Sunday 22 January 2017, Gaucin, sunny, light NW wind, 13C

The snow has cleared and now it's back to bright, cold mornings and warm, sunny afternoons.
Today I went for a mid-afternoon check of the west slope of El Hacho, hoping that the cold snap may have driven down some Ring Ouzel as it did a couple of years ago. Alas, all I saw was a 'possible' as a dark, thrush-sized bird with light upper wings (could have been the sun shining on it!) dashed between two large shrubs; you can usually hear them if they're around but it was all quiet. I did, however, see 2 Dunnock which is quite a scarce winter visitor to these parts.
Other species seen were Griffon Vulture, Common Kestrel, Southern Grey Shrike, Blue Rock Thrush, 10+ Song Thrush, Black Redstart, Stonechat, Blackcap, Sardinian Warbler, Cirl Bunting and Corn Bunting.

Just the one male Spanish Ibex hanging around today.

Thursday 19 January 2017, Gaucin, mostly cloudy, light N-NW wind, 0.4C!

Gaucin woke today to a blanket of deep snow, after more than 20cm fell overnight; anecdotally, the most for at least 35 years. Whilst no more snow fell during the day, the temperature only just struggled into positive territory. Most birds have kept a low profile, though there were at least 12 Blackcap feeding energetically on berries on a garden shrub behind Calle Convento.

 

 

 

Monday 16 January 2017, Gaucin, sunny, calm air-light N-NE wind, 15C

Another cold start, 3C, that turned into a beautiful, warm winter's day, despite the light northerly wind. Mid-afternoon I managed a short visit to the west slope of El Hacho, the birding highlight of which was the sight of a wintering Booted Eagle being chased, and made to look quite ungainly, by a territorial Peregrine!
Also seen were Griffon Vulture, Common Kestrel, Southern Grey Shrike, Black Redstart, 15+ Song Thrush, Stonechat, Sardinian Warbler, Blackcap, Serin, Corn Bunting and Cirl Bunting.

On the non-bird front, there were at least 10, possibly as many as 15, Spanish Ibex including adult males, females and a range of youngsters - what a wonderful sight!

male Spanish Ibex

Sierra Bermeja and Sierra Crestellina

Sunday 15 January 2017, Gaucin, sunny, calm air-light S-SE wind, 14C

Back in Gaucin after Janys was finally discharged from hospital; there will be more treatment and monitoring to come but at least she's at home.

Today was clear, bright and warm in the sunshine, despite a cool start, just 2C at 09:00hrs. Early afternoon on Thursday I saw a pale morph Booted Eagle just south of the village, presumably the same one that's been seen by others over the past couple of weeks (and the same one I saw last winter?).

Hopefully I'll have more to report as life regains some semblance of normality!

Wednesday 11th January 2017 - Gaucin tracks

AFTERNOON,  CIRCULAR WALK BELOW THE VILLAGE

WEATHER:  another fantastic sunny day, cloudless, warm, with no wind.

We left the village around 2pm on a track from Calle Tinajones which takes you down into the Genal Valley passing below the Castle. We returned on a narrow footpath arriving at the bottom of Calle Casares, this circular walk can be done in about 30 minutes, it took us 2 hours because we stopped so many times to admire the wonderful views and the very active bird/insect life.

looking down the main track

It was great to see the 'wintering' Booted Eagle again, we had 3 different sightings and yet  I still failed to photograph it. The little blighter crept up from behind us on two occasions and flew across the bright sunlight, the third view was too distant.

Sierra Crestellina with Almond blossom in the foreground

A 'kettle' of 49 Griffon Vultures clustered in the valley between Sierra Crestellina and Gaucin and both Common Kestrel and Common Buzzard showed up too.

The bushes, trees and open fields produced many bird sightings with the usual fare of Blackcap, Black Redstart, Chiffchaff, Song Thrush, Sardinian Warbler, Robin, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird and Blue Tit.

Gibraltar and Morocco in the distance - taken from the track

A Short-toed Treecreeper was nice to see, as was a single Firecrest and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drummed in the distance. The pink almond blossom was starting to break out all over the place and was buzzing with bees, it really felt like a sunny June day in the UK!

This really warm winter spell enticed several butterflies out on the wing, we saw Cleopatra, Large White, Painted Lady and Clouded Yellow, also, and to our great delight, we saw a Hummingbird Hawk Moth.

a young Iberian Wall Lizard sunning itself

We said goodbye to the beautiful surroundings as we re-entered the village, we'll be back on April 4th.

If you want to see what birding trips we do during the next two months then follow the wingspanner blog go to: www.wingspanbirdtours.com/blog

Monday 9th January - birding away from Gaucin

Andalucia - Los Lances beach - La Janda - Barbate river and marshes

We had a brilliant day out with the most beautiful weather - not a cloud all day, not a whiff of wind and the light was just exquisite.

Dawn and I collect John & Mary on the edge of Gaucin and we all drove down to Casares where we picked up Penny. From there we drove straight to Tarifa to visit Los Lances Beach. What a great start to our birding, the still air produced perfectly calm water giving wonderful reflections of the surrounding mountains in perfect light.

the view from the hide at Los Lances beach

From the approach track and boardwalk we logged several species such as Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Crested Lark, Corn Bunting, Spotless Starling and Cattle Egret.

On the beach feeding around the pools we saw a good selection of waders and several species of gull loafed around in the pools. Grey, Ringed and Kentish Plovers, Sanderling, Dunlin and Turnstone made up the wader numbers whilst Audouin's, Black-headed, Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls were joined by a single Sandwich Tern. Dozens of Crag Martins dashed above the beach and other species such as Little Egret, Grey Heron, Goldfinch, Linnet and Robin made up the numbers.

the calm waters at Los Lances

At La Janda we were surprised to be enshrouded in a thick mist but this soon burnt off to reveal a flat landscape of rice fields, reed-filled ditches, flat pastures and distant hills, the whole area was brimming with birds.

Along the first section we noted Great White Egret, Lapwing, Stonechat, Corn Bunting and Common Buzzard, as we reached the central track we stopped for coffee and cake, how nice! From this raised track we had splendid views of our surroundings, the water level in the central 'drain' (canal) was very low  creating a reed-fringed muddy environment which was excellent habitat for wintering Bluethroats, which was exactly was we saw next. What a stunner, a perfectly marked male white-spotted Bluethroat, marvellous!

The Bluethroat

Green Sandpiper, Common Crane, White Stork, Calandra Lark, Zitting Cisticola, Purple Swamphen were seen in the ditches and fields whilst a lovely male Hen Harrier sat preening in a pasture giving lovely scope-views. A flock of some 300 Common Cranes landed in a distant field just as we began our trek along the track.

rice fields at La Janda

As we worked our way along the central track we added more species to the list with Marsh Harriers turning up quite often and good numbers of Little Egrets, Spoonbills, Grey Herons and White Storks lining most of the ditches and rice fields.

panorama of La Janda 

A few more waders appeared, with Greenshank, Common Snipe and a very surprising Wood Sandpiper (not a bird I would expect to find wintering in Spain). A number of raptors circled on thermals we found a couple of real goodies, first a Bonelli's Eagle and then a Spanish Imperial Eagle joined three Marsh Harriers, wow could it get any better?

these specs are White Storks up on the thermals

Well, yes it could. Our next sighting was of a Kingfisher and then we found another unexpected migrant when a Wryneck landed in the top of a nearby bush.

A second Bonelli's Eagle appeared as we stopped for lunch and during lunchtime we saw Cetti's and Sardinian Warblers, Great Tit, Red-legged Partridge, Common Kestrel, Griffon Vulture and a second Kingfisher.

the central drain - Bluethroat habitat

We drove off La Janda about 3pm stooping several times to watch even more birds, but we missed sightings of Short-eared Owl, Black Stork and Black Winged Kite which has all been seen recently, never mind you can't see them all.

A quick stop along the road to Vejer de la Frontera was made to look for an Eagle Owl, which often sits out in the day time, proved fruitless, however we did see Black- Redstart, Raven, Common Buzzard and lots of Jackdaws.

At Barbate we stopped at the main bridge near the mouth of the river Barbate, the tide was turning and began to ebb as we watched the marshes from a grassy verge. More waders appeared, we saw both Common Redshank and Spotted Redshank standing side by side, also Black-winged Stilt, Grey Plover, Greenshank and a dozen more Sandwich Terns. A Caspian Tern in flight was nice and a closer view of Spoonbill was enjoyed by all.

Eurasian Spoonbill

On Barbate Marsh Reserve we hoped to finish in flurry but we were disappointed by the lack birds on the lagoons, we discovered why when we saw a powered-paraglider preparing to take off. Nevertheless sightings of more waders, Spoonbills, a couple of Ospreys, 5 Stone Curlews and a bunch of Calandra Larks was very nice to finish off the day.

poor record shot of Stone Curlew

It was now 5pm the sun was dropping, we were losing the good light and temperature was falling so we called it a day and set off home. It had been a wonderful day, we logged 75 species with some real beauties on the list.

Sunday 08 January 2017, Benalmadena, mostly sunny, light SE wind, 17C

An afternoon stroll to see if Friday's Hoopoe was still around drew a blank, but in its area there were some very smart male Linnet and the usual selection of Black Redstart, Sardinian Warbler and Serin. Just as I was about to arrive back at the hospital I had a quick look at a 'sparrow' that was sunning itself on a small rock in the manicured gardens of a small apartment complex only to be thrilled to see that it was a Wryneck - what a stunning little bird and a great find, and where was my camera?!