Our last day had arrived and oh so quickly! It was another superb morning, a bright still sunny affair, perfect for bird watching. We all had alie and took breakfast at 8am, so it was at 9am that we left the hotel for a morning sortie. Most of the ghroup wanted to get better views of Citril Finch so we set off down toward the Gredos national Park in the valley adjacent to the hotel. Near a camp site we stopped and walked the tarcks and lanes in search of the finch.
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| Rock Sparrow showing it's head pattern well |
A Common Whitethroat wth an odd song puzzled us for a while until it showed from the top of a pine, we had good views of Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail, Black Redtsart, Rock Sparrow and a female Cirl Bunting beofre we found our first Citril Finches. Serins, Goldfinches and Linnets were joined on the list by Common Crossbills as a flock of some 20 birds 'chip-chipped' over us. We spent an hour os getting closer and closer to small parties of Citril Finches until everyone was happy with their views and with their photographs.
A few lizards were out on show, the magnificent Ocellated Lizard grabbed most of the group's attention wqhilst the dainty Wall Lizards took second spot.
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| Ocellated Lizard |
Well it was soon time to return to hotel and to load us the buses for our return to Madrid Airport. We set off at noon and njot long after we saw a Hobby fly over the bus!
We made a scheduled stop for lunch, the temperaturte in these lower areas was much higher, 32C was recorded!1 During our picnic lunch we noted Booted Eagle, Honey buzzard and the 'forever-present' Black Kite, lotsof Azure-wingedf Magpies flitted from tree to tree.
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| the best of my bad pictures of Citrl Finch |
Well the tour was over, we drove directly to the aiport arriving around 5pm in time for the evening flight. We had some great memories, we had had some super weather (though a little hot at times) and we had recorded nearly everyone of the expected birds!!
It was a great trip with lots of laughter and merriment! Well, I mean....... what group turns up with; a Morris Dancer, a Bell Ringer, a Little Old LADY OF 101 years old, and a guy who uses a hankerchief as a hat!!!
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| It was like something out of a Peter Seller's Movie sometime |
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| ....even from a Monty Python Sketch......I rest my case!!! |
The group voted for the bird of the trip: Great Spotted Cuckoo came out on top, but Roch Thrush came a close second. We recored 159 species, a great effort with many contirbutions from the group a tribute to their great endeavour, vigilance and untiring enthusiasm ( I nearly wrote euthanasia then - I can't think why!!!)
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