A day of changeable weather, chilly to start with, with showers on and off throughout the day. The 'girls' shown below arrived at our house on time and ready to go at 8am. We left the village and headed down the valley to the river. Our walk last an hour and not many species were recorded, in fact we heard far more species than we saw. Cetti's Warbler and Common Nightingale sang from several places but failed to show, there was also Cirl Bunting, Blackcap, Chaffinch, Serin, Robin, Blackbird, Greenfinch and Goldfinch all singing.
The girls at Laguna TorreguadiaroWe made a brief stop to look at a colony of Monk Parakeets, these noisy beasts we present in good numbers. At Torreguadiaro we circumnavigated the laguna beginning at the moorish watch tower. The tower held Little Owl and a couple of pairs of Lesser Kestrel, from the boardwalk we found Crested Lark, Pallid and Common Swift, Barn Swallow, House Martin, Red-rumped Swallow and a Stonechat.
The laguna held Purple Swamphen, Little Grebe, Moorhen, Mallard, Whiskered Tern and Sand Martin. Again we heard Cetti's Warbler and Common Nightingales without sighting them.
At San Enrique woods we watched Tree Sparrow, Serin, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Short-toed Treecreeper, Blue Tit, Great Tit and lots of Blackcaps. Along the way to Pinar del Rey we logged Booted Eagle, Cattle Egret and White Stork.
female Kestrel - Common or Lesser?Note the wing length is almost as long as the tail length, in the picture shown below
note the colour of the talons - pale in this case
yes you are correct this is a LESSER KESTREL
We ate our picnic lunch at the benches provided in Pinar del Rey, during lunch we saw Jay, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Blackbird, a couple of flocks of Bee-eaters flew over and we saw Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle and Common Kestrel.
We stopped next near to Estacion San Roque where many White Storks are nesting, it is quite a spectacle to see around 50 Stork's nest in close proximity to one another and the town. A little further along the Jimena road we stopped on a track where opens fields of pasture hold cattle and horses. We found Corn Buntings, Stonechats, Goldfinches and a lovely Woodchat Shrike.
WHAT A GREAT BIRD TO PHOTOGRAPH - WOODCHAT SHRIKES ALWAYS SIT STILL FOR THE CAMERA.A brief stop on the heathland near the coast at Manilva was followed by our last stop at Crestellina on the way back to up to Gaucin. Both stops failed to produce any new species as the wind and rain increased.
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