School Trip Discovery

I was out at 5am this morning waving off my oldest (12 year old) son who was going on his first school trip where they are staying away for a few nights. The lucky guy's going to the fabulous Sierra de Cazorla in northern Andalucia (near Jaen) - they will have a fab time. Anyway while I was standing there I heard a familiar call and a couple of toots later a Scop's Owl flew over. So once they had gone I walked along the paseo again whistling and saw at least 3 birds, which is fantastic.

West Latvia Short Break

Just returned from an excellent short break to West Latvia, where we had many fantastic experiences including 8 species of woodpecker, Pygmy Owl, Nutcracker, Hazel Grouse, Red breasted Flycatcher, Icterine, Savi's, Great Reed, Grasshopper, Marsh Warblers, Lesser Spotted & White tailed Eagles, Rough legged Buzzard, White winged, Black & Caspian Terns, 100+ Wood Sandpipers, summer plumage Ruff and Spotted Redshanks, a Wolf kill, Wild Boar, Smooth Snake, Slow Worm, Camberwell Beauty, Map Butterfly, 100's of Four spotted Chaser Dragonflies, plus lots more. A trip report will be published soon.

Trip Report

Today I finally completed my trip report for an excellent week with keen birdwatchers Andy Bates and Dave Stanbridge, who came out to Spain for a Valencia Short Break with an addition of two extra days in the Madrid Province. A great week that sprung up plenty of pleasant surprises.

To read the report please follow this link - here

The Summer is coming

The weather has definitely changed for the better here with day time temperatures of 20+oC and wall to wall sunshine. This consequently makes the nights very pleasant with star-filled nights and a moon you can almost touch. I have been lucky enough to be able to sit out on the roof terrace enjoying this spectacle listen to Nightinglaes and the odd Little Owl, with the Moorish Ghekkos catching flies & moths off the white painted walls. Brilliant.

Thursday 30th April :- Walking into town today I had my first Honey Buzzard of the year migrating north. Always a fantastic bird to see.

Valencia Short Break with Calandra Holidays

24th - 28th April :- Another Valencian short break this time for Richard Palmer of Calandra Holidays who brought a minibus full of guests with then, all of whom had been previously and really enjoyed it. During the 4 night break we saw some fantastic species and behaviors including Eagle & Scop's Owl singing and showing at the same time, in fact we saw three owl species in the space of 30 minutes.
We again had good close views of Red necked Nightjar, Trumpeter Finch, Collared Pratincoles, White headed & Marbled Ducks, Red knobbed Coots, Night, Purple & Squacco Herons, Little Bittern, Great White Egret, Glossy Ibis, 4 Bonelli's & 3 Golden Eagles (both at nests), Montagu's Harriers, Osprey, 100+ Curlew Sandpipers (some in full Summer plumage), Cory's & Balearic Shearwaters, Audouin's Gulls, 30+ Slender billed Gulls all pink and displaying to each other, Gull billed, Little, Black & Whiskered Terns, Bee-eaters, Wryneck, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Hoopoes, Black & Black eared Wheatears, Moustached, Great Reed, Savi's, Sub-alpine, Dartford & Willow Wablers, Firecrest, Pied & Spotted Flycatchers plus much more. We saw in total over 130 species, which is interesting as we didn't go to the Albacete Plains replacing this with a visit to the wetlands surrounding the city of Valencia, which was very successful. I would like to thank very much Richard & jane for their continued support of Oliva Rama Tours, long may it continue......