More butteflies

A very tatty Green-veined White



















Adonis Blue


















Mountain Clouded Yellow, a speciality of the moutainous regions of Spain apparently

Woodcock Orchids

There´s currently a superb disply of Woodcock Orchids (or Ophrys) out on the hotel farm, heres a tiny selection:


As close as its possible to get to a "typical" specimen




















A rather dull one




















This monster was the size of my thumbnail




















And then this stunning pale phase individual







































Other interesting stuff of late has been a Golden Oriole singing in the valley in the early mornings and a Short-toed Eagle that flew over yesterday afternoon.

This weekend the road below the hotel hosts some international "Hill Climb" rallying event so the place is going to descend into utter chaos, still the music blaring out from the loudspeakers has been interesting, the odd burst of Ecuador by Sash taking me back to school disco days!

I´l probably be posting loads of car pics over the next few days and what with this "orchidwash" of the pages i´m thinking of changing the blog title from Joes Birding Blog to "Joe´s whatever the hell he can get blog"

Another orchid

Heart-flowered Serapias




















The view over the Picos de Europa from my front door, not bad eh!

Red Squirrel and a few moths

Had a few farily dull moths at the windows last night that i´ve made a half-rsed attempt to i.d, as always, any corrections are most welcome

Flame Shoulder


















Green Carpet















Red Squirrel (not a moth)



















Setaceous Hebrew Character



















And another serapais sp. quite similar to the tongue orchid

Flutterbies

After hard mornings work on the pastures outside the hotel I got out in the afternoon to do a bit of Butterfly surveying. I managed 13 species in a 2 hours including European and Scarce Swallowtail, Cleopatra and Large Wall Brown.


Scarce Swallowtail



















































Orange Tip

















Large Wall Brown



















Small Heath

















Wood White



















Femal Cirl Bunting


















Ooh, and on a completely different, even more pointless note, this is the 100th entry onto thsis blog, yay!

El Sueve sumit

Following yesterdays aborted attempt to climb to the summit of the El Sueve mountain range, I set out again this morning in very promising sunny conditions. Luckily the weather held and after a few hours trekking had made it to the big metal cross on top of the 1159m Pico Pizoreiro (or something along those lines). At only 3km inland from the Bay of Biscay it is apparently the highest point in Europe that close to the sea, I might even try a bit of seawatching from there at some point, cant be much different from looking from the obs balcony at Portland.

Getting to the summit allowed access to some higher altititude birds that I couldnt reach yesterday, including a few singing Water Pipit and masses of Alpine Chough

Also near the summit was another pair of Egyptian Vultures, several Griffon Vultures and a Hobby.

The only other birds of note further down were the same Iberian Chiffchaff, Dartford and Grasshopper Warblers singing in the same places as yesterday.

Water Pipit, it seemed very odd seeing these birds at such a high altitude, being used to them in lowland marshes back home.






































Griffon Vulture




















Raven




















Another Rock Bunting



















Having a good old singsong




















Alpine Choughs
















































Walking back to the hotel produced this damselfly, which I think is a female Beautiful Demoiselle


































An arty (i.e. crap) shot of the Beautiful Demoiselle taking off

















And also this confiding Short-toed Treecreeper which showed very well and was even kind enough to call a few times.

Rock Bunting n´ stuff

I set off on a nice long walk today, planning to climb up the mountain of El Sueve, which towers over the hotel.
Walking up through a bit of mixed woodland wa quite productive with singing Iberian Chiffchaff, Dartford Warbler and surprisingly given the altitude, a Grasshopper Warbler. The Egyptian Vultures were again circling over their nesting crag and a Griffon Vulture passed close by at eye level, but predictably my camera was still in its bag, doh!
Further up the coniferous woods were full of Firecrests and Crested Tits bu the weather was deteriorating, so I reluctantly decided to head back down the way I came.
Halfway down the weather looked to have cleared up a bit so i took an alternative route up to a large pasture on the side of the mountain. This proved to be a wise idea as there were several nice Rock Buntings feeding in the drizzle, a new bird for me (along with the 2 vultures)

Narcissus cantabricus (allegedly)

















Rock Bunting















Narcissus cantabricus
















And more Rock Buntings































And a horrificly dark picture of a Tree Pipit















Walking back down to the hotel a Short-toed treecreeper was another long-awaited lifer in a mixed feeding flock of Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits.

The previous day I had taken a trip into the nearby town of Cagnas de Onis to sort out some paperwork involving work. The town was full of hirundines and associated things and I saw a nesting pair of Crag Martins, along with masses of Sand and House martins, Swallows and Swifts. Also a Dipper seen from the car as we crossed the Rio Sella.

Orchids galore

An interesting few days here in Spain. Whilst working this morning a pair of Egyptian Vultures flew over carrying nesting material, apparently they breed near to the hotel every year. Other good birds have been a pair of Blue Rock-thrush high up on the crags above the hotel, and Serin and Cirl Bunting on the farm. Wall Lizards are all over the place and being typically confiding. The highlight however has been the orchids, as seen in the pictures below;

I´m not too hot on my plant i.d skills so if theres any mistakes, feel free to leave a comment telling me.


Wall Lizard



















Tongue orchid (Serapais)




















Woodcock Ophrys




















Bee Orchid




















Dull Ophrys
















Egyptian Vulture (most definately not an escape)



















Man Orchid close up




















Provence Orchid

Picos de Europa

Well, yesterday i arrived at my home for the summer. Hotel Posada del valle, on the edge of the Picos de Europa in North Spain.
I´ll be working here as an organic farmer, ecological surveyor and general outdoor worker here until September.
First impressions are; what an awesome place, superb scenery, with views over the snow clad Picos from my bedroom, massive wildflower diversity, i´ve seen 7 species of orchid today within a few hundred metre of the hotel. Birding might be quite good too. I havn´t really gone far enough to look properly yet today but in the hotel grounds i´ve seen firecrest, chough, griffon vulture and black kites flying over, and the surrounding mountains look pretty promising.

Hopefully there´ll be more to come soon once i´ve got a few more pictures and sightings.

NW Wales and migrants in Somerset

From the 30th March to 6th April I was on a family holiday to Snowdonia National Park, staying in a lovely little cottage near Beddgelert. It was mainly a walking holiday so I didnt really mangae any proper birding but still managed to pick up a few bits and bobs.

The journey up was quite productive with regualr sightings of Red Kite as we drove up through Powys, also seen were a fair few Goosanders along various rivers and a Dipper seen briefly as we passed close to the River Wye.

I did manage to get to Anglesey for one day but dipped on the Long-billed Dowitcher near Holyhead, that species remains as a very irritating bogey bird. On the same day a quick visit to South Stack produced a pair of Chough and a Hooded Crow that I suspect wasnt quite a pure one. The only other sightings were another pair of Chough in the mountains near Beddgelert and various common seaduck (goldeneye, red breasted meransers etc.) in Tremadog bay.

Back in Somerset the last few days have provided a few nice migrants. A Swallow on the wires in Kilmigton was my first for the year, as was a solitary House Martin over my garden in Witham Friary yesterday evening. Thw highlight however was a Ring Ouzel that I flushed off stubble in the hills above the village this afternoon whilst walking the dog.