In Search Of Bonelli's Eagle - Day 4 Continued

Quarry Hide (afternoon session) - 29.1.20

The morning session now over at the Goshawk hide we head south to an area close to the city of Liria north west of Valencia for an afternoon session in the passerine "Quarry Hide" but first it's a quick stop at the nearby Lidl Superstore to stock up on some food.

Twenty minuets later we are in the "Quarry Hide"located on the edge in of the city sprawl in an area that looks like some small scale quarrying has taken place in the past,  the "permanent" hide being far more luxurious than previous hides sporting some nice swivel chairs and even electric fans ! The birds are ever present, the ones you want see but never managing to get near, but I'm more interested for the next few minuets in devouring my purchases from Lidl and weighing up the shot possibilities.

All the species I was expecting are present but there's is a couple of specialties I'm on the look out for missed earlier in the week, Blue Rock Thrush and Black Wheatear, but it's not long before they turn up. The Blue Rock Thrush makes an appearance in some great light, the blue colour ever changing as the sun dips in and out from behind the cloud, the background for the shot in fact most of the shots are from using the 500 wide open making some loverly bokeh with the pine trees in the distance, almost a green screen !

And that's it my four days in the sun is up, some great birds at some incredibly close distances, a trip I would highly recommend. Special thanks must go to Turia Hides and especially Yanina Maggiotto who has been my guide for the four day trip and has amazed me with her energy turning up at some incredible early hours to make the trip a success..thanks again.

See you all at the end of the year.

Black Redstart - male

Black Redstarts are probably one of the most common birds to be found in Spain during the winter literally they are everywhere around the urbanisations, the drab females seemingly more common than the photogenic males. I was hoping to get images of the male bird on the trip and this one didn't disappoint.

Iberian Grey Shrike

I've all ways had mixed success shooting shrikes especially in the UK my hit rate is pretty much zero, in Spain on the other hand I can get quite close as long as I stay in the mobile hide (car) but on this trip I'm getting some of the closesd encounters to date, here's some images of the hundreds taken over a couple of hours.

Blue Rock Thrush

I'd seen Blue Rock Thrush several time in the week not really getting a decent image due to the harsh light or staying partly hidden but this bird gave some shots with a decent clean background, but I had to be quick as it only stayed maybe around five seconds on every visit.

Kestrel....male & female

Black Wheatear

White Wagtail

Serin

Shrike's !

Lo Romero - 10.11.19

On of the first locations I visit on any trip this time of year to Murcia is Lo Romero Golf course particularly to check out if the Southern Grey Shrikes have returned. Over the last couple of years there have have been several over wintering and you would be unlucky not to see at least one occupying the scrubby undeveloped areas.

In this part of Spain it's the norm to build the infrastructure first before building homes, it's rather strange to drive around the lonely roads complete with street signage, pavements, street lighting all planted with flowering shrubs, you will even see bins with plastic liners for whom I can't imagine.

Sun rise at this time of year is around 7.30am and as it's a five minuet drive you don't have to get up at some unearthly hour. A quick drive around for a rece the usual suspects are present and over three or four visits you can rack up quick a decent list which I list below. With no sign of any SGS I have one more location to check out before I draw a blank, now on the top the hill I scan the scrub area which flanks the road and in the distance sat in a small sea tree is my target...a Southern Grey Shrike.

Now shrike's I find can be one of the most difficult of birds to approach, but I have a plan that has worked pretty well over the years so I going to give a go once again. As I'm parked at the top of the hill I'm going to "free wheel" the car at snails pace with camo over the window and the camera already on the bean bag hopefully the shrike is preoccupied on the lookout for some unsuspecting prey and let me get within range. It take me about ten minuets to get within maybe twenty meters of the bird, general shooting into the sky not the best of shots...but it's a shrike for goodness sake !

Always battling to get a shot through the branches the shrikes remains unperturbed so I edge forward a little more for the last remains shots. With a bagful of images the shrike has had enough and it's gone. Usually at best I only get one chance a day to approach the bird so I'm really please to meet up what seems like an old friend.

Iberian / Southern Grey Shrike

Brief list but is not extensive includes :

Green Woodpecker, Red legged Partridge, Little Owl, Kestrel, Linnet, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Stonechat, Monk Parakeet, Wood Pigeon, Collard Dove, Crested Lark, Blackbird, Southern Grey Shrike, Crag Martin.  In season on passage, Woodchat Shrike, Spotted Flycatcher, Summer resident, Red Rumped Swallow, Turtle Dove, Cuckoo

Lo Romero Shrike

Lo Romero Golf Urbanisation - 24.9.18

On occasions I like to visit the drive range at Lo Remero Golf when the heat of the day has cooled down to practice my non existent golf swing, I always fancied the idea of playing golf but the expense and time it takes to play has alway put me off.

Like many other golf courses in Spain there's quite a lot of property being build around the coarse so I thought I'd have a drive around the resort and take a look. From my perspective it always seems odd that the entire resort can have new roads with markings, paths and signage but still have large areas of undeveloped land.....but it dose make for very good access for car birding !!

I'm half way round the resort always on the look out for a photo op when I spot the back end of a shrike diving for cover, it's a Iberian Grey Shrike. I'm not set up with the camera gear but I do make a return trip the next day to try and get some images.

Now the next day I'm near the same location when I spot the shrike sat in a low bush, I'm all set up bean bag on the door and camera on the seat. Slowing the car to a stop I slowly get the "big white" through the window, the shrike just sits, looking around for it's next unsuspecting meal, I shoot a couple of hundred images and move the car backwards to different location, more images follow, then I chance my luck and move as close as I dare, even better images. I'm happy with the encounter.

Out of interest, a couple of days later I visited the same location after a beach visit !!....again the shrike was easily found sat in a small tree with even a better photo opportunities, unfortunately no gear.

Click image to view

Southern Grey or Iberian Grey Shrike