The Spanish Pyrenees

This week-long holiday complements our ‘French Pyrenees’s week which has proved so popular and successful over the years. In a similar manner, it is our aim to enjoy the rich variety of birds and plants in the Spanish Pyrenees during a series of gentle walks from our base. We will be staying in a delightful 300-year-old property situated in the pretty hilltop village of Berdun, with its fine views of the Pyrenees, surrounding foothills, and valleys of the Veral and Aragon Rivers. Here, our hosts make us most welcome, keeping us well fed on wholesome local cuisine, and providing a mine of information that would not be available on a hotel stay in the region. This holiday focuses on both birds and botany, and we will also endeavour to look at and identify some of the wonderful butterflies and moths of this region.

The Spanish Pyrenees, the southern slopes of the spectacular 450-kilometre barrier between France and Spain, could not be more different from their northern, French, counterparts. Whilst the French Pyrenees are wet, green and thickly forested, the Spanish side is dry, arid and generally more Mediterranean, as clearly indicated by its very different list of plant and bird species. Whilst the Spanish side also supports good beech and conifer forests, it is the variety of scrub, maquis, arable farmland, wide river valleys, and the sheer spectacle of the cliffs, canyons and stunning limestone erosions, that so characterise these sunny southern slopes.

This will be a single-centre holiday based at Berdun, the most spectacular and traditional of villages, situated between the Aragon and Veral Valleys, in the southern foothills of the central Pyrenees. Just to the east is the small, historic town of Jaca with its 15th century fort and an interesting 11th century Romanesque cathedral — the first, indeed, to be built in that style. Berdun occupies a truly prime position, for it is so close to so many wonderful and varied birding and botanical sites, many of them within walking distance. During our stay, we will explore the area around Berdun, where the Aragon and Veral Valleys, and the spectacular Binies Gorge, are home to an excellent variety of low-level birds and plants. Bee-eaters, Golden Orioles, Woodchat Shrikes, Crested Larks, Tawny Pipits, Penduline Tits, Spotless Starlings, Rock Sparrows and Ortolan Buntings may all be seen, whilst birds of prey may include Griffon and Egyptian Vultures, Red and Black Kites, and Booted and Short-toed Eagles. We will visit the beautiful Hecho Valley, enjoying the displays of flowers and their attendant butterflies, and hopefully birds such as Alpine and Red-billed Chough, Lammergeier and Citril Finch will be seen; there is even a chance of the elusive Wallcreeper here! We will also explore the hills and limestone outcrops to the south, looking for vultures, Black Wheatear and Blue Rock Thrush at the spectacular red pinnacles at Riglos, and for Crested Tit, Rock Bunting and Hoopoe amongst the wonderful scenery around the Castillo de Loarre. We will head to the French border and visit the flower-rich meadows around Portalet, an area good for raptors, Water Pipit and Rock Thrush too. At all these sites we will also be enjoying the wealth of flowers and butterflies that this area provides.

We will end our holiday with a visit to the beautiful Aisa Valley, situated to the north-west of Jaca. On a gentle walk up the valley amongst some of the finest Pyrenean scenery, we will concentrate on the birds and plants. Lammergeier, Golden Eagle and Rock Bunting are amongst the bird species most typical of the area, and the botanists in our party will additionally find carpets of gentians and Pyrenean Buttercups in the valley bottom, and numerous saxifrages and other rock-dwelling plants on the scree slopes above. The Pyrenean race of Chamois also occurs here, together with Alpine Marmot and Wild Boar, though being rather shy the latter are only seen with a little luck.