West of Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.

Bustard Hunting further to the North East.

Sue and Dave, Day twelve. 

Ebird List for Bienservida. 

Ebird List for East of Albacete 1.

Ebird List for East of Albacete 2.

Ebird List for East of Albacete 3.

Ebird List for East of Albacete 4.

 

3 of the 7 Great Bustards (Avutarda Euroasiática / Otis tarda).

We were off before the crack of Sparrows and heading to the North east where we were trying for a second time to find one of Sue and Dave's big targets the Great Bustard (Avutarda Euroasiática / Otis tarda), we covered the distance fairly quickly and about an hour and a half before we reached the spot we were heading for we said that the area along the A32 was starting to look good and within seconds of us crossing into Albacete I picked up a group of 7 Bustards off to the Left and fortunately there was a spot to park quite quickly after that on the right.

We got nice views but as usual with this species they are very easily spooked and were soon off over the ridge so we continued on again to the original place we had planned to visit, on the way we saw a good number of Northern Lapwings (Avefria Europea / Vanellus vanellus) on a couple of irrigated grass fields.

We reached the main area we were going to and started to drive the fields but it was hard going, however we did add Red-legged Partridge (Perdiz Roja / Alectoris rufa), Common Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus), Eurasian Collared Dove (Tórtola Turca / Streptopelia decaocto), Eurasian Stone Curlew (Alcaraván Común / Burhinus oedicnemus) x16, Common Sandpiper (Andarrios Chico / Actitis hypoleucos), Pallid Swift (Vencejo Pálido /Apus pallidus), Crested Lark (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata), Carrion Crow (Corneja Negra / Corvus corone), Eurasian Magpie (Urraca Común / Pica pica) and Woodchat Shrike (Alcaudón Común / Lanius senator).

Woodchat Shrike (Alcaudón Común / Lanius senator).

Further around the site we stopped and scanned the trees and skies picking up 2 adult Iberian Imperial Eagles (Aguila Imperial Ibérica / Aguila adalberti), Black-winged Kite (Elanio Común / Elanus caeruleus), Montagu's Harrier (Aguilucho Cenizo / Circus pygargus), European Honey Buzzard (Aberjero Europeo / Pernis apivorus) x8, Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo insularum), Black Kite (Milano Negro / Milvus migrans), Grey Heron (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea), Iberian Green Woodpecker (Pito ibérico / Picus sharpei), Iberian Grey Shrike (Alcaudón Real / Lanius meridionalis), Sand Martin (Avión Zapador / Riparia riparia), Barn Swallow (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica), Spotted Flycatcher (Papamoscas Gris / Muscicapa striata), Northern Wheatear (Collalba Gris / Oenanthe oenanthe) and European Goldfinch (Jilguero Europeo / Carduelis carduelis).

We relocated to another area of agricultural fields and after a bit more searching we came upon a group of 20 Great Bustards on a field of small cabbage type plants, we watched these birds for quite a while but the heat haze made getting photo's difficult and then after a while another car came along the track a little too quickly for the Bustards liking and they were off.

Great Bustards (Avutarda Euroasiática / Otis tarda).

Other species seen during this part of the drive included a very nice and unexpected Red-necked Nightjar (Chotacabras Cuellirrojo / Caprimulgus ruficollis) which Sue discovered in a area of the intensively planted Olive trees, this was followed by a group of 8 Collared Pratincoles (Canastera Común / Glareola pratincola), a big flock of 380+ Northern Lapwings, Western Marsh (Aguilucho Lagunero Occidental / Circus aeruginosus) and Montagu's Harrier, European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Europeo / Merops apiaster), Common Kestrel, Carrion Crow, Barn Swallow, Northern Wheatear, Western Yellow Wagtail (Lavandera Boyera / Motacilla flava) and European Goldfinch.

Great Bustards (Avutarda Euroasiática / Otis tarda).

Other species included Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii), Bath (Pontia daplidice) and Small White (Pieris rapae), Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) and Rabbit (Conejo / Oryctolagus cuniculus).

We had got the target species so we decided to start to make our way back south as we still had a long drive ahead of us (which was uneventful), on the way off the site we finished the day list with a couple of Rock Sparrows (Gorrión Chillón / Petronia petronia) and several Common Linnet (Pardillo Común / Linaria cannabina).