Peter and Annie are staying with us here in Gaucin and Peter is a birder, so we went birding for the day.
Peter with bins at the ready.
The San Pablo track is fast becoming my favourite summer venue, it beats the river by miles! We arrived at 8:15 am and parked at the top of the lane then we walked for 2 hours. What a great time we had, just picture this: we were watching a juvenile Woodchat Shrike on a barbed wire fence when a Wryneck flew in and joined it! The Wryneck after s short while flew onto the track a little further away and joined a Hoopoe, at the same time two Rufous Bush Robins start squabbling right next to them on the track! Within five minutes we have added Tawny Pipit, Thekla Lark, Stoenchat and Linnet - all on the same piece of Track. Above them all the sky was full of raptors and Bee-eaters, a truly memorable time.
Rufous Bush Robin - I can't stop taking pictures of this rare gem of Spain
Yes we had several excellent sightings of Wryneck, Rufous Bush Robins (at least 5 individuals), Meldoious Warblers, Spectacled Warblers, Sardinian Warblers, lots of Bee-eaters and the raptor were tremedous. Short-toed Eagles, Common Buzzards, montagu's Harriers, Lesser Kestrels, Booted Eagles and Griffon Vultures.
The rest of the species count included Spotless Starling, Common Nightingale, Spotted Flycatcher, Goldfinch, Corn Bunting, Crested Lark, Common Raven, Barn Swallow, House Martin and Red-rumped Swallow.
We drove further south towards San Martin, along the way we stopped at a Polo Field where a Montagu's Harrier sat on the turf, there was also a Little Ringed plover there too. Behind us a weedy field held several Zitting Cisticola, a small flock of Serins and a 2nd yr. (male) Western Marsh Harrier, a very active animal resembling both sexes in colour!
At San Enrique we notched up Tree Sparrow, several Short-toed Treecreepers, Golden Oriole, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Common Sandpiper (5) near the river.
Our lunch stop was in the 'stone' pine woods at Pinar del Rey, the trees were covered in birds. As we sat eating our picnic a couple Crested Tits passed overhead, as did a couple of Bonelli's Warblers, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Jay and Chaffinch. A short walk produced all of those again plus Blackcap, Robin, Firecrest (some very tatty looking ones!), Great Tit all in a huge flock, I estimated that there were at least 40 Blue Tits in this flock!!
We made a breif stop at Palmones, but the river and sand-bars were covered with tourists and wind surfers and as a consequence not many birds were found. A flock of some 30 White Storks were loafing on the marsh, a couple of Little Egrets stood motionless on the bank and a flock of 5 Sandwich Terns quartered the pools.
Lastly we stopped at Crestellina to look for Bonelli's Eagle which appeared within 5 minutes but flew over the ridge and disappeared for good. We waited an hour watching Griffon Vultures, Booted Eagle, Lesser Kestrel, Crag Martin and Short-toed Eagle but the Bonelli's failed to return.
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