A good all round day out with plenty of great weather, some super birds and fantastic scenery. Matt and Val joined us just for today, we collected them on the edge of the village and then drove down to the Rio Guadiaro at Estacion de Cortes.
It was a beautiful morning, Chaffinches, Blackcap, Serin and Nightingale sang as we got out of the bus, then a distant Cetti'
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| STONECHAT with a dragonfly |
A little further along the track where the fields opened out we could see the distant hills and a Booted Eagle circled over them with many swifts coming down to drink, a mixed flock of some 20 Pallid and Common Swifts were seen. Turtle Doves called from across the river but we never saw them and on a shingle bank we located a calling Little Ringed Plover and a couple of Grey Wagtails. Stonechat, Serin, Spotless Starling and four Griffon Vultures circled overhead.
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| some of the group - NO, THE GUY ON THE RIGHT ISN'T PEEING AND THE GUY ON THE LEFT ISN'T WATCHING HIM |
On the way back to the bus we got a singing Nightingale in scope, lovely! Then a family party of Sardinian Warblers showed well and finally a Blackcap showed for some of us.
At llnos de Libar we were hardly out of the bus when the group were watching a Black Redstart, a fine male appeared, then a female turned up carrying a couple feathers which she promptly took to her nest in a crevice. Then a Blue Rock Thrush sang from on high which was quickly put into the scope. A smart looking Linnet fed on seeds on the cliff face and whilst we were watching a few Griffon Vultures we noticed a small flock of Alpine Swifts up there with them.
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| A Copper Damselfly |
Our walk up the track was delightful, many butterflies were on the wing and masses of wild flowers bloomed in front of our very eyes. back to birds, we found Corn Bunting, Cirl Bunting, Rock Sparrow, more Linnetss, Stonechats and Blue Rock Thrushes. We continued our walk and eventually stopped for lunch, which was, as always, interrupted by bird sightings. This time is was an Orphean Warbler that chose to disturb us by singing in the nearest tree. We got great views of it and a lovely Woodchat Shgrike into the bargin.
On the way back down the valley we finally caught up with the Black Wheatear, one of our main target species, we eventually found 4 more of these, but not the Rock Thrush we had hoped for. A great view of a Red-billed Chough was followed by a fly over Raven.
After a coffee stop we drove into the centre of Ronda for a brief visit to the famous Gorge before heading off to our final destination of the day, Encinas Borrachas. This track is one of my favourites as it takes you through many habitats and thus many species of birds. The first 300 meters are open grass meadows which develop into rocky scree with elevation and finally end in magnificent limestone pinnacles and cliff faces. From there you walk into heathland, and today the heath was covered in bright yellow flowering broom, a lovely sight, then we turned acorner and found ourselves in a cork woodland, magical.
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| A Thekla Lark |
Anyway back to the start! Within the first 20 meters we stopped to watch a huge flock of Red-billed Chough, there must of been about 50-60 noisy birds there, they flew over the cliff ridge. Then we had Corn Bunting and Southern Grey Shrike in the bag, followed by Linnets and a family party of Rock Buntings. Crested Larks frustrated our efforts to find Thekla Larks and we spent some time on the heath before we all got good views of Spectacled Warbler. It wasn't until the return journey that we found both Northern Wheatear and Black Eared Wheatear and finally we caught up with Thekla Lark, right by the entrance gate next to the bus!! A couple of Short-toed Eagles circled over the hills before we jumped into the bus in preparation for our journey home.
That concluded our day out, just under 60 species were recorded and everyone went back happy, so happy in fact that they fell asleep as I drove them back to Gaucin.
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