Sunday 8th January 2017 - Punta Umbria walk

weather: mostly sunny with some clouds, light westerly wind, max temp 15C

Punta Umbria circular walk.

Dawn and I set off from the village for the walk around the hillside of La Umbria found along the Ronda road. The walk is about 7km in all and takes you through some superb 'ancient' cork oak woodlands with open glades, stands of pine, carob and sweet chestnut. It is because of this diverse woodland habitat that such a good range of woodland bird species can be found there especially in the spring and summer.

view of mature oaks

looking back to Gaucin and El Hacho

We bumped into two Firecrests after just 50 meters into the wood, then a series of sightings included; Robin, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Blue Tit.

On the south side of the hill a section of much older mature cork oak trees straddle the slopes this where we saw Eurasian Nuthatch, Crested Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit and we heard Great Spotted Woodpecker 'drumming'.

view across to Cortes de la Frontera

As we rounded the last section of the woodland the tree species changed, large areas of sweet chestnut trees stood in silence, bereft of leaves and birds. Another woodpecker drummed as we started the descent back to the village.

fellow walkers!

A Short-toed Treecreeper was a good find, another species for my year list, Griffon Vultures drifted over all morning heading in all directions with no particular place to go.

plants and lichen growing on the rock - we counted 8 different species in this picture

more growth on a cork oak tree-trunk

A stunning male Black Redstart seen just outside the village gave us a few minutes enjoyment, it really was a corker. Other species seen as we finished were Sardinian Warbler, Crag Martin and Raven.

Saturday 7th January 2017 - Gaucin village walks

Weather: a cloudy, much cooler morning with a stronger, colder south-westerly breeze.

Castillo del Aguila - (eagle castle) is just a stone's throw from our house and a fairly good spot for birding. During the winter the shrubs and trees provide shelter and food for a number of species, the community park on the west side is often sheltered from cold winds by the castle itself.

yet another picture of a Black Redstart

That was the case this morning as I walked up to the castle entrance, a good number of Chiffchaffs fed in the bushes with dozens of Blackcaps. A Blue Rock Thrush (a nice blue male) flew up the rock face but disappeared too quickly. Other common garden species seen included: Chaffinch, several Robins and Blackbirds.

the path up to the castle

Sierra Crestellina as seen from Gaucin Castle

Rio Genal snaking its way down the valley to meet the Rio Guadiaro before flowing into the sea at Soto Grande

We took an afternoon walk below the village leaving from the bottom of Calle Casares and returned via a track up to Calle Arrabalete.

It was much warmer this afternoon and the cloud had dispersed somewhat so more sunshine warmed us up. Nineteen Griffon Vultures circled high above the Castle, it must be so nice for them to roam freely like that and not have to share their winter air-space with the summer migrants such as Booted and Short-toed Eagles and Black Kites, the latter incidentally, will begin to arrive at the end of this month.

El Hacho looking from the bottom of Calle Casares

Our walk took us to the hugh rock face, where an Eagle Owl was seen by Paul last year, I scanned the nooks and crannies not expecting to see one at this time of the day but you never know, 'stranger things have happened at sea'.

Paper-white Narcissi

We saw our first butterflies of the year when a female Brimstone flew by and we had sightings of two Red Admirals. Bird-wise it was much the same as this morning except that we found larger numbers of Chaffinches and a small flock of Serins that fed in the grasses of an orchard.

Dawn likes taking pictures of clouds

On the way back up a Common Buzzard drifted over and one or two Crag Martins dashed about the rock face.

Friday 06 January 2017, Benalmadena, partly cloudy, fresh SE wind, 16C

An afternoon stroll in the vicinity of the hospital today produced the welcome sight of a Eurasian Hoopoe - one of those that choose to stay in Spain rather than make the long autumn journey south. Other things around were Yellow-legged Gull, Great Cormorant, Little Egret, Common Kestrel, Collared Dove, Crag Martin, Blue Rock Thrush, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Black Redstart, White Wagtail, House Sparrow, Cetti's Warbler (heard), Sardinian Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, Goldfinch and Serin.

Thursday 5th January - morning walk to the El Colmenar junction along the Algeciras road

It was another superb, clear and crisp January morning, an easterly breeze made it feel cold at first but it soon warmed up.  Our house in Gaucin is over on the east side beneath the Castle so our proposed walk along the Algeciras road meant we has to walk the entire length of the village to start with.

Our street of oranges - Calle Canamaque

We set out at 10am noting a single Black Redstart in our Street which incidentally has several orange trees bearing masses of fruit (inedible I might add) along one side.

the view back to the village from the Algeciras road

Once out of the village the roadside verges of scrub and bushes hosted hordes of Blackcaps, I have never seen so many! Robins were quite plentiful too with White Wagtails, Cirl Bunting, Meadow Pipits, Song Thrushes and Sardinian Warblers appearing in much smaller numbers.

the view down to the coast with Gibraltar and Morocco to the right of Gib

Nineteen Griffon Vultures circled over the summit of El Hacho, a male Common Kestrel sat on a power line and I got a brief but obscured view of an accipitor, it flew away from me behind a clump of eucalyptus trees, probably a female Sparrowhawk.

Griffon Vultures

The bird of the morning appeared as we approached the El Colmenar turning when a light morph BOOTED EAGLE circled over to our left. This is a smashing winter sighting as 99% of this species migrate to Africa for the winter.

an Owl seen on the roof near Paul and Janys's house - do you know which species it is?

Another group of 7 Griffon Vultures drifted low over us as we were just about to walk back to the village. It was a lovely 2 hour stroll that finished back at the house where our very local Black Redstart sat on our roof.

Wednesday, January 4th 2017 - Rio Genal & Rio Guadiaro

Happy New Year to all Bird-watch Gaucin readers.

I have just returned to Gaucin for a short mid-winter break with my wife Dawn and will post my sightings whenever we got out.

We both wish Paul and Janys all the very best for 2017 and hope that Janys's recovery continues until she is fully fixed.

Rio Genal - 10am - 12 noon January 4th

It was great to be back in the Spanish sunshine leaving a very cold Somerset yesterday! After some heavy winter rain the verdant Andalucia landscape and teamed with life. Blankets of flowering yellow Bermuda Buttercups were broken up by swathes of Paper-white Narcissi.

Black Redstart - male

A perfect sunny day, no clouds and no wind greeted us (Dawn was with me) down at the river,  we arrived a little late, it was 10am.

Black Redstart - female

At the river we first scanned the open pastures finding 6 species in the first field! Black Redstarts were abundant, they were all over the field and fence-line. White Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Goldfinch and Chaffinch were also there. In the bushes along the river a good number of Blackcaps were joined by I assume Common Chiffchaff, also Blue Tits, a Cetti's Warbler and a nice surprise was a Firecrest.

Chiffchaff - sp. most probably Common  

Further up river a Kingfisher flew across the track whilst Spotless Starlings called from the tree tops. Even more White Wagtails and Blackcaps filled the paddocks and bushes. Sardinian Warblers, Common Kestrel, Great Cormorant, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Greenfinch and Crag Martin made up the rest of our sightings.

A huge flock of Griffon Vultures circled above Sierra Crestellina, I counted 71 but I'm sure I missed a few.

Rio Guadiaro  2pm - 5pm

We had lunch back home in Gaucin before driving down to the Rio Guadiaro at Cortes. The weather was even better it must been around 17C as we walked along the river. We had many more sightings of Black Redstarts, White Wagtail, Common Chiffchaff, Stonechat, Crag Martin and Goldfinch. A single Green Sandpiper, two Great Cormorants and good views of our second Cetti's Warbler was nice.

Firecrest

During the walk back to the car we found two more Firecrests, they must have been territorial-rivals as both them were quite agitated with crests raised and feathers buffed up, it was quite amazing to watch.

Final birds added to the day list were Grey Wagtail, Corn Bunting and a Mistle Thrush.

Saturday 17 December 2016, Benalmádena, mostly cloudy, rain showers, light-fresh SE wind, 13C

I'm based on the Costa del Sol in Benalmádena whilst Janys is here receiving lengthy treatment following surgery to remove a brain abscess. Yesterday I spent a few minutes on Torrebermeja beach where I saw the following:
Yellow-legged Gull, Great Cormorant, Monk Parakeet, Crag Martin, White Wagtail, Black Redstart, a female/first winter Pied Flycatcher (I'm presuming it was a Pied; an unexpected find at this time of year, despite showing some traits of the more exciting Collared!) and several, presumably, Common Chiffchaff.

Black Redstart

Pied Flycatcher

Pied Flycatcher

Time out...

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks because my wife, Janys, is recovering from emergency brain surgery. Her recovery time is likely to be lengthy so for the foreseeable future posts will be less frequent than normal.....

Paul