‘Looking for birds in the Iberian Peninsula’: December 13^th 2005

The title of Richard Hargreaves’ talk appeared in the programme as ‘Finding birds in the Iberian peninsula’, but whatever the exact title, it was about the birds of Iberia, which is that great mass of land on the northern and western edge of the Mediterranean, made up of Spain and Portugal. Richard is a frequent visitor, and his illustrated ‘tour’ took us from the Mediterranean coast on the east of, across central Spain, then down to the southern coast that looks across to North Africa, west along the Algarve and, finally, north again to finish just south of Lisbon.

We started off on the Ebro delta, an area of wetlands where rice is grown. Here there are nine varieties of heron to be seen, as well as many species that are familiar to us in the United Kingdom such as common terns, Kentish plover and avocets. I was particularly impressed with the purple heron whose plumage manages to be both subtle and stunning at the same time.

Next stop was La Mancha, south of Madrid. A varied landscape of small lakes and deep gullies were the features of the national park where Richard had photographed several migrants from Africa. Additionally, this was the home of three uncommon raptors, the Griffin vulture, the Black vulture and the Egyptian vulture, as well as 150 pairs of Spanish Imperial Eagle.

Heading south via Trujillo, where there were storks as well as both great and little Bustards, the beautiful town of Merida, famed for its wealth of Roman antiquities, formed a backdrop for Richard’s photographs of cattle egrets.

Our next stop was the inland lake at Fuente de Piedra, to the north west of Malaga, where one can find huge numbers of greater flamingo as well as about 70 other varieties of bird, including the European bee eater.

Tarifa, at the most southerly tip of Europe, is on the edge of the straits of Gibraltar, and therefore a short distance from North Africa. Here is the first chance of European landfall for birds migrating north from Africa. We saw slides of many soaring birds using the thermal currents rising from the land on either side of the Straits to help them across the water.

Moving west we saw shots of spoonbills, a profusion of nesting house martins, as well as a hoopoe. Then we reached the Algarve and the surprising presence, alongside fairly heavily peopled golf courses, of various varieties. Finally, our trip ended just south of Lisbon on the huge mudflats of the Tagus estuary, where a wide variety of waders live on the largest wetland area of the whole peninsula.

This was an enjoyable and interesting presentation the main strength of which was the excellence of the photographs. However, the speaker’s voice was not easy to hear for some people and this did detract from the overall impact of the talk.

John Adey