BIRD WATCHING GROUPS & COMMENTARY.              Jump straight to latest commentary, 2004

The finca is becoming more and more popular with bird watching groups and individuals, attracted by the superb possibilities for birdwatching in and around the finca. This page acts as a record of those visits, with some photos of recent visiting groups, followed by some bird experts' commentary.

Recent Bird Groups visiting Finca Santa Marta.

	(Left) A group from Speyside Wildlife (UK) visited the finca 15-22 March 2003, led by guide Darren Rees.
	A group of 8 RSPB members from Surrey, UK. Guided by tour leader Simon Lumsden. Visited Finca Santa Marta in March 2003.
	Tim Earl of the Travelling Naturalist leads a team of keen birders during a successful and pleasant spring stay at the Finca in April 2003.   See GuestBook for comments and thanks.

Latest Commentry

From Paul Gaffan. Visited Finca Santa Marta with his group, May 27th - June 5th 2004.
You can download Paul's full bird report here (Word doc, 46Kb). Below is a short section from the report.

"There was a need to dot some "i's" and cross some "t's" as far as southern European birds were concerned, so with that in mind Pat and myself along with our friends Bob and Kathleen Foskett decided to have ten days in Extremadura.

We left Luton at 06:50 on an Easyjet flight to Madrid where we picked up our pre-booked Renault Scenic from Europcar and headed south from Barajas on the M40 eventually joining the A5 "Autovia de Suroeste" or "Autovia de Extremadura". A pleasant drive within the air-conditioned car on wide, uncluttered roads made the journey a piece of cake. At the small town of Santa Olalla we stopped at a café for lunch of prawns, potatoes and mushrooms before heading onward. We left the autovia at Km.200 and proceeded along the old road, stopping at some scrubby terrain near Almaraz we soon picked up Azure-winged Magpie and Thekla Lark, further on great views were had of both Common and Honey Buzzards before reaching a bridge on the Rio Tajo where Crag Martins, Red-rumped Swallows, House Martins and Swifts cavorted over the gorge. Common roadside birds of the trip were Red and Black Kites, Woodchat Shrike, Bee-eater, Corn Bunting, Red-legged Partridge, Cattle Egret and Stonechats.
The idea of leaving the main autovia was to visit the famous "Three Bridges" site at Jaraceijo where a few weeks earlier some friends had seen Black Wheatear, alas not us! We did, however, find Barn Swallow, Spanish Sparrow, White Wagtail, Little Ringed Plover and Kingfisher along with good views of Eurasian Black Vulture (Cinereous/ Monk Vulture). Does anyone know which name is correct?
We rejoined the autovia at Km.221 and continued our journey down to Trujillo.

As a traveling birder, one occasionally discovers "little gems"; the highly recommended Finca Santa Marta definitely qualifies as one of these. An old olive grove mill, the Finca has been lovingly restored by the owner Henri Elink. Each room or in some cases suite of rooms is unique, none of your sanitized standardized rooms here! The grounds and gardens are a joy and so are the staff to whom nothing is too much trouble, Leila, a lovely young lady from Brittany, is your liaison, manageress, friend and general factotum. The food is excellent, so is the wine (local product).

Henri also has a close relationship with John Muddeman, the author of the "Birding Guide to Extremadura", so any queries that Henri cannot answer can be possibly answered by Muddeman. Henri is very interested in the birds of the area whilst not purporting to be an expert he can guide you in the right direction.

On arrival at the finca we were greeted by Leila and shown to our rooms, we had a couple of hours before dinner so we had a look around the grounds which provided Song Thrush, Golden Oriole and Hoopoe. Dinner was an excellent affair and duly sated we retired for the night anticipating tomorrows birds."

From Dr. Colin Bradshaw, Chairman, British Birds Rarities Committee. Visited the Finca in spring 2004., with his elderly father, also a keen birder...

"Birding with an elderly relative can be challenging. As my 81 year old dad says "Birds have to be big AND slow for me to see them". The Finca was the ideal centre for him.

Firstly the birds were fantastic. Displaying Great & Little Bustards, mating Great-spotted Cuckoos, singing Golden Orioles & Melodious Warblers, hunting Montagues Harriers and food-seekingg Azure-winged Magpies all made themselves obvious. And then there were the raptors. Short-toed and Booted Eagles over the Finca, Imperial Eagle at Arroyo de la Vid, Black-shouldered Kite near Monroy and everywhere Black & Griffon Vultures, Red & Black Kites and Lesser Kestrels.

Secondly the hotel was fantastic. Beautiful rooms, excellent food, delightful staff and birding in the grounds.

Thirdly the pace of life was ideal, slow, measured and stress-free. Getting up at a civilised time for dawn allowed 2 hours of birding before returning for a sumptuous breakfast at 9.30. We managed to eat enough to keep us going all day, returning for drinks before evening meal at 8.30 pm. If it was hot a quick swim in the pool, plenty of wine with dinner and then a liqueur so that neither Scops Owl nor Nightingale kept my dad awake.

Fourthly the Finca is ideally placed to make a visit restful. Birding is good within the grounds and the great birding spots, Montfrague, Belen Plain, Campo Lugar road, Monroy to name just a few are in easy travelling distance. The Finca is a comfortable drive from Madrid and can easily be combined with a visit to the Sierra de Gredos, as a long day-trip or ideally staying overnight. We spent our last night at the Parador de Gredos and saw Rock Thrush, Rock Sparrow, Citril Finch, Bluethroat, Tawny and Water Pipits and other high mountain species."

SEE ALSO: Colin's excellent bird photography from his visits. In the Bird Gallery

From John W.Martin, a Wildlife Surveyor from The Lake District, UK, who stayed the Finca from 16th-24th September 2003.

"An absorbing couple of hours was spent at the edge of a pond behind the Finca watching one large Grass Snake and four different sized Viperine Snakes (all of them harmelss species) hunt for Pool Frogs during the heat of the afternoon. Much of their time was spent underwater searching between cracks in the stone, occasionally venturing out on to the rock to bask and search the crevices. Some of the frogs were buried in shallow holes in a small mud bank and others on higher vantage points ready to leap into the water on the approach of a hungry snake. Suddenly a flash of azure blue as a Kingfisher flew in over the wall and perched on a twig under the hanging fig tree. Twice it dived into the water from a protruding branch but caught nothing before flying off. As I lowered my binoculars, I saw a large moth hovering and then landing on overhanging ivy leaves. A closer look revealed a Hummingbird Hawk Moth which remained on the leaf in full sun for most of the afternoon.

"At least three species of bat were seen at Santa Marta and heard using a bat detector. Recordings were taken for subsequent analysis to determine species. Several bridges in the area contained roosts of Myotis and Pipistrelle bats which were seen emerging at dusk. Fifty to sixty serotine bats were found in joints under a bridge to the south and it was possible to get a close look at one individual (see photo in Gallery). Evidence of Otters were found at or near many of the bridges. Footprints in the mud and spraints containing crayfish remains indicate the menu. A return visit is a must, eight days are not enough."

From Geoff Carr, after a stay at the Finca from 9th-14th June 2003.

"It was remarkable how many species of birds we saw around the Finca. White Stork were nesting in the surrounding trees and were very photographable. Black Kite, Red Kite, and Booted Eagle were seen regularly during our stay. Scops Owl each night and breeding on the Finca. Red-necked Nightjar was superb and seen on three evenings flying around our accomodation. Bee-eaters around the Finca daily. Hoopoe each day on the lawn. Short-toed Treecreeper on most days. Zitting Cisticola breeding in the lane. Azure-winged Magpies were common and close for photos. At least 3 male Golden Orioles singing within the Finca. Spanish Sparrows and Common Waxbill. 9 Hawfinch seen on one day with daily sightings of 4-5 birds. Within the Finca there were about 45 species of birds recorded."

Below is some commentary from Travelling Naturalist tour leader Tim Earl, on a visit to the Finca in May 2003:

"Walking through herb-scented orchards and olive groves before breakfast, I saw a pair of nesting golden orioles, wood larks singing on the wing, and your nesting white storks of course. Their vast stick platforms were festooned with the intricately woven nests of house and Spanish sparrows.

Hawfinches were feeding on thistle flowers, a family of cirl buntings ‘chipped’ at us as we passed the almond grove and your azure-winged magpies shot everywhere. I particularly liked the way in which they swoop down into the chicken run to forage among the fowls.

Bee-eaters are clearly nesting somewhere close to the back of the finca, close to your big well where the Iberian pool frogs croak in the evening. Those could have been Daubenton’s bats we saw one evening.

The hoopoes seem to be calling their ‘hoop-hoop-hoop’ contact notes continually and occasionally we watched them foraging on the lawns or around the bases of old olive trees. These have attracted several pairs of short-toed treecreepers which are amazingly tame.

Red and black kites flew close over our heads as we swam in the pool and occasionally your red-rumped swallows swooped down to snatch an insect from the surface.

The Champaign orchids were over at the end of May but there were plenty of other plants to stretch our abilities including a species of catch-fly I have yet to identify.

A swallow-tail butterfly was busy laying eggs in the orchard and a number of Spanish festoons were also seen. None is a match for the giant peacock moth I found on the wall outside my room earlier in the season.

Happily, the two Moorish geckos were back on the gable walls of the refectory which leads me neatly into the delights of your architecture.

The finca has been restored to the splendour it had as an olive oil farm without loosing the idiomatic charm of the original architecture.

Your vaulted cellars with their huge oil urns, the cobbled stable where we prepare our picnic lunches and the serene simplicity of the chapel are all great examples.

I know some of the bedrooms have retained the features given to them by the Spanish farmers who were providing stalls for horses, but the whole farm is littered with those interesting nooks and crannies which served such a range of functions when they were built.

The way you have converted them into modern comfortable bedrooms and suites is amazing.

I am particularly fond of the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom which were obviously the living quarters for staff perhaps a couple of hundred years ago.

But of course it is staff then and now which give the Finca Santa Marta its distinctive character. You all look after guests with care and attention which is friendly rather than fawning.

We visited the Belen Plain and Sierra Santa Marta de Magasca to see the Montagu’s harriers, great and little bustards. In Monfragüe natural park we caught up with Spanish imperial, Bonelli’s and short-toed eagles but missed the nesting eagle owls which were not showing.

And, as ever, Trujillo was delightful… sitting over a coffee in the Mayor’s Square, under the gaze of Pizzaro, watching pallid swifts, lesser kestrels and the many nesting storks."

Tim Earl.

Thursday 2nd May 2002

"It was a perfect morning, cool and fresh, with the promise of more warmth from the arc of a cloudless sky. We left the Finca Santa Marta and drove through the small village nearby, and parked carefully on the lane leading between the Finca and the Spiritual Centre. We used the car as a hide, and got close views of a Short-toed Treecreeper with its bill full of grubs, as it flicked its way up a dead tree trunk. It darted into a tiny crack that concealed a nest, and the mate joined in an upside down walk in the search for more insects. A Hoopoe, lit by the sun, posed elegantly in a perfect profile on the trunk of one of the Corsican Pines that served as a dark backdrop.

It was too much - we left the car and stood watching, and our appearance made little difference. Blue Tits and Great Tits jittered briefly, but the Corn Bunting remained determined to mark his outpost with song. A blackbird whizzed above the wall, and a goldfinch sang. Swallows swooped in looping circles beneath the pines, and Azure-winged Magpies put on a constant aerial display. Three of these gems turned and spun from branch to branch together as if they had no object in life but exuberant play. I caught the brilliant red eye of a Sardinian Warbler shifting deeper into the brambles, and the Iberian race Green Woodpecker drummed in the distance. There was no sign of yesterdays Waxbill, but a Black Kite, followed by the dark shadow of a Griffon Vulture, flew steadily over the shrubs that held Cirl Bunting and Stonechats.

All this seemed faintly unreal - where was David Attenborough and the film crew? And the icing on cake was the intermittent fluting of the pair of Golden Orioles that everyone had said we would see quite easily. And we did - the female rather duller, the male a brilliant clear yellow with black wings, cautious and alert as they sat beneath the higher branches of the pines. In one more moment of magic, the male flew overhead, backlit by the sun into white-hot colour against that blue sky. It was an unforgettable half hour of nature on display."

Julia H Burton. (See also Julia's bird photgraphs in the Bird Gallery).

Its vineyards, almond and olive groves abound with birds, butterflies, orchids and sweet smelling herbs. Indeed, sipping a drink in a shady porch in spring is likely to be interrupted by visiting red-rumped swallows looking for a site to build their tunnelled-entrance nests; a walk up to the pines will be accompanied by one or two of the farm dogs for sure but also by scolding Sardinian warblers or ticking short-toed treecreepers.
The great attraction of the finca, however, is the wide range of habitats, with the exciting birds in them, available in the area. Bustards, great and little, wander the Belen Plain; raptors nest on the streep cliffs in Monfragüe Natural Park; Montagu's harriers, rollers and great spotted cuckoos can be found on the Cáceres Plain.

Reservoirs hold wildfowl in winter, grebes in summer and waders during the migrations; woodlands act as temporary home to migrant warblers and flycatchers; river valleys host nesting kingfishers and black-eared wheatears.

The beautiful hill-top town of Trujillo, 10 minutes drive down the road, holds colonies of white storks nesting on the roofs, towers and spires, pallid swifts which give their strange buzzing calls as they swoop around the main square, and lesser kestrels nesting in the dilapidated bullring.
And once the day is ended and Finca Santa Marta guests settle down in their unique bedrooms for the night, the distant songs of Scops owls and nightingales sooth them to sleep... what could be more perfect?"

Tim Earl, group leader with The Travelling Naturalist, April 2002.

(Below) Travelling Naturalist leaders John Muddeman and Tim Earl with a group of bird watchers visiting the Finca during a warm and sunny period in April 2002.

"I can't imagine a better place than Finca Santa Marta for exploring the wonderful countryside of Extremadura with its wildlife specialities. Using this as a base you can discover some of Europe's most threatened birds including Spanish Imperial Eagle, Lesser Kestrel, Black Vulture, Great Bustard and Little Bustard. In a week in early April we had great views of many of these, were rarely out of sight of Red Kites, Black Kites and Montagu's Harriers, whilst the song of the Woodlark (my favourite bird) was often with us on our woodland walks."

Richard Porter, 2001
(BirdLife International; author of Birds of the Middle East and Flight Identification of European Raptors)

Dr Paul Donald (email: paul.donald@respb.org.uk) of the RSPB´s Research Department visited us in 2001 and was amazed to record, "in just two hours of watching from my balcony, black and griffon vultures, red-rumped swallow, bee-eater, azure-winged magpie, spotless starling, red and black kites, calandra lark, golden oriole, Spanish sparrow, serin, hoopoe, cirl bunting, scops owl, cattle egret, woodchat and many more. Just 30 minutes drive away, I saw great and little bustards, booted eagle, lesser kestrel, southern grey shrike and many more species recorded in the UK only as extreme rarities."

But it is the sheer numbers of birds that impress. As Paul Donald, who works on the ecology of farmland birds in the UK, said "species such as the corn bunting, which have declined to the status of "notebook" birds across much of Europe, sing from every fence, and crested larks abound".

Jump to top