Gaucin was covered in a thick cloud base first thing, this burnt off as the morning progressed, the wind was light westerly/south-westerly which built up to a strong wind at the coast late afternoon, that was follwed by rain at 5pm.
LESLEY AND DAVID
The morning was perfect for migrant birds of prey and that was exactly what David and Lesley wanted to see during this day tour. We set off at 8am and headed straight for San Pablo where we parked at the start of a track and walked into a lovely valley between gentle rolling hills.
CORK OAK IN PINAR DEL REY
On the wires above us there were about 500 House Martins, 50+ Barn Swallows and the odd Red-rumped Swallow, several Bee-eaters flew over and a Sardinian Warbler flitted about in the hedgerow next to the car.
We walked for a short while but didn't get far, it was soon apparent that there were many Honey Buzzards in the area, they were in the Eucalyptus trees, on many bushes, fence posts and one was even on a power line!! They were everywhere! A couple of Booted Eagles circled around and a Sparrowhawk flashed by. back in the hedges we found Zitting Cisticola, Stonechat, Corn Bunting, hundreds of House Sparrows, Greenfinches, Linnets, a couple of Willow Warblers and a Chiffchaff.
SHORT TOED TREECREEPER
WRYNECK
As the sun rose the sky began to fill up with birds, 20 Honey Buzzards to our right, 50 to our left,
3 Montagu's Harriers patrolled the fields and a couple of Lesser Kestrels flew onto a pylon. A little further up the track more Honey Buzzards, a kettle of at least 100, included 2 Short-toed Eagles, several griffon vultures and an Egyptain Vulture. It got better!!!......
Within an hour we had counted over 300 Honey Buzzards!!! 9 Short-toed Eagles, 7 Montagu's Harriers, 10 Booted Eagles, 5 Ravens, 8 Lesser Kestrels, 2 Common Buzzards, 20+ Griffon Vultures, 3 Grey herons? and 2 Egyptian Vultures.........and all before 10 o'clock!
HONEY BUZZARD (Martin Murray)
Birds on the ground kept us occupied with Crested Lark, Tawny Pipit, lots of Woodchat Shrikes, a single Southern Grey Shrike and hundreds of Corn Buntings, Sparrows & finches.
David & Lesley are new to bird-watching and were quite blown away by this spectacle so we retreated to the car for a rest. At the car we found above us, just below a single white cloud, 9 Honey Buzzards, Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Black Kite, Griffon vulture and an unidentified falcon which was extremely high and was probably a Hobby. We walked to the river but didn't add much there.
Dragging ourselves away we drove to San Enrique Woods where we spent an exciting hour starting with finding a Wryneck just as we got out of the car. We then added Tree Sparrow, Blackcap, Jay and Spotted Flycatcher to our list. In the woods we found a couple of Short-toed Treecreepers, Spotted Flycatchers and we heard a Cetti's Warbler. At the river a couple of Kingfishers flashed by, a Grey Heron flew upriver, acouple of Little egrets fed on the opposite bank and 3 juvenile Night herons flew from their roost in the trees. On the shingle bank a Common Sandpiper fed and a Little Ringed Plover joined it.
Back at the car we saw a great-spotted woodpecker, more Honey buzzards overhead and more Tree Sparrows in the hedge. We drove the short distance to Pinar del Rey where we ate our picnic lunch under the umbrella pines, acooling breeze had picked up. The woods were very quiet but we did see several blue Tits, lots of Chaffinches and a single Bonelli's Warbler.
Palmones was excellent. Over 100 White Storks were roosting on the marsh and when we got there many took off and circled on the thermals, a lovely sight. Above them were more Honey Buzzards heading off to Africa which was very visible a short distance to the south.
The tide was rising, it was a good time to be there as many birds gathered on a sand spit. We identified: Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Dunlin, Whimbrel, Knot, bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Turnstone, Sanderling, Redshank and Oystercatcher.
The gulls included Yellow-legged, Black headed and Mediterranean, I had great fun showing the subtle differences in the latter two to David and Lesley, also 3 Tern species were noted: Sandwich, Little and Common.
Our last stop was at the Laguna Torreguadiaro where I intended to show my clients a Little Owl, but there wasn't one there! However, the laguna proved quite productive with: Purple Swamphen (3), Common Coot, Mallard, Teal, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Cattle Egret (24) and Little Egret. We also added Common Kestrel and Goldfinch to our daily tally. As we walked back to the car we noticed that large cloud masses had gathered and it grew darker, we also observed a group of raptors above us and guess what?????.........they were Honey buzzards (13).
We drove back to Gaucin through a rain shower, but hey, ho we had had a great days' birding and saw just under 80 species....not bad at all! Wryneck was voted bird of the day with Honey Buzzard a close second.
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