A very late Woodchat Shrike and displaying Black-winged Kites

Another two superb days in the field, with some surprises and memorable sightings. The day before yesterday we ventured out on the plains to the west of us. It is curious how varied the landscape is at the moment in terms of "greenness". After the long dry summer we have had very few days of rain this autumn and most of the open ground has the barest of flushes of new growth. Farmers are still having to provide supplementary feed. Yet to the north of Trujillo there is a zone stunning in its autumnal beauty of emerald green grass and yellow crucifers in bloom. Our friend that lives there is convinced that it is thanks to some localised showers that missed the rest of us.

Most of our route was through drier terrain. At our first stop we found two groups of Great Bustard (37 birds in total) and watched a sky seemingly full of a flock of about 100 Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, which split into a myriad of smaller parties (twos and threes) circling and calling. A Carrion Crow was an unusual record here, but one frequented the area last year, so perhaps it is the same individual returning. We next visited a beautiful rocky valley where a pair of Bonelli's Eagles watched us from the top of a pylon. Out on the plains again, we came across two more parties of Pin-tailed Sandgrouse and a couple of Black-bellied Sandgrouse too, but what was most surprising was an adult Woodchat Shrike which fly across the road in front of us and then found again perched on a fence nearby, close enough for a photo to be taken. Up until now the latest ever recorded in Extremadura was late September, so this is an extraordinarily late bird. Close by we watched a female Merlin feeding on what was probably a Meadow Pipit on the ground. We spent the best part of the afternoon beside a small reservoir where a few Cranes rested along with Cormorants and Black-headed Gulls. But the highlight undoubtedly was the family of three Otters which were enchanting as they played on a grassy bank, tumbling over each other, play-biting and chasing each other. We completed the day in another stretch of steppe, finding more Great Bustards and a Common Starling amongst a flock of Spotless Starlings. The Spanish name for the former means "Painted Starling" an apt name for its startlingly attractive winter plumage.

Yesterday was spent in the rice-growing area where the harvest is now almost finished. At this time of year the area is dominated by rice stubble fields, with family parties and some large flocks of Cranes feed. A few White Stork were also present and, following the combines, large flocks of Cattle Egret and Black-headed Gulls. Some fields had been ploughed, attracting small numbers of waders: Kentish and Ringed Plover, a Black-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Dunlin and Little Stint. We had brief sightings of two or three wintering Bluethroat flying into ditches. A couple of male Hen Harrier and one ring-tail were seen quartering the stubble fields, whilst the embanked pool that I always check had a Black Stork and a Great White Egret. We found three groups of Great Bustard during the day and also enjoyed the sight of a flock of about 50 Little Bustard in flight, turning simultaneously and thus appearing alternately white and brown. So warm was it during the middle of the day that even a Viperine Snake was found basking ona dirt track.

For me the most memorable part of the day was a pair of Black-winged Kite. We watched them perched in separate trees. One then flew to the other and they mated. The male then took off and performed the most beautiful display flight, calling a soft "peee" and rising higher and higher in a wide spiral, performing a hovering, fluttering flight the whole time. It flew higher and higher until we lost sight of it against the clear blue sky.

Bathing Black Vulture

After being away for almost ten days, it was great to be heading north of Trujillo again with two guests to enjoy a day in Monfragüe National Park. Despite a brief shower en route and some rather threatening low cloud in the morning, the day got progressively brighter and warmer. Stopping first to view the iconic cliff face at Peña Falcón, what struck one was the almost complete absence of vultures in the sky. The reason was simple - all were waiting for the air to warm, because the rockface was full of birds. Indeed marking the skyline, the perimeter, as it were, of the cliff, was a row of vultures, each equidistant from each other. As the sun broke through the cloud, many spread-eagled their wings, tilting the angle to maximise the surface exposed to the warmth.

We progressed through the park and had a lengthy stay at the wonderful Portilla del Tiétar. A skein of Cranes flew over as we arrived. It is such a peaceful spot and their trumpeting echoed across the gorge. Vultures circled above us and for a few minutes were joined by a fine Spanish Imperial Eagle, the sun catching its forewing, making the white leading edge appear almost luminous. We spent at least two hours happily watching the wheeling vultures, and, as it does in such situations, the conversation kept returning to these birds. "Had I ever seen a vulture drink?" I thought about it - "No, never" I replied. There are some birds that one rarely if ever see drinking, yet vultures are very unlikely to do it under the cover of dusk, as they try to avoid being airbourne early or late during the day, and yet here in Monfragüe where there must be at least two thousand individual vultures, one does not see even one coming down to drink. What do they do? The thought stuck in my mind as we proceeded to the next stop.

I got out of the car and almost immediately noticed a movement at some distance along the river bank. I checked it with the telescope. It was a Black Vulture splashing about in the water. Not drinking exactly, but bathing. It was the first time I had seen this happen. We watched it go in the water at least four times, and then it hopped up the bank and spread-eagled its wings to dry the sodden feathers. No matter how many times one can visit a place like Monfragüe, there will always be something new.

Quinces and Garden Warbler

One of the joys about living here are the quince trees. We have several dotted around the garden and although like everything here they have suffered in the drought, so many of the fruits were much smaller than normal, I picked enough over the weekend to make 28 jars of Quince Jam and to freeze four kilos for cooking next year. Quinces look a bit like large yellow apples, but they cannot be eaten raw as they are almost as hard as rocks. In Spain the favourite preparation is a Quince (or Membrillo) "cheese" : a stiff, amber-coloured jelly which goes brilliantly with real cheese, traditionally a good Manchego. We found an easy recipe for Quince Jam which has become a favourite for our guests. Claudia has also invented a delicious dessert of stewed Quinces, which is superb with a dollop of cream. So most of what seemed like the last weekend of summer (ridiculously high temperatures for the start of November) was spent stirring boiling jam in the preserving pan and filling jam jars. Today, the weather has changed. It is a good ten degrees cooler with a fresh northerly wind. I spent the day indoors as well, catching up on paper work. Taking a break to prepare lunch I stood at my favourite spot indoors: by the kitchen window. Just a few metres away a Hawfunch was gorging itself on the cypress cones, along with a bright-looking Greenfinch almost dwarfed in size. A couple of wintering Blackcaps pecked at olives, a fine male Black Redstart perched on the stone wall whilst a party of House Sparrows pecked at a clump of weeds. Something else was there too: a Garden Warbler finding small insects to feed on. That was quite extraordinary. I see Graden Warblers in the garden as part of the autumn passage in August and September, but this bird is, I think, almost a month later than the latest ever recorderd in Extremadura. All this whilst waiting for the kettle to boil!

Wolf watching in Zamora

Last weekend I went with my son Patrick to the province of Zamora (in Castille y Leon) to stay with some Dutch friends in the village of Villanueva de Valrojo, on the edge of the Sierra de la Culebra reserve. Zamora holds one of the highest densities of Wolf, outside Alaska and Siberia, and there are sites near the village which offer one the best chances of seeing this magnificent, but very shy, animal. Within a couple of hours of arriving we were positioned on a hillside, overlooking an expanse of heathland and a pine wood. Rangers put out carcases from time to time at the edge of the wood and from the number of Griffon and Black Vultures present, it was obvious that a carcase had been placed there recently.

The view from our vantage point was superb. In the distance were the peaks of the Sierra de la Cabrera, in the foreground the mosaic of heathland, woodland, rough pasture and small stubble fields providing Wolves both cover and hunting grounds. Two alert Red Deer appeared on the heath, making their way with great caution across the open ground, somehow seeing much more alert that those that I am used to seeing in Monfragüe National Park, where, alas, there are no longer Wolves.

Suddenly my friend whispered "lobo" (wolf) and there, along the edge of the pinewood, I saw my first Wolf. It was a large male and it sauntered along in the open ground. It disppeared behind a pine tree and then we found it again, this time a few metres inside the pinewood, pulling at the ribs of the carcase. Despite the falling light and our distance, the views were incredible. Somehow, seeing the wolf inside the wood this time added more magic, as often we saw just fractions of its body behind the tree trunks. Patrick was excited, especially when he saw it do a "poo" (I missed that!).

It slinked off into the wood and darkness fell. We were to go out the following morning and evening, but we did not see another Wolf. During our stay we had views of Otter, Fox and Red Deer, as well as a good selection of birds such as Crossbill and Firecrest. But the highlight of course was the Wolf, a top predator in a open, unfenced landscape - it was easy to see why this region is such a stronghold. Just a few days beforehand the prize-winning photo of an Iberian Wolf jumping over a gate at night had been published by the BBC Natural History magazine, it had whetted the appetite for our visit and we left supremely satisfied.

The Cranes are back

I have been away since late September and travelled back this morning by bus from Madrid, leaving at dawn (8 am here!) and heading south-west on the motorway towards Trujillo. It was a glorious autumn morning and as we approached Extremadura so the landscape became greener - that wonderful flush of green that even just a couple days of autumn rain can entice from the soil. Claudia picked me up just past 11 am in Trujillo and took me back home. It felt that I had been away for ages and it was good to be back. Just as I was getting out of the car the unmistakeable bugling of passing cranes could be heard. The sky was completely cloudless and it took a bit of time to find the distant birds against the intense blue. Soon we could hear some more, this time a lot closer. A party of perhaps a hundred, momentarily disorientated, circling in a pack before two or three figured out the correct direction and thus formed an irregular skein, proceeding southwards. During the next few hours several more parties came over. Claudia told me that she had heard cranes passing over for a few days now, but these were my first of the autumn and on my first day back! What a welcome! For me, the day I see the first cranes of the autumn is always one of the top days of the year, and what makes it so special is that invariably they will be flying over our home against an azure sky.

Moving the firewood and other autumn tales

Some absolutely superb autumn days with the air crystal clear and without a cloud in the sky. A very good time to move the four tons of encina (holm oak) wood that we bought in the spring and had been soaking up the sun during the summer to covered storage, in advance of autumn rains. There is no shortage of firewood here. Much of this part of Extermadura is covered by the characteristic open grazing woodland, called dehesa. Each of the millions of holm oak trees that dominate this landscape is pruned every ten to fifteen years, with boughs and branches sawn off to open the canopy and to encourage a more horizontal growth. This provides more shade for the animals, keeps the tree short enough to manage easily, will encourage fresh growth and more acorns, as well as yielding huge amounts of wood for firewood and charcoal production. Four tons is enough to last us two winters, but we did a deal with Fernando the neighbour, so that this year he will take half.

So a couple of mornings ago, Fernando and I were joined by another neighbour, Geoff (who hails from the Midlands, but now lives in the village and is known locally as Paco – because no one can pronounce his real name) and his son-in-law Dai. Loading up the back of Paco’s van we moved two tons to Fernando’s yard and then two tons to the entrance of our firewood shed. The whole operation took 90 minutes. Fernando then invited us over for refreshments: cold beers, local goat’s cheese, home-made chorizo sausage and local tomatoes. The refreshments took a further 45 minutes – which I feel is a fair distribution of time! I now have this winter’s firewood wonderfully dry and well protected.

As well as that, I have been taking guests out into the field. On one day this week to the Monfragüe National Park where we had glorious views of an adult Bonelli’s Eagle against a clear blue sky, as well as two White-rumped Swift, Egygtian Vulture, Short-toed Eagle and Black Stork – remaining summer migrants. The transition from summer and autumn was well evident with some juvenile Griffon Vultures still being fed at the nest, whilst Red Deer stags were rutting. Myths that pigs do not swim were well put to rest by the fine sight of a female Wild Boar and two piglets swimming the width of the Tajo river.

On another day we visited the plains to the west of Trujillo. Highlights included an adult Golden Eagle, several Great Bustard and a flock of over 30 Black-bellied Sandgrouse, a Black Wheatear in a rocky river valley, but most memorable was the sheer abundance of passage migrants: Northern Wheatear, Whinchat, Willow Warbler, Pied Flycatcher and some male Common Redstarts as almost constant companions on the roadside fences as we followed our route through the day. It really has been an amazing autumn for these migrants.

Evening at the rice fields

Well autumn has come and we are enjoying a significant drop in temperature, fresher westerly breezes and showers of rain. Yesterday I headed out to the rice fields with our friend John Hawkins. He and his wife, Anthea, have a holiday home close to Trujillo. John is an excellent photographer and many of his bird photos grace themselves on our website and blog. We made our visit in the late afternoon, which even just a few days ago would have been considered an unproductive time because of the heat. Yesterday, it was just perfect with a glorious evening light bathing the paddies and the cleanness of the air ensuring that we had superb views of the Villuercas mountains as a back drop.

The pool that I regularly check was very low, and doubtless because of the concentration of fish in the shallows, had attracted several anglers. At first glance it appeared almost bird-less, but as we checked the edges of the remaining flashes of water we picked up a nice variety of waders, no great numbers (almost everything in single figures) but a total of 13 species, including Temminck’s Stint, Little Stint and Wood Sandpiper. A couple of Spoonbills flew in to settle there as we watched, whilst over the bank hovered a Black-winged Kite. Beyond, over the rice fields flock of 13 Glossy Ibis circled round. This is species invariably turns up here in September, often in double figures, presumably on passage or dispersal, perhaps from the Coto Doñana? We do not know for sure.

There were Willow Warblers seemingly everywhere, and good numbers too of Pied and Spotted Flycatcher, as well as Whinchat. A pale-phase Booted Eagle circled overhead, whilst a ringtail and a juvenile Montagu’s Harrier quartered the fields. As we left, a nice group of Yellow Wagtails and two Wood Sandpipers foraged together in a damp field, and about twenty Little Bustard gathered around broken straw bales on a dry sheep pasture. Further along, a group of ten Great Bustard had started to feed in a stubble field. The sun was setting and parties of White Storks drifted to their autumn roosts at the same time as Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls were on a bee-line for the Sierra Brava reservoir.