SEPTEMBER 19TH - DAY TOUR - Rio Guadiaro Valley

Graham & Eric were my clients for today, they are spending a birding holiday on the coast at Tarifa for the RAPTOR migration. They booked a day with me so that I could show them woodland and montane species.

We met at 8am near San Roque and quickly logged White Stork and Little Owl, the storks were standing on nests and pylons waiting for the daylight to start their day and the owl sat on a pole calling to its mate and getting ready for bed.

We drove the short distance to Pinar del Rey, a large area of Stone Pine with some Eucalyptus and Plane trees. We found several good species but found it difficult to obtain great views as they spent most of their time in the canopy. Firecrest & Crested Tit were two such species but Spotted Flycatcher, Jay, Blackcap, Chiffchaff & Blue Tit were a little more obliging. A Great Spotted Woodpecker called several times but didn't appear and a couple of Ravens flew over the woods as we were returning to the car.

Moving inland the dull clouds began to disperse and the light improved dramatically we stopped just outside of the village of Jimena de la Frontera where we added Zitting Cisticola, Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle, Common Buzzard & Corn Bunting.

As we moved further up the valley we stopped at the river side near Estacion de Cortes, a long walk produced a short list which included 3 Wagtails, Grey, White & Yellow, Cetti's Warbler, Kingfisher, Firecrest, Sardinian Warbler, Pallid Swift, Red-rumped Swallow and a Pied Flycatcher.

Passing through Benaojan we stopped on the road side to watch Blue Rock Thrush, Booted Eagle and a brief glimpse of a Black Wheatear. On a track just above Monejaque we watched a couple of fairly close Black Wheatears and spent some time tracking down a few other passerines such as Common Redstart, Willow Warbler and a short glimpse of a Subalpine Warbler.

During our lunch stop we were entertained by 3 Blue Rock Thrushes chasing one-another all over the place, we heard a fourth singing in the gorge. A couple of Crag martins flew around us and we tracked down a couple of Black Redstarts.

Our last venue of the outward journey found us in a cork oak woodland at the head of the valley, we stayed for an hour or so in quite hot sunshine. We logged Short-toed Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Dartford Warbler and a few other common species.

We drove our way back to San Roque stopping once or twice to look at raptors and we added our last species of the day No. 62 a Cirl Bunting near Castellar