Trip Information

Tour Dates: May 5 - 16, 2010

Tour Leaders: Richard Knapton & Lucy Chang

Price: $4295 USD, $4495 CDN;
Single supplement $435 USD, $450 CDN

Highlights
• Excellent birding and flora watching in well-established network of nature reserves and national parks that occur across Spain.
• Dramatic scenery, fascinating history and diverse cultures; April is a fine month to be in Spain; warm and pleasant, fine evenings, breeding season for birds, and delightful spring & early summer flowers.

Featured Birds
• Great Bustard
• Little Bustard
• Eurasian Griffon Vulture
• Black (Cinereous) Vulture
• Black-bellied Sandgrouse
• Eurasian Bee-eater
• Spanish Imperial Eagle
• Azure-winged Magpie

Featured Flora
• Several Ophrys orchids including Sawfly and Mirror
• Giant Orchid
• Several Narcissus and Fritillaries
• Pinsapo Fir
• Pink Butterfly and Man Orchids
• Many endemic and range-restricted species

Trip Summary
• Warm, pleasant weather
• Tour price includes all meals, accommodation, entrance fees, and transport while on the tour
• Easy to moderate walking, mainly short drives, comfortable vehicles; a couple of long drives
• 6 to 12 participants with two leaders

Tour starts in Madrid and ends in Malaga

Our unique tour takes in the wonderful steppes, woodlands and mountains of Sierra de Gredos and Extremadura with its incredible birdlife, especially the high concentration of raptors, the wetland wilderness of the Cota Donana, and the charming hills and valleys of the Serrania de Ronda, renowned for its lush and diverse flora, especially orchids. We take in towns steeped in medieval culture, the shores of the Straits of Gibraltar, and picturesque white limestone communities nestled on mountainsides. Wildlife highlights will be many - Greater Flamingo, several eagles - Spanish Imperial, Golden, Booted, Bonelli’s, both Great and Little Bustards, White-headed and Marbled Ducks, Azure-winged Magpie, Black-bellied and Pin-tailed Sandgrouse, several larks, wheatears and rock-thrushes, warblers, shorebirds, choice gulls – the list goes on. Western Andalucia is a haven for botanists and we spend time walking the pleasant trails admiring the local, often endemic flora of this delightful area.

See detailed itinerary below.

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Itinerary

Day 1 - Arrival in Madrid
Our tour starts after supper at our hotel in Madrid. Night in Madrid.

Day 2 - Sierra de Gredos
We head west from Madrid toward the scenic Sierra de Gredos, the southern boundary of Spain’s Cordillera Central. We first visit the Reserva Natural de Gredos, a spectacular park situated below the rugged 2600 m Pico Almanzor. Here we walk along trails, looking for Golden and Booted Eagles, White-throated Dipper, Gray Wagtail, Bluethroat, Black Redstart, Rufous-tailed Rock-Thrush, Crag Martin, Ortolan Bunting, and with luck Water Pipit and Alpine Accentor, and we make extra effort to find the magnificent Spanish Ibex. We should encounter a diverse flora that includes many orchid species in these broom-dominated mountains. Our parador is located in a beautiful setting overlooking pine forest, home to several forest species - Honey Buzzard, Northern Goshawk, Hobby, Western Bonelli’s Warbler, Firecrest, Pied Flycatcher, Crested Tit, and perhaps even Citril Finch and Red Crossbill, which we might see from the rooftop patio overlooking the surrounding countryside. The rock wall in the garden supports the Ocellated Lizard, a striking reptile of emerald green dappled with blue spots. Night at the Parador de Gredos.

Day 3 - Drive to Extremadura
We leave the Sierra de Gredos and enter the western province of Extremadura, an area of open grasslands, steppes and Cork Oak forests (“dehasas”), and renowned historically for explorers such as Francisco Pizarro and Hernán Cortés. We visit the rolling pasture country east of Belén for specialties of the region – both Great and Little Bustards, Pin-tailed and Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Calandra Lark, Stone Curlew, Corn Bunting and Great Spotted Cuckoo. The dehasas hold many choice species - Melodious, Dartford, Sardinian and Orphean warblers, Eurasian Golden Oriole and Azure-winged Magpie. Night near the charming medieval town of Trujillo.

Day 4 - Parque Natural de Monfrague
We spend the day at this superb park, nearly 110 square kms of dehasas, cliffs, riparian vegetation and woodlands. Monfrague is internationally acclaimed for its density of birds of prey – we have a chance at finding a dozen species including Red and Black Kites, Eurasian Buzzard, Short-toed, Booted and Spanish Imperial Eagles, Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Kestrel, and many Cinereous (Black) and Eurasian Griffon Vultures, especially at Peña Falcon, where Rio Tajo has cut through the Sierra de Corchuelas, a high cliff face providing constant thermals and updraughts for these large birds to soar effortlessly. Black Stork and Eurasian Eagle-Owl also nest in the park, along with Alpine and White-rumped Swifts, Thekla and Wood Larks, Subalpine Warbler, Blue Rock-Thrush, Black and Black-eared Wheatears, Rock Sparrow, Rock Bunting and Red-billed Chough. Night near Trujillo.

Day 5 - To El Rocio
Our morning depends upon how well we have done on previous days. We may revisit Monfrague, perhaps out onto the steppes, or spend time walking the ancient cobbled streets of Trujillo. We then leave Extremadura and head south to Andalucia, passing through the Sierra Morena where we could find raptors, White Storks, perhaps Eurasian Penduline-Tit at a river stop. We then travel on to world famous Parque Natural de Donana, and our accommodation in the historic town of El Rocio, home of the Virgen del Rocío, for the next three nights. Our hotel is located on the shores of the marismas, where Greater Flamingos and Eurasian Spoonbills forage within sight of our rooms. Reed beds hold Great Reed Warblers, and Squacco Heron, Purple Swamphen, Glossy Ibis and Little Bittern feed along the shoreline. Night in El Rocío.

Days 6 & 7 - Parque Nacional de Doñana.
We have two full days to explore this fabulous area. We visit an array of different habitats, from woodlands to open grasslands, beaches and extensive wetlands. One such place is José Antonio Valverde Visitor Center, for Purple Herons and Black-crowned Night-Herons, Great and Cattle Egrets, and various waterfowl and shorebirds, while drier areas support Lesser Short-toed Larks. Trails at El Acebuche and La Rocina pass through woodlands and wetlands that support Red-crested Pochard, Iberian Chiffchaff and Cetti’s Warbler. Salt pans near Huelva sometimes have Red-knobbed Coot, and a night-time foray could turn up Eurasian Scops-Owl and Red-necked Nightjar. Spanish Imperial Eagles nest in the open savannas, and we have a chance at several mammals - Red Fox, Red Deer (Elk), Fallow Deer, Cape Hare and Wild Boar, and possibly the Iberian endemic Pardel Lynx, Wild Cat and Eurasian Badger. Nights in El Rocio.

Day 8 - Tarifa and on to Ronda
We leave El Rocio and head for the coast at Tarifa, where Yellow-legged, Audouin’s and Slender-billed Gulls, Sandwich Tern, migrant shorebirds such as Little Stint, Spotted Redshank and Greenshank and residents like Black-winged Stilt, Avocet and Snowy Plover occur. We also have a chance for Little Swift, an African species that spills across the straits of Gibraltar here. This area is famous for raptor migration, and we will watch the skies for migrating birds, perhaps European Honey Buzzard, Short-toed Eagle or Marsh Harrier. Cory’s and Balearic Shearwaters occur offshore. We then head inland to the delightful town of Ronda. Night in Ronda.

Days 9 & 10 - Ronda and surroundings
We have two days to explore this splendid area. The town of Ronda is bisected by a deep gorge, and from the southern walls of the old town one can view the gorge and its nesting Lesser Kestrel, Red-billed Chough and Crag Martins. A short drive west is Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, where roadside flora includes several Ophrys orchids - Sawfly O. tenthredinifera, Mirror O. speculum (a limestone specialist), and Yellow O. lutea, and the narcissus Narcissus papyraceuss. Limestone cliffs support several scarce plants - lemon-yellow Biscutella frutescens, the knapweed Centaurea clementei and the endemic toadflax Linaria platycalyx as well as Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula. Puerto de las Polomas, at 1300 m, is a region of dwarf shrubby vegetation supporting the fritillary Fritillaria lusitanica and Narcissus cuatrecasasii. Bonelli’s Eagles nest in this area, and we should see this species soaring over the mountainsides. The Grazalema Reserve has a large stand of the relict Spanish or Pinsapo Fir Abies pinsapo and lower slopes support Red-berry Mistletoe Viscum cruciatum. Nights in Ronda.

Day 11 - El Torcal de Antequerra
We leave Ronda and travel east through dense oak woodland, deep valleys and Pancake Rocks. Our destination is El Torcal de Antequera, a dramatic eroded area of karst home to endemic plants such as the blue Toadflax Linaria antequera and Bearded-iris Iris subbiflora, several orchids including Butterfly Orchis papilionacea and Man Orchids O. anthropophorum, and Giant Orchid Himantoglossum robertiana. We have an excellent chance of seeing Spanish Ibex here as well as Crag Martin and Rock Sparrow. We then head south to Malaga for the night. Night in Malaga.

Day 12 - Departure
Our tour ends after breakfast in Malaga where we catch flights back to Madrid or to London.

What to Expect

Spain offers fantastic birding and botanizing in spectacular landscapes scattered with historic towns. It also is a country with a rich historical and cultural heritage. In order to see as wide a variety of species as possible, and especially the specialties, we will visit a number of different habitats over much of central and southern Spain. En route we will also encounter sites of historic and cultural interest. To maximize time in the field there will be some early morning starts and pre-breakfast journeys, though some of these will be optional. In general the tour is not strenuous: pace will be slow allowing time for us to fully enjoy fauna and flora, and the places we visit, and there will be some gentle hiking occasionally over moderately rough or steep terrain. Mosquitoes are present in some areas, therefore bring insect repellant. Most days we will have a box or picnic lunch in the field or call in at a local restaurant.

The weather should be warm and sunny but can be cool at night and early morning, and rain is possible. Some warm clothing for evening and a light waterproof jacket should be brought as should stout walking shoes or boots. The hotels in Spain are of very good quality. In the evenings we will eat at the hotel or a nearby restaurant, where we will enjoy a fine meal, review the day’s bird list and discuss the itinerary for the next day.