Today, I took out Larry and Linda out for their 3rd outing, we were joined by Penny Hale a good friend of mine from Casares.
Linda, John & Penny at La JandaIt was a fabulous day, the weather was beautiful and warm and the bird sightings were just fantastic. We started a little earlier than usual at 8am, we drove down the hill to the Rio Genal to try to see Hawfinches for the second time before setting off to La Janda. We Had great views of a pair of the elusive Hawfinch and a great bonus was the sighting of a Goshawk which circled over the wooded ridge to the west of the river, well that was a great start and a sign of things to come.
After collecting Penny from Casares we made good time to arrive at La Janda by 10am. As we drove down the access track we stopped to watch a grey and black raptor that turned out to be a Black-winged Kite, it perched on a fenceline and posed for us, wow, what a great first bird! Along the same fenceline we noted Reed Bunting, Corn Bunting, Linnet, Goldfinch, Stonechat and a few Greenfinches.
In the surrounding fields we saw a huge flock of Corn Buntings, Lapwings, a dozen or so Skylarks. Next we drove down to the central track and parked on the raised section where we stopped for a quick coffee, courtesy of Penny. Whilst drinking the coffee we found several Green Sandpipers, A Purple Swamphen, Chiffchaff, Zitting Cisticola, Water Pipit, Marsh Harrier, Little & Cattle Egrets, White Stork and the little gem, The Bluethroat. In fact two of them we seen in a nearby ditch, the light wasn’t good but they come quite close and gave short but excellent views.
We then drove the central track and noted more pipits, maily Meadow but also Water Pipits, as well as Common Snipe, a flock of some 30+ Glossy Ibis, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Ringed and Little Ringed Plover and no less than 4 more Bluethroats. In the main canal there were many more Purple Swamphen, Moorhen, Mallard and Coot. We saw a solitary Common Crane in the distance, billy-no-mates!!
As we crossed the bridge and worked our way onto the Benalup track we stopped for a picnic lunch during which we saw, distantly, 2 Imperial eagles and a single Bonelli’sEagle. We padded our list with Common Pheasant, Red-legged partridge but also added Cetti’s Warbler and Hen Harrier. We could hear a lot more Cranes but failed to see them from where we were so we drove to higher ground. However, we didn’t get far before stopping to watch a huge flock of Golden Plover, there were 70+ and later we saw even more, at least 120.
We passed a farm over a ridge as we left the rice fields of La Janda, and we entered new habitat in the shape of dehesa, which comprised of mainly wild olive trees in rough pasture. Before long we found lots of Blackcaps, Black Redstarts, European Robins and Sardinain Warblers, but then it good, really good!!
Penny shouted out “Cuckoo” as we drove slowly along the track, sure enough, perched on the fence, as they always do, was a Great Spotted Cuckoo! It posed well for the cameras and we watched it for a while.
As we walked a little further an owl was seen by Larry, then another and then another!!! We found a roost of Short-eared Owls. At the same time I walked ahead and inadvertently flushed 6 more Short-eared Owls from a roadside bush! Wow, this was fantastic. On closer inspection we counted 16 owls altogether, and to our great surprise 2 of them were Long-eared Owls. Well, we couldn’t top that but we tried! We searched for Penduline Tit but it had become a little windy, we added Little Owl to our ‘owl-tally’ and Jackdaw but not much else. On the return trip we saw many of the birds already listed but we were well satisfied with our day’s birding and went home happy.
This day- trip concluded the 3-day tour with my Amercian friends Larry and Linda, they had seen over 120 species and most of those were ‘lifers’. They are staying for a few more days and are going birding with a good friend, Mike from my village, whilst I am off to Morocco for a 10 day trip, watch this space!!!
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