May 25, 2006
Exporing another part of the Country.
My friend Pete and I had a look at three of the Resevoirs (Emabases in Spanish) inland from Castellón recently to see if there was anything of interesting bird wise.
All three Embalses were well under fifty percent down on there water levels for this time of the year.
The first reservoir called Embalse de Maria Cristina was surrounded by lots of Tile factory units with a road though the middle.
So constant disturbance.
Hence very little in the way of birds – two Grey herons and a Little Ringed Plover.
The second reservoir called Embalse de Sichar looked more promising being much bigger with some small islands, but not a lot in the way of aquatic vegetation for nesting birds.
The surrounding countryside was well wooded and held a small variety of singing birds including Chaffinches and Nightingale. There were plenty of House Martins swooping over the water. Again apart from one Grey Heron there was no waterbirds.
Surely the third reservoir would be better?
It was called Embalse de Arenós. It was much larger in size than the others – in fact way back in 1977 the buried three villages when they flooded the valley!
The road followed along one side of the reservoir and try as we might we couldn’t see a place that we could easily get down to the shoreline.
In the end we had to come back and park at the dam end of the reservoir.
It turned out to be the right thing to do, because there right above us was a nesting colony of Griffon Vultures.
Ravens showed off their flying skills to, but they were not in the same class as the vultures.
Like the previous two reservoirs there were no birds on the water.
We had a picnic lunch here and took some photos of the reservoir and vultures and then moved on.
On the way back we chanced on some nice birds in a small valley area past an evocative named Collado Royo y Poviles.
I had said to Pete “stop the car, I think there was a Shrike on a fence post”
There was indeed a Woodchat Shrike on the fence post but that wasn´t what I was watching when Pete caught up with me after parking the car.
I was watching a Tawny Pipit! Pete looked through his binoculars and saw a Bee eater and said “is that a Bee eater there?” Without taking my eye of the Pipit I said “Yes” “I can’t believe you are looking at a pale bird like that when there is this wonderfully coloured bird over there!”
I replied “Pete I see Bee eaters every day on my bird walk around Alcossebre.”
Other birds in the area were Carrion Crows and Corn Buntings.
Futher on we had brief views of a Honey Buzzard and Booted Eagle, the latter was perched on a electric/telephone cable, by the time I tried to sneak out the car for a photo it was gone. Win some lose some, that’s bird photography for you.
At the end of the day it was worth while trip, if you don’t explore you don’t know what’s in the area. Plenty more to see, it’s a big country Spain.