We had a full minbus today as we were joined for the day by Adam & Lucy and Michael & Trish
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| Team for the day, from the left: Lucy, Adam, Ian, Judi, Michael, Trish and Neil |
We started off with dry conditions but it got worse as the morning wore on. Our day started at 8:30am as we left the village and headed up towards Ronda, along the way we had good close views of Rock bunting and Rock Sparrow, but we stopped at Encinas de Borrachas track for our first birding stint. It was quite cold up there with a very chilly breeze. Our short stop produced Thekla Lark, Red-billed Chough, Southern Grey Shrike, Corn Bunting, Linnet, Stonechat and some Red Deer.
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| Greater Flamingos |
At Sierra de las Nieves the weather got worse and it began to rain, we drove a few kilometers into the reserve and made a couple of brief stops. We saw Mistle Thrush, Jay, Woodlark and we found a couple of Chaffinches whilst searching for a Bonelli's Warbler. At this stage we decided to abandon our planned itinerary and drive out of the mountains. We headed for Campillos and the lagunas found around the town.
What a good decision, the sky opened up, cloud lifted and the sun came out, the temperature rose from 9C to 19C within an hour, amazing. Two stops near Teba saw us searching for raptors along the cliffs, we found Common Kestrel, Griffon Vulture, Red-billed Chough, Crag Martin, Blue Rock Thrush, Alpine Swift and Jackdaw. In the scrub nearby we saw Serin, Greenfinch, Turtle Dove and we heard a Sardinian Warbler.
At Laguna Salada we stopped to eat our picnic in the sunshine, the laguna was full of birds with over 50 Greater Flamingos. also present was: Common and Red-Crested Pochard, Gadwall, Common Coot, Moorhen, Little Ringed Plover, Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Little Grebe, Gull Billed and Whiskered Tern.
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| a record shot of a Gull-billed Tern |
The larger laguna just outside Campillos, called Laguna Dulce, held many hundreds of birds, mainly Common Coot but also White-headed Duck, Great-crested, Little & Black-necked Grebes, Cattle Egret, Northern Lapwing, Black-headed and Yellow-legged Gull, Gull-billed Terns and many of the species listed above. We heard a Great Reed Warbler but never found it.
In the fields at the back of the laguna we saw a Montagu's Harrier, lots of Corn Buntings, Skylark, Calandra lark and Yellow Wagtail.
Laguna Fuente de Piedra didn't produce anything new but the spectacle of seeing thousands of Greater Flamingos was truly amazing, but what was even better and more thrilling was the sight of approx 5,000 Common Swifts forming swirling masses over the lake as we viewed from a hide. We also saw Zitting Cisticloa, Reed Warbler and a Common Buzzard.
Our journey back was broken with a quick stop in the mountains between Ronda and Atajate. We enjoyed good views of Black-eared Whetaer, Rock Sparrow, Rock Bunting, Blue Rock Thrush and a Black Wheatear.
It got cold again so we jumped back into the bus for the short journey back to Gaucin, we concluded the tour at 6pm.
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