Well, I left home at 7am in the dark, it was dark because a thick band of cloud was sitting over Gaucin, it threatened rain. However as the morning progressed it gradually brightened up and became quite hot.
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| Rob & Jan - I told them to look happy |
I drove down to Estacion de Cortes and collected Rob and Jan at the station, they are over on holiday from Ireland to escape from the rain.
We then drove along to the river for our first walk. Many species were soon in the bag: Grey Wagtail, Cirl Bunting, Rock Sparrow, Grey heron and White Stork were all seen fairly quickly.
Further along the river we added Little Ringed Plover (the two chicks are well grown by now), Kingfisher, Serin, Greenfinch, Stonechat, Goldfinch and a couple of juvenile Woodchat Shrikes.
As it warmed up we began to see raptors overhead, a Short-toed Eagle hung on the wind whilst a Sparrowhawk circled on the thermals. A Peregrine flew by carrying what looked like a House Martin and a few Griffon Vultures began to appear.
back in the scrub we saw Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and we had breif views of Sardinian Warblers. We sat and watched the river for a while as a party of Bee-eaters were coming to bathe and in a small pool we found Bonelli's Warbler bathing too. Other species near the water included Melodious Warbler, Serin, Blue Tit, Blackbird and a Cetti's Warbler. On the way back to car we watched a couple of Spotted Flycatchers and heard a Blackcap 'tacking' several White Wagtails appeared and a Booted Eagle gave great views over the near hillside.
Our next destination was Llanos de Libar, the beautiful valley hidden behind Montejaque. It was full of birds.
Three views of the valley are shown below, you can see how lovely it is and that the cloud had cleared by then, it was now 10am.
We were soon watching some of our target birds: Black Wheatear was found fairly easily but we had to search for Blue Rock Thrush. We also saw Linnet, Black Redstart, Crag Martin and lots of Griffon Vultures, it was whilst we were watching a large flock of Griffons that we found our only Egyptian Vulture of the day. A second Short-toed Eagle drifted down the valley and we located a family party of Griffons, the chick was just about to make its inaugural flight but failed whilst we were watching it.
Further up the valley we found a few Rock Buntings, a Southern Grey Shrike, more Woodchat Shrikes, lots of Bee-eaters and lots of Stonechats.
We made a brief stop for walk in some cork woods above Montejaque but only saw Jay, Chaffinch, Nuthatch and Blue Tit. A lake in the woods produced Common Coot, Little Grebe, Mallard and two Green Sandpipers. As we left the wood we had great views of Red Deer, it was female but we could hear a male grunting and barking not too far away. On the way out of the wood we saw a Red-rumped Swallow and several Barn Swallows.
A short coffee stop in Montejaque was followed by our last venue of the day - the Cueva de Gato near Benaojan. This huge cave and picturesque surroundings are idyllic. A beautiful waterfall cascades from the cave into a huge turquoise-blue pool. The cave entrance itself holds many breeding Crag Martins and Alpine Swifts. Unfortunately the only Alpine Swift we saw was a juvenile which had fallen from a nest, unable to fly the bird was scrambling up the rock face, we could not reach it or try to save it!
After spending a while watching the stranded swift crawl to relatively safety we concluded the day tour and drove back to Estacion Cortes. We had logged 58 species and seen some wonderful scenery in lovely Spanish weather!!
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