We spent the day in the mountains, it was dull and overcast to start with but by midday it was very warm and the sun broke through. The group was enhanced by another client, Jane , who was to join us for the day.
The drive down to Estacion Cortes went uneventful and the walk didn't produce the quantity of birds I had anticipated, however, we did a fair variety. A single Rock Sparrow was the highlight but it was brief and seen by only a few.of the group. We all did see Grey Wagtail, Common Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Booted Eagle and there were many Common Nightingales singing, one individual sat right out on a dead tree.A lot of common woodland birds were listed and very brief view of a Golden Oriole was had, the bird flew into the dense foliage of a plane tree, it gave its rasping contact call a few times before flying off.
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| the group enjoying a cold drink this afternoon |
Our next venue is one of my favourite places in the whole of Andalucia, the Llanos de Libar, this beautiful hidden valley is one of the most picturesque sites in the whole of Andaluica and a great place for birding. We spent about 3 hours there slowly walking along the track whilst scanning the open rocky meadows and steep sided cliffs.
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| one view of the beautiful Llanos de Libar valley |
Other birds in the sky included a huge flock of Alpine Swifts they wheeled around the high peaks with Barn Swallows and House Martins lower down. Both Common and Pallid Swifts were up there too and we had a couple of views of Red-billed Chough, Common Kestrel and a Raven.
On the rocks we gradually found our target species, Rock Sparrows were abundant and very showy as was Blue Rock Thrush. We all had excellent sightings of Black Wheatear, Rock Bunting and Cirl Buntings, Woodchat Shrikes, Sardinian & Melodious Warblers and Corn Buntings were everywhere.
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| dartford warbler |
We ate our lunch and continued our search for Common Rock Thrush but only turned up Black Redstarts and more of the above.
After a quick stop for coffee and a brief visit to the very impression bridge in the centre of Ronda (where good, close views of Red-billed Chough was had) we drove to our venue, the Encinas Borraches track.
A wonderful couple of hours was spent there, the bright sunshine subsided a little giving perfect light for scanning the rocky scree and high limestone peaks. We quickly found Southern Grey Shrike, lots of Linnets, Corn Buntings and Goldfinches. Moving in the scrub and rocky scree area we found Theklae Lark and Red-legged Partridge. The majority of our time was spent scouring the broom scrub for warblers and our efforts paid off with great views of both of our target species. First a Spectacled Warbler gave us the run-around before giving good views then a superb male Dartford Warbler sat out for ages singing to us, what a great show.
One the way back to the car we had several views of the Black-eared Wheatear, some were distance but because of the light the views were good.
So we drove home happy, almost cleaning up all the species of the mountains and very happy with our day out.
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