BBC 2005: South-west Spain

2005: South-west Spain - the first BBC international expedition with all four members, named the Hawks and Doves Tour! 

We started in the north, in Extremadura, at the town of Trujillo .

Trujillo is famous for its colony of Lesser Kestrels (Falco naumanni), which nest in the square.

It's also the birthplace of the Pizarro brothers: Juan, Francisco, Gonzalo, Hernando (and cousin Pedro) - not a Spanish boy band, but 16th century 'conquistadors' who captured and ruled the Inca empire in what is now Peru. They used their ill-gotten gains to build the wonderful Plaza Major. But it wasn't all sherry and skittles - Juan died in the siege of Cuzco, Gonzalo was executed, Francisco was assasinated and Hernando was imprisoned. Pedro survived them all.

To the north of Trujillo, Montfragüe National Park - a rocky ridge along the River Targus.

It is a renowned breeding site for raptors, including the world's largest colonies of Cinereous (Black) Vultures (Aegypius monachus) and Spanish Imperial Eagles (Aquila adalberti). We saw them both, as well as Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus). Here I count seven Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) peering over the rock. 

I photographed a Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus) flying over our heads. We also saw Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata).

Black Storks (Ciconia nigra) also nest here - Iberia and southern Africa are the only areas in the world they are resident, otherwise breeding as migrants from central Europe to Siberia.

The steppes around Caceres are covered with Cork Oaks (Quercus suber). You can see here where the cork has been harvested from the trunks. It is a great habitat for nature, so only buy wine in corked bottles to ensure it survives! We were told Black-shoulder Kites could be seen in the trees, and they looked like the white plastic bags. We searched all day and saw hundreds of white plastic bags.

A Great-spotted Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) did settle conveniently next to the car. It is only resident on the coast of southern Iberia, and central Africa - migrating through the Mediterranean for summer breeding.

And we did see some magnificent specialities of the steppes: Little Bustard (Tetrax tetrax) and Great Bustard (Otis tarda), together with Pin-tailed Sandgrouse (Pterocles alchata), Calandra Lark (Melanocorypha calandra) and Iberian Magpie (Cyanopica cooki). At the end of the day we were treated to one of the best experencies of the trip, as a group of young Montagu's Harriers (Circus pygargus) played over the fields in front of us in the rosy light of the setting sun.

South to Andalusia and the Doñana National Park, where the Guadalquivir River meanders its way into the Atlantic Ocean.

If anything put a smile on my face more than Steve's trousers, it was the village of El Rocio. The roads are of sand, for use by horses, and the hotel has rooms which are tiled with birds and which look over marshes full of waders. A glass of Jerez sherry completes the birding bliss. We saw 25 species of waders, including Temminck's Stint (Calidris temminckii), Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) and Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) - stopping to refuel on their way from Africa to spend the summer in the Arctic regions. White-headed Ducks (Oxyura leucocephala) were also around - in Europe resident only in southern Spain. But the star was a Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus), which migrates from Mexico to Alaska and Siberia, which had some how been blown severly off course across the Atlantic.

Further south, almost to the southernmost point of mainland Europe. We stayed at the coastal village of Zahara de Los Atunes, the place where I spent a university field trip collecting insects and shared meals with the geneticist Steve Jones (who made experiments with painted snails on the beach).

At Barbate cliffs we watched a Peregrine (Falco peregrinus) in search of a pigeon lunch.

Eagle-eyed Steve also proved to be Wryneck-eyed. My second only, and last, view of Jynx torquilla, a weird wood cryptic woodpecker.

We saw over 120 species of birds on the trip, and Spain was such a hit that we returned later in the year on a short jaunt to Mallorca - a great place to see Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata), otherwise only found very locally in areas of Andalusia and Morocco. For those not technically minded, it looks the same as the coots you see in the park, only with red knobs on.