ANDALUCIA 7-DAY TOUR - DAY 4 - JUNE 5th 2014

GAUCIN - SAN MARTIN - SAN ENRIQUE - SECADURA TO CASARES TRACK

Another full with excellent weather, clear sky all day, fairly hot with a lovely breeze. We made an early start as we  headed down to our local river, the Genal, at 6:45am. We spent a pleasant hour and a 1/2 watching a number of species including our target bird the Golden Oriole. We saw at l;east four of these stunning birds, we also saw Nightingale, Cetti's Warbler, Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail, Cirl Bunting and a few common species.

Spotted Flycatcher

After breakfast our stop was on a track not far from San Pablo. many birds were singing and we got sightings of the most common ones:  Melodious Warbler, Serin, Sardinian Warbler, Greenfinch and Goldfinch. Further along the track we found a Little Owl, lots of Corn Buntings, Stonechats and Crested larks. Our star bird however was the RUFOUS BUSH ROBIN. This bird performed extremely well, it sang from a few perches very close to the track and then performed its courtship display by cocking & fanning out its tail, superb. We had great views of a couple of Short-toed Eagles, Common Buzzard, Bee-eaters and Turtle Doves.

the RUFOUS BUSH ROBIN singing to us

After that excitement we drove to San Enrique where we spent an hour so looking for woodland species and for the Tree Sparrow that is usually found there. In the woods we saw Spotted Flycatcher, Blackcap, Blue and Great Tits but not much else. The Tree Sparrows only showed near the end of our visit.

Sierra Crestellina seen from the Secadera track

Finally we took the track from Secadera to Casares, our target species was the Olivaceous Warbler which took all of fifteen minutes to find. Two of them showed very well for 10 minutes or so. The river was quite busy with wagtails and Little Ringed Plovers and the scrub & bushes held lots of finches, Linnets, Serin and Sardinian Warblers. Lots of Bee-eaters were flying around and several Booted Eagles put in an appearance.

We concluded the day early so that we could eat dinner at 7pm. After dinner we returned to the same track for a nightjar watch - what a disappointment, not one nightjar showed up!! We only heard a distant one calling, so we returned home in the dark empty handed!