Birds in the North of Spain: December 2006

Monday, December 04, 2006

Again in the Reservoir

Again in reservoir of the river Ebro, a morning of good birding, with a number not a lot of species but good in speciments, mainly of the best contributed with 150 Greylag Goose (Anser anser) as always grazing in the north coast of the dam. All week I have news about the good numbers of Greylag Goose, 250, 180,…
Small flocks of other ducks, Gadwall (Anas strepera) one of the flocks of 26 birds, Common Teal (Anas crecca) this time unlike others, few units, Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), small groups of few distributed units but in several zones.
Is strange to confirm, the Red-crested Pochard (Netta rufina) has a terrible reduction, in years ago the Red-crested Pochard was like one of most numerous in wintertime, thousands of birds, today only eight birds !!!!.

Also eight Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) near Reinosa.
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus), one of the most representative birds of this dam.
Great Cormorán (Phalacrocorax carbo) two birds , and less and less, since the reiterated complaints of fishermen , at the moment is possibly regulating (to shoot) the population of birds in Cantabria and now in Burgos is studying this.
Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea), 6 birds in the zone of the observatory.
Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)
Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis)
Other species in the area ,
Common Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus)
Little Owl(Athene noctua)
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba)
Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros)
Blackbird (Turdus merula)
Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos)
Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus)
Cetti´s Warbler (Cettia cetti)
Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
Magpie (Pica pica)
Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)
Of return, in the zone of the canyons of river Ebro, a majestic Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), harassed by a pair of Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus).