Saturday 28 December 2013, Gaucin, mostly sunny, light NW wind, 13C

Very little to report birdwise over the Christmas period. The predominant W-NW winds brought the tail-end of the weather systems that hit the UK over the southern Iberian peninsular; overnight on the 24th there were gale-force 9 winds and 54L/m2 rain fell; last night another front passed over and deposited 13L/m2. Yesterday morning there were 4 Spanish Ibex along the Ronda-Algeciras road, just by the spring beyond the 'Brenaverde/Mirador' restaurant; two youngsters were on the far side of the road but an adult male and an adult female waited until I was no more than 10m from them before casually crossing the road to join the others. A short afternoon walk through the woods behind the petrol station produced Firecrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Eurasian Nuthatch; Green Woodpecker and Chiffchaff sp. were heard.