Elena I would soon spend three weeks in England so I hoped it would not be too early for a birding trip to Extremadura. In the event it was (too early), the exceptionally cold and wet weather had delayed the arrival of all the migratory birds, I was scraping ice off the windscreen in the mornings, and one whole day was wiped out in the rain. Anyway we picked Bob Wright up at 7:15 and rendezvoued with Derek & Barbara Etherton at 9 in a service station cafe on the way to Cordoba. From there we headed for the Plains of La Serena.
Great Bustard - otis tarda
I had several target birds for this trip, one of which was the Great Bustard, I would really like to have better photographs of this iconic species. As it happens we had several sightings but as usual they were quite distant and the birds beat a hasty retreat at the presence of people, so the best I could do was a few shots of them in flight as they left. One day perhaps. We also spotted another target species, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, a covey of them flew across the road ahead, no chance for a photograph. Not so this Little Owl that posed conveniently on a rock for us, very nice.
Little Owl - athene noctua
We were of course seeing all the usual birds one would expect in this landscape. The ubiquitous White Stork was everywhere..
Extremadura scene
White Stork portrait - ciconia ciconia
Larks were in every field, Calandra, Thekla, Crested, Short-toed and Lesser Short-toed Larks were all quite common.
Lesser Short-toed Lark - calandrella rufescens
Meadow Pipits were also abundant but not perhaps as numerous as Corn Buntings.
Meadow Pipit - anthus pratensis
I was quite surprised by the number of Hoopoes sighted. Given the very cold recent weather I would have expected them to have stayed further south at this time.
Hoopoe - upapa epops
As an indication of how much rain had fallen we had to turn back at one point, unable to cross a river which in normal times would have been dry or just a trickle. However it was around here we saw the first Subalpine Warbler of the year.
Subalpine Warbler - sylvia cantillans
An Iberian Grey Shrike stayed on the barbed wire fence long enough for us to pull up and take a shot through the car window.
Iberian Grey Shrike - lanius meridionalis
At the end of the day we arrived in Trujillo and enjoyed a decent meal in a restaurant in the main square of this delightful town and retired to the hotel for a decent night's sleep, quite content with the variety of birds we had seen during the day.
Unfortunately, next day was a washout. It rained steadily all day and although we travelled one of the best birding routes in all of Spain between Trujillo and Caceres, following the small road to Santa Marta de Magasca it was hopeless. We saw a few wet and bedraggled Lesser Kestrels but I really fear for them, this weather means no large insects have been emerging so there will be very little food to keep them alive. This on top of the steady elimination of insects through the increasing use of insecticides on a massive scale will probably decimate their numbers. There were none yet nesting on the roof of the bullring in Trujillo which is a fine sight when they are.
Long-tailed Tit - aegithalos cordatus
Next morning we headed off to Monfrague. It was extremely cold, I had to start off by scraping the ice off my windscreen. When we arrived at the famous Salto del Gitano there was virtually nothing to see, a few Griffon Vultures, a high flying Peregrine but very little else. The biting wind drove us further along to seek some shelter and I contented myself by photographing a few of the small birds in the trees by the river. here. Long-tailed Tits were foraging, along with Chaffinches, Tits, Robins and a few other small species.
 Robin |  Cirl Bunting - emberiza cirlus |
Close to the dam Barbara spotted a nice Cirl Bunting which conveniently did not fly away before I managed to fire off a shot.
Chaffinch - fringilla coelebs I quite like this shot of a Chaffinch. Common as much but it looks good on a royal blue background.
The Black Kite below sat on the overhead cable even when I got out of the car to take his picture. They are not usually that obliging.
The Black Kite below sat on the overhead cable even when I got out of the car to take his picture. They are not usually that obliging.
Black Kite - milvus migrans
From Monfrague we headed off to the Embalse de Arrocampo. Nothing spectacular to report from here but there were plenty of Spanish Sparrows in the hedgerows.
Spanish Sparrow - passer hispaniolensis
Well I say nothing spectacular but Derek said he spotted a couple of Tree Pipits foraging on the grass with the Meadow Pipits. Now I have never identified a Tree Pipit, they are incredibly difficult to distinguish from their much more common cousins, so I went back to where Derek had indicated and sure enough there were a couple that looked slightly different from the rest. It's hard to be sure but these two had bolder head stripes and broader white supercilliums plus they looked a bit heavier than the rest, so hopefully I have a photographic record here of a Tree Pipit.
Tree Pipit - anthus trivialis
| The next day we made our way South and homewards across the Plains of La Serena, seeing very few birds of note except for very good views of a low flying Golden Eagle, which unfortunately had soared too high for a good photograph by the tike I had stopped the car, got out, and lined up on it. Oh well, at least I have a record of the sighting. |  Golden Eagle - aguilla chrysaetos |
