A Wander on the Wildside: Catalonia Part 3 - Llobregat Delta, rarity?! 8th August 2018

After the trip to the Ebro Delta, I realised I was unlikely to get another chance to go birding for the rest of the holiday but fortunately we had a short stop on the way to the airport at the other side of Llobregat, although we arrived late again so couldn't go in. Instead we decided to have a stroll along the river/channel called the Canal de la dreta del Llobregat, which ran a long way down parallel to the Delta itself. The first bird I saw left me clueless momentarily until a bright red bill and bandit-liked mask was seen clearly, with a checkered pattern all over the bird. This made it clear it was a finch and a member of the estrilda family, and it was either Red Avadavat or Common Waxbill - it was the latter, and there were probably around 30 of these introduced birds along there. It was so unbearably hot that these were one of the few birds active along the canal, though it was alive with the flight song of Zitting Cisticola throughout, though we didn't see these birds once.

In the water there were terrapin, that were drawn up in hundreds when a few biscuit crumbs dropped down. A few Little Egret were fishing along the water, and a group of 4 flew downstream while we walked. Reed Warblers frustrated me constantly; my only remaining much wanted lifers of the trip were Black-crowned Night Heron, Savi's Warbler (not seen there) and Great Reed Warbler, so it was much of a disappointed when the Reed Warblers refused to perch. The only perching bird was caught momentarily at the end, and was blurry. Analysis: quite short tail, lacking darkness, so I think it was just a Common Reed - never struck me as too big really.

Also present was an alba wagtail (probably white) that joined a 1cy Yellow Wagtail, until they both flew off. The ever-present Waxbills were joined by Barn Swallow in the reedbeds, which were so tame that they sat on reeds overhanging us on a bridge.

While walking a group of Starling landed above, and a Western Cattle Egret landed in a nearby field. The ticking of a Sardinian Warbler revealed a rather dehydrated looking female that disappeared within seconds. A male zipped by later on.

As we walked back, I was just having a confrontation with a swallow when my mum said "there's another wagtail over here" as she was looking at the other side. After a second or too I walked back and was greeted with a stunning ad m Yellow Wagtail dashing away from me; even better it looked like a ssp. and I managed to rule out Iberian due to the absence of an eyestripe. This left me with many options but I thought it was either ssp. Black-headed (feldegg) or Ashy-headed (cinereocapilla.) It kept me thinking for the rest of the evening as most birders generally get excited when they find these rarer subspecies, and having never seen a male Yellow Wagtail on the ground in England before it excited me anyway! Here are the pictures either way.

This was a fine way to end a successful trip to Spain, both for relaxing in the pool and birding.

Yellow wagtail sp.

Yellow Wagtail sp.

f Sardinian Warbler

f Sardinian Warbler arse

f Sardinian Warbler

terrapins

Reed Warbler blurry rubbish

Reed Warbler

Little Egret

juv Swallow

Terrapin

Common Waxbill

Cattle Egret - bit rubbish really

Stare-off

Dragonfly sp.

From the rest of the trip the only other creatures were either from the small garden - where a Bonelli's Eagle flew over while I was in the pool on the 5th - or at the visitor attraction Montserrat. (On the whole Montserrat was disappointing for wildlife - so much habitat and the only birds of note were single Pied Flycatcher driving in and a brief encounter with a probable Crag Martin. However, 5 Hummingbird Hawkmoths made up for that, as did this butterfly which I haven't ID'd yet.)