Field diary

November 2005

30th October - 5th November

The weather is still warm and pleasant. Now that the ground has had a decent wetting, the landscape has started to change colour. Extremadura has a "second spring" in the autumn, with vigourous growing until the cold in late November calls an end to it.

At a small pool on a local river we got a view of a Great White Egret, several Little Egret, a Grey Heron. In the field behind were a group of Cattle Egret. Beyond them a Marsh Harrier was quartering the ground and overhead groups of arriving Crane announced their presence.

6th November - 12th November

Crane numbers have built to around 15,000. A small number are ringed.

A group of 4 Ruddy Shelduck swimming and feeding on a small pool. This is the second year running small numbers have been sighted.

We saw a vulture "feast" right by the side of the track within 20 metres of our car. Some 50 Griffon and 6 Black Vulture had dispatched the remains of a dead sheep. They were in no hurry to move off and gave excellent views for several minutes.

13th November - 19th November

The waterfowl count is rising, with around 20,000 on the Embalse de Sierra Brava. The first Black-necked Grebe are putting in an appearance, and the huge Cormorant flock is still together at Orellana. We have located 3 Marsh Harrier roosts, each with between 30-50 birds.

20th November - 26th November

Snow was to be seen on the mountains behing Guadalupe this week. It makes a wonderful backdrop to the dehesa and cereal plains but is not normally seen until winter is well established. Could it presage the harsh winter we have been promised by the weather men?

The wave of unusually cold weather has brought a number of surprises. Golden Plover are normally not seen until well into December, but a small group were seen this week near Madrigalejo. Just behing them was a flock of over 70 Great Bustards. Greylag Geese are being seen in larger numbers than normal. A flock with 2,000 birds was observed.

The Ruddy Shelduck have been seen again on the same small pool. It is quite possible that these are escapees as they are more approachable than one would expect.

Crane numbers are slightly up with over 15,000 birds. This week 8 more ringed birds were observed but none of the 10 seen in earlier weeks, suggesting that the early arrivals have dispersed south and west and their places have been taken by new arrivals.

27th November - 3rd December

On Wednesday we were beside one of the irrigation canals near Madrigalejo and came across a dead sheep. Watching from a short dustance away, we saw a few Raven come in, followed by 6 or 7 Red Kite. The excitement attracted a host of other predators - a pair of Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Marsh and Hen Harrier and finally a Sparrowhawk - quite an extraordinary concentration of predators! Later that evening there was a group of some 2,000 Crane and 1,500 Greylag feeding on a rice field close to a roost of Marsh Harriers. To top it all off, two of the Crane were ringed.

More rain has fallen this week with about 20 litres on the Friday. This coincided with a visit from the Swedish Ambassador who had come to the launch of the book written by the Swedish naturalist Göran Lundin on Cranes (More info on this in the News Updates section). The day was not ideal for bird-watching but we saw a group of around 100 Great Bustard. They are now in their large winter groups. We also saw 5 Short-eared Owl hunting over a field. They flew to within 20metres.

Back in the village we have a regular visitor to our neighbour's TV aerial - a Southern Grey Shrike. He has not been around for some weeks so it was pleasant to see him again. Also there are a good number of Black Redstart which appear to be roosting communally in an empty house nearby.