SEPTEMBER 29TH - DAY TOUR - GAUCIN-CORTES-MONTEJAQUE- BENAOJAN

John & Karen drove up to Gaucin from the coast and we met just outside the village at 8:40. It was a cloudless morning with a little chill in the air but there was not a stir of wind.

We drove the short distance to Estacion de Cortes and visited one of my favourite spots along the river Guadiaro. It was superb, the sun was coming up over the hills, the air was still and the light was fantastic. We found White and Grey Wagtails on the river, Spotted & Pied Flycatchers were feeding from perches on the Cork Oaks. Large flocks of Goldfinches, Chaffinches and Serins fed on seed in the dry fields and they were joined by a few Cirl Buntings.

Further along the river we found a couple of very obliging Great Spotted Woodpeckers and at the weir we watched a family party of Kingfishers, 5 of them were in view, we also watched a small flock of Rock Sparrows which frequented their usual place near the railway track. Other birds came and went, Stonechats were common, A Cetti's Warbler sang frequently and flocks of Spotless Starlings sat on the telephone wires. as we walked back to the car we added Corn Bunting, Grey Heron, Short-toed Eagle, a flock of some 12 Long-tailed Tits and Nuthatch to our sightings.

We headed up the valley making a couple of stops near Benaojan, one stop produced a bunch of Blue Rock Thrushes (4) and a terrific low flying Bonelli's Eagle (juv) that circled right above showing all its markings to us. Griffon Vultures began to appear as the air warmed. A quick coffee stop at Montejaque was followed by a walk
along a quiet track just north of the town. The terrain was rugged with scattered rocks and bushes some open farmland and huge limestone pinnacles stretched some 100 meters above us. We quickly found several Black Wheatears, we had a brief glimpse of a Rock bunting and more Blue Rock Thrushes appeared.

Our next stop was to eat our picnic lunch whilst over looking a picturesque limestone gorge. A couple of Ravens flew over and the usual Black Wheatear, Blue Rock Thrush and Girffon Vultures were always present.

A short walk after lunch produced Black Redstart, Crag Martin and not much else. We then drove a couple of k's to visit a cork oak forest. We found Nuthatch, lots of Flycatchers and had good views of Red Deer, the Stags were calling in the distance, sounding like foghorns, rutting season is upon us.

We walked from the forest to overlook some field and hedgerows and had an unexpected find of an Ortolan Bunting, we also saw Sardinian Warbler, Cirl Bunting, Great Tit and more White Wagtails.
Our last official stop was The Cueva de Gato, the cave of the cat! Don't ask me! Anyway we were thrilled with the scenery and in the car park lots of fig trees were bearing fruit and many Blackcaps and Garden Warblers were enjoying the figs. A Chifffchaff or two fed on the insects and we devoured a couple of figs too.

The entrance to the cave is simply divine, one of the most picturesque sights in the whole of Andaulcia.

A perfect crystal-clear stream gushes out of the cave and cascades into a lovely deep pool. The water is turquoise blue in colour which comes from the limestone mineral content.
The water is also very cold but it is terrific in the hot summer months to bathe in, it was hot enough to jump in today! Pehaps if the mother-in-law was here I might have pushed her in to cool her down!

We stopped on the return journey but failed to add anything new to our day list. We went back to our house for a coffee on the terrace in the evening sunshine, very pleased with a lovely day out with fantastic weather, John picked out another Blue Rock Thrush that sat on the castle wall behind us! You can never tire of looking at the same species time and time again, can you?

September 26th - Sierra Crestellina

I spent 2 hours looking at Crestellina from the roadside this morning whilst Dawn went to the market in Sabinillas. It was dull and overcast, 18C with bouts of light rain. Not ideal conditions for raptor watching! My observations were as follows:

Griffon Vulture 20, many of them perched, looking miserable in the rain
Sparrowhawk 4 sightings
Common Kestrel 2
Short-toed Eagle 2,
Booted Eagle 4, both of these last two species were seen in the Genal Valley away from Crestellina
Blue Rock Thrush 2

There was no sign of the pair of Bonelli's Eagles but I did locate their eyrie for future reference!

Lesvos - 2011

We are now taking bookings for our tours of Lesvos during April/May 2011.

This beautiful island is a real gem it has fantastic scenery, lovely people, terrific wildlife and a great variety of habitats.

WATCH OUR SLIDE SHOW OF SOME OF THE BIRDS YOU MAY SEE ON LESVOS DURING OUR 2011 VISITS

Our tours coincide with the peak migration when thousands of birds stop off on the island on their way to north-eastern Europe and Russia.

we often record over 160 species during our stay which includes many European colourful gems such as Roller, Bee-eater, Hoopoe, Golden Oriole & Masked Shrike.

Tour dates for 2011 are Saturday April 23rd - 30th and saturday April 30th - May 7th. We stay at the lovely Pasiphae Hotel situated in the heart of the island and at the hub of all bird-watching outings.

For full details of the tour visit http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/sevendaytour-lesvos.asp

Our prices are very competitive,we charge £850 + flights of around £150 - £180 you will fly on the same aeroplanes, stay in the same hotel. eat the same food and travel in the same type of mini-buses as many of our competitors, yet you will pay up £500 less!!!

For past trip reports click here http://www.wingspanbirdtours.com/trip-reports.asp

SEPTEMBER 23RD - DAY TOUR - GAUCIN-JIMENA-PALMONES

Thick dark clouds,showers of rain, poor light, they all tried to ruin our day but failed miserably.

George & Viviane are staying with us in one of our apartments and booked a day tour with me, they wanted to watch raptor migration at the coast but the weather put a stop to that, however we had a great day, enjoying every minute between the showers.

We started at Gaucin and drove along the A405 towards Jimena, a couple of stops in quiet country tracks produced a variety of species and as George & Viv are new to bird-watching we concentrated on the common species. Spotless Starlings, Stonechat, Corn Bunting, Sardinian Warbler & Common Kestrel were our first birds.

At Jimena we added Little Owl, Zitting Cisticola, Red-rumped Swallow and lots more Corn Buntings. It began to rain so we moved down to the coast, we stopped to admire the White stork colony around Castellar and then visited the salt marshes of Palmones. In brighter weather (although we could hardly see the usually very visible Gibraltar)we watched a good number of birds in this excellent river estuary. The tide was low and about to turn so there were many birds on the muddy banks. Ringed Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Redshank, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Avocet, Kentish Plover, Common Sandpiper and Greenshank were slowly picked out in turn for my clients. The bigger, easier birds to identify were Spoonbill, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Marsh Harrier and to the delight of my two companions, 3 Ospreys were perched on various posts in the marsh.




The large sandbank near the beach held good numbers of terns and gulls, Sandwich (50+), Little & Common Terns were joined by Black-headed, Mediterranean, Lesser black-backed and yellow-legged Gulls.

We drove round to the Algeciras side of the marsh and decided to take our picnic lunch in the raised hide. We spent a lovely hour in failing light and watched Oystercatcher, Black-winged Stilt, Grey Plover, Grey Heron (46), White Stork (8) and we were closer to the Ospreys which did fly around but never tried to catch a fish. On the way back to the car we found Common Whitethroat and a few House Martins, it began to rain!

We set off to the east as the rain came in from the west and after 15 minutes we arrived at a dry San Enrique. We stopped at my Tree Sparrow site and quickly found them. The small sewer works nearby attracted many insects and likewise many birds. We had good views of Pied & spotted Flycatchers and Chiffchaff. A fig tree laden with fruit attracted both Blackcaps and Garden Warblers both of which were devouring ripe figs. The sky suddenly got lighter and the air warmed up this encouraged a number of Booted eagles to take to the air. They were joined by Honey Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. We found two Booted Eagles perched in a dead tree but the rain came back and forced us to move on.

A short drive into Soto Grande found us at the beach nature reserve where we logged Northern Gannet, Common Coot, Moorhen and a juvenile Night Heron. Then it started to rain... again. Now we headed back to the west and drove through the rain to arrive at the pine woods at Pinar del Rey. In relatively dry conditions we walked the woods and found very little, Jay, Great spotted Woodpecker, & Great Tit, but the highlight has to a swarm of Booted Eagles above the wood, they were joined by a single Black kite.

We set off for home but made one last stop at Sierra Crestellina near Casares where enjoyed our best sighting of the day. A fair number of Griffon Vultures drifted in and out of the cloud. We watched Crested Lark, Cirl Buntings, a Woodchat Shrike and several Stonechats before the cloud cleared from the mountain summit. Then a large group of vultures took to the air and circled above us, then we noticed two smaller birds in amongst them, they were adult Bonelli's Eagles! We spent 30 minutes watching them as they drifted, perched, dived bombed and harassed the vultures. A great bird to end the day with and I'm not sure that my clients fully understood my great excitement at seeing the eagles!

Despite the rain and poor light conditions we found just under 70 species!

September 21st - mid-afternon 2-3pm

An hour spent on my top terrace produced the following:

Booted Eagle 19
Short-toed Eagle 2
Honey Buzzard 6
Griffon Vulture 8

I haven't seen or heard a Bee-eater for the last week, so alas, it looks as though they have all gone, bring on the spring!


360 view from my terrace is shown in the video below video made today at 2pm

SEPTEMBER 19TH - DAY TOUR - Rio Guadiaro Valley

Graham & Eric were my clients for today, they are spending a birding holiday on the coast at Tarifa for the RAPTOR migration. They booked a day with me so that I could show them woodland and montane species.

We met at 8am near San Roque and quickly logged White Stork and Little Owl, the storks were standing on nests and pylons waiting for the daylight to start their day and the owl sat on a pole calling to its mate and getting ready for bed.

We drove the short distance to Pinar del Rey, a large area of Stone Pine with some Eucalyptus and Plane trees. We found several good species but found it difficult to obtain great views as they spent most of their time in the canopy. Firecrest & Crested Tit were two such species but Spotted Flycatcher, Jay, Blackcap, Chiffchaff & Blue Tit were a little more obliging. A Great Spotted Woodpecker called several times but didn't appear and a couple of Ravens flew over the woods as we were returning to the car.

Moving inland the dull clouds began to disperse and the light improved dramatically we stopped just outside of the village of Jimena de la Frontera where we added Zitting Cisticola, Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle, Common Buzzard & Corn Bunting.

As we moved further up the valley we stopped at the river side near Estacion de Cortes, a long walk produced a short list which included 3 Wagtails, Grey, White & Yellow, Cetti's Warbler, Kingfisher, Firecrest, Sardinian Warbler, Pallid Swift, Red-rumped Swallow and a Pied Flycatcher.

Passing through Benaojan we stopped on the road side to watch Blue Rock Thrush, Booted Eagle and a brief glimpse of a Black Wheatear. On a track just above Monejaque we watched a couple of fairly close Black Wheatears and spent some time tracking down a few other passerines such as Common Redstart, Willow Warbler and a short glimpse of a Subalpine Warbler.

During our lunch stop we were entertained by 3 Blue Rock Thrushes chasing one-another all over the place, we heard a fourth singing in the gorge. A couple of Crag martins flew around us and we tracked down a couple of Black Redstarts.

Our last venue of the outward journey found us in a cork oak woodland at the head of the valley, we stayed for an hour or so in quite hot sunshine. We logged Short-toed Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Dartford Warbler and a few other common species.

We drove our way back to San Roque stopping once or twice to look at raptors and we added our last species of the day No. 62 a Cirl Bunting near Castellar

SEPTEMBER 18TH - DAY TOUR Laguna Medina, Bonanza, Trebujena

What a superb day's birding we had today, the mother-in-law had gone and I was relaxed and refreshed! We totaled 106 species and in the process added some great sightings, we visited some great venues and have memories that we will treasure for a long time.



I collected Richard, Kieran, Darren & Craig from Duquesa at 7:30am, they are staying in our holiday apartment for 3 nights. We had a quick cup of coffee and whilst on the terrace drinking it we notched our first bird, in fact two of them, Blue Rock Thrushes (shown below)! A Great start.


We drove towards Jerez and made a quick stop at San Enrique so that I could show the lads my Tree Sparrow site. The birds turned up on cue and so did an Osprey we also saw Blackcap, Chiffchaff & Common Kestrel.

Making our way to Laguna Medina we stopped several times to watch several species, mainly birds of prey, Booted Eagle, Lesser Kestrel, Common Buzzard, Short-toed Eagle. We also saw a flock of 14 Ravens, many Jackdaws and loads of Red-legged Partridges.

At the laguna Medina we got into the duck flock of some 2-3000 birds!! Mainly Common Coot but also Shoveler, Common & Red-Crested Pochard, White-headed Duck, Gadwall, there were 3 Grebe species, Black-necked, Little & Great Crested, Black-winged Stilt, lots of Little & Cattle Egrets, Squacco herons, Night Herons and a couple of Black Terns were milling about. A Marsh Harrier hunted in the distance and Booted Eagles circled above us. Along the walk to the hide we found several passerines, Common Redstart, Spotted Flycatcher, Cetti's Warbler, Zitting Cisticola, Chiffchaff & in the field behind the reserve we found a flock of some 15 Stone Curlews, Crested Lark, Black-eared Wheatear & more Partridges.


Driving towards Sanlucar we stopped at the municipal dump, not to savour the smell but to watch hundreds of White Storks, Gulls & Jackdaws feeding in the muck or roosting on the roof of the shorting shed!



Next stop was on the bank of the mighty Rio Guadalquiver just outside of Sanlucar. We notched a Peregrine, lots of Booted Eagles, Common Sandpiper, Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit & Audouin's Gull. The next venue was the best of the day, the Salt Pans at Bonanza, they were packed with birds of many species.



What a great time we had at the pans, we ate our lunch whilst digesting the shear numbers of birds. One pan alone held 400 Avocet with 300 Black-tailed Godwits!

There were hundred of Black-winged Stilts, Dunlin, Sanderling, Little Stint, Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Curlew Sandpiper....the wader list goes on we logged 22 species of waders throughout the day.



Other good birds included Osprey, Red Kite, Peregrine, Black Stork, Spoonbill, Glossy Ibis, Slender-billed Gull, Caspian Tern (3), a couple of thousand Greater Flamingos, phew I need a rest........

We dragged ourselves away from the terrific salt pans and visited the small laguna Tarelo just outside of the woods at Algaida. We clocked a couple of new species for the day; Purple Swamphen and a small flock of Common Waxbills! What a nice surprise these little beauties were. we also found a very large Chameleon, the biggest one I have ever seen and a beautiful beast at that. We also saw more White-headed Ducks, several more Night Herons, lots of Shoveler and Pochards.

Driving through the pine woods at Algaida we stopped a few times to look for Azure-winged Magpie but we were driven back by ferocious mosquitos! we found a few flycatchers including Pied but not much else.

Our last stop was also very interesting as we searched the marshes and open lagunas of Trebujena. The star bird here was Marbled Duck, found after quite a search but we saw 9 of them in the end and very well. But most impressive was the number of greenshank (30), black-winged Stilt (300), Mallard (53) and a single Garganey (male in eclipse). Several Yellow Wagtails flitted about and a lone Whinchat was found on a fence wire.

It was now getting late afternoon and ahead of us was a long drive back so we set off via the ice-cream shop.

We added Griffon Vulture on the way home and that ended our fantastic day tour, we arrived home at 7pm well satisfied with our day's birding and fantastic tally.

September 17th - Guadalhorce nature Reserve.

The mother-in-law has gone, long live the mother-in-law! I dropped her off at Malaga Airport this morning at 10:15am, bless. As soon as she has got out of the car I was on way to the Guadalhorce reserve just 5 minutes from the airport.

The weather has turned, autumn is here. we had an electrifying thunderstorm at 4am in Gaucin and it had followed me to Malaga, I could see the clouds gathering in the hills. I parked up and set off into the park via the beach. I love this place there is always a good number of species to see in a variety of habitats.

My first birds as usual were the noisy Monk Parakeets small groups flew here there and everywhere. Little Egret, Common Kestrel, Melodious Warbler, Hoopoe, Northern Wheatear, Crested Lark, Marsh Harrier were all seen on the way to the first hide at Laguna Grande. From the hide there were surprisingly few species, Knot, Little Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Common Sandpiper, Kingfisher, Chiffchaff, Zitting Cisticola, Short-toed Eagle & a Peregrine.

A short walk to the next hide, which overlooks Laguna Escondida, got me a soaking, big thunder-spots slapped my face driven at me by a strong wind. By the time I reached the hide the rain had stopped, Murphy's Law I think. From the shelter of the hide I logged Gadwall, Pochard, White-headed Duck, Shoveler, Little Grebe and a glimpse of a Black-headed Weaver, these escaped birds originate from Sub-Sahara Africa and are now breeding here.

The third hide didn't produce much except a meeting with Roger who accompanied me for the rest of the walk. Four eyes are better than two, we added Black-tailed Godwit, Common Snipe, Spoonbill (3), Redshank, Common Teal, another Kingfisher, Kentish and Ringed Plover. The storm seemed to be passing to the north and we had spectacular views of the lightening striking various parts of Malaga (see attached movie).

We walked to the beach-stand for sea-watching and found Mediterranean Gull, Northern Gannet, Balearic Shearwater and a small pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins. To complete my circular walk we set off along the beach and turned north back to the first hide. The rain began to come down again, a Whimbrel flew over us and landed in the marsh and we legged it fast to the hide.

A pleasant hour was spent watching the various waders feeding, we added Yellow Wagtail and watched several Honey Buzzards drift down the coastline before we had an aerial display of a Peregrine dive bombing the local Marsh Harrier! The rain stopped and I set off back to the car whilst Roger went to look from another hide.

Tree Sparrow - Andalucia - Spain

September 16th - San Enrique & Soto Grande

I took my wife, Dawn and The-mother-in-law to a garden centre in San Enrique which happen to be next door to a good birding place where last week I saw a small flock of Tree Sparrows. It was a dull morning, an overcast sky and there was a light shower of rain. After dropping off my fare I shot round to the woods at San Enrique and within minutes I was digi-filming the Sparrows, result. I also saw several Chiffchaff, a Common Redstart (fem), Spotted Flycatcher, Booted Eagle (5).

We then all drove to our apartment on the coast at Manilva and ate our lunch whilst waiting for a group of 4 birders who were due to arrive at 2pm for a four-day self-guided visit.

They duly arrived and within minutes we were all back in the cars heading for their first birding excursion. I had a 'pass-out' for a couple hours in order to get the lads started on their birding quest. We drove the short distance to Laguna Camelias at Torreguadiaro and took the boardwalk to the beach area.

What a great choice of venue because within minutes we had logged: Monk Parakeet, Zitting Cisticola, Whinchat (2), Little Bittern (2), Red-rumped Swallow (20+), Crested Lark, Melodious Warbler and our star bird a Spectacled Warbler. In the distant sky we logged Short-toed Eagle, Honey Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and several flocks of Spotless Starling.

I guided the guys to their next destination, the natural park at Soto Grande, but sadly I had to leave them to it and set off for home with the mother-in-law in tow!