SPANISH IMPERIAL EAGLE
Today Gill and Noel came out for their second day and Hugh and Pauline joined us for a one-off. We met at 9am just outside Gaucin. It was dull and overcast with a chilly wind - the prospects didn't look good for the rest of the day. I guess it is goodbye to the hot summer temperatures.
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| Gill & Noel in the sunshine of the afternoon at Llanos de Libar |
Our first stop was at the chestnut woods just north of the village. This area has proven reliable for Hawfinch sightings in recent times and sure enough a party of five were seen almost immediately after we arrived. We had excellent in the scope views of these sought after finches before moving down the track and out of the wind. The woods seemed very quiet and not many birds were seen for 30 minutes or so but as we began walking back towards the car we came across a 'tit flock' which contained Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Firecrest, Crested Tit and a Short-toed Treecreeper. Other birds seen in the area were Great-spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Jay and Pied Flycatcher.
Next we stopped at the Encinas Borraches track and it was evident from the large puddles that heavy rain had fallen during the night. It was windy and dull but our attention was drawn to the sky as a Griffon Vulture passed over then a second bird appeared, it was a large eagle and it passed right over us, it turned out to be a sub-adult SPANISH IMPERIAL EAGLE what a superb find!!
Generally it seemed a bit quiet on the rocky scree area but we did find Southern Grey Shrike, Northern Wheatear, Corn Bunting, Thekla Lark, Stonechat and hundreds of Linnets and Goldfinches. After some walking we added Common Whitethroat, Rock Sparrow, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and an Osprey to our daily tally. On the return journey we found a flock of Red-billled Chough, Short-toed Eagle and a Booted Eagle, many more Griffon Vultures drifted over. A small herd of Red Deer and a few species of butterfly were also identified.
We drove up to Ronda and round to the Sierra de las Nieves natural park, as we approached the area we could see that the weather had deteriorated, the sky was very dark and rain threatened! We braved the cold wind and ate our picnic lunch at the tables provided near the entrance to the park. During lunch we found Common Redstart, Willow Warbler and Stonechats. A short walk produced nothing!!
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| Black Redstart - two view of this Ist year bird (you can still see the remnants of the gape) |
We drove deeper into the park and it started to rain so we decided to give the park a miss, such a pity. On the way out we stop to watch a party of 3 Black Wheatears but we never ventured from the car.
Plan B was to drive around to the west side of Ronda and drive down the Libar valley to Montejaque, but first we stopped for a coffee break.
What a contrast, the weather had improved greatly, it was sunny and warm and birds were singing, well a Blue Rock Thrush was! We found Crag Martin, a sole Alpine Swift, more Black Wheatears and the Blue Rock Thrush. A couple of Spanish Ibex were located at the top of a mountain.
Our final birding venue was the Llanos de Libar, a hidden valley behind the town of Montejaque. We spent a couple of hours in very warm sunshine watching a good selection of species. There were several Black Wheatears, Blue Rock Thrushes, Black Redstarts, we also saw Southern Grey Shrike, Spotless Starling, Rock Sparrow, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Goldfinches, Stonechats and many Griffon Vutlures. A Peregrine Falcon zoomed passed and it proved to be the last new bird of the day, it was 5pm and time to call it day. We logged just under 60 species, a good effort considering the morning's weather but the Imperial Eagle made the day for the group.
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