More Birding in Northern Spain

The next day we drove to Ordesa National Park, a few hours northeast of Jaca.  This Park adjoins the French National Park on the French side of the Pyrenees.  Cars are not allowed inside the Park, and the number of visitors allowed in at one time is limited as well.  Although we visited during one of the busiest months, we had no trouble entering as soon as we arrived.  There is an excellent paved car park and comfortable, modern buses that carry visitors the short distance into the Park proper.  The Pyrenees surround us, vast and dreaming the the cloudless sky.

 The Rio Soaso runs the length of the Park and well-marked trails follow on both sides to the falls, which roar down a series of rocky steps.  Beech forest prevails, interspersed with linden and Spanish pine.  Marsh tit, coal tit and firecrest (looking a lot like our golden-crowned kinglets) are common birds in the cafe hub area.  Tits are small birds in Europe that act a lot like chickadees and titmice in the U. S.
It's possible to climb to the top of the nearby peaks, although the trail is a rough, arduous series of switchbacks.  The climb takes roughly four to five hours one way.  At the top, the view makes it all worthwhile.   The Soaso River is a tiny silver thread coursing through the valley.  The rocky buttresses continue to climb above for several thousand meters.  In the meadow where we stopped, our party found water pipit, dunnock, European robin, black redstart, rufous-tailed rockthrush, common blackbird, crested tit, Eurasian treecreeper and many more birds.  Egyptian vultures and griffon vultures were coursing on the warm air carried up from the canyon.  They were below us, giving us rare looks of these birds from above.
It was after eight in the evening when we arrived back at the hub area.  The buses run until ten in order to accommodate late-returning hikers.  It would be easy to spend several days birding the many side road and back-country areas in this beautiful place.

We all voted for a later start the next day.  There are excellent birding sites in Jaca, so we opted to spend the day on local searches.  La Cuidadela, an ancient five-sided brick citadel in the heart of Jaca, is an excellent place to find rock sparrows, common swifts and linnet.  A herd of deer lives in the sunken grassy moat of the fort.  They spend their days following the shade under the ancient walls.  After finding the fort birds, we took a short walk to the Pilgrims' Bridge, another venerable structure which carried pilgrims on their walk centuries ago over the Rio Aragon. 

In August, by noon or later, the temperature in the valleys climbs to the high eighties.  Businesses close down for siesta at about one and re-open around four-thirty or five.  We were reluctant to lose this midday time for exploring the city, but found that the Spanish are right:  it's too hot.  We found some shade and enjoyed the view.  As we sat on our shady patio in the middle of Jaca, a red kite coursed low over the hotel grounds, scattering the rock doves.  Later in the afternoon, we went on a hunt for the black woodpecker.  The monasteries of San Juan de la Pena are a short drive southeast of Jaca and this bird is often seen there.  The oldest monastery, built in the tenth century, is built right into the buff-colored cliffs.  Crude lookout windows are visible in the old rock above the monastery.  We had no luck on the woodpecker, but came back with a deep sense of mystery and awe imparted by the aged rock.

Back in Jaca, two of our party took an after dinner walk to te Paseo, or city park, hoping for Eurasian scops owl.  They can often be seen there in the light from the street lamps.  This night the owls could be heard calling softly but stayed hidden in the trees lining the manicured paths.