DESPITE THE WEATHER SPRING MIGRANTS ARE COMING THROUGH, WE SAW LOTS OF WOODCHAT SHRIKES, OUR FIRST NIGHTINGALES WERE SINGING, A BONELLI'S WARBLER AND A REED WARBLER WERE FOUND TOO.
It was another very wet and windy day, we had persistent rain all morning with showers in the afternoon, temperatures ranged between 8 and 15C, not good for birding!
We started at 8am in the clouds of Gaucin, it didn't clear much as we dropped 2000ft to the Rio Genal, where we stood in the rain hoping for some birdies, we did have a 'finch moment' when we found Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch and 3 Hawfinches in the same bunch of trees. But apart from a Cetti's Warbler calling and a couple of Wood Pigeons flying over we saw zilch!
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| is this why they came to Spain - lovely weather? |
We drove the entire length of the road to Secadero with hardly a stop, usually it tales a few hours to do this as so many birds are normally on show. Today it was misty with bouts of heavy rain, but towards the end the rain stopped for a short while and we got put of the bus to scan a ploughed field. The field held many birds including: Little Ringed Plover, Woodchat Shrike, Corn Bunting, Crested Lark, Cirl. Bunting, White Wagtail, Yellow Wagtail (Iberiae) and some Linnets.
We also stopped to view a horse paddock full of horses and Cattle Egrets, there were two Green Sandpipers in with them. A couple of wet Common Buzzards, a single wet Sparrowhawk and a couple of Common Kestrel were about the sum total of raptors.
Next we stopped on the track to San Enrique Woods, we searched my best place for WRYNECK and came up with two of them, lovely, one of them was calling all the time. Another couple of Woodchat Shrikes and a couple of Tree Sparrows were added to the day list.
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| a very orange Woodchat Shrike, similar to the eastern race I sometimes see on Lesvos |
At Laguna Torreguadiaro we heard a Reed Warbler, we saw Cetti's Warbler and had great views of Purple Swamped, Lesser Kestrel, Monk Parakeets, Common Nightingale, Sardinian Warbler, Northern Wheatear (one of them showing characteristics of the Greenland Northern Wheatear race).
Next we drove to the pine woods at PINAR del REY where we ate our picnic lunch in the rain, but it did stop and allowed us to walk for a while before starting up again. During our walk we found Short-toed Tree-creeper, Firecrest, Crested Tit and both Blue and Great Tits.
By the time we got to Palmones the sky cleared somewhat but the wind picked up, it was quite strong as we walked along the promenade looking across to the salt marsh. Not many species were showing as the tide was low, but we did find a summer plumage Red Knot, also Bar-tailed Godwits, Greenshanks, Sanderling, Grey Plover, Sandwich Terms and few of the common gulls.
So we headed back into the hills passing through San Toque and Castellar where many White Storks sat on their nests. A quick stop at Jimena to look for Great Spotted Cuckoo produced our biggest raptor sighting in terms of numbers: we saw 50+ Black Kites, a dozen Booted Eagles, a couple of Short-toed Eagles, two Ravens and a couple of dozen Griffon Vultures.
We drove back to Gaucin arriving quite early at 5pm, I was cold and fed up of the weather, the forecast is much better from now on, super.
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