Many clients will testify to the start of a typical birding tour to the Steppes of Lleida... tucking in to early-morning coffee and biscuits watching a flock of car-side Pin-tailed Sandgrouse. Before moving on we've usually picked out Little Bustard skulking at the field boundaries and noted that those boulders with eyes are in fact Stone-curlew.

Catching them early is the key, as the seasonal niche-swapping Hen and Montagu's Harriers that often sail by at this hour will verify. This way we have plenty of time not only to find birds such as Black Wheatear, Southern Grey Shrike, Dupont's Lark and Black-shouldered Kite, but also to observe how each is supremely adapted to survive.

A birding tour during migration will afford opportunities to view many additional raptor and passerine species such as Honey-buzzard, Osprey and Pied Flycatcher as well as the 'all year round' and migrating 'summer' and 'winter' birds.

The Dotterel is typical of species attracted to the area on passage, showing Steppe adaptations and, along with Red-footed Falcon, even make use of the same fields each year.

And with birds arriving from February (Lesser Kestrel, Great Spotted Cuckoo) to May (Lesser Grey Shrike) and departing from August to October, the migration seasons are perhaps longer than you realise.

Not many birders would choose to take a bird watching holiday or birding break during the summer but in actual fact the Steppes have a surprisingly lot to offer.

The sight and sound of Quail mix it up with bustards and sandgrouse, Rollers roll and Red-necked Nightjars can be observed undisturbed in the leafy floors of the pinedas.

In fact many sought-after species are easier to find when settled outside of migration, especially with naive young tempting them out into the open. So watch Penduline Tits nest-building, Red-rumped Swallows playing acrobatics and Magpies feeding adopted Great Spotted Cuckoos.

A birding trip in winter is remarkably productive, with less vegetative cover and mid-day heat meaning many Steppe birds are more easily seen out in the open.

And flocks of Black-bellied Sandgrouse, Great Bustard, buntings, larks and even Red-billed Chough are rather helpfully boosted by juveniles and an influx of wintering birds from neighbouring hinterlands.

And of the raptors, the summer niches are taken up by Hen Harrier and Red Kite, replacing their close cousins, Merlin and Peregrine represent the falcons and numbers of immature Golden Eagles hunting for rabbits soar as first-winters are pushed out of their parental territories.