A cloudy start to the day with a chill in the air but soon it developed into a sunny warm and bright morning.
Gill and Noel are staying for 10 days and today was our first birding excursion. We left the village at 8:30am and drove the short distance up the Ronda road to the chestnut woods.
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| I told you my tours were easy going and relaxing? |
At first it seemed quite devoid of bird life but after half an hour or so the birds began to appear and very soon we had quite a good list. Hawfinches were one of the first birds on the list, we saw one or two perched high on dead branches and later we counted 7 individuals. Eurasian Nuthatches were located as they called then a Pied Flycatcher began feeding near to where we were standing. A party of Long-tailed Tits worked through the bushes they were joined by a Firecrest and several Blue Tits. We also found a couple of Crested Tits, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Coal Tit before we left for the river.
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| distant record shots of Hawfinch |
The river walk was excellent we found a good number of species which began with Grey Wagtail, Hoopoe and Pied Flycatcher - all seen as we emerged from the car. Within a few minutes we added Willow Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher and Barn Swallow.
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| A common sight during the last couple of weeks - migrating Common Redstart |
We found this lovely male Common Redstart along a fence line where we scoped Stonechat, Rock Sparrow, Cirl Bunting and a Short-toed Treecreeper. Other species seen along the walk were Grey Heron, White Wagtail, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blackcap and Common Chiffchaff.
At 'ash tree' where we sheltered from the warm sun we sat watched a poo where several species were coming to drink and bathe. There we added Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit. Linnet, Garden Warbler, Robin and we heard a Cetti's Warbler several times. Another Hoopoe fed on the grassy bank, a flock of Rock Sparrows (21) landed on the power cables and a Sparrowhawk chased a flock of Spotless Starlings nearby.
By 11am the sky started to be of interest as a few raptors appeared: Booted Eagle (8), Griffon Vulture (10+) and a Common Kestrel a ll showed well. More Barn Swallows were joined by House Martin and a Kingfisher flashed by along the river, it was carrying food - perhaps a late brood?
We finished at 12 noon and headed off back to Gaucin, stopping first for a nice cup of coffee. WE listed 48 species, a great effort for half a day.
After an afternoon siesta we set off for the same river but much further down stream towards the coast. We spent 4 hours enjoying a lovely picnic in balmy temperatures and underneath a dramatically colourful sky. Our bird list for the day continued to rise with some really good species.
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| Common Kingfisher |
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| Corn Bunting |
First off was a Black-winged Kite which was seen on its regular roost, a pylon. We did find a second bird further down the valley. Other species seen were: Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Kingfisher, White Stork, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Corn Bunting, Turtle Dove, Raven, Booted Eagle and lots of finches.
As it grew dark more egrets flew over and a flcok of some 50 Yellow Wagtails passed over us. Just as it got dark we got back into the car and as soon as we got onto the main track we found a Red-necked Nightjar sitting on the track. It showed really well before flying off. On the way home and on the same track we saw a BARN OWL and found another Red-necked Nightjar, this one performed really well for us by flying around in the headlight beams catching moths, quite superb and a super ending to our day.
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