House martins leave and Cranes arrive.

After a four month drought it’s finally started to rain, sadly too late for many southbound birds who missed the winged ants, and had to make do with other insects fortunately plentiful because of the remaining ponds from our very wet spring.  So the Flycatchers stayed very little this year, mainly pied, Spotted flycatcher only spotted a couple of times.  There were lots of  Whinchats and Redstarts around from mid-September but most appear to have moved on.  The Wheatear have held on until mid-October, which goes to show there must still have been plenty of food for them.

Our village was filled with House martins for several days on their southerly migration, stopping off to rest and refuel, catching small insects in flight with superb agility.  What a privilege it was to be able to watch them from my window!

Upstream at Puente del Congosto on the River Tormes we were treated to hundreds of Housemartin feeding on the church wall and later mobbing a Hobby who tried in vain to gain height over them. The Blue Rock thrush showed itself peeping from the castle tower and later on a rooftop: such a special bird, so very beautiful with it’s fine vermiculated feathers.  

Blue Rock thrush

You never know what you might see looking down from the medieval bridge to the river: Common sandpiper, Cormorant, Grey and white wagtail, Kingfisher and Crag martin were just a few of the locals recently.

And around there are the usual residents such as Black Redstart, Corn bunting and Chaffinch.

On a walk nearby we came across two interesting creatures: Eresus kollari the Ladybird spider and the Iberian or Bosca’s newt Lissitriton boscai. A tiny creature, and endemic to Western Iberia.

Eresus kollari

Lissitriton boscai

During the summer one hot evening there I saw a strange looking Melodious warbler, with a very big beak and bright orange legs.  Having showed the photo to my ringer friends and other birders some feel it isn’t a Melodious and  others that it is.  Anyone out there have an idea?

 The surprise recently has been the early arrival of the Cranes, which obviously didn’t stop off to feed in the maize fields of France as in other years: possibly because, like here, the crops have come late and are have not yet been harvested?  We were invited out for a ride on a boat on our local reservoir, to test the viability of taking people out birdwatching from a different perspective.  A very gentle speed and the possibility to stay more or less still in the water makes for a great platform from which to watch the birds on the shoreline or floating from a safe distance without disturbing them. 

Cranes on the shore

Little Egret

Here was someone in the middle of lunch: a tasty grasshopper.

We’ve had some interesting visitors on our local reservoir shoreline recently: Dunlin and Curlew sandpiper together with the more usual Little ringed plover.

The muddy surface also witnesses countless prints of mammals: wild boar, fox and badger all making an appearance.

wild boar tracks

We had a look under a nest of the now absent Black Kite to see if there were traces of their food.  Not surprisingly, we found mainly fish bones.  They are such good fishers!  We were more surprised to see that in the same tree, above and to the side of the nest and actually hanging from the underside of it were several Spanish sparrow nests.  Taking advantage of the protection they might gain from close vecinity to such a redoubtable hunter?  It would be interesting to observe them and see if they actually do coincide in their breeding.

A garden warbler flew into the house through an open window and took a few bumps trying to get out through the closed ones.  Eventually I managed to scoop it up and set it on the window sill to recover.  At first I was quite concerned for it but after about 15 minutes it perked up and flew off.

Songthrush and meadow pipits have arrived and the ‘quita meriendas’ or Colchicum montanum is out in full bloom.  Its local name (meaning snack remover) relates to it coming out at the beginning of autumn, when the days shorten, and so for the shepherds and farmers the late afternoon snack (merienda) is replaced by an early evening meal.

 

 

Colchicum montanum

The local vultures are back after breeding and can often be seen  circling or waiting patiently to feed on a cow carcass.

A Tawny tragedy and lots of birdsong.

Ulysses is the name we gave to our local Tawny owl, who over the past few years has become a kind of village mascot, following us back to the village from our vegetable patch, flying from post to post and peering at us curiously, often perching on lampposts and television aerials to call out his unmistakable ‘uuuh-uh-uhuhuuuh’.  Weeks back he was seen on intimate terms with his mate and we supposed they were now busy raising a family in one of the nearby Holm oaks.  But then about two weeks ago he appeared in the village and called throughout the night, and some of the day.  He’s been back every day or night since.  At first we were amused, but on seeing him persistently calling, flying around the village and ignoring the angry Blackbird which was jabbering at him from the same TV aerial, we started to feel concerned.

Then Sergio, our local shepherd got in touch with me and told me he’d found the carcass of a bird.  I went to see it.  Although fairly decomposed, it was quite clearly a Tawny owl, probably victim to a hard chicken wire fence which it presumably flew into.  Was this Ulysses’ missing partner?  I can hear him hoo-hooing disconsolately as I write.  It’s truly heart-breaking.  I can only hope that he’s managed to rear any chicks alone, and can eventually find another partner. 

On a lighter note a pair of little owl have adopted a dead holm oak and are often to be seen perched on its branches (or otherwise occupied) as we drive past.  They seem totally un-phased by passing cars.  As it’s not a good place to stop I only managed this shot on my mobile...

Spring has taken it’s time arriving this year, despite unseasonably warm days in February and March.  But it has rained buckets, and it’s a joy to see everything so green and full of colour, everywhere covered in masses of grasses and flowers.

 

There are tell-tale tracks of who’s been in the neighbourhood... 

badger tracks

newt or salamander tracks

roe deer tracks

When the sun does come out every bird in the vicinity seems to appear suddenly from among the greenery and compete to be seen or heard.  Here are a few...

bee-eater

 collared dove

 

 corn bunting

 

great spotted cuckoo 

male cirl bunting

female cirl bunting

 blackcap

guess who?

 

woodchat shrike

 

white stork

linnet and sparrow

 

melodiuos warbler 

melodious warbler song

Meanwhile in the mountains there is fresh snow and the Red Rock thrush we looked for in vain a few weeks ago has finally arrived.  It shares the mountain with Dunnocks, Ravens and Hortolan bunting.

 red rock thrush

dunnocks

On a walk in a pine forest with birder friends just 45km away we were very excited to find recent signs of Red squirrel, not normally associated with this area. 

squirrel dining table

We also came across several Pied flycatcher, one of whom I managed to film singing, and due to the size and shape of the white forehead mark and primary bases, and lack of white on the tail we suspect to be of the native subspecies iberiae.  There are plenty of woodpeckers in the woods who have provided nice nesting holes for them. 

 pied flycatcher

A Short-toed treecreeper appeared and disappeared, not into a tree hole but into a stone wall.

short-toed treecreeper

And we have proud lodgers on the corner of our house: a handsome Spanish sparrow couple, no doubt dislodged by the butchery done to the poplars in the village gardens last year which were not so much pollarded as truncated (municipal madness I tried to put a stop to but, alas, could not).  Here is the male guarding the nest, complete with flowers.

spanish sparrows

A visit to our reservoir brought two lovely surprises: a Turtle dove cooing and an young Osprey roosting for the night.

turtle dove

osprey