Introduction. During our Autumn stays in Sagres, several of our friends have spoken of the Monfrague National Park in Spain. As an avid raptor watcher, they had impressed on me the absolute need to visit this magical place. I was told of Griffon Vultures gliding past at eye level, almost within reaching distance or seemingly so. A decision was made between Chris, Sue, Angela and myself to visit Monfrague during the Spring of this year. The plan was, that Chris and Sue would drive up from the Algarve, while we would fly out to Madrid and from there, drive to the National Park. As we hadn't been to Madrid before, a couple of days were spent there taking in the sights, utilising the hop on/hop off buses and the spotlessly clean metro system. Day 1 - The drive to the Monfrague National Park. Having selected which of ten lanes (!) to rapidly leave the traffic in Madrid and once the heart had settled down, we were cruising nicely along the R-5, on our way to meet Chris and Sue at Torrejon el Rubio. I was feeling the excitement of this trip already, passing Lesser Kestrels, a male Hen Harrier, Red and Black Kites, Griffon Vulture, Short-toed Eagle and even a Golden Eagle as the kilometres passed quickly. We met in the small town of Torrejon and rested by a small reservoir, just outside the town. Taking in the variety of small birds around us, we began to compile our list with Crag Martins, Red-rumped Swallows, Rock Bunting and a couple of Bee-eaters among many others. It was now late afternoon as we made our way to our accommodation at 'Hospederia Parque de Monfrague'. A very unique hotel in a lovely setting where we enjoyed the most excellent meals. View from the hotel room across the plain to the Sierra de las Corchuelas. Day 2 - Our first look at the vultures. Incredibly, I woke to the sound of rain pattering on the windows and the morning started off cold, wet and quite breezy. We set off towards our first stop at the famous viewpoint of Salto del Gitano and the rain was already decreasing to odd showers. These huge rock faces are home to hundreds of Griffon, Black and Egyptian Vultures. Griffons can be seen immediately, resting and preening either singly or in small gatherings. As the light was rather poor, we'll look at more Griffons later! This rock face has a small number of breeding Black Storks and we were able to pick out one such nest, across the river. Unlike Sagres where we encounter juvenile storks, these were splendid adult birds. The next large bird on the scene was a Black Vulture, soaring on its wide, straight wings. With so much going on in the air, you have to remind yourself to look around , there are birds to be seen everywhere! A Woodchat Shrike. A partially leucistic Blue Rock Thrush. Moving on, our next stop was at Puente del Cardenal, close to where the rivers Tejo and Tietar divide. We had crossed the river now and in doing so, seen Alpine Swifts and Crag Martins around the bridge. On the lower slope shown above, we had a sighting of a Black-eared Wheatear hopping about among the stones. This was a great migrant to add to the increasing species list and what a colourful bird it was too. Across the river, another Black Stork was nesting and behind us, isolated Griffons stood watching from aloft. One of the highlights I had been hoping for appeared, in the form of adult Egyptian Vultures. Going back to Sagres, only dark brown juveniles are seen there and these were my first adults in contrasting black and white, with a yellow face and bill. I remarked to Chris how they could well be a different species, with such a marked change in plumage compared to the juveniles. With a brighter sky in the afternoon, we returned to Salto del Gitano and spent more time among the Griffon Vultures. With better light, we could clearly see the various nests on the rock face and early signs of some successful egg hatching! Below, the presumed male arrives but is not taking part in the domestics and leaves almost immediately. In Part Two, we spend a day between Torrejon and Caceres, looking at grassland birds in fine, sunny weather. The final day sees us high up at the Castillo de Monfrague, overlooking the entire area and, a little re-cap on some of Day 2 sites.
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