SEPT 7TH - 7 -DAY TOUR - DAY 5

SERRANIA DE RONDA, TEBA GORGE, CAMPILLOS - LAGUNA DULCE, LAGUNA FUENTE DE PIEDRA

The winds from yesterday had subsided, the sun shone brightly and the temperature rose accordingly - we recorded 36 degrees at Fuente de Piedra at 4pm!

We set off towards Ronda at 8:30am, 7 Honey Buzzards passed over the village as we got onto the bus. By 9am we were watching birds of the mountains near Ronda at a roadside pull-in. Common Redstarts were very common we saw 8 of them in one small area, we also watched a small flock of Rock Sparrows, Black Wheatear and Black-eared Wheatear. Distant views were had of Southern Grey Shrike, Blue Rock Thrush and a single Rock Bunting but the biggest surprise was a sighting of a Rock Thrush, it was a female and it was carrying food?

After that excitement we headed off to Campillos to visit the laguna there. We made a brief stop along the way to look for Bonelli's Eagle without success but we did see Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Short-toed Eagle, Common Kestrel, Honey Buzzard, Crag Martin, more Rock Sparrows and high numbers of both Goldfinch and Corn Bunting. Along the road we found a freshly killed Little Owl.

At Teba we stopped at the raptor watch point which is found below the massive cliff face at the northern end of the Teba ridge. From there we found our Bonelli's Eagle, an adult bird drifted along the cliff top and then landed whilst a juvenile was chased off by Lesser Kestrels. We also saw Honey buzzard (3), lots of Crag Martins, Blue Rock thrush and not much else.

The laguna Dulce at Campillos was packed with birds but we decided to scan the fields at the back of the laguna in search of Little Bustards first. There were hundreds of Yellow Wagtails in the newly ploughed fields and thousands of hirundines feeding over them. Sand Martins were in good numbers, we found our first Northern Wheatears of the trip and also Tawny Pipits, crested Larks and Skylarks.

In the picnic area next to the hide at the laguna, we ate our lunch, then we spent an hour watching the birds on and near the water. All 3 Grebe species were seen along with over 50 White Headed Ducks, there were also many Common Pochard, Mallard, a few Shoveler and Little Ringed Plovers. The bird of the day was found quite near the hide, a female Ferruginous Duck, it showed well, watch the video below. Other species present were Greater Flamingo, tawny Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Cattle and Little Egrets.

The short drive to Laguna Fuente took us through large tracts of olive groves all the trees were heavily laden with fruit. At the visitor's centre, which was closed, we found several new species for our tally. A few waders were feeding in the pools near the Centre and they included Little Stint, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, Ringed, little-ringed and Kentish Plovers. Lapwings numbered in the twenties and in the grassy area near the shore of a small pool we found a summer plummaged Water Pipit.

The thousands of Greater Flamingo's were quite a spectacle even though most of them were miles away, but we stopped at the Mirador de Cattarran's and got good views of them with the sun behind us. the heat was quite oppressive and the heat haze a bit prohibitive but we had reasonable views of Purple Swamphen, Ruff, Lesser black backed Gulls and many more Flamingo's. We gave up at 5pm and headed back to Gaucin a little tired and hot but an ice cream soon cured that.