Tuesday 13 September 2016, Gaucin, mostly cloudy, light rain pm, light W-SW wind, 20C

An 08:00hrs visit to the cork/chestnut woods at Salto de Cura was rather quiet; fortunately, the thick mist of yesterday evening had dissipated but it remained cool and there was only 60+ European Bee-eater high up, half-a-dozen passing Honey Buzzard and a couple of Long-tailed Tit of note.

Next was the Las Pilas track (the old Ronda road) above Algatocin and, despite it also being quiet, we did log some good species including:
Montagu's Harrier, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, 70+ Alpine Swift, Blue Rock Thrush, Spotless Starling, Stonechat, Black Redstart, Melodious Warbler, Common Whitethroat and Serin.

A light breeze brought a chill to the air at Encinas Borrachas and T-shirts were barely sufficient - the temperature having dropped by 12C since the same time yesterday! Some nice species were seen though, which made up for the discomfort:
20+ Griffon Vulture, female Marsh Harrier, 10+ Honey Buzzard, superb views of Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Peregrine, Southern Grey Shrike, Thekla Lark, Tawny Pipit, female/1st summer Whinchat and several passing Barn Swallow; Bonelli's Warbler was heard. Interestingly, there was no sign of Northern or Black-eared Wheatear, nor Subalpine, Spectacled or Dartford Warbler all of which had been seen here just a week ago.

By early afternoon the clouds had rolled in we had the first rain of the autumn - a total of 5mm.

The Casares wind turbines shrouded in cloud after the rain