Saturday 24 January 2015, Gaucin, sunny, light S-SE wind, 12C

Despite having to scrape ice from the car windscreen this morning, at 1000hrs, today was a little warmer than the last few days. An hour's visit to the SW slope of El Hacho produced 25+ Griffon Vulture, 2 Peregrine, Southern Grey Shrike, 5 Song Thrush, Blue Rock Thrush, 1 male Ring Ouzel (a good view of this one - alpestris - so maybe the two last week were alpestris, too), 10+ Black Redstart, Stonechat, Sardinian Warbler; Dartford Warbler was heard.

A short drive to the turning to Cortes de la Frontera to get a better look at the snow on Sierra de las Nieves produced a superb sighting in the form of a juvenile Golden Eagle being mobbed by two Common Buzzard. I lost the eagle as it lost height to shake off the buzzards so went back a few hundred metres towards Algatocin to try and relaocate it - no luck with the Golden Eagle but there were 2 adult Bonelli's Eagle over the penon de Algatocin! What a great 10 minutes!

Back in Gaucin there was a Common Crossbill in the cypress tree alongside cafe/bar El Hacho and in the afternoon the first returning Black Kite drifted gracefully along the Genal valley and, incredibly, another Bonelli's Eagle was seen between El Hacho and La Umbria as I waited for the shops to open at 1700hrs!

  Rubbish picture of a Common Crossbill!

 

 

 

Sierra de las Nieves from above Algatocin