JULY 3RD 2014 - DAY OUT TO CUEVA DE GATO

 

It seems a long time ago since I was up before 7am but it has only been 12 days since the tour of the Picos and Pyrenees finished when we were up everyday before 7am - how time flies!

Today I was joined by Paul from the village and American John who lives a short distance along the Ronda road. We left the village at 7am just as it was getting light heading up country towards the Rio Guadiaro.

Today we were heading for the village of Benaojan some 25km away, we were following up reports of a pair of DIPPERS (WHITE-THROATED- Cinclus Cinclus) that were breeding not too far from Benaojan near the Cuevas de Gato (cat's cave) where the river Gaduera flows from the spectacular cave into a pool and flows down to join the Rio Guadiaro.

HOUSE MARTIN

CRAG MARTIN

We parked at the train station at Benaojan and walked to the river, from the first bridge we found both Grey and White Wagtails, also Blackcap (still singing) and lots of Goldfinches. The walk to the cave took us along a track which followed the river giving us good views of the water and rocks. We heard and then saw several Golden Orioles in the tall poplars along the far bank and many House Martins and Barn Swallows were dashing about.

MEADOW BROWN

As we approached the cave we realised that a host of repair men we using chain saws and strimmers, making a racket and consequently not many birds were near the cave entrance. However we stuck around for ta while and got good views of Crag Martins and Alpine swifts as they went back and forth into the caves to their nests. A Grey Wagtail also gave excellent views as it came back and forth to its nest with food.

if you look carefully you can see the Olivaceous Warbler on the nest

Walking back down to the river Guadiaro we stopped to watch a pair of SOUTHERN WATER VOLES (Arvicola sapidus) feeding along the bank and then we found a pair of Olivaceous Warblers, located by hearing the male in song. We watched them for a while and discovered that they we adding the finishing touches to a nest, the female often sitting in it to try it for size and comfort.


This the distance that we saw the dipper from



WHITE-THROATED DIPPER

After that bit of excitement we set off back towards the car, we had missed our target species but enjoyed our time there. One last look at a section of the river produced our bird, there feeding in the middle of the river was a WHITE-THROATED DIPPER, at last, this bird was missing from my Andalucia list these past five years and now I had it, wonderful! We all went home happy after taking numerous long-distant shots of the bird.