Thursday 11 April, Gaucin, mostly sunny, light-fresh N-NW wind, 20C

A mid-day walk to Punta Umbria produced the following sightings: Griffon Vulture, 2 dark morph, 1 pale morph Booted Eagle, Sparrowhawk, Raven, Red-billed Chough (over El Hacho), European Bee-eater, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Jay, Crested Tit and Firecrest; two Common Cuckoo heard. Both Iberian Chiffchaff and Bonelli’s Warbler were heard singing – first for the year.

From 1730-1900hrs I checked out the west slope of El Hacho; on arrival I was treated to a pair of Montagu’s Harrier battling against the strong wind, the male coming down low before spiralling back up to join the female. I can never get enough of watching their elegant butterfly-like flight - superb birds. Also seen were Griffon Vulture, 7 Black Kite, pale morph Booted Eagle, 2 pairs of Woodchat Shrike, 5 Northern Wheatear (4 male, 1 female) and Stonechat; Cirl Bunting was heard.

Today there was a very vocal Common Nightingale singing in the garden just less than 10m from our window – wonderful!

Throughout the week there have been small parties of European Bee-eater passing North over the village, with one at 0800hrs on Wednesday numbering 30+ birds. There was a Northern Wheatear to the south of the village and a pair of Blue Rock Thrush south of the castle on Sunday and a Hoopoe on the path up to Gaucin castle on Tuesday (per Campbell Wood).