Breeding Birds in Cerdanya valley, Pyrenees
Cerdanya is the name of shire in Central Catalan Pyrenees. It is a tectonical valley crossed by River Segre (main afluent of Ebro River) and surrounded by several high mountains, including several peaks reaching 2500 metres or more.
The valley itself is mainly a cereal farm land with scattered poplar forests and some big river side forests along the Segre. The Northern slopes surrounding the valley host endless forests of Scotch and Mountain Pines (Pinus uncinata) with few Fears and present a huge contrast along with Southern slopes, mainly covered low juniper bush land.
While monitoring birds in Cerdanya Valley for the Catalan Common Bird Monitoring it was possible to verify the breeding of many interesting species in the corn fields of this valley.
It was mid-May and was possible to find many Tree Sparrows (Passer montanus) along the way, one Rock Sparrow (Petronia petronia) couple breeding in a Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) colony as well as the Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis) couple that use to breed, year after year, in a forest edge near there.
Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus) was also present with two males and one female and it was possible to see how Iberian Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) and Crested Lark (Galerida cristata) populations are still growing up in these lands. A new Western Bonelli’s Warbler (Phylloscopus bonelli) was recorded in a decidous forest were the species had been not recorded never before (Bonelli’s is common warbler in all forests around) but this year I only had 3 singing Common Whitethroats (Sylvia communis) while 5 males were recorded in the same area in 2010.
The only Melodious Warbler (Hippolais polyglotta) couple along the transect is still breeding at the same thicket than the past year. It was also interesting the first Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator) record in the area as well as the surprising Red-footed Falcon (Falco vespertinus) (obviously a migratory bird) that was spending a while and enjoying insects. In this morning was again possible to see how this point is again a hunting area for many raptors, including three Eagles; Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus), Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) and Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).
