The Goleta Birder

  With a heatwave raging in most of Spain, I was very happy that my itinerary had me heading up to the sierras after leaving Monfrague. I also planned to search for some lower elevation species that were likely commoner on the greener northern side of the sierras. My initial foray was to be up into the Sierra de Bejar. This far south, most of the ‘alpine specials’ found in the Pyrenees, such as Alpine (Yellow-billed) Chough and Wallcreeper, don’t occur. In fact, the only classic montane specialty was (Rufous-tailed) Rock Thrush. However, there were quite a few birds of interest, headlined by the Iberian race of Bluethroat. Subalpine heath in the Sierra de Bejar After a failed attempt to check into my hotel, where the automated check-in failed to work (I ended up unplugging it to make sure someone would have to call the owners), I drove up to the ski resort on the mountain top. The last KM or so were fairly flat and consisted of a broom-based heathland, interspersed with damp grazed...

  Leaving the Elche area, I headed up to Valmojado, southwest of Madrid. This area consists of low rolling oak savannah and is a good location to see Spanish Imperial Eagle. I started by checking out a riparian area near the town of Casarrubios del Monte. Originally I had planned to drive a quite a few kilometers along the stream valleys in the area but it was immediately apparent that the first road I had chosen was not drivable, whatever Google Maps thought. I ended up parking the car and walking the track. I was hoping to find Melodious Warblers in the riparian area and they proved fairly common. After having several good views of this species, I decided to work on actually seeing a Nightingale, several of which were singing along the creek. This time I was able to coax a bird out into full view at close range with some playback and enjoyed a couple of minutes of watching it sing. Subsequently, I saw two more singing out in the open but not at such as close range. Given how comm...

  Unsurprisingly, my night in the car mostly sleepless, although I finally dozed off for about 45 minutes just prior to dawn. Waking up, I walked up the road to where a track led off that went around the edge of the barranca. As well as Trumpeter Finch, I was keen to see Rock Sparrow as it was more frequently seen here than any other site I was planning to visit. The first notable bird I located was a smart male Western Black-eared Wheatear, which was shortly followed by a Black Wheatear. It wasn’t too long before I located the first Trumpeter Finch, a juvenile that showed well. Over the next three hours, I saw several more Trumpeter Finches in a variety of plumages. Rock Sparrows proved decidedly elusive and every sparrow I saw or heard turned out to be a House Sparrow. Other than a pair of Red-rumped Swallows, the other species present were mostly widespread ones such as Serins and Sardinian Warblers. Several Nightingales were singing but I was never able to see more than movemen...

  For many of the birds I was hoping to see, I had planned my itinerary to give myself multiple “bites at the cherry”. However, the distances involved meant that the SE and NE legs had species that could not be seen elsewhere. So the pressure was mounting as I drove from Alcazar de San Juan to Elche, near Alicante. The must-see species at Elche was Western Olivaceous Warbler, but I was also targeting Pallid Swift, which is commoner on the coast than in the interior areas I would be spending most of my time, and Black Wheatear. I have by now submitted all my non-UK and California bird records into ebird. This had revealed that a handful of my sightings from W Europe were incorrect. This included my only Western Olivaceous Warblers from Spain, which transpired to be from an area further north on the coast where they do not occur! I had also seen the species in Morocco, but given the faux pas in Spain, it wasn’t impossible that the Morocco record was incorrect too. Upon arrival at Elc...

  Several years ago, with retirement approaching and my remaining relatives in the UK already in their mid-to-late 80s, it became self-evident that my visits to Europe would sooner or later become much less frequent. Since there were quite a few species that I hadn’t seen in the intervening four decades, I decided to make a effort to see as many as possible of the birds I grew up at least one more time. While this effort was mostly focused on British birds, I was also interested in catching up with other western European species I has seen on my first trips abroad. Originally my plan for May 2025 was to visit Fair Isle, Britain’s most famous birding location, which I had never visited while living in the UK. However, issues with finding accommodation on the island due to the bird observatory being rebuilt nixed those plans and I decided to reallocate the two weeks of birding to a trip to Spain. My long-time UK birding friend, Paul Thompson, agreed to join me but some conflicts mean...