A few days in Slovenia

I left the Alps and drove almost none stop to Slovenia, driving through the Chamonix Tunnel then motorway passing Milan and Venice then just across the border to the small village of Vipava which is in a good location for bird watching in SW Slovenia.
On the way I stopped at services about 50Km west of Milan and recorded my first Italian House Sparrows of the trip. The males lack the grey crown of the House Sparrow we see in Britain.

Italian race of House Sparrow

The change is immediate once you emerge from the Tunnel and they appear to continue through most of northern Italy but the sparrows in Vipava had the grey crowns. I also noted that the Carrion Crows were of the 'hooded' variety from at least Milan so assume they appear also south of the Alps.

Hooded Crow

Slightly unexpectedly I also saw at least 6 Sacred Ibis in fields at the back of the service station. I had been given a location for this feral population of an African species but here they were at the services so no need to go any further!

Sacred Ibis

I had a look around the campsite area on the first evening and noted several Cirl Bunting singing as well as the usual Blackcaps and Black Redstarts that I hear at every stop.
The following morning (Wednesday 13th) I went to Lake Cerknica which is a large shallow winter flood area. There was plenty of water there during my visit with some large reedbeds from which I could hear several Bittern booming.

Lake Cerknica

The lake fringes had plenty of yellow wagtails, most were Ashy-headed (M.f.cinereocapilla) but I did see the odd Black-headed (M.f.feldegg) as well.

Ashy-headed Wagtail - taking off

Great-crested Grebes and Coot were the commonest waterfowl but there were a few male Garganey dotted amongst the reeds. There were very few other migrants other than Blackcaps and Chiffchaff which was disappointing. I tried a similar area nearby at Planina but that was dry. I did record my first Cuckoos of the year though.
The following day I decided on a trip in to Croatia, to the island of Krk from where Rock Partridge have been reported but there is some reasonable habitat for other birds.
Almost the first birds I saw after crossing to the island on a superb bridge were Black-eared Wheatears, these are of the eastern variety again with both pale and dark throated males. There was a lot of calling from the bushes which turned out to be Eastern Subalpine Warblers. These were calling every where and I couldn't guess at the numbers but certainly dozens. Singing Nightingales were also calling and singing in good numbers.

Eastern Subalpine Warbler - male note rusty upper breast and pale belly

Having failed to locate any Rock Partridge in the barren northern part of the island I drove south through a rather thickly vegetated middle to a more open and cultivated south. The area around Baska was good with Griffon Vultures over the cliffs, more Nightingales, my first Turtle Dove of the trip, Whinchat and a pair of Hawfinch which eluded the camera. In the town looking through the sparrows I saw several Spanish Sparrows which is a good record for the area I suspect as they have a very restricted range in Croatia which I don't think includes Krk.

Male Spanish Sparrow this angle also shows the two pale 'tram' lines on the back which aid ID

Back in Vipava in the evening I decided to move on and head in to Bulgaria where I will spend a few days before heading into Greece. I had planned to drive round via Hungary and Rumania but as I will be spending time in both countries later I am going to miss them out for the moment.
I have been struggling a bit with the IT side of things so apologies for any errors in these blogs.

Samoens and the Grand Massif

Still very overcast when I arrived in the valley of the Haute Giffre, with low cloud cover so I decided to stay down in the valley and visit the Fer-a-Cheval just a few kilometres east of Samoens. As I was getting out of the van with the camera a local guide asked me what I was hoping to photograph and said there was a small group of Bouquetin, or Alpine Ibex, just a few hundred meters down the road. I soon located them, it looked like four youngsters, the smallest of which looked to be in a very precarious position on the cliff face. 

Bouquetin - youngster

I took a few photos then headed further in to the valley on foot, there was a mother group of about 8 Bouquetin this party including 2 adult males with decent horns. There were Ravens over the cliff tops and Crested and Marsh Tits among the trees but not sign of the Alpine Swifts which breed on the cliffs having returned yet.

Bouquetin - males

Returning to Sixt I went to Salvagny and a well known breeding site for Lammergeier. A French birdwatcher was the only other person in the car park and he was watching a Lammergeier as I arrived. A second bird soon appeared, both adults and they circled in front of the cliff for 15 or 20 minutes before finally landing, one bird in a cave and the other nearby. Not close for photography but a good view through a telescope.

Lammergeier

The following day, Sunday, was forecast to be clear and so it was, a clear blue sky all day. I decided to get up high using the ski lift in Flaine which goes up to 2200m. I walked on the snow to the Tete de Pelouse, an area where I have regularly seen Snow Finch. It was 20 minutes or so before I first heard and then saw a Snow Finch. It was quite a distance away, several more appeared but were feeding on an inaccessible cliff face. I spent several hours in the area, an Alpine Accentor started singing from the rocks and I eventually picked it up having a preen.

Alpine Accentor

I followed the Snow Finches and eventually two birds came a little closer on to an area where there had been a small avalanche. The disadvantage for me was that stood watching them every so often a rock would come bounding down the slope to land on the snow quite close to where I was stood.

Snow Finch

Sometimes when I have been in this area the Snow Finches have come to the cafe by the lift but not today. I returned to the lift and took some more photos of the Alpine Choughs. When the light reflected off the snow catches the birds underside it is amazing how it lights up the black plumage.

Alpine Chough

This morning I did a walk towards the Refuge de Bostan in an area of old deciduous woodland. I was very pleased early on to flush two Hazel Grouse off the side of the path. They landed and ran in to the cover of the woodland giving no opportunity for a photo. That's the first time I have seen Hazel Grouse in all my years of visiting this area so I consider myself lucky to have seen them. It's a bird I would like to photograph so hopefully will get more chance later on.
Having reached the French Alps this really concludes Part 1 of my trip. I had decided at the outset that I wanted to spend more time in eastern Europe and Scandinavia than in western Europe so I have purposely dashed around Spain and France. Tomorrow I am heading for Slovenia and Croatia to begin Part 2.

Route completed at 11th April

Mont Ventoux

I left the Crau and headed for Mont Ventoux but decided to call in at Les Baux-de-Provence, the site is well known for Wall Creeper and Alpine Accentor in the winter but I think it is a bit late for those species, it was pretty much on the way however.
Les Baux is a beautiful walled town and worth a visit in any case. I did a complete circuit of the outer perimeter and had several Sardinian and a pair of Subalpine Warblers, my first female of the trip, but no sign of any accentors or Wall Creeper.

Subalpine Warbler - female

Les Baux-de-Provence

At Mont Ventoux I drove as far as the barrier where the road is closed, just above the village of Mont Serein and walked to the top from there, about 6km (the road is closed until 15th May). There was quite a bit of snow of the road as I got higher. I had several Ring Ousel calling in the woods but little else of note but the views were amazing.

Ring Ousel - male

I repeated the drive to Mont Serein the following morning. I soon found several parties of Citril Finch and an area with at least three singing male Woodlark. At Mont Serein there was a pair of Rock Bunting by the road side and several more groups of Citril Finch, a group of 8 was feeding on the road into the village but there were so few vehicles they were not disturbed very often. What superb birds they are, the males in vibrant green. A group of 8 Crossbill joined them briefly.

Citril Finch

From Mont Ventoux I went to Col de Lauteret, still no Snow Finch but I did see the Alpine Chamois, it was cold with still complete snow cover around the Col. The only bird seen were White Wagtails, Crag Martin and a couple of Water Pipit. 

Col de Lauteret

Col de Lauteret was the final stop on my way the to Alps near Chamonix, we owned a flat at Morillon for a dozen years and my brother has lived in the area for almost 30 so this is familiar territory and I hope to pick up some more birds for the trip there.

The Camargue

The Camargue was rather spoilt by the weather, it was blowing a gale,overcast and cool when I arrived and the following day it rained until mid-afternoon. I met a Belgian couple who were leaving for Spain having had 10 days of poor weather. They have spent a month in the Camargue at this time for the past 10 years and this is the worst weather they had experienced.
Consequently it didn't feel much like Spring and it looks like the weather has held the birds back. There were no marsh terns in sight and although I had my first Nightingale, Willow Warbler and Pied Flycatcher at the lovely La Capeliere Reserve migrants were hard to find. I did manage a nice portrait of Fan-tailed Warbler there, along with Cetti's these are the two most conspicuous passerines in the area.

Fan-tailed Warbler

I stayed 2 nights at Saintes Maries-de-la-Mer on the Med coast but visited most of the recommended sites on the Camargue.
There were plenty of Greater Flamingos and much more confiding than in Spain allowing me to get some nice close up shots of this remarkable bird.

Greater Flamingo preening

Marsh Harriers and Black Kites were on show for much of the time but I didn't see any other birds of prey.
Highlight for me was a party of about 25 Slender-billed Gulls sat together preening on one of the lakes. The breeding adults looked superb with the pink cast to their breasts.

Slender-billed Gulls

When it was very windy there was a large movement of Sandwich Terns along the Med coast and also on the Camargue itself, several thousand birds must have been involved and I only saw a handful the following day when the wind had reduced a bit.

I did see Coypu which is an animal I have not encountered before, I don't know where the original animals came from but they are apparently well establish, the Carmargue obviously providing similar habitat to their native South America.

Coypu

I left the Camargue this morning and paid a visit to La Crau, it's an area of flat grassland that holds Frances only Little Bustard and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. It was still very windy so I didn't venture on to the plains but checked the canal which borders the Peau De Meau Reserve but without success, looks like I've had it for Melodious Warbler.
I'm heading for the Alps next and will have a look for the birds I missed by not going to the Pyrenees.

El Planeron - just for a lark!

There are probably a number of good reasons why you might visit El Planeron, the scenery is good, but probably no better than other neighbouring areas. For the majority, myself included and the Dutch and Danish couples who I met there, there is only one reason; Dupont's Lark, El Planeron is one of the best sites to see it.

El Planeron Dupont's Lark sign

Dupont's Lark has a reasonably wide distribution in the Saragossa area and is shown on the distribution maps as also occurring in pockets further south including Ronda, although talking to Peter Jones he thought that these populations were gone. Dupont's Lark has suffered significant declines in past decades, it's classified as Near Threatened by Birdlife due to a 20% population decline 1970-1990. The Spanish Population is estimated at 2000-3000 males.

El Planeron Dupont's Lark habitat

I have never seen Dupont's Lark before so was keen to correct that, but I knew seeing the bird could be difficult. I arrived at the site around 16:00 yesterday and walked the areas listening intently until dark at 20:00. I thought I had heard one or two short bursts of its very melancholy song but wasn't sure. I decided to stay in the area overnight and in darkness at 20:30 I heard two clear bursts of song near where I was parked.
I was up at 05:30 although it wasn't light until about 07:30. At 05:45 I heard one bird singing strongly and by 06:30 there were at least three birds in the same area. As it became light I parked myself reasonably close to where I thought the song was coming from and waited. The singing reduced as it became light but still continued intermittently. The song had a mysterious habit of moving although there was no sign of anything in the steppe vegetation. Two hours later still nothing. I walked the area again and picked up several more birds singing, probably 7 males by now. This was frustrating I could hear them but not see them. I was starting to think they had an underground tunnel system to move from place to place!
By 11:00 I had given it 8 hours of solid searching and it was decision time, did I leave the larks and head for the Pyrenees as planned or stay with the larks and abandon the Pyrenees leg of the journey? I decided to stay and would have stayed until at least the following morning if necessary. I wanted to see this bird!
Occasionally the song was very close and contained some popping notes, a bit like Raven do sometimes. I caught a brief view of a bird landing after one episode of close calls and it occurred to me that they could be giving a song flight. The next time I heard the call close I looked up and saw a lark plummeting out of the sky, I can only think that it had been singing at a height that it was not visible to the naked eye. It came down quickly but I managed to see where it landed, and then it appeared, for about 20 seconds it was in view before running in to the vegetation. I grabbed the camera and fired off as many shots as I could. 

Dupont's Lark

Pam often says why don't I take the time to enjoy the bird rather than looking through a camera lens. Well this is the answer, I could have had 20 seconds of distant binocular views but now after writing this blog I will fill a glass of wine and study the photos. I may then have a second glass and look at them again, I have a permanent record of the moment the Dupont's Lark stepped out infront of me.
There were other birds in the area, plenty of Lesser Short-toed Larks, plus Calandra and a few Short-toed Larks. I saw two pairs of Stone Curlew, which were calling through the night.

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Short-toed Lark

Four Pin-tailed Sandgrouse flew over giving their characteristic kaa-kaa calls but they had almost gone by the time I got them in the camera.The Dutch couple had a party of 16 fly over yesterday.

Pin-tailed Sandgrouse - you can just about tell what they are!

So, I am heading for France now, hopefully I can pick up the Pyrenean mountain species in the French Alps.

Ebro Delta - home of the Audouin's Gull

It was a long drive yesterday from Motril to the Ebro Delta, about 750Km and it took about eight hours. The roads are very good, so far and no problems with navigation with SatNav. I stopped on the way at some pools near Vera, British birder Andrew Allport had found a Solitary Sandpiper there about a month ago. I wasn't expecting it to still be around but the pools looked quite good from photos and it was only slightly out of the way. I didn't see the Solitary Sandpiper but the pools were superb and right by the roadside. At least 4 Temminck's Stints plus around a dozen Little Stints, Wood and Green Sandpipers a dozen Water Pipit and 20 'fava' which looked like the Spanish race iberiae.

Temminck's Stint

Yellow Wagtail of the Spanish race iberia

I stayed at the Eucalyptus Camp Site which is ideally placed for the delta and had calling Scops Owls on the site, although I couldn't locate them in daylight.
I soon saw distant groups of Audouin's Gulls on the raised banks in the centre of the pools but they were constantly coming and going presumably to feed in the Med. There were also several loafing around on the spit which runs south from the delta, these were very approachable giving superb views.

Audouins' Gull

Lake Tancada - all the white dots are Audouin's

I also had several Slender-billed Gulls fly over and Caspian Terns were feeding along the coastal marsh with a few Sandwich Terns.

Slender-billed Gull

Caspian Tern

There is good access around the various lakes and dykes and plenty of waders, around 100 Little Stint, 20 Kentish Plover and a dozen Greenshank just on the few pools I looked at. Marsh Harriers were hunting over the reedbeds  and I could hear Little Bittern but didn't see it.
One of the pools had a small group of about ten Whiskered Terns, my first of the trip, and more birds joined them and then departed. I think there were probably around 50 went north.

Whiskered Tern

There is a single bush at the northern end of the spit that runs south where I met a local birdwatcher looking at it intently, his English was poor, but better than my Spanish. He said the bushy area was good for migrants but there were very few today. I stood at the bush with him and counted at least 4 Subalpine Warblers and a similar number of Chiffchaff (not sure whether these are Iberian, none are singing). I could easily imagine this area would be amazing in fall conditions.

Chiffchaff - possibly Iberian supercilium very yellow - if only I could read the ring!

What a fantastic place, definitely worth another visit. 
My plan is to head for the Pyrenees via the Saragossa area and then in to France.

Ronda to Motril

I left Ronda with the temperature at 3 degrees and arrived at the Charca de Suarez reserve near Motril at 24 degrees and a howling gale. On the way I stopped a couple of times in the mountains at Sierra de les Nieves for Southern Grey Shrike and a beautiful black-throated form of the hispanica race of Black-eared Wheatear, I had more Thekla Larks at the same spot.

Southern Grey Shrike

Black-eared Wheatear - dark throated form of Spanish race

Arriving at Charca de Suarez at mid-day I found the reserve closed, with some help from the local camping site I established that it opened at 17:30 for guided tours, it's otherwise closed on week days during March to May. Undeterred I decided to visit the Las Norias pools, which were about 70Km to the north. I could barely stand up with the wind and pulled on to some rough ground when I arrived only to find my parking spot was shared with a pair of Little Stint, Little Ringed Plover and a dozen Meadow Pipit. It looked like a wet area on the dried ground had dried up recently.

Little Stints - still in mainly winter plumage

The pools themselves didn't add much; a dozen Great-crested Grebe, several Red-crested Pochard and Shoveler and a few Black-headed Gulls - still no 'marsh' terns in sight.
I retuned to Charco  de Suarez. My primary reason for visiting this small reserve was to see Crested Coot, I had not found them at Huelva or La Rocio so this was my last chance. I was fairly confident of at least seeing them. In 2012 300 birds were released at various locations in Andalusia to support a dwindling population, 2 pairs were released at Charco and they had faired reasonably well raising young in the subsequent years.

Arriving at 17:30 I was joined by an enthusiastic Spaniard from the Basque country to the north a dutch pair, a couple from the UK and a mixed German/British pair. Only the UK couple appeared to be specifically interested in birds. Our guide was a local council official but fortunately, after a few minutes of background information on the reserve, we were released to explore as we pleased until 19:00. I dashed off for the hide which I thought had the best chance of Crested Coot, saw they could be seen closer from another hide and dashed round there. The other visitors were looking a bit bemused as they started there leisurely exploration of the reserve.
Never the less my luck was in. I saw three birds sporting fine neck collars indicating they were part of the release programme, another bird that did not which was presumably an off spring of the collared birds and two fluffy youngsters from this years brood. Can I count the un-collared bird as wild? Not too fussed, they gave great views and looked in fine condition.

Crested Coot

Whilst watching one bird I saw a Night Heron catch a large frog which it took about 10 minutes to finally swallow. 

Night Heron with frog

Nearby a Purple Gallinule was preening on the edge of the reeds and as it neared 19:00 several parties of Purple Heron, totalling about 30 birds dropped in to the reedbed, what a great little reserve this is. 

Purple Gallinule

Purple Heron - amazing markings!

If it had been open the following morning I would have been tempted to stay, since it wasn't I will be making a long drive up to the River Ebro delta south of Barcelona - home to around 70% of the World's Audouin's Gulls!