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

Return To Murcia

Lo Romero Golf Course - 20th January 2019

Its the day after my arrival in Murcia and the weather is cloudy with the occasional drizzle so I don't fancy venturing particularly far hence I'm going Local. First stop is only a kilometre down the road amongst the orange groves where Stone Curlew winter in numbers of up to fifty or so, but they are so aware of your presence you have to remain in the car or enter "commando mode" to get any shots at all. Time to head for Lo Romero Golf Course

Lo Remero Golf Course being still in construction has quite a lot of scrub area anything can turn up such as squirrels, woodpeckers, finches and shrikes all being common. Oddly even thou the majority of housing is still under construction the roads are all complete giving easy access around the golf coarse and ideal when using the car as a mobile hide.

Entering the course it always best to setup before you move around the course, windows down and the camera mounted on a bean bag, hold on to the camera and drive slowly which is easily done as this part of the course is deserted.

My first target is an Iberian Red Squirrel busy collecting pine cones, twenty or thirty shots and its gone. Within fifty meters I next encounter a Grey Shrike sat on a fence it's using as a lookout, then flying to the ground and grabbing some insect and returning to the fence, plenty of photo ops here.

In the scrub area a male and female Stonechats are flitting about, I've always found them to be less approachable than in the UK so remaining in the car is always your best option. As I'm photographing the chats I spot a grey blob thats gone my attention, bins up...its a Little Owl. I grab some shots and it gone....you get the idea ! why its always best to be ready with the camera hanging out of the window.

Giving the grey damp condition this has been one of the best first bird photography days to date giving plenty of photo ops.

Looking forward to the rest of the week.

Little Owl

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Iberian Red Squirrel

Stone Curlew

Southern Grey Shrike

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.

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Southern Grey or Iberian Grey Shrike

Last Day Before a Return to the Snow

A visit north today to the Santa Agueda Platforms, a prime location to view Spotted Eagle and other birds of prey over wintering at El Hondo. The platforms essentially are two wooden towers that over look the La Raja lagoon and reed beds on the South West of side of the El Hondo Reserve....today is a BOP day.

Arriving early it's again a brilliantly sunny day a bit nippy in the shade of the covered tower but in the sun it's around 16 degrees which can't be bad for a winter's morning. Marsh Harriers are quartering the reed bed, probably 6 to 8 birds, a Kestrel makes an appearance hovering in typical fashion looking for a meal, then a fellow photo tog points out 2 pale phase Booted Eagles that frequent the lower areas of El Hondo during the winter drifting slowly low over the reserve.

It's now late morning and still waiting for a first sighting of a Spotted Eagle, there were some great views from this location the previous week so we remain optimistic of an encounter. In front of the tower two Marsh Harries are mobbing a bird sat on a mud bank, a closer inspection through the reed's you can just make out a large dark bird, it's only when it flies to a near by tree that it's identified as a Spotted Eagle.

Whilst ranking up the Marsh Harrier sightings and also keeping a keen eye on the tree in which the eagle is perched a van appears along the track to the lagoon, it's a fisherman who promptly puts up the eagle, flies and lands on top a bush some hundred meters further way eventually heading off into the reserve.

After a quiet period I’m heading to the public hides overlooking Llevant Lagoon on the Vistabella Road, the sat nav takes me through a farming area near Monje and in a ploughed field sat at the top of a tree near the road I spot a Southern Grey Shrike, not one but two! stopping the car I grab the camera and fire off maybe fifty shots before the birds decide thats enough of that…was that lucky, you bet.

Vistabella Road hides are quite, apart from a couple of Booted Eagles, the ubiquitous Marsh Harriers theres little else of interest not like summer which is just a mega place of bird activity. Time to head back

It's late afternoon and my wife and I are heading back to the residence after a coffee down at the marina, heading through the orange groves I always have a look for Stone Curlew which can be found between the rows of trees, slowly I count 8, the next row 6 and so on, you get the drift they are every where, I get out of the car to get closer to the fence as you need to shoot through the fence, bad move, they all fly to the far side, plan B stay in the car. I manage some shot in the now low light, maybe next time.

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Stone Curlew

Pale Phase Booted Eagle

Southern Grey Shrike