The passage to Spain

Back in wifi land after a few days in Outback Extremadura, Castuera. It's a rather dodgy town with a dark history. At present, they don't sell milk or bread in any supermarket. Bizarre.
I have a serious backlog to catch up with, so will start with May 1st. That was our last morning working in Portugal - we worked near Veiros. There's an SPA there that still has some nice habitat with both bustards.

Somewhat artistic experiment - Great Bustard

Thanks to Dan, or maybe it's Dan's fault, I pay more attention now to non-birds. As everywhere in Alentejo, Red-striped Oil Beetles were present in large numbers. They are poisonous, and are used as a gut-cleaner / parasite remover by male Great Bustards.

 

Black-tailed Skimmer - male

Another interesting invertebrate that got away before a proper photo was taken - Hummingbird Hawkmoth:

On the way back to the car, a walk through an adjacent montado produced the regular montado birds, including this Short-toed Treecreeper:

In the afternoon of that day we arrived in Castuera. We dumped our stuff in our accommodation, kindly provided by ANSER, and headed off for some touristic birding at Castillo de Benquerencia, just a few minutes outside of Castuera. The vista off the top is simply stunning.

I have visited this site before, in 2015. It's an easy spot for Black Wheatear, and indeed just above the carpark we had our first a singing male. Photographing them there is a different story. We did invest some time and effort, but the results are still unsatisfactory. Unfinished business with them... The light and angle are alright, but annoyingly the wheatears kept their distance.

While wasting our time trying to make friends with the wheatear, Alpine Swifts were whizzing around our heads. They are such fantastic beasts, ultimate aerobats. To hear their wings whiz past at hi-speed merely a meter from my ear was breathtaking. They breed on the cliff below the castle, and were chasing each other in display, often is groups of three or four:

Alpine Swifts

A great way to end the day. More on La Serena in the next posts.

A day with a lifer can't be that bad, can it?

Today was our day off, and we ventured to western Extremadura in search of some quality birds. It was a long, exhausting day with generally unfriendly weather. We started off near Lobón, where the road to Montijo crosses over the Guadiana. My good friend Fergus discovered some singing Western Olivaceous Warblers there a few days ago. When we got there it was pissing down with rain. Dan and myself felt quite at home, but it was not great fun. We got our first western olly very quickly, and then another 4-5, but the birds were hiding deep in trees, understandably. It was pretty nasty. Tough to photograph. Later on it rain even harder, then it was just an annoying drizzle, then it hammered down with rain and then we buggered off. I was happy to see these birds - one of the few lifers waiting for me here in Iberia is now 'in the bag'. I expected a much larger-billed bird, which in the field wasn't very obvious. However, in the photos, the bill certainly looks big. Note also the brownish tones and long primary projection. They are pretty big! And their song doesn't sound anything like eastern olly; in fact it is very similar to the song of Reed Warbler.

Western Olivaceous Warbler

Broad bill

It was actually pretty birdy there, especially when the rain had slowed down. Tons of nightingales, many acros, some sylvias, singing Orioles, Penduline Pits, and a mega trip tick - Wren!

Before meeting Fergus in Merida to pick up keys for our next apartment, we had time for a quick look in Alange. It was a magical few minutes with Black Wheatear, Rock Buntings, Blue Rock Thrushes, Crag Martins and Alpine Swifts all in the same spot. But the weather was still awful. The wheatear was perched high on top of the cliff. We had a quick look around the village for more wheatears but no success. The weather did improve though, and the view was fine.

We met up with Fergus in Merida, where we have already added Little Ringed Plover and Grey Wagtail to the apartment list. Then we headed south to the Hornachos Mts., in search of Cirl Bunting and Western Orphean Warbler. 

Beware of Lynce

Now it became very hot and very windy; the sun was harsh and the conditions were not great. We worked hard for little reward - I glimpsed a Cirl Bunting, and Dan a Western Orphean, but views were far from satisfactory. We added a few more trip ticks but it was pretty slow and disappointing overall. Nothing too special but I really enjoyed the local Long-tailed Tits of the Iberian race irbii - very richly toned below:

Huge awww factor on this baby tit

We returned to Alange for seconds, hoping to improve our views of Black Wheatear. With such strong wind we had little chance to connect with White-rumped Swift.  Next time. The wheatear was slightly more cooperative but I still have not nailed it.

Black Wheatear

Then it was the long way back to Campo Maior, with a weird sense of frustration and fatigue. In a couple of days we are done here in Alentejo and we move to work in Extremadura. Looking forward.

Recent rambling

Last few weeks have been really busy but not really with birds. At least not living birds. Last week I spent a few days in Frankfurt - my 97 yo grandmother Helene had passed away. May she rest in peace - she was a brave and strong woman. She had a tough life, that included surviving WW2 and starting new lives in too many countries,; her strong character and will is truly inspiring to my family. Here she is with her brother Hermann in 1932, when she was 13:

While organising her funeral, I found some time to go with my brother to Senckenberg Museum of Natural History. When I last visited there in July 2016 I discovered a potentially interesting wheatear. I did not take full measurements back then, so this time I took the full biometric set. Hopefully soon its identity will be determined.

Black Wheatear (top) and mystery wheatear (bottom)

I took the opportunity to look at some more nightjars. I am involved in a large nightjar phylogeny project with Prof. Martin Collinson from University of Aberdeen. One of the things we want to check is Red-necked Nightjar phylogeny. The two subspecies - ruficollis (Iberia) and desertorum (N Africa) look strikingly different, and possibly have different vocalisations too.  This is a simplistic morphological comparison - males, ruficollis (left two) and desertorum (right two):

The last few days have been all about Champions of the Flyway. Sadly, I could not go this year, but did my best to support the project from here. It was yet again a fantastic race and event, well done to the organisers, teams, donors and supporters worldwide.

Jonathan!

Yesterday morning I had a frustrating experience. After schoolrun I walked with my dog in Heigham Park that is near our house. I heard from the bottom of the park a 'funny' Chiffchaff song - 3-4 sequences. The soft initial notes sounded good for Iberian Chiff, but I couldn't hear the terminal trill from that distance. I approached the bird and got my phone ready to sound record, but it went silent and I did not see or hear it again. Eventually, I cannot exclude a 'funny' normal Chiffchaff, so will leave it like that.

In about 10 days I am going away for fieldwork in Spain and Portugal, so expect an increase in blogging frequency!

Steady day

Steadier day today after yesterday's extreme. In the first half of the day I worked the fine, rough plateaus N of Castuera, along the EX-103. Until about 10:00 the sun was out, and the weather was lovely. The bustards I saw responded accordingly and were more amorous than yesterday. I had a few leks (all very distant, but thanks to Swarovski Optik for the fab scope) and they had a few females around them, showing interest in the more ambitious display of the males. I also saw some small groups of Little Bustards that were getting into business as well.

 But at 10:00 the sun disappeared, and it became another grey, cold, wet and windy day. Still I had some more birds during the morning. Quite large numbers of Pin-tailed Sandgrouse were N of Castuera. Booted and Short-toed Eagles were in some numbers today. A few Montagu's Harriers, Lesser Kestrels, Little Owls, Cuckoos and some other stuff - not bad. Still no sign of migrants on the ground.

Booted Eagle

Montagu's Harrier

In this part of Badajoz there are fences everywhere, so all birds are either on a fence, behind a fence or in front of a fence.

Impressive densities of Calandra Larks on the rough steppes:

Thanks Swarovski Optik! 

Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius m. meridionalis)

On the way back to Castuera almost hit an Egyptian Vulture feeding on a dead rabbit on the road. It sat there and waited for me to disappear.

In the afternoon checked the ridge above Benquerencia de La Serena, about 5km SE of Castuera (thanks Manuel for the tip!). Finally managed to get first views of Black Wheatears (tick). There's a territorial pair on the rocks above the village. They were very mobile and shy. Maybe for them it's easy to fly 500 meters back and forth along the ragged ridge, but I worked hard! And in the end only got this record shot from a mile away. Very cool birds, but I have an unfinished business with them. I will get a proper image of you, I promise!

Black Wheatear

Other typical mountain species there were Rock Buntings, several Blue Rock thrushes, many Crag Martins, and another Egyptian Vulture.

Benquerencia de La Serena

More images of the wheatear

More images of the wheatear found yesterday by Uri Makover - these are his images too.
In these images the rump pattern and wing structure are better seen.

It is worth noting that range-wise, White-crowned breeds the closest of all four 'black' whetears - perhaps only 100 KM south. We have previuos records of birds wondering away from their breeding range in winter. All three other forms (Basalt, Black and variable) are extreme vagrants in Israel, and all were recorded in winter.

Shirihai in his 'Fifty New Species' article in Sandgrouse 21 (1999) gives a brief but important summary on the ID of picata in Israeli context. It is an important reference for this matter.

This bird is not a Basalt Wheatear - Uri didn't manage to get images of the bird in flight but he noted that it did not have the pale remiges typical for lugens. Further, adult Basalt Wheatear shows fine pale tips to the primary coverts. I am not sure about the age of this bird - the remiges seen quite brownish so it might be a 2cy, but nevertheless these pale tips are not visible on this bird. Also the white lower belly is clearly demarcated from the black, while in most basalt the black merges into the white.

It is agreed by most people who sent me their views that it is not a leucura, based on structure (head, bill and primary projection).

Even though Svensson mentions that some yound white-crowns may show a complete tail band, this tail band seems too massive to fit leucopyga. Is that true? However, there are a few tiny white feathers above the eye on the right side of the head - a bit worrying....

So what about picata? I have no relevant experience, and the literature on ophistoleuca is pretty limited. However, I and can't find anything in this bird that doesn't fit picata.

Nothing I enjoy more than dipping on a mega and getting soaked

What a useless day...
I began the day with a short seawatching session at Jaffa, following last nights' storm. I met Barak and together we wasted our time watching an empty Mediterranean. Before I arrived Barak had one Yelkouan and one Gannet, and after I arrived I contributed hugely to the scientific knowledge on our planet by finding another Gannet.

When I got to the office I got a call from Uri Makover. He had a funny 'black' wheatear in the north. I was busy and asked him the wrong questions, and got to the conclusion it was most probably an out-of-range White-crowned Wheatear.
Later Uri sent me images, and I wanted to shoot myself in the head! I called Uri and he told me the bird had a nice T tail band (eliminating white-crowned) and no white wing panel (eliminating 'Basalt' Wheatear). Half crying I ran to the car and made my way up north in the speed of light, while risking my marriage even more than ever. After a sunny morning, the weather deteriorated as I drove north, and when I got to the site at Kfar Baruch reservoir I felt like I was in bloody Europe - cold, windy and very very wet.
I met up with Uri and Shai and we started to look for the fXXXing bird which did not show. I don't know whether it moved somewhere or whether the weather was just too bad, but I had very little time and had to give it up. So after getting gloriously wet, I got back into the car and drove back home, defeated and tired.
I hope the other guys have better luck tomorrow, and that the bird sticks around long enough for a revenge...

This is a very interesting bird. We are left with Black O. leucura and Variable Wheatear O. picata (both with a single record, both Eilat 1982). Uri described the bird as not being especially big and bulky, and it does not look like that in the images - pro picata. But the brownish tones and the large white belly are better for leucura. I have no experience with leucura, and have seen picata in India in 1999, so if anyone out there has some useful comments on the ID of this bird, I'd be very interested to know.
These images were taken Uri Makover - thanks Uri for the images, and of course for this mega find!