Extremadura 10/8-10/11

THEKLA'S LARK
photo Shari Zirlin

While the word "Extremadura" sounds ominous, it doesn't refer to climate or geography but harkens back to Moorish times when the area was beyond their borders. I guess "The Boondocks" in way, though that's trivializing it. The best translation I can come up with just means "out there." 

Our first stop on our journey north was at a reservoir surrounded by sheer cliffs. We walked a trail that overlooked the reservoir while the cliffs overlooked us. The usual waterfowl and cormorants were in the water (which was apparently fairly low) but it was along the rock face that we found our life birds. Two swallow species--EUROPEAN CRAG-MARTIN and RED-RUMPED SWALLOW were flying around and it took a little work, at least for me, to find the red-rumps. 

More interesting were the two RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES we found scurrying around in the brush on the hill. And then I saw a lark that I immediately knew was not the Crested Lark which we had seen so many times in the previous days. It turned out to be a THEKLA'S LARK, a rock-loving species, and happily, Shari was able to get some good shots of the bird. 

Eurasian Jackdaw, Puente Romano
Photo Shari Zirlin

Photo: Shari Zirlin

We then went into the capital city of The Extremadura, Mérida, to bird the Puente Romano, the Roman Bridge. As in Italy, when you look at Roman architecture you get a real sense of "old." On the sign before the bridge it stated, in English, that the first restoration of the bridge goes back to 465 AD. That's not when the bridge was built--that's when it was renovated. Of course, ever the proofreader, I looked at the Spanish on the sign, and there it said that restoration was first made in 483 AD, but really, what's 18 years to ancient history? This was about the only "cultural" time we spent on the trip but there were some birds along the way--the ones I was happiest to see were the Eurasian Jackdaws. While we had seen big flocks of them a day or so earlier in a field with NORTHERN BALD IBIS, they were very far away and could have been any dark corvid. These were right in front of us and again, Shari was able to get good photos of them. According to Scott, there is one North American record of them, in a prison in Pennsylvania, no less. But I'm prepared for the second record now. 

GREAT BUSTARD
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Finally, we arrived at our hotel in the Monfragüe PN, which would be our base for the rest of our stay in Spain. From there we made many excursions to scenic overlooks (more hawk watching, more griffons) and to no-name fields. The most exciting birds we saw all have the eBird designation "Roadside" with longitude and latitude--it was the best I could do. But on one morning we saw some great birds, one after the other: LITTLE OWLS sitting atop a rock pile in the field, followed by GREAT BUSTARDS (when these turkey-sized birds flew I couldn't help but call them "big mofos" to the perplexity of our Portuguese guide), both BLACK-BELLIED and PIN-TAILED SANDGROUSE (though the latter was just a flyby in a larger flock of Black-bellies) and best of all, the national bird of Spain, the SPANISH EAGLE (also known as the Spanish Imperial Eagle).

Two of our 3 last days in The Extremadura were rainy--one day the rain held off for most of the day, the other was more misty and drizzly. Both of these days we were at a place called Embalse de Arrocampo, a wetlands with a number of blinds. We did well in at this place. Though the blinds weren't of much use (as is the case for most blinds) the elevated platforms upon which the blinds stood were good for looking over the vegetation in the water. We saw a number of WESTERN SWAMPHENS, and found COMMON CHIFFCHAFF, MEADOW PIPIT, heard a number of WATER RAILS and finally, my target bird BLUETHROAT (which Shari had seen days before as our bus zoomed by it--I was on the wrong side of the bus). 

WESTERN SWAMPHEN
Photo: Shari Zirlin

But probably the coolest sighting was while I and a few others were sitting in the bus to get out of the rain. A medium sized bird flew into the field next to us. Through the rain-streaked window I couldn't tell what it was--I thought it was small hawk, like the sparrowhawks we'd been seeing. It flew away and then one of our party who was outside announced that a EURASIAN THICK-KNEE had just flow off--that was our bird, but it was an unsatisfactory look. But luck was with us and the bird came back, flew right over us, and much happiness was shared by all. The Thick-knee was our last Spanish lifer, but not the last of the trip.