It was a bright clear morning but a chilly wind made it feel quite cool, the wind increased as the morning wore on. On the drive up to the track from Gaucin we saw 3-4 Short-toed Eagles, a dead (road-kill) Genet near the Benarraba turning, what a shame, this beautifully marked wild cat is such an elusive and hard to find species. We also saw a couple of Rock Sparrows on the roadside walls along the way.
We spent nearly 3 hours walking not far along the track in search of the Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush now called Common Rock Thrush, we dipped completely but had a nice time anyway. many family groups of birds were on show, lots of them in full moult and looking very scruffy. In particular Black-eared Wheatears, Woodchat Shrikes, Spectacled Warblers, Stonechats, Thekla Larks, Linnets, Goldfinches, Southern grey Shrike and Rock Sparrows.
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| Black-eared Wheatear - Juvenile (above) and scruffy adult male (below) |
Up on the high rock face we found distant Blue Rock thrush, Black Wheatear, Common Kestrel and a small herd of Red Deer. In the sky over the valley we noted Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle and a pair of Common Kestrels.
We spent our few minutes at the pool hoping for some action there, a few Crag Martins came down to drink as did scruffy Black-eared Wheatears, a Rock Bunting (seen earlier at the pool), Goldfinches and Linnets.
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| 3 pictures of Spectacled Warblers |
At 11:30am the strong rays of the sun started to warm us up a little too much, even though a strong wind was blowing, so we decided to call it a day and we drove back to the village.
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