This was my last day with Mike and Lindsay, they decided that they wanted a quiet, slow and short day and that is exactly what they got.
We left the village at 9am and robe down towards the coast on the Algeciras road making one stop in the fields just below Jimena. It was already hot, the westerly breeze that we had enjoyed for the last week was barely perceptible today. Several flocks of Corn Buntings sat on the power lines and the ubiquitous Stonechat was everywhere, we listed our first Red-rumped Swallow for the trip and we watched a small group of Griffon Vultures with one Short-toed Eagle.
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| Common Stonechats |
From Jimena we drove further towards the coast turning off at Castellar and headed up to the castle, a quick stop at a bridge produced a few birds and some nice butterflies. The star butterfly was the MONARCH what a beauty that one os, we saw several feeding on Lantana. A very close Firecrest was lovely to see and we also saw Common Whitethroat, Blue Tit, Long-tailed Tit and a European Robin.
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| view from the castle of Castellar |
We then drove back down the hill and parked next to the huge 'embalse' - reservoir, at a mirador where we ate lunch and sat for an hour watching Two-tailed Pasha butterflies, these magnificent beasts use the Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) as a host plant and the males guard them then vigorously. We sat near one of the trees and a male Pashha sat with us, he entertained us for an hour and even landed on my hat!
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| Monarch Butterfly |
After that we drove back to Gaucin via the track at Marchenilla, we searched for Bee-eaters but came away empty handed, we did find Woodchat Shrike, Tawny Pipit, Serin and few common species.
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| the magnificent Two-tailed Pasha |
Well that ended our birding tour, after another superb dinner cooked by Dawn we completed the bird log finishing with a total of 140 species with a couple heard not seen. We recorded over 20 butterflies and a few dragonflies. Our last journey back to Gaucin also produced brief views of Egyptian Mongoose!
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| Lindsay and Mike - swift watching |
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| view from the top of the Marchenillo track |
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