Mary’s Blog

15th May Today we left Torrejon El Rubio and set off towards Madrid for a few nights in the city. On the journey we saw all the usual suspects, such as, White Stork, Black Kite and more. A Red Kite … Continued

14th May A quiet day today with a trip to Talavan Reservoir and the surrounding countryside. Loads of Bee-eaters were seen on the way with 12+ on the wires at one time. At the lake all was quiet with House … Continued

13th May Having ticked off most of the expected birds in the first two days, we weren’t expecting to add many more birds to our list. Even so we returned to Monfrague full of hope. At Salto del Gitano, we … Continued

12th May Today we drove to Trujillo where we headed to the bull ring to look for Lesser Kestrels which used to breed there in large numbers. Today there was little sign of them until, after a while, just two … Continued

11th May Today we did one of my favourite trips and we weren’t disappointed. We set off from Torrejon el Rubio with the local White Stork being our first bird. Black Kite, Azure-winged Magpie, House Sparrow and Hoopoe were soon … Continued

10th May – Monfrague Today we headed into Monfrague National Park, first driving up to the castle viewpoint where Griffon Vultures were flying overhead and a male Blue Rock Thrush was perched on a branch as it usually is. On … Continued

8th May – After a somewhat bumpy flight from Edinburgh to Madrid (caused by crossing the jet stream) we got quickly through the airport to collect our hire car. Leaving the airport was surprisingly straightforward and we were soon on … Continued

This was our last full day in Gran Alacant so a visit to the Clot was in order. Most of the usual species were seen but nothing new. The Little Bittern had moved to the scrape pool and gave us … Continued

We took a last drive round this morning and found the Blue Rock Thrush had relocated to a derelict building along the road opposite the monastery. However, we met Paul and Greta later and they said they had seen the … Continued

A morning walk around the Clot proved quite successful. Firstly, a Cattle Egret met us by the gate! Our first stop was at the scrape where the usual selection of ducks were swimming around. At the main hide the Little … Continued