JULY 10TH 2012 - EVENING BY THE RIVER

RIO GUADIARO BETWEEN CASARES AND SECADERA




DAWN, myself and Nicola (our friend who is staying for a while)  met John and Mary, our two American amigos, at 4pm at the edge of town. We drove down to the Rio Genal and followed it down to where it meets the Rio Guadiaro on the track towards Secadera. Incidentally, the Rio Genal is now virtually dry, it has stopped flowing and there are only few small pools along its length.


We set up shop and sat for while whilst we ate a lovely picnic as we watched the world go by in lovely sunshine with a nice breeze. John and Mary are now keen birders, they want to see everything. So It was nice to sit and point out lots birdies along the river. We saw many Little Ringed Plovers, a couple of Green Sandpipers, Grey Heron and 2 Yellow-legged Gulls. Many finches were coming down to drink: Goldfinch, Linnet, Serin and also buntings and sparrows; We saw Corn Buntings, House Sparrow and Rock Sparrows. 


Over the next few hours we had some excellent fly-byes: Cattle Egret, Common Buzzard, Booted Eagle, Squacco Heron and a lovely HOBBY. This bird was out of season for this area, just passing, perhaps a local breeder, I do not know, but nice all the same. We watched it chase the Corn Buntings but then it flew up high and chased after the House Martins, whilst we followed with our bins we found Short-toed Eagle and many Common and Pallid Swifts.


A couple walks produced good sightings of Bee-eaters (20+), Hoopoe, Woodchat Shrike, Spotted Flycatcher, Olivaceous Warbler, Sardinian Warbler and distant Griffon Vultures.


It was later as it was getting dark that our best bird arrived. It was BLACK-WINGED KITE, incredible really. This very rare breeding bird is not generally recorded this far along the coast, a great sighting for us. The bird hovered, circled and dived down after prey and stayed for 30 minutes or so. 


As it got dark we got in position in order to watch Red-necked Nightjars, howvere after 30 minutes only on showed up and it didn't stay long, disappointing really. Then a large shape flew down the river towards us, it circled and flew down onto the river, it was a Black-crowned Night Heron, excellent.


On the way home to stopped to watch a couple of Little Owls, they were perched on the road and were chasing insects and moths around in front of the car.