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The Basque Pyrenees –
12th – 18th September 2015
A short tale to get us started... over a year ago at the
Rutland Bird Fair David Hutley bid for and won (for an incredibly bargainous
£55 a head) a holiday for six of us on a Woodpecker Workshop in the Pyrenees
hosted by Julen Gayarre and Gerard Gorman.
12th
September
Fast forward just over a year and David, Mike Dent, Neil
Murphy and myself were at Stansted boarding a early flight to Bilbao. Roy and
Ian Woodward were going by ferry and would take all our luggage to cut down on
costs even further.
We did wonder what the Woodies would say if stopped by port customs and asked
if they had packed all the bags themselves and likewise what airport security
would say to me with a bag with a scope, bins, camera and a pair of cleans
pants for a week away...
No sooner were we in the sky than we were back down again in
northern Spain and very swiftly on our way to the Holiday Inn just beyond the
airport limits. Julen was not collecting us till the following lunchtime so we
dumped our gear and having had a butchers at Google Maps before we came away,
headed through a tunnel under the main road and off into the still lush
rolling, wooded countryside dotted with houses (each with the ubiquitous
barking dog).
Over the next few hours we trawled the lanes, woods and
grassy paths and notched up a very healthy 54 species. There had obviously been
a good fall of birds with Pied Flycatchers quite literally everywhere and we
reckoned on about 60 in the immediate area feeding from wires, fences and any
tree.
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| Lovely Pied Flys |
They were not along and we also found both Redstarts, Stone and
Whinchats, Spotted Flycatchers and a bucket full of Willow Warblers. Short-toed Treecreepers, Crested Tits and
Firecrests were seen and heard and among the other warblers we found several
Reeds and a single calling Bonelli’s.
The skies were fairly quiet but we did pick up both Common and Honey
Buzzard, Hobby and our first distant Griffons.
 |
| Black Redstarts |
Holly Blue, White Admiral, Speckled Wood, Small White and
very large local race Meadow Browns were seen along with ride patrolling
Southern Hawkers and one or two Eristalis tenax hoverflies...
 |
| Speckled Wood |
 |
| Meadow Brown |
A pulse of Swallows headed through (including a completely
tailess bat-like individual!) with a solitary swift for company.
Pleased with our foot slogging Urban Birding efforts we
returned to the hotel where a fine dinner of Iberico Ham, Eggs and Chips was
washed down with a nice bottle of local Rioja.
13th
September
Up early after a very good night’s sleep and after a nice
breakfast we headed up through the tunnel to explore in the other
direction. There were still plenty of
Pied Flys around but things were quieter although we were very pleased to find
a Wryneck perched on the other side of a paddock before it bounded off into
cover. Great Spot made it two Woodpecker
species for the trip and a the odd jingly jangly Serin added a splash of colour
along with my favourite bird – the Grey Wagtail.
 |
| Willow Warbler |
 |
| As yet unidentified Grasshopper |
Roy and Ian arrived at about the same time a
Julen with the minibus so we all bundled in and headed out of town for the
coast and the reserve at Urdaibai passing our first Red Kite on the journey.
The visitors centre looked small and unassuming from the
outside but opened up like some astonishing relative of the TARDIS once through
the glass front doors. It was a VC like any other in some ways... reception,
shop, toilets but then turned that completely on its head with state of the art
glass walled meeting and conference rooms, similar classrooms, crèche area and
sit down booths in which to watch video looped information films about the
reserve, ringing and migration. Simply stunning and that was before we got to
the viewing windows out of the marshland lagoon that nestles beyond the big
meander of the Mundakako Itsasadarra.
It was chock full of birds and we quickly added about 30
species to the trip list with all the normal dabbling ducks along with Coots,
Little Grebes, Pochard and Water Rail. A Kingfisher posed on a distant log and
53 Greenshank were roosting up along with three gingery juvenile Black-tailed
Godwits, seven Redshank, three Wood, one Green and five tettering Common
Sandpipers. Marsh Harriers quartered and a large flock of Spoonbills were seen
flying in the distance but more of those later.
It was suggested that we went upstairs to the next platform. A meeting
was taking place so we were advised to head higher and up it went to the top of
a huge tower with open windows overlooking the marsh and environs beyond. A breathtaking view from a structure that you
never even noticed from the car park!
 |
| Greenshank and Blackwits... |
Anyway, more birding was required so we headed back out,
following the river towards the sea.
Several stop afforded us good views of the estuary and mudflats where
flocks of Little Egret, Grey Heron, Curlew and Dunlin were found along with a
solitary Ringed Plover and two peachy fronted juvenile Knot. The Spoonbill
flock was also relocated and 55 were counted feeding in the shallow waters
before a fine fly by while two Sandwich Terns were contesting a perch in mid
channel. It looked quite Welsh or Lake
District like in aspect and even the imminent rain and dashing Peregrine helped
the image until you looked up and huge Griffon would drift into view on door
sized wings.
 |
| Spoonbills |
 |
| Spoonbills |
With some time still to kill before meeting Gerard back at
the airport we gave the centre one more look and added 14 Cattle Egrets and
another dashing Peregrine to the tally.
 |
| Griffon |
 |
| Cattle Egrets |
Gerard landed on time from Hungary and
were soon out on the road again and heading east towards Pamplona (of Bull run
infamy) and then up into the Pyrenees to the village of Burgui where we would
be ensconced for the week. The journey
was uneventful with only some Spotless Starlings, a Red Kite, Kestrels and some
Corn Buntings for all the window staring.
We arrived well after dark at El Almadiero to be warmly welcomed with a fine three course dinner and more Rioja
to ease the accessibility of sleep...
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