Thursday 3 November 2011

Pyrenees - day 2

My second day roaming the mountains was also my last day in Spain. First thing I did in the morning was head to the top for some sunrise photos:


I noticed some Griffon Vultures already soaring around a neighbouring mountain - which I thought was pretty early for those birds because they usually wait until mid-day before coming out.

There wasn't much activity on the barren mountain tops so I descended a little into the trees to see what I could find.
First up was this dead Newt - it probably froze to death the night before?


Eventually I came across several flocks of Tits. Coal Tits were in abundance while only a few each of Marsh Tit and Crested Tit were present.

Coal Tit:

Crested Tits were rather shy:

I returned to the mountain top for another Lammergeier search but came up empty. Although Griffon Vultures were common:

Another descent into the forest, this time looking for deciduous specialities revealed a few Firecrests:

Then I was off to the airport for my flight to Denmark after a very successful trip to Spain! My original plan for this trip was to go to Donana National Park in the South of Spain where I would have been able to see much rarer birds (White-headed Duck, Spanish Imperial Eagle... etc) but I certainly am not regretful of my decision to save some money and stick to the North Eastern parts.
I'll just have to go down South another time ;)