ARRIVAL IN MADRID TRANSFER TO MONFRAGUE HOTEL - WITH STOPS ALONG THE WAY
WEATHER: overcast all day, some light rain. Warm temperature 20C+
Considering I had to meet 5 people travelling to Madrid arriving at four different times and at three different terminals, things went exceedingly well. We all met up as planned and apart from a short delay on the last arrivals we were on our way more or less on time.
Tarja, flew in from Finland via Frankfurt and arrived on time at 12:20, this was afew hours before the others, so we snook off for a couple of hours birding in El Pardo CXountry Park on the north side of Madrid.
It was a warm afternoon and being a Saturday the whole park was full of people doing all kinds of activities, mostly walking and BBQ's, cycling, jogging etc. Despite all of this going on we managed to find a few birds. The river was swollen after recent rains, the reedbeds were washed away or just flattened, but many birds were still around and singing.
THE RIVER WAS WELL UP AND FLOWING FAST
Common Nightingales and Cetti's Warblers were the loudest, but we also heard Blackcap, Serin, Goldfinch, Eurasian Nuthatch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Chaffinch and Blackbird. We got good views of Tree Sparrow, Serin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackcap and plenty of Black Kites.
lots of Tree Sparrows were dashing about, some carrying nesting material
Fleeting views were had of Cetti's Warbler, Eurasian Nuthtach, Short-toed Treecreeper, Jay, Iberian Magpie, White Wagtail, Griffon Vulture and Greenfinch.
El Pardo was looking good today and full of birds
We met the other memebers of the group late afternoon and set off for Monfrague national park. A couple of short stops along the motorway were made where we saw: Barn Swallows, Corn Bunting, Crested Lark, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Gadwall and a few others. the best sightings were made from the bus as we travelled along; we saw atleast four Montagu's Harriers with two stonking males flying very close to the road. We also saw Common Buzzard, Black Kite, Monk Parakeet, Spotless Starling, Jackdaw, lots of White Storks, Cattle Egrets, grey Heron, a flyover Hawfinch and afew more that I have probably forgotten!
We arrived at our hotel at 8:30pm and after a quick wash-up we went down to dinner just as it was getting dark. An excited group were keen to get out for our full day out in Monfrague National Park tomorrow.