Oh, to be in England now that April's here!!! I mean it, it was cloudy, dull, misty, wet and cold here today, I may as well have been in Somerset,(or Wales).
Wet, wet, wet........I can't believe it. We set off at 8:30am from Gaucin and headed north towards Ronda, we broke through the cloud a couple of clicks up the road so we decided to have a quick look in the cork oaks near the 'bull ring'. We found Eurasian Nuthatch, Mistle Thrush, Chaffinch, Great spotted Woodpecker and lots of Blue & Great Tits. We heard Blackcap, Bonelli's Warbler, Green Woodpecker and Iberian Chiffchaff but didn't see any of them, rain drove us off.
In the Guadiaro valley near Estacion de Cortes we took a walk along a wide track where we found Cirl Bunting, Serin, lots of Gold, Green and Chaffinches and millions of Blackcaps - I mean lots - we saw 12 in one tree!
Sue and Steve on a footbridge over the Rio GuadiaroAt the river the weather perked up for 30 minutes in which time we logged: White & Grey Wagtails, Little Ringed Plover, Cattle Egret, Wood Pigeon, Cetti's Warbler, Common Nightingale (heard only), Red-rumped and Barn Swallows, House Martin, Cirl Bunting, Stonechat, Rock Sparrow, Hawfinch (a lovely male perched up for us) and more Blackcaps. A juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron was a nice find.
A new wet front was pushing up the valley and staying just ahead of it were a good number of raptors: over 40 Black Kites, Short-toed Eagles and Booted Eagles were joined by a single Egyptian Vulture and several Griffon Vultures, a Common Kestrel perched on a nearby pylon.
We quickly ate our picnic lunch just before the rain came back with a vengeance. Driving through Cortes and Benaojan we arrived at Montejaque where we stopped just north of the town on a nice quiet track. It was still raining lightly as we searched for Black Wheatear, we only found Red-billed Chough, Southern Grey Shrike, Spotless Starling, Linnet, Stonechat and more Black Kites.
At the 'dam-that-doesn't work' we added Rock Dove, Blue Rock Thrush, Sardinian Warbler and more Griffon Vultures to our sightings. Just up the road we visited the cork woods near the Ronda-Sevilla road where we found a nice Firecrest, also Eurasian Nuthatch, Wren (heard), Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Common Coot (on the lake), European Robin, Bonelli's Warbler (heard) and lots of the common birds.
After a short coffee break in a roadside venta we drove into the centre of Ronda where Susan and Steve visited the famous gorge before we set off for Gaucin taking the Algeciras road where we saw a Hoopoe fly up from the road just outside Ronda. We did stop a couple of times when we found breaks in the thick fog and mist but our efforts to find Black Wheatear were thwarted by the weather, we did find Red-legged Partridge, a new species for the list.
An early shower was the order of the day, actually it was showers all day, we arrived back in Gaucin at 4:45pm, a wash-out I would call it, I hope tomorrow isn't the same!!!
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