We took an early breakfast and we were no the road by 8am. Most of the morning was spent travelling but we did stop at 10:30am at a bridge over the Rio Jerte. We searched Dipper but we 'dipped', however we did see Grey Wagtail, Jay and Blackcap. A short while later we stopped for coffee and from the terrace of the roadside venta we found Black Kite, Black Redstart and Jay.
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| Black Redstart |
Our next stop was on the wooded hillside of Valle de Jerte, we spent an hour or so watching several woodland species such as Long-tailed Tit, Cirl Bunting, Eurasian Nuthatch, Golden Oriloe and a surprising Rock Bunting. Our first Honey Buzzard was noted as it came over a nearby ridge.
Lunch was taken on a bridge on an old section of the main road just south of El Barco. It was quite entertaining as we found the elusive Dipper and more Grey Wagtails. Raptors found included more Honey Buzzards, Booted Eagles, Griffon Vultures and a lovely Hobby that circled above us. Some of the group walked along a neaby lane and came up with Bonelli's Warbler, Golden Oriole, Pied Flycatcher, Robin and Wren. Two more stops produced Woodchat Shrike, Carrion Crow, Woodlark and some beautiful Red Kites.
We checked into the hotel at 2:30pm and after some confusion with rooms not being ready we got settled in and metagain at 3:30pm for our first birding outing in this beautiful mountain region. We drove
a short distance to some alpine meadows andstarted logging new birds for our list, thefollowing were recorded in quick succession: Rock Sparrow, Yellow Wagtail (Iberiae), Northern Wheatear,
Tree Sparrow, Carrion Crow, Linnet, Serin, Melodious Warbler, White Wagtail and another Hobby that was hawking insects on the wing over the meadow.
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| Queen of Spain Fritillary |
We walked several times along a river and only added Common Whitethroat to our list, but a stop near
some willow trees produced some good species. It was nice to hear both blackcap and garden Warbler singing together inthe same area, we saw both of them too! Another addition was the Bonelli's WArbler, this little gem was nice find.
Our last stop for the day was at a bridge in the next valley, we spent an hour or so just standing beneath some pine trees overlooking a grassy meadow. This spell produced a good number of species including: Firecrst, Coal Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Song Thrush, Short-toed Treecreeper, Mistle Thrush, Jay and a couple of Honey Buzzards.
Well our introduction to the Gredos Mountains proved fruitful and we all looked forward to our visit to higher ground in the morning.
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