Llobregat river - 4.1.10

A few new birds on the Llobregat river (maybe because it's just 2 days after my last visit). Another male shoveler and a nice flock of 4 common teals has been the best. The Shelducks are still around there and so do the Barnacle geese.
Good numbers of Cattle egrets were feeding on river sides. There is always a dirty individual between them!
At dusk, some Jackdaws enter to the roost. Nice goodbye to a birding afternoon!

New Year, new puroposes

The arrival of the new year constitutes the real change in blog purposes, as I've already talked about in the previous entry.
As always, january is the worst month for me because of exams, but that doesn't mean I can't do some local birding, just close to my home. That fact reduces notably my options and it's in that times when I feel lucky to live in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, a village with river.

By chance, the Llobregat river and specially my closest strecht is particularly interesting that days, with a good diversity of ducks (even low numbers) and a rarity (2, better said...). 2 Barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) are present in the area, together with 3 Wigeons (Anas penelope), 2 Gadwalls (Anas strepera), 2 Shovelers (Anas clypeata) and 3 Teals (Anas crecca).Some other interesting birds include a male Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) and a good number of Common snipes (Gallinago gallinago). 4 individuals were present in the area and that consists 4 times the mean!

In the next days, I don't expect to do something more interesting, so I hope I won't loose all the readers, who I'm sure would apreciate a bigger dose of local birding.

Ringing in Abrera and Sant Llorenç d'Hortons

Nice ringing day in Abrera last friday. The total number of birds caught was higher than other novembers, but the diversity was less. However, in this place there are always some interesting things such as this handsome adult male Iberian green woodpecker (Picus sharpei). Note the similiarities with Levailant's green woodpecker... the same species? I think so.Persimmon trees look so stunning during autumn, so it's worth to take some pictures of the landscapes.
Moreover, I was on a campsite the rest of the weekend and I took the opportunity to ring some farmland birds. I ringed just 5 birds, but they were 5 different species. The most interesting one was a Rock bunting (Emberiza cia), also a male. The flock of buntings that feed the area let me another capture: a nice Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus). Interesting sightings included some Redwings, Woodlarks and a Mistle trush, very scarce in the area.

Re-Born

When I started writing a blog, my idea was to demonstrate that it's possible to bird just by using public transport, since there are some interesting places very close to Barcelona.
However, my birding activity changed a few time after I created the blog. I started getting works in the field and what started as a hobby turnt suddenly into a real profession.
I remember when I wrote on my old blog that I had taken my ringing license, maybe that has been the most important turning point of my birding career. As soon as that, the blog started to contain information about moult and identification, and the local birding went out the window.
Of course I've kept on ringing and I'm still interested in identification discussions but nowadays I feel I should focus my blog on local birding or, better said, turn it into a diary. My all-day birding doesn't include neither rarities nor endangered species, but that's my life actually and the name of the blog is because of that.
I would not forget some other wildlife groups, and I will give also some attention to both plants and animals. I hope people will find interest in the new puroposes of my blog and will keep on reading it.