AUSTRALIA - PRE-TOUR BIRDING - DAY 4 Friday 21st October 2016

CATTANA WETLANDS – CAIRNS MANGROVES – CAIRNS CEMETERY

WEATHER:  CLOUDY TO START THEN FULL-ON SUNSHINE. TOP TEMP 30C WITH A FAIRLY STRONG BREEZE

I had a super breakfast with Dan and Gail on their open terrace, Dan made his speciality crepes  the view over the forest and down to the coast is to die for, Kookaburras were laughing and Orange-footed Scrubfowl called loudly. I saw Brush-Turkey in the garden and both Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and Pied Imperial Pigeon flew over.

My return visit to Cattana Wetlands was as good as the first two years ago, even the mozzies were delivering quality bites!  Though not brimming with birds there was enough to keep me occupied, it took a while to get out of the car park because so many birds were flitting about. As for calls, well I’m never going get on top of all of those!


Comb-crested Jacana - 'walking ​on water'

Flocks of Metallic Starlings shot over me whilst Olive-backed Orioles called and Figbirds ate figs, I spent a while sorting out the martins, hirundines and woodswallows that were hawking insects over the trees, then I set off onto the reserve. A series of large ‘tanks’ hold large bodies of water covered in lilies, ideal habitat for the Comb-crested Jacana, Green Pygmy Goose & Little Pied and Little Black Cormorants. I was a little disappointed with the lack of ducks, herons and egrets etc. but the smaller passerines were good.


Green Pygmy-Goose

I had excellent views of both Nutmeg & Chestnut-breasted Mannikins, Crimson Finch, Golden-headed Cisticola, Brown-backed Honeyeater, Black Butcherbird and lots of common birds. I left after about 3 hours because I wanted to get to Cairns beach before high tide.


A male Figbird - a beauty, eh!
At Cairns the tide was almost at its highest just as I got there so not many birds were left on the fast disappearing mud. However, one goodie remained with the godwits and the Great Knots and that was the Terek Sandpiper, my best views ever of this enigmatic bird. An Eastern Curlew was fairly close too. Just then I bumped into Bob Longford and we walked along the grass verge to the mangroves. Many birds were feeding there, we caught up with a number of good species, Mangrove Robin was one of them, Spangled Drongo was another, Collared Kingfisher, Restless Flycatcher, Brown Honeyeater, Spotted Turtle Dove, Peaceful Dove and many more.


Mangrove Robin

From there we split up, I drove to the Cemetery whilst Bob walked into town for a late lunch. At the cemetery I watched many birds for a couple of hours, Rainbow Bee-eaters and Bush Stone Curlew were two of my targets and both showed well. I never added further species to the list but enjoyed a good hour with the birds and the dead people.


another beauty - the Rainbow Bee-eater


Bush Stone-Curlew

I was back at Dan and Gail’s house by 3pm, I watched the garden for a while, finding Laughing Kookaburra, Dusky Honeyeater and more Sulphur-crested Cockatoos.


Terek Sandpiper is the bird on the right with Great Knots


Terek Sandpiper - taken though the heat-quiver​ with Great Knot and the larger Bar-tailed Godwit

Five o’clock found me at the airport collecting Lorna & Mike Taylor, they arrived on time and I transferred them to our ‘group’ hotel in the centre of Cairns where I left them with Bob Longhorn.

For dinner Dan, Gail and I went into Cairns and ate at their favourite Japanese restaurant, yummy, we were back home by 9pm and I went straight to bed.

AUSTRALIA - PRE-TOUR BIRDING - DAYS 1 to 3 Tuesday 18th - Thursday 20th

Tuesday 18th 11:25am - LONDON to SINGAPORE (13 Hours 15min) SINGAPORE to SYDNEY (6hrs 30am) - I arrived in Sydney at 7:45pm on the 19th October it was dark! Getting through customs was a doddle.

Rob Griffiths picked me up from Sydney Airport and we drove to his house in the suburb of Balmain. Rob is going to lead the New South Wales section of the forth-coming tour. Rob, Sylvie and I sat up and talked until just after 11pm and then I went to bed, I was flight-zonked and slept extremely well.

THURSDAY 20TH OCTOBER

Sydney Harbour walk then transfer flight to Cairns - birding the sea-front at Cairns

It was nice to wake up this morning to a lovely spring day, it was cloudy but a nice temp. of around 16C. A Grey Butcherbird was the first bird-call of the trip which was quickly followed by Noisy Mynahs living up to their name. A short birding session in the garden confirmed my ‘calling-list’ with sightings of both species and also Rainbow Lorikeets, how could such a beautiful and exotic looking bird be a common garden species?


Sydney harbour looking from the 'Dry Dock' area of Balmain

After breakfast Rob and I walked down to the quay at the harbour, we walked through lovely parkland and the re-developed quayside walkways with countless dog walkers and feral pigeons.

This old ‘Dry-dock’ area has a colourful history of which Rob enlightened me as we walked, interrupted only by bird sightings and calls. We added Silver Gull, Pied Cormorant, Red Wattlebird, Willie Wagtail, Australian Magpie, White Ibis, Magpie Lark, Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike, Crested Pigeon, Spotted Turtle Dove and a Koel (a migrant Cuckoo) called from the other side of the water (where we had begun our walk) so we made our way back there. The Koel moved further away as we arrived and so we missed it.


A smart looking Pied Cormorant

However, a good sighting of a pair of Laughing Kookaburras more than made up for our miss. That concluded our birding in Sydney for now. We had found 15 species most of which are very common birds in the Sydney area, it was also interesting to note that a third of them were black and white in colour.


the very common Willy Wagtail

We walked into the local High Street to do a couple of chores before walking back to the house. I packed my bags said goodbye to Sylvie, then Rob kindly drove me back to the airport to catch my 2pm flight to Cairns, it’s hard to believe that after a 3 ½ hour flight you land in the same country.


Red Wattlebird - you can just make out the red wattles on the neck and the yellow belly.


Two Laughing Kookaburras

Cairns was hot when I landed at 4pm local time (yes I changed my watch for the fourth time in a week!), I collected my hire car and drove into town, heading for the famous esplanade. The first birder I bumped into along the Esplanade was Bob Longhorn, one of the group, a very early arrival.


The very long-billed Eastern Curlew

We walked together birding as we went, the tide was just going out and a number of species were feeding on the exposed mud, birds were dotted all along the shoreline with a bigger concentration towards the northern mangrove swamp so that’s where we headed.


could have bern taken in Europe! Bar-tailed Godwit with Curlew Sandpipers

We noted Bar-tailed Godwit, Great Knot, Red-necked Stint, Grey-tailed Tattler, Curlew Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Eastern Curlew, Whimbrel, Masked Lapwing, a couple of Intermediate Egrets and lots of Silver Gulls.


A view out into the bay from Cairns Esplanade - Silver Gull, Barwits and Great Knot in the foreground

The strip of parkland between the beach and the town was crowded with people, hundreds of them, I’ve never seen so many people keeping fit, joggers, cyclists, boarders, etc etc. All them appeared oblivious to the huge number of Rainbow Lorikeets gathering in the trees above them. We walked to the mangroves noting many Willy Wagtails, Indian Mynahs, Magpie Larks, Pied Imperial Pigeons, Peaceful Doves, Olive-backed Orioles, Honeyeater sp.,


a very bad record shot in very poor light of Rainbow Lorikeets

An Australian Pelican caused a huge panic amongst the parakeet roosts as it flew very low over the parkland, what a noise and such numbers of birds, it was amazing to see. Very soon the light began to fail and in a matter of minutes it was twilight then it went dark! At 6pm we parted company I drove a few kilometers out of town to Stratford where my good friends Dan and Gail Reardon live, they are putting me up for 3 nights.

A delicious fish meal of Goldenband Snapper with a cold beer was fantastic, what a great meal, it was very enjoyable meeting Dan and Gail and Dan 'junior' again. Dan and Gail are ‘early-to-bed’, in fact we were all tucked in by 9pm!

No flights tomorrow just leisurely pre-tour birding!

SPAIN - UK a birding contrast!

During October 10th - 12th we travelled back to the UK from Andalucia, Spain. On the 10th we set off passing through a very dry Spanish hinterland, we drove from Gaucin to Bilbao, some 600 miles.

On the 11th October we woke up to a light frost!! I couldn't believe it, the temperature was 28C yesterday and below zero this morning - after scraping the ice from the windscreen of the car we completed the drive to the Bilbao Ferry Terminal.

Our trip across a very calm Bay of Biscay went uneventful, I saw a few of the common gull species but I never saw a single whale, dolphin, sunfish, shearwater.........just a couple of Northern Gannets, how disappointing was that!

Back in the UK on the 12th the weather was cloudy, around 15C but dry.
Scenes from the trip

What a contrast, from this:-

taken a few days in Southern Spain

to this - taken yesterday from my garden in Stamford

The birding scene is a little different too!

from this:


to this:



a recent twitch in the UK.

SPAIN - ANDALUCIA - 5-DAY TOUR - DAY 5 - OCTOBER 5TH 2016

ENCINAS BORRACHAS TRACK - SIERRA DE LAS NIEVES PARQUE NATURAL - GUADALMAR - GUADALHORCE PARQUE NATURAL

WEATHER: Hazy sunshine to start, quite windy am then bright sunshine and clear sky all afternoon. Top temp 28C

Our last day had arrived, it was also my last day of guiding in Spain for this year! We decided to visit the mountains in the morning and the coast near Malaga in the afternoon.

A late breakfast at 8am was followed by a 40 minute trip in the car to the Encinas Borrachas track near Ronda. It was quite windy and there was a nip in the air so on went our fleeces! A Southern Grey Shrike was first on the list followed quickly by Common Stonechat, Goldfinch and my 'favourite', the Corn Bunting.


l to r -  Chris, Nathan and Nigel

We were wind-swept along the track but the birding wasn't bad in excellent light. Many Griffon Vultures slowly drifted over, they appeared to 'hover' as they held quite still facing the easterly wind, a couple of Common Kestrels were seen over the high peaks but no other birds sat up there.
As we approached the heath we got out of the wind a little and found a few more species, several Whinchats sat up nicely for us as did a pair of Thekla Larks, we also saw Linnets, Greenfinches, Chaffinches and a few Barn Swallows dashed passed.

On the return walk we added Spectacled Warbler, one showed fairly well but briefly and a couple of butterflies were noted, Rock Grayling and Clouded Yellow.


a wind-swept Whinchat

At Sierra de las Nieves we parked at the entrance picnic site and walked to the drinking trough. A male Common Redstart showed well and a couple of Jays flew off, that was all we saw in the picnic area. At the trough we saw Cirl Bunting and Willow Warbler!

We drove a couple of kilometers into the reserve and parked at usual place in an open valley near some farm buildings, it was much better here though still windy. We had brief views of Rock Bunting and four Black Wheatears showed very well. A couple of Red-billed Chough flew up and over the nearest ridge and with patience we all got to see Dartford Warbler very well.


record shot of Black Wheatear

That concluded our morning's birding, we drove back to Gaucin for lunch, Dawn joined us as we ate in a local bar/restaurant, courtesy of our clients. We ate a lovely meal out on the terrace, smashing.
It was 3pm when we re-assembled, I had to drive Chris to Torremolinos train station so he could catch a connecting train to Malaga then onto to Madrid where he lives. We left him at 4:30pm and drove the short distance to Guadamar Golf Course. My remaining two clients, Nigel and his son Nathan, hadn't seen a Hoopoe on the trip and the golf course was the place to find one.

We parked on waste ground near the golf course and quickly found a Hoopoe! We also saw dozens of Monk Parakeets as well as Little Ringed Plover, Jackdaws, Yellow Wagtails and a few Gannets out to sea.

Greenshank


Great White Egret - my first for Guadalhorce!

For the last couple of hours we visited the nature reserve at the Guadalhorce river, it was a superb visit as we listed around 40 species. We spent our very last hour sitting in the raised hide overlooking Laguna Grande. The evening light was exquisite, Nigel's camera was working overtime!


Little Ringed and Greater Ringed Plover - see the size difference and shape?


juvenile Kentish Plover

Our sightings included; Osprey, Great White Egret, Ringed, Little Ringed & Kentish Plover, Common Snipe, Dunlin, Ruff, Greenshank, Green & Common Sandpipers, Greater Flamingo. Common Kingfisher, Great Reed Warbler (a nice and surprising find) and plenty of gulls.


a Ruff and a Reeve - the Ruff thinks its spring and is trying to 'court' the Reeve - extraordinary behaviour for October


Ruff displaying to Reeve - see the size difference between them?


the Reeve finally dumped the Ruff

Well it was soon time to go, I dropped Nigel and Nathan at Malaga Airport at 7:45pm and drove back to Gaucin arriving home just after 9pm.


a female Pintail was a nice find at Guadalhorce

It had been a wonderful few days with Chris, Nigel and Nathan with some great sightings, we couldn't agree on a 'bird of the week' but all of us had fond memories of the superb morning at Laguna Medina, it was magical!

SPAIN - ANDALUCIA - 5-DAY TOUR - DAY 4 - OCTOBER 4TH 2016

LAGUNA MEDINA - SANLUCAR 'PONDS' - BONANZA SALT PANS - LAGUNA TARELO - CHIPIONA MARINA

A great day out with some fantastic birding, we saw 96 species with TEMMINCK'S STINT (2), MARBLED DUCK (5) and LITTLE SWIFT (10+) topping the bill.

WEATHER: Clear blue sky all day, hot, dry and sunny. Max temp 35C. The good weather continues with crazy temperatures for October luckily we had a nice cool breeze for most of the afternoon.

It was a very long day with an early start and a late finish but we enjoyed every minute of it. We set off at 7am in the dark and arrived at Laguna Medina at 8:30am. We noted White Stork, Cattle Egret, Common Buzzard, Griffon Vulture, Jackdaw and Crested Lark along the way.


Sanderling - the most common bird of the day

The morning light was superb and the air was dead calm, the laguna was like a mirror flat-calm, perfect for birding. We soon had a few species on the list with Goldfinch, Zitting Cisticola, Common Stonechat, Marsh Harrier and Common Waxbill seen within a hundred meters of the car park.
The reed beds were dead-still too we found a Reed Warbler, Cetti's Warbler amd both Greenfinch & Spanish Sparrows were feeding on the ground. Not so many birds were on the water as in previous years, this is due to the large numbers of Common Carp in the water, they eat everything. We noted Mallard, Shoveler, Common Pochard, Great Crested & Little Grebes. A single Northern Pintail flew over us as we progressed slowly along the track.


record shot of Common Waxbill - an African species often kept in cages but now breeds freely in Spain

The fields around the laguna provided some nice birds too, we saw several Whinchats, Northern Wheatears, Red-legged Partridge and a single Stone Curlew. From the hide we added Eurasian Teal, Purple Swamphen, Green and Common Sandpiper, Little Egret and Grey Heron. Good views of Cetti's and Sardinian Warbler were also had, a single Spotted Flycatcher was the only flycatcher of the day. A Ferruginous Duck was a great find, it was distant but in the excellent light it showed well enough.

As we left the laguna we had much closer views of the Ferruginous Duck, a splendid male, we also found Red-crested Pochard with it.


the male Ferruginous Duck (behind the Mallard) with Common Pochard and Red-crested Pochard (top of picture)


After a coffee stop we made our way to Sanlucar adding Raven and Common Magpie to our growing day list. We visited the ponds on the north side of the town, they were superb and full of birds. White-headed Duck, Purple Swamphen and a number of waders were noted with TEMMINCK'S STINT ( two birds), being the best find. We also saw two Squacco Herons there.

We stopped to look at the banks of the River Guadalquiver just outside of Sanlucar, where we found a number of waders and two Black Terns.


Slender-billed Gulls

Bonanza salinas (salt pans) always provide an excellent array of species, in a blaze of colour, heat and dry dust we made our way to several favourable viewing points. It was just fantastic, waders, gulls, terns, flamingos, storks, heron and egrets were everywhere. We saw 20 species of wader. ​Also Great White Egrets (7), Black Stork (11), Caspian Tern (3) and hundreds of Slender-billed Gulls. The best of the wader sightings were Knot, Sanderling in their hundreds possibly thousands, Little Stints, Curlew Sandpiper, Bar & Black-tailed Godwits, Avocets and dozens of Common Shelduck.


very bad record shot of one of the two TEMMINCK'S STINTS

Osprey, Red Kite, Peregrine Falcon and Common Buzzard was all the raptors that we noted. After our picnic lunch we drove to Laguna Tarelo stopping along the way for a cold drink. The laguna was also excellent with 12 wader species, 7 species of duck and also grebes, coots, egrets, moorhens etc. The best sightings were of MARBLED DUCK (5) and White-headed Duck but we never saw a single Night Heron which is very unusual for this site. My group were flagging a bit in the heat, it was now 4pm and 35C with little breeze! So we gave up and drove to the beach at Chipiona.


Marbled Duck at laguna Tarelo

The marina at Chipiona is a regularly haunt for a large number of Ruddy Turnstones, at the moment there are about 50 but this number will increase soon, we also saw Mediterranean Gull, Audouin's Gull (our 6th species of gull on the day), a number of Northern Gannets were seen offshore and Sanderling were on the beach.

However, it was the ​LITTLE SWIFT ​ that we were there for, it took a while but we saw a dozen or so, they were extremely high up amd hard to see, some of them eventually came down to their nests to roost, a marvellous bird to finish off our birding with!


Red Knot in winter plumage, seen in good numbers at the salt pans

It was a long drive back, we arrived in Gaucin at 7:30pm, a cold beer went down extremely well with Dawn's delicous dinner. We had seen 96 species a few short of my record total for this day-tour of 106 seen back in 2005!

SPAIN - ANDALUCIA - 5-DAY TOUR - DAY 3 - OCTOBER 3RD 2016

GIBRALTAR (JEW'S GATE RINGING STATION & EUROPA POINT) - PALMONES SALT MARSH - LA JANDA - BARBATE (RIO BARBATE & MARSHES).

WEATHER: Sunshine all day with a brisk easterly wind, cloudy on Gibraltar first thing. Top temp. 28C.

We set off at 7am in the dark and got down to Gibraltar by 8:15am we noted Little Owl, White Stork, Common Buzzard and House Martin along the way. We drove straight up to Jew's Gate ringing station and arrived just as the ringing group went off to inspect their nets.

Ray Marsh, the lead ringer, was his usual charming self and gave my clients a great display of ringing and an educational talk on bird identification in the hand. His group of helpers gathered their morning's catch and supplied a running commentary whilst they ringed the captured birds.

We watched them process a number of species: Sardinian, Garden & Willow Warblers, Blackcap, Common Chiffchaff, European Robin, Common Redstart and they saved the best until last when Ray brought out a COMMON NIGHTJAR, what a beautiful bird that was to see.


Common Nightjar in the hand at Jew's Gate bird ringing station


From there we drove down to Europa Point where we looked out into the Strait of Gibraltar to look for sea-birds. We noticed dozens of Cory's Shearwaters, they were following huge pods of Common Dolphins and were joined by Northern Gannets and lots of Yellow-legged Gulls.


Cory's Shearwaters in the morning light off Europa Point

A couple of sightings of European Shag were made before we made our way back off the 'island'. We made a quick stop along the east 'slope' to look for land species but only found Common Kestrel and Blue Rock Thrush.


Palmones river and salt marsh

Next we drove to Palmones Salt Marsh where we scanned the river and marsh from the 'promenade' A number of waders were seen but generally there was far too much human disturbance to encourage birds to roost, especially gulls and terns. We noted Ringed Plover, Redshank, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, Whimbrel, Eurasian Spoonbill, Grey Heron and not much else.

At La Janda we had a great time despite a very strong easterly wind. The PECTORAL SANDPIPER was still there and birds numbers in general were still very high. In the flooded rice fields we found Common Snipe, Little Ringed and Common Ringed Plovers, Redshank, Wood & Green Sandpipers and the Pectoral Sandpiper which showed very well.


record shot of the Pectoral Sandpiper

Huge numbers of Glossy Ibis, White Storks, Cattle & Little Egrets, Jackdaws, Wood Pigeons, Goldfinches and both House and Spanish Sparrows covered the area, the sky was full of moving birds. Marsh Harrier numbers were also good and we found 9 Lesser Kestrels, 2 Common Ravens, Zitting Cisticola, Common Stonechat, Corn Bunting and Greenfinches.

We dragged ourselves away after watching a tremendous movement of around 1,000 White Storks, some of them landed behind a pool which held dozens of Black-winged Stilts. We then visited two places in Barbate, the first was the river at the site where the bridge spans the water. It was just reaching high tide as we arrived, so many birds were just roosting on posts or near to the water's edge. We found Audouin's Gulls, Redshanks and Greenshanks, Black-winged Stilts, Sandwich Terns, Cormorants and the three common species of gulls, Black-headed, Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed. We also watched two Ospreys fishing upriver in the distance.

Our final venue was the open lagoons on the reclaimed land now c​alled Barbate Marshes, we saw a nice selection of waders, lots of Audouin's Gulls and to our great delight 3 Caspian Terns flew over the water just before we left. There was no sighting of the BALD IBIS which can usually be found along the approach track.

We arrived home just after 7pm and Dawn served us a superb chicken dinner at 8pm washed down with nice cold beers and a glass of wine.

SPAIN - ANDALUCIA - 5-DAY TOUR - DAY 2 - OCTOBER 2ND 2016

GAUCIN SWEET CHESTNUT WOODS - MARCHENILLA TRACK - RIO HOZGARGANTE - SAN ENRIQUE WOODS - SOTO GRANDE BREAKWATER -LAGUNA TORRE GUADIARO -RIO GUADIARO VALLEY (SECADERO TO CASARES)

WEATHER:  clear blue sky all day, bright hot & sunny. Top temp 30C.

The warm weather returned after a cooler spell and we revelled in warm sunshine all day, marvellous! We drove up to the Chestnut woods and found the gate padlocked! A sign on the gate said no entry and it is strickly forbidden to pick the chestnuts! That didn't stop four intrepid birders from climbing the fence and enjoying a bit of birding.

We found Firecrest relatively easy but other species were few and far between, Blue Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, European Robin, Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Eurasian Spartowhawk was all.


the first section of the Marchenilla Track

We next went down the valley to San Pablo and onto to the Marchenilla track which was covered in birds as usual. Hordes of Common and Spotless Starlings sat on the power lines with Collared Doves, Greenfinches and Corn Buntings, whilst flocks of House & Spanish Sparrows were joined by Goldfinches, Serins and Linnets in the hedgerows and scrub. We also noted Zitting Cisticola and Blackcaps in the bushes and open fields of alfalfa.


Willow Warbler

I've never seen so many Common Stonechats they were everywhere, we also noted a good number of Sardinian Warblers and Willow Warblers feeding on insects in the giant fennel. Many Barn & Red-rumped Swallows together with House Martins passed overhead and once the air temperature warmed up a few raptors appeared. We saw Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel on pylons and Short-toed Eagles & Griffon Vultures riding the thermals. Later another 10+ Short-toed Eagles passed over with 6 Booted Eagles.

As we made our way up to the top of the track and over the hill we added Southern Grey Shrike to the list and a Little Owl.


Little Owl

A short stop at the nearly-dry Rio Hozgargante produced a few sightings, Willow Warbler and Common Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Cetti's Warbler, Blue Tit, European Robin and Blackbird were all seen coming down to a pool of water to drink.

We ate our picnic lunch before taking a short walk to look for more water, when we found it we added Grey Heron and a possible Common Sandpiper to the list and two of us had great views of another Firecrest.

After a quick stop for coffee we went to San Enrique Woods which seemed very quiet. Monarch Butterflies proved more popular than birds and were definitely more abundant. We found Spotted & Pied Flycatchers, Jay, Willow Warbler and not much else.


Monarch Butterfly

Soto Grande marina and breakwater offered a nice cooling relief from the 30C in the woods, the sea breeze was much appreciated. We watched a large 'raft' of Cory's Shearwaters, a few Northern Gannets and the odd Yellow-legged Gull before we drove to the Laguna at Torreguadiaro.


A view of Gibraltar and Morocco from the breakwater at Soto Grande
The access to the laguna was no-existent as usual and an attempt to make a break in the giant pampas that blocked our view proved futile. We noted Common Coot, Common Moorhen, Little Grebe and Mallard.

We spent the last hour of the afternoon at the Ruo Guadiaro where many Spanish families were enjoying Sunday afternoon picnics so not many birds were present. We saw Little Egrets, Grey Herons, White Wagtail and a distant Green Sandpiper. We left pretty soon after we arrived and apart from a very quick stop at Sierra Crestellina, where we watched dozens of Griffon Vultures, that was it!

A cold beer on the top terrace before a delicous dinner of calallera (pig's cheeks), finished off our day.

SPAIN - ANDALUCIA - 6-DAY TOUR - DAY 6 - SEPT 30TH 2016

MONTEJAQUE - LLANOS DE LIBAR

WEATHER:  a perfectly still morning, such a contrast to yesterday, the sun rose into a clear orange sky as we left the village and then it turned into a beautiful blue as we  entered the mountains.

This was our last day and we only had the morning hours in which to go birding. It took 45 minutes to drive to the 'hidden valley' behind the beautiful white village of Montejaque. The weather was perfect for birding and the birding was perfect for us! We quickly found Blue Rock Thrush, Rock Sparrow and Black Redstart. Many Griffon Vultures drifted over the high peaks in a clear blue sky, the light was magical at this time.


on the track in the Llanos de Libar

As we walked along the track deeper into the Llanos de Libar we made slow progress because bird sightings were so numerous. We added Black Wheatear, Red-billed Chough, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and lots of Linnets, Goldfinches and Stonechats to our list. We spent a good deal of time watching the impressive number of Griffon Vultures and to our great delight we found a Bonelli's Eagle. The eagle showed for a brief time at first but later we had prolonged views.


Not a scene from ET! We were being watched by Spanish Ibex

A watering  trough was the centre of our attention for quite a while, both Cirl and Rock Buntings were visiting for a midday drink along with Goldfinches, Black Redstarts, a Grey Wagtail and a Blue Rock Thrush. Many Sardinian Warblers flitted about in the bushes, we saw a couple of Wrens which were the first sightings of this species during this trip!


Rock Sparrow

The Spanish Ibex was another species encountered on the mountain peaks, several fed or sat and watched us. All too soon it was time to walk back to the bus. We had much better sightings of Rock Bunting near the bus and Black Redstarts seemed to be everywhere especially males in their superb summer plumage.

After a nice cooked lunch back at the house and a couple of hours of relaxation we set off for Malaga Airport leaving Gaucin for the last time. I dropped Les, Carol, Patrick, Peggy, Zowie and David at the airport at 7pm. I returned the bus, picked up my car and drove home alone! Back at Gaucin by 9pm - a cold beer please!!

It had been a great week of relaxed birding with the rarity finds especially exciting. The PALLID HARRIER was voted bird of the week and deservedly so. I personally like waders and to find a PECTORAL SANDPIPER was equally as good for me (this bird had been around for a few days when we 'found' it, but we didn't know of it, so it was truly a find for us).