SEPT 13TH - DAY 3 OF 7 - DAY MIGRATION TOUR

GAUCIN CHESTNUT WOODS  -  RIO GUADIARO AT ESTACION DE CORTES  - LLANOS DE LIBAR  - RIO GUADIARO EVENING VISIT FOR NIGHTJAR

Lunch time in the Llanos de Libar valley

 Another super day with warm sunshine all day - top temperature was 34C during mid afternoon. We set off at 8:30am and drove up the hill out of the village on the Ronda road. After 3km we turned into the chestnut woods where we parked and took a short walk.

We quickly located a couple of Eurasian Nuthatches that were calling from up high and then we found one of our target species - a Crested Tit, good views was had by all of this little gem. We continued our walk and found Spotted and Pied Flycatchers, Blue Tit, Sardinian Warbler and a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Then a great surprise species was a BARN OWL, we inadvertantly flushed from one of the chestnut trees on the side of the track. The bird flew deeper into the woods and was quickly mobbed by a pair of Jays, what an unusual find!  Next we had superb views of Firecrest, then a Cirl Bunting sang from the canopy and more Crested Tits showed. One of best sightings was a pair of Hawfinches, they  were perched high on dead branches we got in-the-scope views before they flew off.

A couple of views of the beautiful Llanos de Libar valley

 The rest of the morning was spent by the river Guadiaro at Estacion Cortes. A good number of species went onto our day list. We strated with more flycatchers but quickly found Blackcap, Grey Wagtail, Hoopoe, White Wagtail, European Robin, Garden Warbler, Kingfisher, Firecrest, Corn Bunting and several common species. We sat beneath an ash tree and watched a small pool of water that used regularly by a host of species to drink and bathe. At any one time there were 3-4 species at the pool, for instance a Cetti's Warbler may be joined by Pied Flycatcher and Blue Tit in the water whilst a Greenfinch stood and watched!

BLACK REDSTART - this male was singing to us during our picnic

As we reached the base of the Llanos de Libar we stopped to trake our picnic on the bench provided, as soon as we got out of the car a pair of Bonelli's Eagles came into view, they circled for a while before diappearing into a tree high up on the cliff face. Whilst we ate lucnh we were entertained by a Black redstart which burst into song on a number of occasions.

Iberian Wall Lizard

A fter spending two hour in the valley we had logged a good number of species: Rock Bunting, Blue Rock thrush, Black Wheatear, Dartford Warbler, Common Redstart, Pied Flycatcher and Jay. On the way back down the velly we finally caught up with a flock of Rock Sparrows, one of our target species, we also had superb views of perched Griffon Vultures.

After a coffee stop we made our back to the village for an early dinner which was taken at a local tapas bar. We finished dinner at 7:30pm and then drove down to the River Guadiaro on the track to Secadera where we hoped to find Red-necked Nightjars. On the way down we stopped to watch a pair of Little Owls sitting on a farm building. We then spent an hour by the river watching: Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper, White Wagtail (over 100 going to roost in the reeds), Grey Heron, Little Egret, Common Coot and a pair of Black-crowned Night Herons.

As it got dark we drove along the track to try to locate the nightjars sitting on the track, we had a couple of brief sightings before we found one that sat in front of the bus in the light form the headlamps, we had great views for a short while before the bird flew off.

We drove back to the village and arrived by 10pm.