This was our big day, our chance to see some of the special birds found in this mountain region and we certainly had a great time looking for them.
We started at 7am with a walk around the nearby pine woods, it was a lovely morning, bright blue sky and no wind. Over an hour we found most of the woodland species expected in this area: Coal Tit, Mistle Thrush, Cirl Bunting, Black Redstart, Jay, Serin, Robin, Wren, Blackcap and Bonelli's Warbler. We then walked deeper into the woods where fewer species were seen, many Chaffinches were singing, a Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard drumming in the distance and more Coal Tits appeared.
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| Woodlark with food |
It was during the latter part of the walk that we found our first Crested Tits of the trip, two of them performed well. Then a small flock of Crossbills alighted in a row of pines on the edge of the hotel car park, they showed very well for us and included a few 'red' birds.
After breakfast we set off for the highlands on the route to the Platforma de Gredos, the route from Hoyos de Espino to the higher car is one of outstanding beauty. Lower down, lush green alpine meadows are surrounded by pine forest on gently sloping hillsides, flowers abound and the bright yellow of the Spanish Broom is truly amazing. Higher up, the forest gives way to open heathland, steep sided hills are covered in flowering broom, gorse and wild flowers.
We stopped several times to admire this lovely scenery and added a few species to the day list: Common Whitethroat, Rock Bunting, brightly coloured Linnets, Goldfinches and our first Ortolan Buntings were seen. As we neared the top we found many Dunnocks on the heath, a surprising and unexpected find for the group, But it was a male Red-backed Shrike that stole the show, it was singing from on top of the broom, a little elusive at first but eventually it showed well, a beautiful bird. Whilst watching the shrike we found a Subalpine Warbler too! Rock Bunting became increasingly more common, overhead the few raptors seen included: Black kite, Booted Eagle, Short-toed Eagle and a single Red Kite.
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| Black Redstart a very common breeding species |
From the top car we spent a couple of hours walking into the higher area towards the 'Cirque de Gredos', the steep pathway led us passed a high sided cliff face and this is where we found our prized biurd the Rock Thrush. A superb male was singing and performing its song flight, what a superb bird, we also found Black Redstart, more Ortolan Buntings, a Water Pipit and some superb Spanish Ibex.
As we neared the top the high cliff gave way to gorse covered hillsides with areas of rocks and small streams. We stopped to search this area and over a period of an hour we had several sightings of the much sought after Bluethroat. This fantastic little gem showed well on and off and it was interesting to note that all the 3 males on show didn't have a central spot (neither red or white) in their blue-throats!
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| The ubiquitous Chaffinch |
Well after that showing a victorious group marched back down to the car park along thje way we had much better views of Water Pipit, the Skylarks were still singing overhead and the Rock Thrush was still performing.
We then drove into town to pick up lunch supplies and we ate our lunch back in the valley near a babbling brook where a Dipper was seen with both White and Grey Wagtails. Our afternoon walk along the open alpine meadows proved very productive. We found a Green Woodpecker that was calling from the top of the pines, we saw a couple of Firecrests, more flocks of Crossbills, Woodlarks, Mistle Thrushes and sveral sightings of another local speciality; the Citril Finch. These elusive little finches were feeding in the grass below the pines and it was difficult to get a close view of them so we had to make do with middle distant sightings.
An after dinner walk by just four of us gave us a surprising result, we heard at least 3 European Nightjars calling from the open forest glades near the hotel and as we walked along the lane we saw two of them in flight, a great unexpected result, we had better views of this species than of the Red-necked Nightjar back at Finca Santa Marta!
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