Day 5 - Monday 6th April: A day in Grazalema
RG - A day in the mountains of the spectacular Sierra Grazelema. The first stop at Villa Lengua Rosario near Ubrique, beneath high cliffs, produced two Blue Rock Thrushes and my first Black Wheatears, one of which was seen quite near. A distant Egyptian Vulture was with some soaring Griffons. Moving on towards Grazelema we stopped at a place where John had seen Southern Grey Shrike in February- and within very few minutes one was seen on wires. It soon vanished then reappeared a bit later on the other side of the road showing well. Underparts much pinker than the pure white of the Great Grey, and white supercilia met above the bill. It was also being watched by some friendly but not very experienced French birders - one of them seemed to think the Shrike was a Blackcap! The real mountains were next reached, the magnificent Llanos de Libar above Montejaque. Here we stopped in a dramatic valley and immediately had stunning close-up views of a Rock Bunting, and less close ones of a flock of Rock Sparrows - there must have been about 25 of them all told. A bit higher up an Orphean Warbler was singing a beautiful mellifluous song. A walk in a high level meadow for butterflies only produced a "helice" Clouded Yellow, but here we had our only Subalpine Warblers of the week, the attractive male giving very good views, while a Firecrest also appeared briefly. A Short-toed Treecreeper called from a stunted pine. Other birds up in this tremendous valley were c5 Bonelli's Warblers, c30 Alpine Swifts flying very high, a Black-eared Wheatear, about 4 Black Wheatears and a singing Cirl Bunting, as well as another close but brief view of the attractive Rock Bunting. Of the raptors we had 2 Short-toed Eagles and a Booted Eagle, and, at a place John had seen it before, a superb Bonelli's Eagle. It was first seen perched high on top of a crag, not far from a similarly perched Short-toed, then it flew much closer to us - a really charismatic bird. It soared up into the sunshine, another bird joining it before both flew off. The bird of a splendid day.
Returning home we stopped first at Bornos Reservoir where there were a Purple Heron and 2 Spoonbills before pushing on to the Lagunas de Espera. At Espera lagoons (which reminded me of the Cotswold Water Park) there was an "observatorio blanco" which was really cool to sit in, but from which no birds could actually be seen. (I didn’t realise that the Cotswold Water Park had so many exotic species in addition to Red-crested Pochard! - JC) On the last pool we found a couple of Crested Coots, a declining species locally, together with a male White-headed Duck, 6 Black-necked Grebes, a Marsh Harrier and a Purple Gallinule. Also here was a Mongoose, running across the road in front of us as we approached the reserve. Insects included a Spanish Festoon, another "helice" Clouded Yellow, and a surprising number of dragonflies - Lesser Emperors, considerably smaller than Emperors, and Scarlet Dragonflies (both rarities in Britain.)
Finally, at Arcos de la Frontera, there were more Pallid Swifts than we had seen so far, about 100 or so, together with c30 Lesser Kestrels, and, on the way home, another Booted Eagle.
JC - I thought the inner tourist in Robin would enjoy this spectacular town – personally I enjoyed the superb croissants we bought here even more.
RG - A day in the mountains of the spectacular Sierra Grazelema. The first stop at Villa Lengua Rosario near Ubrique, beneath high cliffs, produced two Blue Rock Thrushes and my first Black Wheatears, one of which was seen quite near. A distant Egyptian Vulture was with some soaring Griffons. Moving on towards Grazelema we stopped at a place where John had seen Southern Grey Shrike in February- and within very few minutes one was seen on wires. It soon vanished then reappeared a bit later on the other side of the road showing well. Underparts much pinker than the pure white of the Great Grey, and white supercilia met above the bill. It was also being watched by some friendly but not very experienced French birders - one of them seemed to think the Shrike was a Blackcap! The real mountains were next reached, the magnificent Llanos de Libar above Montejaque. Here we stopped in a dramatic valley and immediately had stunning close-up views of a Rock Bunting, and less close ones of a flock of Rock Sparrows - there must have been about 25 of them all told. A bit higher up an Orphean Warbler was singing a beautiful mellifluous song. A walk in a high level meadow for butterflies only produced a "helice" Clouded Yellow, but here we had our only Subalpine Warblers of the week, the attractive male giving very good views, while a Firecrest also appeared briefly. A Short-toed Treecreeper called from a stunted pine. Other birds up in this tremendous valley were c5 Bonelli's Warblers, c30 Alpine Swifts flying very high, a Black-eared Wheatear, about 4 Black Wheatears and a singing Cirl Bunting, as well as another close but brief view of the attractive Rock Bunting. Of the raptors we had 2 Short-toed Eagles and a Booted Eagle, and, at a place John had seen it before, a superb Bonelli's Eagle. It was first seen perched high on top of a crag, not far from a similarly perched Short-toed, then it flew much closer to us - a really charismatic bird. It soared up into the sunshine, another bird joining it before both flew off. The bird of a splendid day.
Returning home we stopped first at Bornos Reservoir where there were a Purple Heron and 2 Spoonbills before pushing on to the Lagunas de Espera. At Espera lagoons (which reminded me of the Cotswold Water Park) there was an "observatorio blanco" which was really cool to sit in, but from which no birds could actually be seen. (I didn’t realise that the Cotswold Water Park had so many exotic species in addition to Red-crested Pochard! - JC) On the last pool we found a couple of Crested Coots, a declining species locally, together with a male White-headed Duck, 6 Black-necked Grebes, a Marsh Harrier and a Purple Gallinule. Also here was a Mongoose, running across the road in front of us as we approached the reserve. Insects included a Spanish Festoon, another "helice" Clouded Yellow, and a surprising number of dragonflies - Lesser Emperors, considerably smaller than Emperors, and Scarlet Dragonflies (both rarities in Britain.)
Finally, at Arcos de la Frontera, there were more Pallid Swifts than we had seen so far, about 100 or so, together with c30 Lesser Kestrels, and, on the way home, another Booted Eagle.
JC - I thought the inner tourist in Robin would enjoy this spectacular town – personally I enjoyed the superb croissants we bought here even more.
Day 6 - Tuesday 7th April: A Bridge too far
En route to Cape Trafalgar a Barn Owl flew over. At the cape sea-watching was not productive, the only birds of real interest being two Slender-billed Gulls, the rest were fairly normal "British" species. Broomrapes were everywhere in the dunes. Large display boards described the battle fought here two hundred years ago. The estuary at Barbate was also a disappointment, but in the woods here, planted to stabilise the largest dune in Europe, we had intimate views of a Short-toed Treecreeper, and there were some interesting orchids - Sombre Bee Orchid and Mirror Orchid. At the observatory at Playa de las Lances things began to look up on the birding front - a fairly distant Audouin's Gull was put up by some walkers before we could get a good view, but then, within a few minutes, first a group of Kentish Plovers appeared on grass behind the hide, then we saw a Collared Pratincole with them, a brilliant close view of it on the ground, then when it flew off calling, another Audouin's Gull flew right over the hide, near enough for me to see its blood-red "lipstick" bill. A distant Black-winged Stilt and about 70 Sanderlings in front of the hide completed the list.
At the second visit to La Janda ( a different area of this vast drained marshland) our luck was still in. We had intimate views of Bee-eaters ( the first actually seen perched, despite the fact we had seen migrants virtually everywhere we went), and there were 3+ Spoonbills, c4 Black-winged Stilts, c7 Purple Gallinules and a Gull-billed Tern. Raptors were the main interest - a female Hen Harrier, 3 Marsh Harriers, 2 Short-toed and a Booted Eagle and a magnificent juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle, distant but distinctive, the largest eagle of the week! More raptors were seen near Embalse de Barbate - a Booted and c4 Short-toed Eagles, with about 10 Bee-eaters.
JC - In the absence of the restraining hand of my “other half” I’d decided to attempt the perilous Benalup-Fascinas track in the hope, a vain one as it turned out, of getting Little Bustard. In parts it was certainly more trough than track and required very careful driving. Unfortunately after 9-10 km of corrugated motoring, we came to a concrete bridge the other side of which was a small 3-D display evidently commemorating trench warfare; I decided that, having got SIE ‘in the bag’ to go no further!
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