On Tuesday 12th January 2016 at 2.00 pm: Leonard Clark “A Birding Journey through Spain”
A Birding Journey through Spain starts in the Spanish Pyrenees visiting the higher peaks and mountain meadows and also the foothills with gorges, wooded valleys, fields and scrub. Pictures will include Wallcreeper, Lammergeier, Citril Finch, Snow Finch, Black & White-backed Woodpeckers, Alpine & Red-billed Choughs, Short-toed Treecreeper, Crested Tit, Dartford & Sub-Alpine Warblers.
Moving to the baking hot steppes of the upper Ebro basin around the Belchite Steppes, Len will show Sandgrouse, Larks including Du Pont's, Short-toed Eagle, Wheatears.
A couple of Natural Parks barely an hour north of Madrid with deep gorges, lakes, uncultivated fields reveal Du Pont's Lark, Bonelli's Eagle, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Black Vultures, White headed Duck, Black necked Grebe and Firecrest.
Continuing southwards to Extremadura with its wide range of different habitats with wooded gorges, river valleys, old towns, and including Monfragüe National Park and plains of Cáceres Len will show Black, Egyptian & Griffon Vultures, a wide variety of Eagles, Falcons and Kites, Black Stork, Great & Little Bustards, Ortolan Bunting, Roller and Black-eared Wheatear.
Further south is the Doñana with extensive reed and water areas plus plains, woodland and marshes with a variety of Herons, Little Bittern, Crested Coot, Audouin's & Slender-billed Gulls, Glossy Ibis, Marbled Duck, Gull-billed, Whiskered and Caspian Terns, Osprey, Iberian Chiffchaff and Savi's Warbler.
Finally to the SW corner of AndalucÍa and Gibraltar Straits area - the key watchpoints for raptor migration and also the extensive rice fields, marshy estuaries, lakes and ponds, vast cork oak woodlands with valleys and streams where Len will show Vultures including Rüppell's, Eagles, Kites, Harriers, Buzzards, White-rumped & Little Swift, Rufous Bush Robin, Red-necked Nightjar, White-headed Duck, Spanish Sparrows, Cory's Shearwater, Black Terns plus Pilot Whales and Striped Dolphins.
The image of the Roller is from Spainbirds Nature Tours who, along with Extremadura Tourist Board have provided some of the pictures Len uses in his illustrated talk.
Admission £2.00 to include refreshments
