Ian and Susan are staying with us for two weeks and have booked 4 days birding with me. Today was our first day, we set off from the village at 7:30am and headed down the valley towards the coast. Low cloud and mist hung in the valley and offered good protection from the searing sun beating down on the higher ground.
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| Sue & Ian in the cork woods at Pinar del Rey |
Our first venue was the Rio Genal which was reached within 20 minutes, we parked near the road bridge and began birding at the riverside. Our first birds were Goldfinch, Grey Wagtail and Chaffinch, we then added Blackcap, Cirl Bunting, Wood Pigeon and White Wagtail as e walked upriver along the track. We then spent 30 minutes having a great time watching our target species the Golden Oriole, first a couple of juvenile birds turned up and an adult flew into view, they all posed well for us. We eventually saw 8 birds as they flew down from the trees to feed in a fig tree across a meadow, what a great show, at one stage 3 adult males sat out on bare twigs for several minutes.
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| one of the 3 male Golden Orioles sitting out and posing for our cameras |
A quick stop at Sierra Crestellina didn't produce very much as the mountain was obscured by cloud and in the roadside meadows we only saw a couple of Common Stonechats and a flock of Spotless Starlings..
Over the next couple of hours we drove down into the Guadiaro valley along the track towards Secadera, we stopped near the top to look at a Woodchat Shrike and a couple of Cirl Buntings. A little further on we saw a Hoopoe fly across the road and a couple of Crested Larks were seen on the roadside verges.
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| a view of the Rio Guadiaro looking up river towards Gaucin |
At the river we notched some superb species the first of which was a Purple Heron that flew along the river a couple of times. That sighting was followed by 8 Little Egrets, 4 Green Sandpipers, 2 Little Ringed Plovers Grey Heron and more White Wagtails. Then the air warmed and raptors started to appear it was a magnificent show with over 50 Honey Buzzards coming up out of the hillside woods with a few Booted Eagles and a perched Short-toed Eagle. We found many Turtle Doves on the power lines and then found our best sighting of the morning in the shape of an adult BONELLI'S EAGLE. It too was perched on a pylon but it flew off and circled many times before drifting off.
Two more stops along the river produced more of the same with Cetti's Warbler, Sardinian Warbler and Common Kestrel added to the list.
We ate lunch in the woods at San Enrique but we couldn't sit still for long as we found Short-toed Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatcher, Bonellis' Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, Firecrest, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Jay.
Just as Ian said "do you ever see Osprey here" one flew passed carrying a fish, it worked like clockwork and couldn't have been timed any better, spooky!!!
At Pinar del Rey we spent some time tracking down Crested Tit, eventually getting good views of two of them. We also saw more of the above. All the time we were there at at San Enrique more birds of prey circled on the thermals, the vast majority were Honey Buzzards, but we also saw Booted and Short-toed Eagles and a single Black Kite.
After a quick stop for coffee near San Roque, where we watched the antics of the White Storks on their nests, we stopped at San Pablo for our last birding walk. It was now very hot but a nice breeze kept us from boiling. We added Melodious Warbler, Corn Bunting, Common Buzzard and Zitting Cisticola to our list and had more raptor passage with good numbers of Griffon Vultures and a single Egyptian Vulture adding to the numbers.
We arrived back at the village at 6pm and we completed our check list on the terrace with a cold beer. Even then we saw more Honey Buzzards with 22 circling above us with 6 Griffon vultures and a couple of Booted Eagles. Phew what a great day, we logged 66 species without breaking into a sweat, not too much anyway!
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