Here is the second part of the ten-day self-driving birding trip to Spain in December 2021. We spent three days in the mountains and fields of Madrid.
27/12/2021 Madrid: Mountain region
Madrid looked different in all aspects compared to Catalonia. If Catalonia gives me a feeling of wildness, openness, and unrestrainedness, then Madrid would be more shy, tame, and conservative. I could get that feeling from the comparison between Barcelona and Madrid. Local people’s attitude to speed limitation will be another live example. In Madrid, most cars usually drive below 80% of the speed limit, which differs from Catalonia’s.
Madrid has the northern side of the central mountains in Iberia, and all the other sides are plains with agricultural areas. Compared to the Mediterranean climate in Catalonia, Madrid’s climate is more continental, as is the vegetation, where conifers replace many sclerophyllous plants. Madrid was generally colder, drier, and windier than Catalonia in those days.
The first stop in Madrid was La Pedriza, a site in the National Park of Sierra de Guadarram. It was only 1-hour drive from Madrid with easy access. As soon as we drove inside the mountain region, we could see some Iberian Magpies in the bushes on the sides of the road. They were not abundant but continuously seen for a few more times. We arrived at La Pederiza at 9 A.M. A small group of finches, including Common Chaffinch and European Greenfinch, were in the parking lot. There were many tourists around. All of them seemed to be hikers. Just next to the parking lot, we found another group of Iberian magpies feeding on some conifers.
The Iberian Magpie is a fascinating bird. A shining black-colored head and a white throat made it elegant and reminded me of shrikes and terns. Its azure color on the upper wing and tail looked so beautiful in the sunshine. Its warm pinkish breast became a ball-like shape, making it pretty quiet in winter. The flock usually moved together, and I could see them fly to another tree one after another, making an azure-colored line upon the conifer woods. They satisfied my fantasy of Corvidae birds in semi-open woods.
I grew up with its Asian relative, the Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cynaus). Thus, the Iberian Magpie looked quite familiar to me. They were so similar that nobody could easily distinguish them without checking on purpose. Azure-winged looks more grayish and has a white patch at the end of the tail, while Iberian lacks these features. And the sounds and behaviors also differ. Iberian Magpie sounds slightly higher in pitch and not as hoarse as Azure-winged, though still pretty hoarse. Azure-winged Magpies, in their native range, are extremely common in forests and city parks and very well-adapted to live with humans. Iberian Magpie is shy and isolated, and it seemed it was not so close to dwellings or villages when I spotted the bird.
We then walked to the forest next to the parking lot. I heard an unfamiliar song from the forest. We followed the song and found a Short-toed Treecreeper. I was shocked that there are no Eurasian Treecreepers all over Spain except in the Pyrenees. Though the hind claws in Short-toed look slightly shorter, the two species still look confusingly similar. Yet the song sounds completely different. One of my friends spotted some thrushes with white necks, which made me believe she saw some Ring Ouzels, though I did not find any later.
After a brief visit to the mountain track, we stopped at the beginning and counted for birds of prey. Except for two Red Kites, there were generally only Eurasian Griffon. I gave up after the number reached 100. I was always very motivated to find an Eurasian Griffon among large flocks of Himalayan Griffons (Gyps himalayensis), both in China and Nepal, though I never made it. Eurasian Griffons were lovely and elegant birds, but they looked no different from their Himalayan cousin. As for my passion, it already disappeared in thousands of observations over the years. In Asia, Griffons live around herders and can feed on dead cattle and yaks. What would the Griffon in Madrid search for food? They were so abundant, so there must be plenty of food resources. Unfortunately, there was no Spanish Eagle in the end, and even no Cinereous Vulture. We had a tense schedule that day, so we only stayed about one hour.
We made another stop on the way back. A nice collection of small passerine birds was in the mountain forest patches. We had Crest Tit, Great Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, and a couple of Common Firecrest. Firecrest was a lifer for me, and it was nice to have them in those mixed flocks of cute little birds. There were more Griffons frequently flying over us.
By noon, we reached Mingorrubio and had lunch there. That was where our friends saw some Spanish Eagles on their trip some years ago. After lunch, we walked into the nearby recreational area, Senderismo por El Pardo. It was sparse woodland in a river valley, and the area we visited was downstream of a dam. Hundreds of Common Wood Pigeons, Eurasian Jackdaws, and Great Cormorants often flew around in several large flocks. My sight was mainly following the ridge line. We found something different after seeing a few Eurasian Griffons and a Cinereous Vulture. Narrower wings, longer tail, and more pointed gestures indicated it was not a vulture. The paler color in its nape and the wing’s leading edge made me prefer that it was an adult Spanish Eagle. We finally got it!
In the afternoon, we drove to the south, looking for some steppe birds. We mainly explored the region near Algodor, located near Madrid and Toledo’s boundary. There was mostly open country with small hills and a large proportion occupied by agriculture or plantation. When passing one hill, I saw two large birds chasing each other, moving from another side. We found a place to park and looked at the birds. They were two juvenile Spanish Eagles, maybe playing with each other with a series of sharp calls. These birds seemed good; otherwise, we must be super lucky. We stayed for a while and saw more birds of prey, including Eurasian Griffon, Red Kite, Common Buzzard, and Eurasian Kestrel.
Later, we visited a few fields and grasslands. They looked empty. It could be explained by the fact that in winter, birds would gather in large flocks and move around, making them hard to find. Occasionally, my friend spotted a large flock of Northern Lapwings, about 150 individuals. That was not common, so we decided to have a close look. Then we were surprised. The bird flock was five times larger than we saw from the car, and there were not only lapwings but also big flocks of Spotless Starlings and European Golden Plovers. As I looked through the ground’s surface, I found another surprise—tens of Pin-tailed Sandgrouses mixed with the flocks of golden plovers! That was unexpected, and we were super happy to see them. The sandgrouses looked just half of the size of golden plovers. That was something I found to be very surprising. I thought the golden plover would be smaller, like the size of Charadrius plovers. We spent a more extended time exploring around and did not get anything more. We got back relatively early to find a parking place in our hotel.
Leave a Reply