Barcelona and Scotland Trip Reports

Date: 1st April 2018

Location: Barcelona, Scotland and Back in the UK

Weather: Barcelona - Blue Skies, Light Winds and 20+ Degrees
Scotland - Cloudy, Rain and Windy
Cheddar Reservoir

Species Highlights: 
Barcelona
House Martin, Red-Rumped Swallow, Barn Swallow, Kestrel, Serin, Yellow-Legged Gull, Monk Parakeet, Spotless Starling, Peregrine Falcon, Sardinian Warbler, Chiffchaff, Alpine Swift, Blue Rock Thrush, Rose-Ringed Parakeet, Alpine Accentor
Scotland 
Hooded Crow,Ringed Plover, Curlew, Razorbill, Guillemot

Barcelona Trip Reports here:

I visited Barcelona from 25th March to 29th March for a City Trip so didn't have my birding lenses or binoculars, I also didn't do any birding, so anything I seen was a unexpected bonus. We stayed in the Hilton at the Diagonal Mar area.


On the first morning, we walked through Parc De La Ciutadella on our way to the Centre and within minutes I spotted a single Spotless Starling feeding alongside some Starlings. With that a Monk Parakeet starting feeding alongside them also! 

Inside the park, there was Yellow-Legged Gull, and normal UK birds, but plenty more Monk Parakeet and a single pair of Rose-Ringed Parakeet (Ring-Necked Parakeet)

We spent most the day in Parc De Montjuic which had views of the City and Port.

Plenty of singing Serin about, Chiffchaff, a single Sardinian Warbler singing from the cliff and some butterflies - Swallowtails and Spanish Wall Brown.

The second day we went to Park Guell, and once again plenty of singing Serin and Parakeets.

Our last full day we went to Monserrat via the Train and spent the morning there.

A few surprises here! Blue Rock Thrush displaying and singing away from the cliff edge.

Also a Alpine Accentor was a very unexpected find, it posed nicely before continuing to feed.

Overall a very successful trip and will have to return to do some birding!

Scotland trip Dunoon

 A coach trip mainly but took my camera and binoculars just in case! After the 11 hour coach journey up....11 hours i know! I arrived in Dunoon and after checking in headed down to the Firth of Clyde estuary shore, soon had hooded Crow, Oystercatchers and Redshank in view.

Hooded crow seemed very jumpy but great to watch collecting shellfish.

Curlew stayed distant but again nice to watch it feed along shore.

Went on a few day trips Oban, Loch Lomond and was surprised how little bird life was about, Oban 1 Black Guillemot, 2 Red Breasted Mergansers a few Turnstone on beach was about it. Hooded Crow was the most abundant species.

Went every morning and evening down to Clyde but again little about, a couple of Ringed Plover blending into the pebbles.

A few Razorbill around 40 Eider and a few more Red Breasted Merganser. I walked around 5 miles either side of the hotel.

Some stunning landscapes this one from Inveraray looking across to Inveraray castle.
Next trip to Scotland will be for the Chequered Skipper in June,
 let's not hope it'll take 11 hours !!

Cheddar Reservoir

Headed down to Cheddar for a couple of year ticks Common Scoter and the Slavonian Grebe which had been showing, on arriving not showing so almost walked halfway round before seeing the Scoter very distant but a few shots. 

Carried on around 3/4 way round got on to the Slavonian Grebe, showing much closer.

Such a smart little bird.

Saw a few House Martin i think but i'll wait to tick those, a few Chiffchaff heard calling on the 3 miles walk around. My uk year list now stands at 139 world year list at 173.

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Irish Trip for the Cryptic Wood White

Date: 29th May - 31st May 2017

Location: Belfast and Dublin, Ireland

Weather: Light Rain, Cloudy, Sunny Intervals

Observation: After returning from Majorca, we had booked to fly to Ireland for Dad (Wayne) to add the Cryptic Wood White to his list. We flew into Dublin Airport and hired a car for our 2 days there.

We drove straight up to Belfast as we had booked to stay the night there first. We stopped in Tesco’s just outside the Airport to grab some lunch and as we pulled in we spotted a single Hooded Crow feeding with some Wood Pigeon’s.

We quickly parked up and grabbed our camera’s to get a few shots.

Light was poor at this point but happy to improve from previous shots of this.

Once we got to Belfast we planned to do a recce as the weather wasn’t great for the butterfly at Craigavon. After a quick visit there were no signs of any so we moved on hoping for the weather to improve. We headed on up to Giant’s Causeway stopping at Dark Hedges Road on the way through.

Dark Hedges Road is busy with coaches and cars driving up and down and loads of people always in shot for the pictures, but a great place to visit and free!

Here’s some pictures from Giant Hedges Road:

We arrived to Giant’s Causeway at around 3pm and parked in the Train car park for £6 (a lot cheaper than parking in the National Trust car park at £10 each!) We walked to Giant’s Causeway avoiding the Visitor Centre and saving £24 total between us!

The weather not improving and very low cloud still clinging on, this didn’t stop the crowds of people!

Here’s some pictures from Giant’s Causeway:

As it was getting late and we still had an hour’s drive back to Belfast, we headed back to the hotel and after dinner went for a short walk along the river, we waited for it to get dark and done some night pictures.

The next morning, we woke up to blue skies; the weather was looking promising for the Cryptic Wood Whites!

We walked down to the Titanic Quarter and took some more pictures and also seen 3 Black Guillemots along the river, 2 of which sat on the river wall which allowed us to get pretty close without disturbing them. was also some Common Terns on a nesting raft , brilliant to see terns racing across the River Lagan.

As we were still early and waiting for the weather to warm up, we visited the Castle at Carrickfergus. The skies had clouded after and the rain started, we still moved on and headed onto Craigavon in the off-chance. 

About 10 miles from here the sun slowly came out and by the time we arrived the sky was almost clear and the sun was shining. As we parked up within minutes the first Cryptic Wood White was spotted and settled in the grass, after around 20 minutes we had counted the following butterflies:

25+ Cryptic Wood White 

3 Common Blue 

2 Small White 

5+ Small Heath 

1 Speckled Wood

Dad did have video’s the mating dance from the Cryptic Wood Whites, but wiped his card before taking these off… there's always next year!

Even got some Cryptic Wood White in their mating dance..

A big thanks to Butterfly Conservation and Ian Rippey, Rose Cremin, Marcus Malley, Catherine Bertrand.

Plenty of damselflies about also. There were also Reed Bunting, Mute Swan, Common Terns and 2 Willow Warbler (one of which posed nicely!)

As we found the butterfly so quickly we were ahead of schedule so headed back to Dublin for our final day and arrived around 5pm, enough time for a wander and some more landscapes pictures.

As we were walking from the car park, a Hooded Crow was feeding on the grass so through the fence we got some more shots (too close for 400mm!)

As we had the first flight out of Dublin, we packed up and went back to the hotel ready for the morning.

A very successful trip and some bonuses in there aswell. Butterfly Conservation at interested in doing a press release with us, so when this goes ahead we will share the article from this.

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Rhodes Town - Greece

Date: 4th-12th October 2014 - All Day

Location:  Rhodes, Lindos, Kiotari - Greece

Observation:  Went on a non-birding holiday to Greece with a few friends for a week, but I couldn't help myself in finding a few new birds for myself! There were Hooded Crows every direction you looked, so although I only had my iPhone and Nikon with 55mm lens I still got some decent shots which is nice! The hotel was full of Spanish Sparrows, Wagtails, Swallows and Martins catching flies and drinking from the pools and even the beach had flocks of Sparrows and a few Collared Doves scattered around. I did spot a Red-Backed Shrike on the hotel ground but typically had my iPhone and the only picture I got you can't make out its a bird, ran back to grab my camera but was gone. We went to Lindos for one day where again were alot of Hooded Crows flying around and nesting at the Acropolis. 2 Great Grey Skrikes were seen on a quick glance but the don't think the bus would stop to let me take some pictures! Lastly we went to Rhodes Old Town for the day, we done a Submarine trip and seen ALOT of fish must have been 10 species total, no wonder there were Little Egrets fishing all over the harbor! Also more Sparrows and Crows were hanging about. Apart from the odd bird picture I got, I do now need to sort through over 500 videos/pictures of landscapes during my stay! Tempted to go back and do a birding trip soon though!

Weather:  Blue Sky, Hot, 28+ Degrees, Humid

Other Species: Rock Dove, Hooded Crow, Spanish Sparrow, Great Grey Shrike, Red-Backed Shrike, Common Gull, Little Egret, Barn Swallow, House Martin, Shag, Collared Dove, Yellow Wagtail - Of Note

Butterflies: Large White, Red Veined Darter

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