Petrin Park. There were not many birds but several Jay, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker and one or two Short-toed Treecreeper plus a single Marsh Tit. I managed some decent photos of the treecreeper and have made a composite with a photo of a Eurasian Treecreeper taken in the UK for comparison.

Short-toed Treecreeper (L) v Eurasian Treecreeper (race brittanica)

I've seen quite a few Short-toed Treecreepers in the last few years and have concluded that there is no single feature that reliably separates the two species, other than voice, but they can be distinguished by a combination of field characteristics; Short-toed Treecreeper is generally;

• greyer below with buffish flanks,
• the outer edge of the largest alula feather is white with pale tip, whereas Eurasian Treecreeper generally just shows a pale tip,
• the pale band in the primaries overlap evenly forming an even band whilst in Eurasian the band is uneven,
• the bill is longer, particularly in the male Short-toed,
• supercilium between the eye and bill is fainter whereas in Eurasian it is as prominent in front as it is behind the eye,
• other features such as the short hind claw, dark and unstreaked forehead and colour of the primary tips I have found less helpful.

On the walk back to the hotel there were around 50 Jackdaw close to the river and I returned the following morning for a closer look. Of about 150 birds 10% had pale collars and one or two of these were very obvious such as the bird below.

Western Jackdaw probably soemmerringii

Western Jackdaw with ring

One of the birds, with a slightly less marked collar, had a ring which I was able to read. I sent the details to Prague Museum and got an almost immediate reply to confirm that the bird had been ringed in Prague ~ 2km away just over 4 years ago. So it looks likely that both nominate monedula and soemmerringii are resident here.
On our final day, which was around -5ºC with intermittent snow, we walked through the old town again then followed Parizska road north, through the poshest part of town, crossing the river again but this time to Letna Park. Several Great Spotted and a Green Woodpecker were a good start, along with Nuthatch and Jay.

Green Woodpecker

Then calling Long-tailed Tits, all looking pale headed and a least one with the pure which head of nominate caudatus. The cream of a superb species, often referred to as Northern Long-tailed Tit as it resides in NE Europe. I presume the birds with some black behind the eye and on the ear coverts are all within the range of caudatus or are inter breeds with europaeus.

Northern Long-tailed Tit

There were many more Red Squirrel in Letna Park than we had seen in Petrin Park and they were rather more approachable, one was a sooty black melanic.

Red Squirrels with lower animal melanic

On the way back a pair of Egyptian Geese were calling loudly by the bridge, an addition to my Czech Republic list.
So, all in all a very enjoyable few days. Prague is a beautiful city with lots to see and many good eating places. I'm sure with a bit more time and the opportunity to get slightly further afield there would have been many more birds to see.

Ronda

I've spent the last two days in the Ronda area and am leaving slightly disappointed but I'm not sure why. It's an absolutely beautiful area and I saw some fantastic birds but struggled to get close to many of them which was a bit frustrating so that's probably it.
I started on Tuesday with Peter Jones who has an unrivalled knowledge of the birds of the Ronda area. He has also studied the Black Wheatear population so there is probably nobody better to show you where they are. We spent most of the day in the Llanos de Liber valley which is a fantastic area with a wide variety of habitats.

Llanos de Liber - the sky really was that blue!

We soon found singing male Black Wheatears but they seem to choose the tops of the valley sides to sing from making it difficult to get close. Black Wheatears only occur in Iberia, Morocco and Libya so have quite a restricted range they are also resident unlike our Northern Wheatear which we also saw along with migrant Black-eared Wheatears which are just returning.

Black Wheatear

A Thekla Lark put on a good show, Thekla's are resident in the valley but Crested Larks are common in the open cultivated areas and around the towns so we were able to make a good comparison. The shorter less curved bill of Thekla Lark is probably the most reliable field characteristic.

Thekla Lark

Crested Lark

Further up the valley we encountered Rock Sparrows, Rock and Cirl Buntings and Dartford Warblers.
Red-billed Chough is very common in the valley but again stick to the higher cliff faces.
Peter then took me on a tour of some of the other good birding spots around Ronda. I managed a photo of the Iberian race of Green Woodpecker (sharpei) which lacks the black around the eye of UK birds. 

Green Woodpecker Picus viridis sharpei

Although I have heard, and glimpsed, Cetti's Warbler at almost every stop in Spain I finally managed a photo by the river Guadiaro.

Cetti's Warbler

This morning I was in a hide set up by Pieter Verheij who runs Spanish Nature with Peter Jones.The hide has a special reflective glass front so the birds are completely oblivious of the photographers present. The glass is also slightly tinted so you loose a little light. 

The Agaba hide at first light with Pieter Verheij putting out the food

I got nice photos of some of the common woodland species which were similar to the UK; Nuthatch, Jay, Blue and Great Tits plus Subalpine Warbler and Serin but some of the other birds the pond attracts such as Bonelli's and Melodious Warblers and Nightingale are only just arriving, Booted Eagles also visit the hide and although I saw them over the tree tops they never came close. I wasn't entirely happy taking photos through the glass although the photos themselves look OK.

Subalpine Warbler - Agaba Hide

Whilst in the Ronda area I visited several Bonelli's Eagle nesting territories but had no luck in seeing them. I guess if the birds have eggs or young chicks the adults may not be that active now.
I considered going back over to the Cadiz area to visit sites like La Janda but have decided to move up the Mediterranean coast tomorrow.

Route so far, looking a little messy in southern Spain