A trip to Catalonia. (Part 1)

 A trip to Catalonia in the North East of Spain was undertaken by Steve Ray, Tim Gutsell and myself, where we had a week under the guidance of a company called Photo logistics who organised our hotels and photography hides. We left Gatwick on Monday 19th May, an early morning flight into Barcelona where we picked up a hire car and drove North West for about 180 kilometres to a small city called Solsona in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

We were collected by our guide early on Tuesday morning (20th) and driven about 20 minutes North into the mountains, miles from anywhere and deposited into a hide with a one way glass frontage over looking a grassy stretch on the mountain side and waited for some photography action. The one way glass worked surprisingly well, obviously us being able to look out but whatever was in front of the hide could not see us. This did allow for some remarkably close views during the session of Lammergeier, Egyptian and Griffon Vultures. The first to arrive were the Griffons and I would estimate about 40 birds were present. Bearing in mind these birds have a wing span of just over 9 foot, it was quite a spectacular site as they approached the hide.

Next the Lammergeier's (Bearded Vultures) appeared, a pair and the first lifer of the trip for me. They put on a great show, hoovering up the bones of several carcasses and swallowing them whole a few metres from us, the birds completely unaware of our presence. As large as the Griffons but without the long neck, these birds are brutes, strong, stocky and it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat, especially as they were the first Lammergeier's I have seen. The trip never ran according to plan (see later) but these birds were worth the entrance ticket fee alone.

Our third Vulture of the session was the strange looking Egyptian Vulture, or what we all quickly renamed "The Chicken". A strange looking creature, smaller than the Griffon's and Lammergeier's but was not that far short with the wing span. Their aerial ability was remarkable and they put on a great show for us. In spite of their smaller size, they were not for being bullied by the larger Vultures. 

What I presume to be a 2nd calendar year juvenile bird.

There were plenty of Corvids about and the Raven's were the pick of these. I often dismiss Raven's when looking through the viewfinder but when they are posing just a few feet in front of you, they then become harder to dismiss.

After the session in the hide ended, we were collected and taken back to our hotel in Solsona where we then drove about 100 kilometres further west towards Andorra for a two night stay in a basic but pleasant hotel in a small village called Cubells in the Montgai Steppe region of Catalonia. As mentioned earlier, our trip never went to plan, this being for two reasons, firstly the area has had a huge amount of rainfall during the past few months and a normally dry arid area where birds were attracted to what little water supply there was, now had water in abundance, rendering man made constructed water drinking pools surplus to requirements. Basically, the birds could find water anywhere so were not specifically targeting the drinking pools set up in front of hides. The second reason was down to pure bad luck, We were due to spend a morning in a hide for European Roller but their nest was predated by a Brown Rat the day before our arrival. That is nature unfortunately and nothing is guaranteed. The people at Photo logistics were very good and they did all that was humanly possible to get us what we wanted. We were offered a hide about an hours drive from our hotel for the following morning that almost guaranteed us European Black Vulture, which was a lifer for all three of us so we went with this plan and was collected the next morning in a mini bus and we made our way via a very scenic route to a town called Tremp which was about 30 kilometres short of Andorra.

As the previous day, several Griffon were first on the scene.

Lifer number 2 for me was the European Black Vulture. Steve signalled their arrival and looking out to our right was what was akin to a squadron of Lancaster Bombers approaching. About five or six birds, huge in size and had the look of an Eagle as they neared. They landed in amongst the several Griffon and Egyptian Vultures out in front of us but due to the long grass, getting images of them in the open proved rather difficult. This I must say, was one of the very few criticisms we had with the company but I think maybe due to the late swapping and changing of our itinerary, this maybe was the reason for the over grown grass in front of the hide oversight. ( A quick strim to the feeding area would have worked wonders with the photography). A few record shots of the Black Vulture to mark a new lifer for all of us.

The grass never interfered with the aerial photography though and we were treated to superb flight views of both Black and Red Kites throughout are morning stint in the hide.

Black Kite

Red Kite

This was easily the best views I have had with Black Kites and because of their close proximity giving good photo opportunities of them in flight, for me was a highlight of the trip.

Their were a few Egyptian Vultures that came to feed on a carcass and we had better opportunities here to get them in flight as they circled before dropping into the area in front of the hide.

A sub adult bird I think

Being deaf as a post has obvious disadvantages when out looking for birds but not when you have a good pair of ears sitting either side of you. This was the case as we sat in the hide nearing the end of our session. Both Tim and Steve picked up a bird singing behind the hide and after a few minutes it flew into a bush in front of the hide. Although a little distant and we all were suffering a little from a heat haze, we all managed a few images of a singing Tawny Pipit, proving that not all the birds in the area were huge with big bills and ready to rip everything to shreds.

Tawny Pipit

After the session, our guide (a dead ringer for Bruno Fernandez of Man Utd) collected us and drove us back to our hotel In Cubells where he would return at 5.00 PM for a late afternoon stint in the Bee Eater hides. Everybody loves a Bee Eater.

End of Part One. Part Two to follow.