WEDESDAY 2ND OCT - 7 DAY TOUR - DAY 6

SIERRA DE LAS NIEVES - LAGUNA DULCE (CAMPILLOS)

A superb day of bird watching with fantastic weather and a wealth of birds. We only visited two places and still saw over 70 species which is a testament to the wide range of birdlife found here in Spain.

Nigel and Nathan were due to fly out from Malaga at 5:40pm and Stephen decided to have a day off so only the three of us set off at 8:30am and headed towards Ronda. The sky was clear and there was not not a whiff of air, perfect for birding. We saw Rock Sparrowand Rock Bunting along the way.

male Crossbill

Our first stop was at Sierra de las Nieves nature reserve near Ronda we parked in the car near the entrance and birded the immediate area of rough  open woodland. We had the best birding of the whole trip I couldn't how many birds of many species were around. We were amazed and didn't know where to look for the best! Pied and Spotted Flycatchers darted out from the low branches of the bushes, Woodlarks fed on the ground with Chaffinches and Mistle Thrushes, Common Redstarts flitted from bush to ground and back again. A few Chiffchaff and Willow Warblers fed in the canopy and our bird of the day was a Wryneck which spent its time being elusive but showed well at times. A small group of Common Crossbills landed at the top of a poplar, Long-tailed Tits moved through in  small groups, Goldfinches dropped in, Ravens drifted over and Red-legged Partridges called from the rocky scrub.

Common Redstart

Spotted Flycatcher

Woodlark

The Wryneck -eating ants

We managed to drag ourselves away and drove a short way into the park to look for other species and our next stop produced 3 Dartford Warblers, Cirl Buntings, Stonechats and a flock of 6 Red-billed Chough. We scanned the clear blue sky for raptors but none were showing.

The next stop near some mature pine trees was just as good, we parked by a babbling brook and immediately found our target species the Coal Tit. We also found half a dozen Crested Tits, 4 Firecrests, a couple of Short-toed Treecreepers and a Grey Wagtail.

It was now getting on for lunchtime so we drove out of the park and took lunch at a roadside restaurant, we sat out in the warm sunshine looking back over the natural park from the terrace. We saw 2 Short-toed Eagles, several Griffon Vultures and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk during lunch.

Our final destination was the Laguna Dulce at Campillos, it was covered in birds, thousands of them! The main bulk of the ducky mass were Mallards and Shoveler, a couple of thousand of both were present. Then came Common Coot with just as many present, then lesser numbers of: Great-crested Grebes, Little grebes and Black-necked grebes. We also found 5 Ferruginous Duck, a dozen or so of Gadwall, a couple of Teal, small numbers of Common and Red-crested Pochard, Moorhen and Purple Swamphen.

We searched through the Coots until we found a Red-knobbed variety aka 'tomato-head', there was also Black-headed Gull, Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt, Common Ringed Plover, Marsh Harrier, Grey Heron, Cattle and Little Egrets. In the bushes around the hide we found Willow Warbler, Cetti's Warbler (fleeting view) and we were informed that we had just missed both Bluethroat and Wryneck, the pair of them had showed well 10 minutes ago!

it was now 2:30pm and we had to be at the airport in an hour's time so we packed up our scopes and went back to the car. The short break of 5 nights, 6 days were over for Nigel and Nathan, they seen over 150 species and at least a third of them were new birds for their life lists.

Tomorrow, Stephen and a new boy on the block, Michael will be going out to seek more of the rich avifauna of Southern Spain,