Catalonia, Spain - Part 1 Birding at the Aiguamolls de l'Emporda

We returned to a campsite that we know next door to the Aiguamolls nature reserve but we couldn't get our usual pitch next to one of the two lakes within the site. So we were stuck out in what I called a 'dusty parking lot' area which wasn't the nicest of places. We did get to test out our new shade cloth which fits onto the edge of the awning, and it was easy to put on/take off, and really helped shade our pitch. Of course it would have helped if we had parked the other way round to start with..... 😁 Though of course the sun moves around during the day so there is always going to be a time when the sun comes under the awning, so the new shade cloth was a really worthwhile buy.

Later on in our travels we noticed people using patterned shade cloths pegged onto the awning to cover the side bits, and we came across them in the market at Lloret, so invested in one of them too! They are just like a sheet which takes up no room in the van and ours has a cicada printed on it. So in future there will be no more having to move our chairs around during the day trying to find shady spots!

Our first afternoon we visited what we call the 'Sewage Works' part of the reserve. This is because it's located right beside a sewage works! No, it's not smelly. There are several lagoons, two hides and one viewing platform.

The smallest lagoon was full of water but I think it is probably fed from the filtered water from the sewage works. The other lagoon was very dried out with only water in the centre, quite a way from the hide (picture below showing the view of dry ground that is normally under water.) This lagoon had far more interesting birds than the full pool.

The birds were distant in the wet area. These birds below are Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus) - not a species we see very often. They would have been on their way back from their breeding grounds in northern and arctic regions to their overwintering grounds on coastal areas around Africa, South Asia and Australasia.

These are Keith's bird photos and he ran this image through a sharpening app so was able to crop much tighter, but I don't care for the overly sharpened look.

Below shows a Black Winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) on the left, a Whimbrel top right and a Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) wading through the water below it.  There was also a Kentish Plover wandering around but the photo of it wasn't very good.

There were very few butterflies around as the ground was still dry and there were very few flowers. However, amazingly we came across this Large Conehead Cricket (Ruspolia nitidula) and the only other one we have ever seen was in this exact place a few years back! It doesn't seem to have antennae - what looks like orange antennae I think is vegetation behind that looks almost exactly like it is coming from the cricket!! I did have difficulty getting my camera to focus properly so I somehow didn't manage to get the whole body in the image, but this is a lot better than nothing.

EDIT: Thanks to Nature Nyrd I have discovered that it is in fact a Mediterranean Slant-faced Grasshopper (Acrida ungarica) also known as Cone-headed Grasshopper, so that explains my confusion. I knew there was Conehead in its name! And those ARE its antennae! See her comment below.

Another view of the half dry lagoon from the other hide:

On our way back to the Moho we were accompanied by Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) flying around and stopping to perch here and there. K was able to get some fabulous images of them as we crept closer and closer on the footpath.

They are one of my favourite birds and seem very exotic! You can click on the above images of the birds to view larger and sharper.

The next day we went to the main reserve and I will put this in another post. I haven't forgotten the Croatia write up, I will get back to that this winter.

Back from Spain and some garden photos from August

We’ve managed to come home with no nasty illnesses thank goodness! Two weeks having a really relaxing time in Catalonia was so nice that it didn’t feel like nearly long enough, so next September we will do something very similar and take three weeks. It helped that the weather was fantastic - a couple of nighttime thunderstorms and a day of rain, the rest of the time it was sun, sun and more sun. Most of our time when not birding was spent lazing around on our pitch, on the beach or by the pool, or wandering around the boutiques and markets. And eating of course!

Below is a picture in Lloret de Mar. About 10 years ago we drove past an attractive looking small town on a bay with a nice beach and a castle, and I kept it in my mind that it was Lloret and that I would like to visit one day. Only when we got there, I realised my error - the pretty place was actually Tossa de Mar, just up the coast! Not to worry, we had a good time anyway and caught the large market that was on in Lloret. So next year we will finally get to Tossa!

We went as far as the Ebro Delta at the southern end of Catalonia for some birding amongst the rice paddies and lagoons, stopped for a few days at l'Estartit which has a really good Indian restaurant and on the way back, had a couple of nights near Collioure, just back over the border in France. Collioure (below) is gorgeous and we caught the market there too.

We started with a couple of days at our favourite bird reserve at the Aiguamolls de l’Emporda, not far from the French border. Our campsite was right beside the reserve area and next to a lovely beach (photo further up) and we were serenaded by Bee Eaters both there and most other places we stayed at too. 

Below is my fave pic that I took (I haven't seen K's photos yet - no doubt some good ones with his big lens) but these Cattle Egret were standing in a tree beside a lagoon and their punky looks make me laugh! Make sure you click to view the photo larger as they all come up much sharper than what is shown embedded in the text.

I will do a few write ups of our birding days later on.

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Going back to August, I have some photos I took that I didn't have time to share before going away. It's occurred to me now that it's either drought, heatwave or both which causes my reluctant Lagerstroemia to flower. This was the best it's bloomed since we moved here and there are still a few flowers on the bush. Even the tiny one (which we call The Stick) had a few flowers.

The Tamarisk had a really good second flowering (you can see it better in the picture of the Lagerstroemia above). Bertie approves.

Tamarisk flowers close up - taken with my phone so not ideal with them swaying in the breeze. I don't know which species it is.

Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa). When I took this photo I didn't notice that little red bug - poor thing must have been having a heart attack!

My courgette stopped producing about early August. I don't understand what happened but the flowers just stopped opening up. The fruitlets were forming but the flowers on the end (which need pollinating) just didn't mature any further, nor did the flowers with no fruit which need to pollinate them. So that was the end of that, sadly. One tomato went weird and is half dead, but the other two are going like mad - and produced a million more side shoots whilst we were away (aaaarrrggghhh) and one of the self seeded ones is producing medium sized tomatoes which was a nice surprise and they are quite tasty too.

We often eat tomatoes just with basil and olive oil - below is my Greek Basil which has tiny leaves and is a million times better than the usual larger leaved basil. You only have to barely touch this plant for amazing wafts of basil scent to envelope you. We use tons of it but we can't keep up with its growth! It's a bit floppy now as it's got so big. If you ever have a choice when buying basil, get this one.

I saw my first for the garden Silver Washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) at the end of August, and in fact it's the first one I've seen in quite a few years now. It was enjoying the Garlic Chives and wouldn't stand still, opening and closing its wings and wandering around on the flowers.

These are my Garlic Chives in the herb bed, looking amazing at the beginning of September. I've had to water them all summer though as they have a tendency to just disappear and go dormant if it is very dry, and I wanted the display of flowers!

Southern Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthamelii). K took this photo out of the kitchen window and it is my first known sighting of the southern version of the more common Scarce Swallowtail, which we see fairly often. However you need to see it close up or manage to take a photo to tell which one it is. It isn't an absolute way to ID it but the southern version generally have a blunt short black line (third from the body) whereas the normal version has a pointy line. So I'm counting this as a lifer!

It's still summer here in the Aude but it looks like rain is coming at the weekend and the temps are cooling down to mid/low 20s. It's been a very dry month again but it's a bit more green after the rain we had in August. The pool has cooled down too much for my liking though which is a real shame, but it is getting far less sun on it to heat it up now. So I guess it’s time to winterise it. 😢

This Friday to Sunday is the orchid festival at an abbey in the Corbieres, the one I went to a few years ago and got a couple of interesting orchids from. So we are planning to go again and I will no doubt come home with a few more orchids! Not sure where to put them as I have too many house plants and not enough space for them, but I'll sort something out! As usual my orchids are flowering their faces off.

Hope you are all well and that is is not too autumnal where you are (unless you want autumn, I don't) - or it may be spring for those of you down under in which case I hope it is nice and warm for you! xx

Croatia Trip May/Jun 2026 - Part 4 Plitvice Lakes, Lika

From Novigrad we drove for about four hours southeast and inland to Plitvice. These lakes and falls are famous in Croatia and one of the most visited tourist attractions. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest National Park in Croatia and you can walk along boardwalks along by the lakes, marvelling at the amazing tall falls and the just as spectacular lower ones. There are 16 interconnecting lakes and the water is an incredible turquoise, with a photo op at every turn!

There are two entrances to the lakes and we chose to do the lower lakes. There are several routes that can be taken, but the main one is what we did, where you walk along the boardwalks for several kilometers, then take a boat along the largest lake. A bus brings you back near to the entrance again, and you walk the rest of the way. All included in your entrance ticket. I found it absolutely fine for my dodgy knees and hips as there were few steps and the paths were mostly just sloping, which is much easier.

This is the main waterfall called Veliki Slap, which is 78 metres high and the tallest waterfall in all of Croatia. Its name means Great Waterfall in Croatian. Isn't it just glorious?

You can see how the lakes are connected with water gushing through the vegetation from one pool to another.

A wildflower in the Dianthus family, very possibly Dianthus hyssopifolius.

A very old worn butterfly which is one of the Blues - I think it is a Chequered Blue (Scolitantides orion), which is a lifer for me! I saw very few butterflies whilst away so I am excited to have found a new to me species.

Back to the lakes and you can see the paths in many of the photos. It looks busy and yes there were loads of people, but it never seemed too crowded as we were walking around, which made it a much more pleasant experience.

Honestly, the colour of the water was just incredible!

At the end of our initial walk we came to a clearing which had a cafe and some gift shops. This is where we had to queue up for the boat to take us on the next leg of the journey, along the lake. The wait was awful though, many boats came but there was a long line ahead of us. Then as we got close to the front no more boats came for ages! Just like when you wait forever for a bus then three come at once, it was a bit like that and very annoying!

Whilst waiting for the boat Keith took this pic of what I think is a Balkan Green Lizard (Lacerta trilineata). It was quite a big one and came close to our queue of people!

When we finally boarded the boat it took us to the other end of the main lake at the lower falls. We then had to wait yet again for another boat to take us across the lake to  the area which was near to entrance no. 2 and the upper lakes.

We then had to walk up a bit to a 'bus stop' where we waited for a rather strange bus like vehicle which took us back the length of the lake, and dropped us off at a point where we had to walk back to entrance no. 1, only about a kilometre I should think.

The path was a different one to the one we took earlier on and as we got higher, the views were amazing.

Looking back down over some of the small falls.

And then we got to the end of the journey! It is a truly remarkable place to visit, and left me wishing we had the time to do the upper lakes the next day, but we had plans to move on. Another time, hopefully!

P.S. This will be my last post for a little while as we are off in the Moho to Catalonia in Spain next week for a fortnight. After three long trips covering vast distances we are just staying (relatively) close to home and doing a bit of birding, a bit of walking around coastal towns and villages, and hopefully a LOT of chilling on the beach or by a pool. 😁

P.P.S. We had more rain! Three thunderstorms brought rain three times and there are even patches where the tougher grass in the lawn is starting to grow! The ground still needs tons more rain though, as the temps are still around 26-30c.