ENCINAS BORRACHES TRACK - LLANOS DE LIBAR - MONTEJAQUE CORK WOODS
This is why I love it here in Spain, the weather. Whilst poor old Britain is suffering a cold and very wet spell we had the best weather you could imagine, what a great morning, perfect blue sky and not a breath of wind, excellent for birding in the mountains.
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| Encinas Borraches track this morning |
We set off from Gaucin after an early breakfast and headed towards Ronda, we stopped a couple of times along the way, the first stop was to look at a Rock Sparrow that was singing from a stone wall at the side of the road. Whilst watching the Sparrow we also found a Subalpine Warbler and a Melodious Warbler, a very productive stop.
Next we stopped near another stone wall to look for Blue Rock Thrush, instead a Red-legged Partridge flew out from the scrub as we got out of the car. We also found Linnets, Corn Bunting and a Black Wheatear but not the thrush.
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| Spanish Marbled White |
We then spent the most pleasurable 3 hours that any birder can wish for, the weather was fantastic, the scenery simple stunning and the bird and butterflies were prolific. We stepped out of the car and entered the most beautiful landscape of the Encinas Borrachea track, a Thekla Lark sang from the fence, a Stonechat darted to the top of the nearest bush and several butterflies danced passed us even though the sun was barely up.
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| Knapweed Fritillary |
The first part of the walk took us through an open flat valley with scrub and rocky crags in the foreground, it was here that we found Black-eared Wheatear, Little Owl, Woodchat Shrike, Goldfinches and Linnets. Then we walked through heath-land where Dartford and Spectacled Warblers performed and a Woodlark sang to us. As we entered a cork wood a Cuckoo called nearby and a Hoopoe could be heard in the distance.
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| Red-underwing Skipper |
We tracked down an Orphean Warbler as it sang from the oaks, likewise we saw another Subalpine Warbler. Bonelli's Warblers could also be seen as they trilled from the oaks, in the distance we saw Blue Rock Thrush, Black Wheatear and Red Deer.
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| Woodlark |
As we returned, Dave found a ROCK THRUSH singing from a pylon, what a terrific find, the bird flew up to display before dropping into cover on the far side of the valley, bird of day for me! We also found a lovely Southern Grey Shrike as we got back near the car and another Rock Sparrow showed well.
Several new butterflies were added to our list: Sage Skipper, Red-underling Skipper, Rock Grayling, Black-veined White, Knapweed Fritillary, Spanish Marbled White, Spanish Gatekeeper and Little Skipper.
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| two view of Ronda, above taken without a zoom and below a digi-scope view from the same spot |
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| the famous bridge at Ronda |
Moving on after we had eaten our picnic lunch we see for coffee and then spent some tome in the centre of Ronda to look over the bridge onto the famous gorge. We saw Alpine and Pallid Swifts, Red-billed Chough and Lesser Kestrel.
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| record shot of Spectacled Warbler |
At Montejaque Cork Woods we found an obliging Firecrest, more Bonelli's Warblers, a Kingfisher at the lake and lots of Bonelli's Warblers. LLANOS de Libar was hard work because the wind had picked up somewhat and it was hard to scope. Nevertheless, we saw several Black Wheatears, we had excellent views of Blue Rock Thrush, also Black Redstart, Crag Martin, Linnets, Rock Sparrow and in the sky we saw Griffon Vulture and Short-toed Eagle.
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| LLANOS de Libar |
We called it a day at 5pm and drove back to Gaucin arriving around 6pm. It had been a wonderful day out with some excellent sightings.
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