Another glorious day, perfect weather conditions for bird-watching, clear blue sky, no wind and great light. Chris and Dierdre, aka 'Didge' ,were with me for their second day, we decided to set off inland and look for mountainous species after first visiting the river Guadiaro at Estacion de Cortes.We had a very pleasant walk along the river bank picking out White & Grey Wagtails, Gt. Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Spotted & Pied Flycatchers, Blackcap and a Common Redstart. We also saw both Common & Spotless Starlings feeding together and my first Song Thrush of the autumn. the Goldfinch flocks have increased further with up to 100 birds in a single flock. Serin, Cirl Bunting, Chaffinch, Greenfinch & many Stonechats added to our enjoyment. Higher up in the trees we found a couple of roosting Grey Herons and in the sky several Griffon Vultures circled above us and a Sparrowhawk flashed across our view, scattering the finches and causing general panic everywhere.
Black Wheatear - male above, female right
We stopped next just before Benaojan and from a high pass we scanned the mountainside. A couple of Blue Rock Thrushes appeared nearby and more vultures drifted along the mountain
tops. On a track just above Montejaque we spent a couple of hours enjoying some great bird-watching. Good close views of Black Wheatear (5) was followed by both Pied & Spotted Flycatchers, Common Redstart, Sardinain Warbler, Rock & Cirl Buntings. We ate our lunch after watching another Sparrowhawk chasing everything in sight, then a Bonelli's Eagle (juv) drifted over us, quite high up but the light was good enough for all of us to have good views.
We then drove round to the 'dam' at Tabniza where we found another Common Redstart in the bushes, a flock of Linnets, more Blue Rock Thrushes, Black Redstart (3), Crag Martin and yes, more Griffon Vultures. Our walk in the cork oak forest only produced Nuthatch, Blue Tit & Chaffinch, but we did find a couple of Red Deer. There were several butterflies on the wing which included, Swallowtail, Cardinal, Cleopatra, large & Small White, Long-tailed Blue, Saffron Skipper, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown and a Grayling sp.
We took a late afternoon coffee at Venta 'La Vega' whilst sitting outside on the terrace in lovely sunshine, we notched over 50 vultures and 2 Alpine Swifts were zooming around with the Swallows and Martins.
On the return trip to Gaucin we stopped a couple of times but didn't add any new species to our day's total. We arrived back home at 6pm having enjoyed a lovely day out.
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