Michael Curry, UK

I spent the first half of April listening to clients moaning about the rain - fair enough, I joined in too - and yet throughout it all the birds kept coming and the birds kept on going.

For these Slender-billed Gulls (top photo), it was simply a matter of waiting to take advantage of a gap and getting on with the job in hand!  No moaning.  Ever since I was a kid I've learned from birds - if a Kestrel can focus that hard with a headwind smacking it in the face then I can jolly well get my head down too and do some revision!  Sad but true, I actually remember thinking that - and so, like the gulls and all the birds around them, we simply got on with it and, where many before us may have faltered, we reaped rewards aplenty!  O.K. and we moaned a lot too.

THE STEPPES OF LLEIDA and LOS MONEGROS

A special review of the month in the Steppes, including the positive start to the breeding season, can be viewed here:  April in The Steppes




THE GARRAF

A positive start to the month in the GARRAF too with a resident pair of Black Wheatear, at a nesting location threatened by dog-walkers and beach-goers, apparently happy to give it a go for another year.  I started successfully too with my annual personal challenge of always locating at least one singing Common Cuckoo per trip with a tree-top bird easing me into it on the 5th.  The day before also noted the first Woodchat Shrike.

Not much opportunity to explore through much of the month and, by the 23rd, Eurasian Bee-eater, Nightingale and plenty of Turtle Dove had already settled in.  Lone Spanish Yellow Wagtail and Woodlark were probably only passing through though but the day will always be remembered spent comparing the size, shape, plumage and screams of over a hundred Common, Pallid and Alpine Swifts doing what they do best around my head at a scenic spot along the coast.


LLOBREGAT DELTA

The 4th recorded my first Whimbrel, two more Osprey setting the trend for a good month at all locations and a brief but welcome motorway-side Honey-buzzard, although as I write I have yet to see another.

The 12th added a pair of exhausted Collared Pratincole, with their numbers continuing to rise slowly through the month, and continued a curious trend of groups of late Eurasian Wigeon that began on the Ebro Delta and went on at least until the 13th in the Aiguamolls de L'Emporda.

All locations also offered the chance to compare Yellow Wagtail heads, with the rain falling in groups of flavissima (Britain), cinereocapilla (Italy, above) and iberiae (Spain of course) as well as the nominate flava (Central Europe).

The poor weather did seem to dampen the spirits of the warblers however and I can't believe Great Reed Warbler hadn't arrived until we located a proud singing individual on the 15th (in good company with a superb passage male Montagu's Harrier at Cal Tet).  A pair of Temminck's Stint, increasingly common in the area, dropped in a day later.

A spectacular morning trip on the 28th provided one of the best sessions of the year with 17 species of wader flying in and out of Ca L'Arana beach.  Individuals, small possies and larger flocks mixed and collided with each other with a lone Whimbrel and summer plumaged Spotted Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit and the stunning Grey Plover coming in close runners-up to the bird-of-the-day - no less than eight Red Knot scampering across the sand in various shades of rufous.

Common Waxbill, Pied Flycatcher, Great Reed Warbler, Squacco Heron, Garganey, Mediterranean Gull, Audouin's Gull and four absolutely charming Little Gull, two complete with smart black hoods, were also about and eight very excited and exciting Little Tern added a year first to an already very worthwhile trip.

Temminck's Stint were back on the 29th, giving touching-distance-who-needs-binoculars views on El Campo.  Four Sanderling, including a summer plumage bird, didn't seem to mind my proximity at Remolar either and we shared the beach as I watched Little and Common Tern diving over the ocean.  Three male Golden Oriole chased each other over the car park whilst a pair of Whinchat watched on before I headed home, already looking forward to May.




THE EBRO DELTA

A pair of Temminck's Stint visited Riet Vell also, on the 7th, along with repeated stunningly close views of Moustached Warbler and both helped to ease the disappointment of the no-show Little Crake, which I haven't seen since March and I think has moved on.  There's always a chance of more though, at least until early May.

Overall this was a truly great day though with limited space meaning the highlights will only have to include Spoonbill, three Osprey, pink-breasted Water Pipit, Bonelli's Warbler, late-ish Northern Lapwing and year firsts of Common Tern, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whinchat, Black-eared Wheatear and a Savi's Warbler reeling a backdrop soundtrack to this flyby Squacco Heron.



But on the 10th the Trubacador really came into its own with a fifteen-minute, post-rainfall dash up and down the beach in the four by four revealing numerous Whinchat, Black-eared Wheatear, Northern Wheatear, and a sneaky male Sub-alpine Warbler sharing a bush with the Common Redstart below.

We also noted the Wigeon (see above) at Canal Vell, where we also ticked off Reed Warbler to add to the year-first Gull-billed Tern, which had arrived to swarm across the Fangar.




AIGUAMOLLS DE L'EMPORDA

A year-first male Golden Oriole on the 13th, three days before they were seen and sang in the Steppes, was my personal highlight of the month's only trip to the Emporda but other notables included a full-of-life Little Gull that charmed all eyes away from the swarms of black-bellied Whiskered Tern,



no less than four drake Garganey chasing a lone female into the long grass (and they haven't even reached their breeding grounds yet!), my first real sighting of a Nightingale this year...



and I know the simply envious sight of yet another Osprey landing in an adjacent flooded field and proceeding to bathe...




THE PYRENEES

Two very contrasting trips began with a sun-covered jaunt through the high altitude specialities on the 6th when almost the first birds we saw were a pair of Lammergeier circling over head.  When they weren't around we made do with a pair of adult Golden Eagle that seemed to follow us all day, although Citril Finch made us work hard before we finally found two pairs feeding amongst the snow-gaps on the Orris meadow.

A continuously shrieking and drumming Black Woodpecker did manage to avoid our attentions in the thick of the trees however but the moment of the day for me more than made up for it with a superb black-and-white Pied Flycather startling me from the adjacent bush during lunch - almost a month before I usually record them this far inland.

Disastrous and un-predicted weather on the 12th however meant we couldn't ascend to the high meadows despite two attempts - where we only found a small group of snow-eating Common Crossbill - and so we amused ourselves with the lowland offerings such as Dipper, Hawfinch, Rock Bunting and Cirl Bunting, Bonelli's Warbler, Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper before giving up and heading off to finish the day at Llobregat.

Bet these Crag Martins wished they could have joined us...



With sunshine warming our expectations on the 22nd, ultimately they were to be cooled by a raging wind that threatened to literally blow the car door off.  So, except for a hovering Short-toed Eagle, there were few raptors.  Although, whilst listening to a cocky Nuthatch singing in a spot where a pair bred two years ago, one did show up, in the form of a male Sparrowhawk, to streak past and snatch its victim before our eyes.  I don't think they'll be breeding there this year.

The wind restricted most sightings equally brief throughout the day with a fleeting glimpse of an albeit very well snow-lit and striking Alpine Accentor being typical of many of the passerines.  But extreme proximity to a pair each of Crossbill and Bullfinch, along with singing Nightingale, good views of single representatives of Red-billed and Alpine Chough and thrilling flocks of Siskin and flavissima Yellow Wagtail twisting around our heads on different occasions sent us home re-warmed and satisfied.


Thanks to Michael Cox for the photos from his four day trip.  You can read and see more on Michael's Blog.