To catch some spring migration and target a few remaining lifers we decided on a long weekend trip to Cyprus during the Easter weekend. Rob had visiting Cyprus back in 2007 but the owl had not been split at that point, therefore the main targets where Cyprus Scops Owl (new for both of us), Cyprus Warbler and Cyprus Wheatear (new for Helen). Additionally, a Lesser Moorhen turned up 2 weeks before our trip and luckily stayed long enough to see it which was a bonus lifer.
Category Archives: Europe
Spain [2023]
We really enjoy birding in Spain and a weekend trip was a good way to escape the winter in The Netherlands. We decided on visiting the Extremadura region with the Monfrague NP and the steppe area near Ceceras since it offers some very good birding. We had already visited this region in the summer of 2021, but in winter the birding is nicely different (wintering groups of Common Cranes, higher numbers of Little Bustard and Great Bustard etc).
Israel [2023]
To catch some early spring migration and target a few remaining lifers we decided on a long weekend trip to Israel in the first week of March. Main targets where Spotted Sandgrouse (seen multiple times), Desert Owl (known stakeout near Dead Sea), Temminck’s Lark (missed), Clamorous Reed Warbler (common), Black Scrub Robin (breeding at Kibbut Samar but not seen during our short visit in the heat of the day), Ruppell’s Warbler (one seen) and Cyprus Warbler (missed). We chose beginning of March to optimize our chances for Ruppell’s and Cyprus Warbler that migrate through Israel around this moment. In the end we were lucky with a beautiful male Ruppell’s Warbler but we did not see a Cyprus Warbler.
Overall it was a very fun trip and a joy to catch the first signs of spring migration. Next to the targets mentioned above, we encountered many European birds on their migration journey through the desert: Groups of Barn Swallows, Swifts, Bluethroats, Common Chiffchaffs, Isabelline Wheatears, Lesser Whitethroats, Steppe Eagles and Tawny Pipits were among the more numerous ones, but also single individuals of Woodchat Shrike, Cretzschmar’s Bunting, Booted Eagle, Red-throated Pipit, Common Quail and Eastern Olivaceous warblers were cool to encounter.
Gran Canaria [2022]
This was not a dedicated birding trip but a week of remote working/ leisure combined with finding the last remaining lifer of the Canary Islands: the Gran Canaria Blue Chaffinch (although the local Robin might also be split in the future). Given that we visited in November the bird activity was very low and it took us most of the day to find the Blue Chaffinch near El Juncal (first a female and on the way back a nice pair). The rest of the week was spent working, hiking, enjoying the food and some short birding stops along the coast.
Georgia [2022]
End of May we did a short 5-day trip to Georgia with the goal of seeing a handful of lifers in the Caucasus mountains. The best time to visit is earlier in the year (end of April/ beginning of May) when most birds are found lower down in the valleys because of the snow. Our late visit meant we had to hike higher up, but still we managed to find 5+ Caucasian Snowcocks (more were heard) and 8+ Caucasian Grouses on the ridges above us. Great Rosefinch and Güldenstädt’s Redstart turned out to be more tricky but we managed to find both (and luckily bright plumaged males). And with singing Mountain Chiffchaffs in the valley and an additional stop for Krüper’s Nuthatch near Tbilisi the trip ended with 6 lifers but also a long list of cool birds along the way: Ring Ouzels, Twites, Alpine Accentors, Common Rock Thrush, Bearded Vulture, singing Barred Warblers, Greenish Warblers and Common Rosefinches, and a nice roadside stop for Red-breasted and Semi-collared Flycatcher.
Ibiza [2022]
With one new lifer to offer (Balearic Warbler), a short weekend trip to Ibiza was a perfect get-away to some Mediterranean sun at the end of the winter. We flew in on Friday night, easily found the Balearic Warbler on Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the beautiful island. Species such as Audouin’s Gull, Eurasian Hoopoe, Thekla’s Lark, Booted Eagle, Earasian Stone-curlew and singing European Serins everywhere were a nice bonus.
Madeira [2021]
Madeira was one of those short trips that we had talked about for years and given the uncertainty around Covid in most of the world during the summer of 2021 this trip within the EU was the best option. We really enjoyed our time at Madeira which was a nice combination of hard-core pelagic birding and some relaxing and exploring the island.
Extremadura [2021]
France – Corsica & Alps [2021]
Travelling around Europe was possible again in the summer. We quickly decided that France would be the logical choice for a nice week-long trip; we could see many lifers (given we had both never been to France for birding before) and the logistics were easy and flexible to plan since you can drive in a day from Amsterdam to the south of France. Sjoerd Radstaak also joined us and we made an itinerary of 8 days: First a 3-days visit to Corsica (for the endemics, near-endemics and some seabird watching from the ferry), then a short stop in the Camargue (Moustached Warbler was new for Sjoerd and since it was not far off route it was a very nice addition), and we finished with 2 days in the beautiful French Alps. Overall it was a very successful and fun trip where we saw all targets resulting in 9(!) lifers for Helen and 8 for Rob.
Notes
Some photos
GPS
Spain – Belchite [2016]
Helen had to visit Madrid for work, and since she still needs a couple of species in Spain we used the occasion to visit the steppes around Belchite for short weekend trip.
Penguinbirding 
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