Early morning saw us birding an area of heathland north of Trujillo.  Almost the first bird we saw was a singing male Dartford Warbler, a new bird for the year and a great start to the day.  In contrast to yesterday, the wind had dropped with a clear blue sky overhead.  Walking across the heathland, we enjoyed singing Wood Larks overhead and a gang of female Red Deer crossing the path in front of us.  At the edge of the cork oak woodland, Western Orphean Warbler was added to our list.  In the woodland itself, we had plenty of common UK-type birds including Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit and Jay but at least two Short-toed Treecreepers and plenty of Spotless Starlings reminded us that we were in fact in Spain.
Leaving the heath and woodland we headed north to Monfrague National Park.  The warm weather had encouraged many raptors to get up and soar around and the sky was full of Griffon Vultures, a fantastic spectacle as some birds passed extremely low overhead.  We parked at the viewpoint overlooking the dramatic cliff where the vultures nest.  Not only were there Griffon Vultures here but Egyptian Vulture, Black Stork, Short-toed Eagle and Blue Rock Thrush. Then we noticed another raptor arrive above the cliff, Spanish Imperial Eagle! This majestic bird flew against the rock face allowing us to see every detail before spiraling up and drifting off north, what a bird. We then turned our attention to the scrub on either side of the road and quickly saw Subalpine Warbler and Black Redstart but it took a good hour to find our first Rock Bunting. As is so often the way once we had one more quickly followed and we had great views.
We left the cliff and continued on deeper into the park. Crested Tit was new for the year in a stand of pines and we had amazing close views of this gem of a bird. Another rock and more breeding Griffons but we had another species to search for, Eagle Owl. Martin, our host, had given us info on where to look for a nest with young. Scope was set up and the looking began. The directions were clear and made sense as we studied the rock face. At first we could see nothing but then something moved, what was that? It moved again and became a bird, a very fat fluffy bird, an Eagle Owl chick hidden amongst dead sticks on a ledge. On again and just as we left the park an emergency stop gave us Rock Sparrow feeding near the roadside, at last! We had looked for this species at so many sites in recent days we thought we would never see it.
Driving south we arrived at a large wetland reserve overlooked by a nuclear power plant. Despite the setting the pools held plenty of birds. Savi’s Warblers reeled from the reeds and one showed well sat out in the open. Next year tick was a colourful male Little Bittern which flew in and luckily landed in view. Other good birds here included two Great white Egrets, two Squacco Herons, eight Purple Swamphens and two Marsh Harriers.
Back to Trujillo and just time to add the Lesser Kestrels at the bullring to our heafty day list. On route back to Casa Rural El Recuerdo we had one more year tick, a pair of Little Owls, a bird we thought we were never going to see this year having it missed at many nailed on sites!
Species total 1891
Posted 28th March Trujillo, Spain 8.40pm