Mary’s Blog – Petrola

posted in: Mary's Blog | 0

Today we met up with Geoff and headed up the Madrid motorway towards Almansa. At the Bonete turn off we took the road towards Higuerela then headed across the country track towards Petrola. The first birds of note were two Mistle Thrush not far along the track. A few common birds were seen including Crested Lark, Chaffinch, Crow and Stonechat, before we arrived at the lagoon near the railway where several female and an impressive male Marsh Harrier were hunting over the reed beds. Various ducks were on the water, including White Headed Duck, Mallard and Teal, and at the water’s edge we saw a Snipe and a Common Sandpiper.

On the way to the Petrola lagoon we moved a Red Legged Partridge which was in the middle of the road and a Buzzard was in the air along with a couple of other raptors which couldn’t be identified from the moving vehicle.

As we arrived at the track which goes down the left hand side of the lake I said that there is usually a single Lapwing in the field on the corner, and sure enough there it was! Quite odd really. On the lagoon we had distant views of a good sized flock of Flamingos, along with Black Winged Stilt, Avocet, Shelduck, Mallard, and a few gulls, probably Black Headed and Yellow Legged Gulls. As we ate our butties three Ravens flew over, giving their characteristic ‘cronking’ call. After lunch we set off across our usual track looking for our main target bird.

We were in luck as we soon spotted a group of Great Bustards on our left and got out of the car to have a look at them. As usual, the birds started walking slowly away and over the top of the ridge but still giving us some great views of them. We counted 14 birds in this group. A little further along John spotted a single bird on top of another ridge and as we scanned round we counted three birds but there may have been more out of sight on the other side of the ridge. Further along I spotted another group of 15 birds on our right . Along this track we also found a few Calandra Larks before we continued on our usual route finding another group of Great Bustards, this time 26 birds were counted. A total of 58 birds for the day.

We were in luck as we soon spotted a group of Great Bustards on our left and got out of the car to have a look at them. As usual, the birds started walking slowly away and over the top of the ridge but still giving us some great views of them. We counted 14 birds in this group. A little further along John spotted a single bird on top of another ridge and as we scanned round we counted three birds but there may have been more out of sight on the other side of the ridge. Further along I spotted another group of 15 birds on our right . Along this track we also found a few Calandra Larks before we continued on our usual route finding another group of Great Bustards, this time 26 birds were counted. A total of 58 birds for the day.

We were a little early in the year for the spring migrants but it had still been an enjoyable trip and we were pleased to find the Bustards, maintaining our record of finding them on every one of our annual visits to the area.

Species list – Flamingo, Shelduck, Mallard, Shoveler, Teal, White Headed Duck, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Kestrel, Red Legged Partridge, Coot, Moorhen, Great Bustard, Black Winged Stilt, Common Sandpiper, Lapwing, Snipe, Black Headed Gull, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Calandra Lark, White Wagtail, Stonechat, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Southern Grey Shrike, Spotless Starling, Magpie, Raven, Crow, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Reed Bunting.