Introduction.

The opportunity to visit Barcelona was impossible to resist with its excellent selection of Exotics and close proximity to the Pyrenees a good trip was in order. Those who don't like exotics go to Sunday for the cool stuff.

Friday 20th January

Arriving early with Easyjet, a smooth and quick passage through the airport and to my wife's hotel (she was out on business). I had a quick visit to some touristy stuff before exploring Parc Guell and the surrounding hillside. A good selection of birds was seen a mixed flock serin and goldfinch, crested tits a selection of warblers and I had nice afternoon and birded until dusk.

Saturday 21st January

After a leisurely breakfast we headed out into the Hilly park on the edge of Barcelona called Collserola. We quickly found our bearings and headed to the small lake. A kingfisher buzzed over it as we arrived but the noisy day trippers and dog walkers made it hard to see much else. Our target was quickly found along the shore two red billed leiothrix or Peking robin as some prefer, but the camera was not to hand and I missed the opportunity. But I did get a few records shots a short while and short distance from the crowd no less than 10 birds were squabbling probably for mates, but they were skulking as always. The whole area had been rooted by wild boar but they were not around. There was a good selection of woodland birds but of particular note was a goshawk. We headed back to town ending up in the Parc de La Ciutadella. Here our targets were the 6 species of parrots making their home in Barcelona. The commonest monk parakeets were everywhere and many had necklaces with identification numbers on. They were quite tame and people in the park were feeding them. The small boating lake had a good number of gulls a few greylag geese and a couple of muscovy ducks. Ring necked parakeets were quickly located but nothing else until we were about to give up when we found a small flock of Blue crowned parakeets were seen briefly and as we left a couple of mitred parakeets flew over.

Sunday 22nd January

We were woken at some ungodly hour by a street washing lorry, and headed down to the Metro station at about 6am, here was a throng of drunks, police and us a bit out of place. We found the correct train and arrived at Sitges just after 7am. Here we met Stephen Christopher from Catalan Bird Tours and were quickly on our way along the coast. We stopped at a small marina with an area of cliff, here we watched a few shags a long gannet and quite a few crag martins leaving their roost which seemed to have caught up a couple of bats. A peregrine put in an appearance along with a black redstart, but we were waiting for a sighting of wallcreeper, and we had some excellent views until it was disturbed by the redstart. We had other targets so had to leave it, but had a blue rock thrush and a cirl bunting on the walk back to the car. We drove into the mountains stopping for an alpine accentor. We reached a ski area where artificial snow was in use, which also meant no snow finches would be present which was a shame as I still need it. We located a crossbill and of the more common species during a search but no citril finches. We drove to an area to search for Lammergeier and had picnic lunch while we waited for a sighting. As the temperature increased several griffon vultures were spotted using the thermals and a peregrine also joined in at one stage. Frustratingly no Lammergeier, but then Stephen saw one high over the ridge but it was quickly lost. We jumped in the car and headed down a dirt track into another valley and the Lammergeier was directly in front of us showing very well for a few mins before it drifted away and was lost to sight. We continued down the track looking for Citril finch without any luck but we did encounter a few alpine chough. We headed back to Barcelona via a small town, here in a shallow river were two dippers showing quite nicely.

Monday 23rd January

After packing we headed to Parc Guell, a famous tourist spot in Barcelona, despite the hoards of tourists there was plenty of birdlife, crested tits and a few Sardinian warblers of note. After some brunch we headed to the Sagrada Familia for a quick look as we have been before and it had less scaffolding then. We made it back to the Parc de La Ciutadella to eat a picnic and continue the search for parrots. A mad old lady was feeding all the birds in the park and the monk parakeets were showing well. The park was far less busy than Saturday and the criminals were out in force, we were targeted three times but were very vigilant and kept a close eye on suspicious people and escaped with all our belongings, this was despite the high police presence in the park. Eventually we got a break with a flock of parrots flying round above us, they contained two species mitred and red masked parakeets and I managed a few record shots. After some refreshments we continued our search and found the flock of blue crowed parakeets near the zoo and eventually two or possibly three Nanday parakeets in the zoo itself but quite distant and difficult to see, they flew off away from us and we could not relocate them. Time was up and we battled with the commuters on public transport to get to the airport, Easyjet has a special terminal on the edge of the airport well away from every other terminal and and getting there was a chore as my wife was not well - sick as a parrot you might say, but she did not appreciate my humour, funny that!

Exotics 10