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Friday 25 May, mostly sunny, light W wind, 32C: Today we visited the wonderful Monfrague national park north of Trujillo and were treated to some superb birds. Starting at the Castillo we quickly picked up one of our target birds, White-rumped Swift which is one of the rarest birds in Spain; also seen were Black Vulture, Egyptian Vulture and Griffon Vulture (at one point, all three in one view), Black Kite, Raven, Black Stork, Great Cormorant, Blue Rock Thrush, Black Redstart, Crag Martin, Red-rumped Swallow and Hawfinch. Moving on to Salto del Gitano (Gypsy's Leap), we saw more Black Vulture and Egyptian Vulture before getting great views of a sub-adult Golden Eagle - worth the trip just for that. In this area we also logged Peregrine, Alpine Swift, Black Wheatear and Rock Bunting. During the, very hot, afternoon we looked for Eagle Owl on the cliff face at Portillo de Tiata but none showed; we did, however, see a Spanish Imperial Eagle on it's nest and later, in the oak woods there were Woodchat Shrike, Turtle Dove, Hoopoe, Coal Tit, Short-toed Treecreeper, Spanish Sparrow and, best of all, an Orphean Warbler singing and showing well at the top of a tree. We considered going in search of Great-spotted Cuckoo but with no let up in the heat opted for ice-creams and a return to Finca Santa Marta. What a great day!

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