Wednesday aug 7th 2013 - Marchenilla Track near San Pablo

Today I collected Penny, Bernard, John and Ali from their holiday finca near San Pablo, they had booked a morning only birding trip.

John, Bernard, Ali  and Penny (l to r)

We met at 7:30am at the finca and quickly drove the short distance to the Marchanilla Track. It was quite a breezy morning, no cloud and a nice temperature. By the time we got to the track the sun was just rising over the hillside behind us. We noted a Common Buzzard sitting on a pylon behind us.

The hedgerows along the first part of the track were very busy with many Sparrows and finches and small flocks of Spotless Starling. A few Collared Doves sat on wires and many House Martins and Barn Swallows hawked overhead.

After a short while we watched a couple of Short-toed Eagles hovering over the far hillside, they were joined by a single Booted Eagle, another Common Buzzard and a Common Kestrel. More passerines appeared along the track fence-line, Common Stonechat, Crested Lark, Corn Bunting Eurasian Linnet, European Goldfinch & Greenfinch.

The view from the brow of the hill towards Marchanilla

As we moved into more open ground we found at least 3 family parties of Woodchat Shrikes and we had a couple of sightings of both Melodious Warbler & Sardinian Warbler. Then as we climbed up the hill a brief sighting was made of the Rufous Bush Robin, this bird remained elusive and only a couple of us got good views of it before it disappeared.

On the brow of the hill we had superb views of the countryside stretching across to Jimena de la Frontera and from there we found more Short-toed Eagles (3), Booted Eagle (10) and over 30 Griffon Vultures.

One interesting sighting was of a juvenile Montagu's Harrier which quartered the fields below us, this is the first 'reverse' migrating bird of this species I have seen this year.

On the way back down the hill towards the car we stopped to watch a good number of Bee-eaters along the power lines, we also found a single Turtle Dove and more Woodchat Shrikes.

Before we left the area we decided to have a quick look at the Rio Guadiaro from the bridge behind the Venta de Fuente. We spent a good hour there enjoying the birds coming to drink and those flying over us. It was surprising to see Red-rumped Swallows coming down to the river to collect mud for nest building? Or maybe for repairs!

viw of the Rio Guadiaro from the brdige

We found Grey Wagtail,. Serin, Goldfinch, Corn Bunting, Spotless Starling and Collared Doves coming to drink whilst the riverside vegetation held Spotted Flycatcher, Blackcap, Cetti's Warbler (heard only), Olivaceous Warbler, Chiffchaff sp, a Golden Oriole called a couple times and lots of House Sparrows milled about. Overhead a large swarm of Common Swifts held a single Alpine Swift.

juvenile Woodchat Shrike

A short walk passed the bridge led us to open farmland and orange groves we added our last bird of the morning, a Zitting Cisticola. We made short stop at some cultivated grassland hoping for some Yellow Wagtails on passage but the area was devoid of birds.

We returned to the finca near San Pablo where I said goodbye to my friends of the morning, they planned to sit by the pool, sipping cold drinks and taking time to digest all that they had seen this morning.