GAUCIN CHESTNUT WOODS - RIO GUADIARO AT ESTACION CORTÉS - LLANOS DE LIBAR (MONTEJAQUE) - RONDA
Another great day with good weather, some sunshine and a massive passage of raptors. We started our birding in the chestnut woods just outside the village, the air was quite still and filled with bird song as we got out of the bus. A Great-spotted Woodpecker sat just above the bus at the entrance to the wood and very soon we tracked down one of the 3 calling Eurasian Nuthatches. A short walk never produced much more but we heard our first Common Cuckoo and a Green Woodpecker called in the distance.
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| THE TRACK AT THE RIO GUADIARO |
Our second stop was at a track near Estacion Cortés and again many birds were in song. Lots of Blackcaps joined many common species in song, we also found Mistle Thrush, Cirl Bunting, Hawfinch and a beautiful Short-toed Eagle perched on a pylon. It was then we realised that a huge raptor passage was on the way, we saw over 100 Black Kites and many, many Booted Eagles, the sky was always full of raptors.
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| ROSY GRIZZLED SKIPPER |
Our walk along the river was lovely, we had warm sunshine and plenty of birds. Cetti's Warblers sang alongside Common Nightingales, Hoopoe, Blackcap and all the common species. We had great views of Rock Sparrow, Crag Martin, Alpine Swift, Pallid Swift, Grey Wagtail and Woodchat Shrike. All the time we were there a constant trickle of Booted Eagles, Black Kites and Short-toed Eagles passed over us. A few butterflies were on the wing we found Brimstone, Bath White, Green-striped White and the Rosy Grizzled Skipper shown above.
After a quick coffee stop we drove further up the Guadiaro Valley making one stop to look at more raptors, during our stop we found two Egyptian Vultures and 5 Black Storks along with all the passage Raptors.
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| NAKED MAN ORCHID - ORCHIS ITALICA |
We ate our picnic lunch at the start of the track to LLANOS de Libra and then spent 2 delightful hours birding this beautiful valley. Despite the low cloud base there were still many kites and eagles passing overhead.
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| SOMBRE ORCHID - OPHRYS FUSCA |
In the rocky valley we listed all of our target species, Black Wheatear, Black Redstart, Blue Rock Thrush, Crag Martin, Red-billed Chough, Rock Bunting and we had the added bonus of seeing Hoopoe, Woodchat Shrike, BLACK-EARED WHEATER (we saw 5 males), Subalpine Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Sardinian Warbler and several common species.
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| YELLOW ORCHID - OPHRYS LUTEA |
After that superb venue we made a quick stop at the 'dam' and found a Peregrine Falcon perched and 4 species of Orchid in the wet grass nearby (all orchids are shown).
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| TOOTHED ORCHID - ORCHIS TRIDENTATA |
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| SAWFLY ORCHID - OPHRYS TENTHREDINIFERA |
We also stopped in Ronda for a quick tourist stop, at the famous bridge we saw more Crag Martins and Red-billed Choughs.
Finally we made a very brief stop at the Encinas Borraches track where we found a pair of Iberian Grey Shrikes, we arrived back in Gaucin in glorious sunshine at 6pm.
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