Saturday 27th August - Evening – Eastside of Gaucin
At last the endless Levante (east-wind) has eased off, it
seemed to blow forever, Saturday was very still and as expected the flow of
migrating raptors started trickling through.
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| Short-toed Eagle |
At 6:30 I climbed up to my top terrace to watch this
mini-spectacle, for 30 minutes I counted 181 Honey Buzzards, 51 Black Kites and
1 Booted Eagle, none of these birds were very high and they all headed down the
Genal Valley towards Sierra Crestellina.
Sunday Morning - 28th August - Marchenilla Track
The absence of wind instigated a venture a little further afield this morning. At 8:30am I drove down to
San Pablo and turned onto the Marchenilla Track.
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| Zitting Cisticola |
A two-hour walk failed to produce the number of migrants I
was expecting but 6 Short-toed Eagles, 2 Booted Eagles, Common Buzzard, Common
Kestrel and a single Montagu’s Harrier was enough to keep me occupied. One unexpected
sighting was of a BLACK-WINGED KITE,
never seen one of those along this track before.
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| Record shot of the Black-winged Kite |
Other migrant sightings included: Woodchat Shrike, Red-rumped
Swallow, Melodious Warbler, European Bee-eater (60+), Common Starling 20+ (my
first for this autumn) and lots of Common Swifts.
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the driest time of the year along the track
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As I was leaving small groups of Honey Buzzards started to
form above the hillsides, I counted 25 in the valley and saw plenty more as I
drove back up the mountain to Gaucin.
