Escape to Extremadura - Final update

I feel as tho' I'm on holiday, keep it going TJ, fabulous photos.

Monfrague

The Parque Natural de Monfrague is the jewel in the crown of Extremadura. It's an area which is dissected by the  the Rio Tajo. As well as the famous gorges which are home to vultures and other raptors the surrounding countryside provides good habitat for other birds with scrub of cistus, lavender and broom predominating.

The day of our first visit was rather grey with a little light rain. However, this proved rather fortuitous because no sooner had we got out of the vehicle at the first viewpoint but there was the Spanish Imperial Eagle sitting atop the crag peak. If it had been a fine day it would have probably been off hunting somewhere. Here's a very distant view.

Amazingly, its mate turned up, gave us a fly past (too quick for me to photograph) and perched on a neighbouring tree and started to preen. Another very long distance shot. Don't ask me which is the male.

Although very similar, the Spanish Imperial Eagle is treated as a separate species to the Imperial Eagle which is found in eastern Europe.

Our next stop in the park was to the Castillo (or was the Sanctuario). This required a steep lung-bursting, heart-pumping climb to the summit. Despite my advanced years and general lack of fitness I made it to the top - two of our group didn't.

Views from the top.

Griffon Vultures were the predominant raptor around and appeared to be doing rather well. They were always floating past on the thermals and nested in the gorge.

We saw other raptors either here or elsewhere in the park.

Short-toed Eagle.

Booted Eagle

Pity the skies weren't blue - it would have shown them up so much better.

We did also see Egyptian Vulture, Peregrine and Eagle Owl chicks in the nest, all too far away to photograph.

More to follow.

Great photos Teejay,

i nearly missed the update, glad i did'nt though,

nice to see the beautiful country-side, love the wild lavender,

those Eagles are wonderful.

thanks for sharing your holiday with us .

Well done for reaching the top of the castle, TJ. and well worth the effort for those spectacular views. I like the vulture best. Those Griffons are magnificent birds seen close up (in a falconry centre I must add!) What a priviledge to see them in the wild - and the eagles. Magnificent.

Nearly done - I'm afraid there's no remission for good behaviour.

Odds and ends from Extremadura

How could I not include the classic birds of southern Europe in Spring and Summer.

Hoopoe

Bee-eater

Here's a little curiosity. Like many countries Spain has it's fair share of introduced species. We we were constantly seeing a very small bird flitting about some of the reed beds. At first it was thought to be a Common Waxbill. When we got a decent view of it we decided (or rather our leader did) that it was a Red Adavat but probably a female or first winter male.

Crag Martin collecting mud. Just before this there was a Red-rumped Swallow but I was not quick enough.

Purple Heron

Gredos

We spent two days in the Gredos Mountains. They are not in Extremadura but are situated  in the neighbouring region of Castilla y Leon northwest of Madrid. The main reason for going there was to see Bluethroat which only breeds at high altitude in this area.

En route to Gredos at a birding stop we were lucky to get a good sighting of a male Golden Oriole. These are quite common birds in Spain but they are quite shy so not always easy to photograph.

To see the Bluethroat we had to climb to the platanos - more lung-busting, heart-pumping exertion. Here's the habitat.

Still snow on the peaks as you can see.

We did see Bluethroat but too distant to photograph. However on the way up there were these little beauties.

Narcissus of some sort for the flower lovers.

Rock Buntings which were quite common and not shy.

And stunning Ortolan Buntings.

Anyone like to say what these are. It's a common or garden bird back home but here they live at high altitude which probably says something about their ancestry.

I'll sign off with this male Black Redstart which was hanging out by the local Parador. They were quite common in this area hopping about like Robins would back home.

 Hope I haven't bored you too much with my tales. Of course , we saw many more species than I've mentioned. Probably in excess of 150 in total.

My abiding impression of Extremadura in particular is the sheer profusion of birds in all sorts of habitats. Do you know what the most common bird was? The Corn Bunting which I haven't even mentioned. They were singing absolutely everywhere. I wish we could say that about about the UK. Perhaps it's the lower intensity of farming and agriculture in this region compared with the UK but they are doing something right because the birdlife is amazing.

Thanks Teejay for an amazing set of photos,

It looks a brilliant place for birdlife, i think the UK has alot to learn,

The hedge accentor is a close relative of the alpine accentor so that is probably why it does quite well high up.  I did look twice just in case.  Now the question is what do we normally call the hedge accentor.

More wonderful shots. The Black Redstart does it for me :) Glad you had a good time, it really is a brilliant part of the world for birding.

TJ what a brillliant report!! Its always great to hear about your foreign adventures + look at the fab pictures. The Golden Oriole is astonishing in its colour!! Love the storks up on the church + the purple heron. Well all of them + always great to see some of the scenery landscapes of these areas.

Fantastic TJ, thanks for taking me on holiday with you, I've really enjoyed it.

Fantastic, TJ! Really enjoyed reading your report. It sounds like you had a great time. I'm really tempted to have a look down there myself now!

Brilliant photos, too!