Southern Spain - Pt 1 - October 2015 (1 Viewer)

[foresttwitcher]

I usually take my annual trip in Spring as it is a quieter time of year for me work-wise & the birding is easier when they are singing & showy. Booking it has over the last couple of years been prompted by boredom on Boxing Day but this year due to the end of the NatWest Yourpoints scheme, which I use to get free flights, I had to book early & Malaga was as far as I could get with the points I had remaining. So it was duly booked for April. A couple of days later a friend asked me if I wanted to accept the opportunity of free accommodation & a flight, for only the cost of transferring the name on the ticket, on a family holiday in October where one member was not able to travel. Not one to turn down an opportunity for cheap travel, great, I said, where are we flying to? Malaga was the reply. Hence the part 1 of the title.

As I would need a car, I also agreed to hire one large enough for all of us travelling to save them a taxi journey to and from the accommodation at the beginning & end of the week.

So a late evening Eazyjet flight from Luton, a smooth passage through both airports and the car picked up from Firefly (extremely good value) saw us arriving at an apartment in Nerja in the early hours of Saturday 17th October.

I used "Where to watch birds in Southern & Western Spain" by Garcia & Paterson as a site guide. I took my own SatNav loaded with the relevant map which worked well.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Saturday 17th October:

Not an early start this morning due to the late arrival yesterday and also I thought I ought to be a bit sociable with my mates on the first day; so had a lazy early morning at the apartment, a leisurely breakfast in Nerja and a bit of a stroll around the resort. But the birding had already started with Yellow-legged Gull, Feral Pigeon, Crag Martin, Blackbird, Spotless Starling & House Sparrow all seen from the balcony or in town.

I took my leave once politic to do so & headed to Torre del Mar, parking at the western end of the seafront. Very soon I had seen a Hoopoe flying up the street, Collared Doves on the street lamps, a very nice 'aterrimus' Black Redstart on the petanque club shed roof, Spanish Sparrows in the car park & a noisy nesting Monk Parakeet in a palm tree.

I then walked along the beach towards the Rio Velez estuary, adding Shag & Gannet offshore, a single Lesser Black-backed Gull on the sand & a Mediterranean Gull over. The estuary itself held a Grey Heron, one Yellow Wagtail and a Dunlin, with Kestrel & Barn Swallow overhead and Cetti's Warbler, Blackcap, Goldfinch, Common Waxbill & Zitting Cisticola in the reeds. The fields to the west (cultivated or, I assume, alfalfa) had a large mobile flock of first winter Yellow Wagtail, that I could not assign to race, plus an unidentified Pipit with Stonechats, Willow Warblers & Chiffchaffs on the fences. Obviously a migrant passage. To the east a flock of sheep & goats had 10+ attendant Cattle Egret feeding on flushed prey - some perched on the sheep.

To escape the heat mid-afternoon I took a drive up into the Sierra Tejeda and walked the route of the old railway starting just south of Ventas de Zafarraya but the weather caught me out and I had a damp walk back to the car. The scrub had noisy Sardinian Warblers, Thekla Lark & Corn Bunting, a flock of Greenfinch and a few Blue Tit in some taller trees, a Rock Bunting in some scree, a singing Blue Rock Thrush on a crag plus numerous Crag Martin and a flock of Red-billed Chough around the tops.

A good start but Beer-o-clock was now beckoning so I drove back to Nerja.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Sunday 18th October:

With the weather looking cloudy to the west, I headed eastwards towards Cabo de Gata, seeing what would become the "usual on the road species" along the way: Yellow-legged Gull, Feral Pigeon, Collared Dove, Spotless Starling & Sparrows.

Parking near the lighthouse, a brief look from the cliffs at the point yielded a couple of Shag, a Lesser Black-backed Gull among the Yellow-legs on the rocks plus a flyover Audouin's Gull and swooping Barn Swallows. I then walked along the track around the south side of the Sierra with: Thekla Lark quite common; Crag Martin & Raven around the high ground; Stonechat, Blackbird & Sardinian Warbler in the scrub; flighty Black Wheatears on the overhead wires & rock outcrops & a single Western Black-eared Wheatear just below the lighthouse compound.

As the heat of the day reached its maximum, I decided to seek shade in the hides at the Salinas, starting from the south east end - a good idea as the pans here were packed with birds, with numbers & species diminishing as I hide-hopped back towards the town: big numbers of Greater Flamingo scattered throughout with Black-winged Stilt & Avocet mixed in; a large raft of Black-necked Grebe in the middle of the pan; a few Shelduck on an island; Shoveler floating around in considerable numbers; many Black-headed Gull feeding in tight clusters; Little Egrets & a couple of Grey Heron stalking around the reedy edges; and various waders in the shallows & on the muddy edges of the islets, comprising: a couple of Ringed Plover; a few more Kentish Plover; a single Grey Plover; a small mixed flock of Dunlin, Sanderling & Little Stint on one particularly productive little island; one flyover Common Sandpiper; numerous actively feeding Redshank & a single Greenshank; a couple of Black-tailed Godwit at one end; & one Curlew flushed from a ditch by one of the hides. There were also Crested Larks in the coastal scrub.

What a great place - especially the very 'birdy' Salinas, I spent the best part of the day going from hide to hide.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Monday 19th October:

The forecast was not great for today but with the cloud looking worse out over the sea I set off inland heading to the raptor watchpoint at Mirador de las Aguilas in the Sierra de Alpujata - seeing the "usual on the road species" en route.

By the time I got there the clouds were down on the tops of the adjacent higher hills so not the best conditions for migration! But the forest was a different habitat so I soon added a few new species for the trip: a small covey of Red-legged Partridge flushed from the forest track just beyond the junction with the parking space; a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the clump of pines either side of the track, alongside a mixed flock of Chaffinch, Greenfinch & Goldfinch & a couple of Woodlark circling overhead. From the watchpoint itself there were Blackbird, Stonechat & Sardinian Warbler in the nearby scrub plus a single Rock Bunting further off & some Jays flying between the taller trees in the valley. The only raptor seen was a Kestrel.

My main target for this site was the local form of Green Woodpecker and whilst I heard one on the way up I only had the briefest of flight views so, despite the start of a light drizzle, I walked a couple of the forest tracks in the area hoping for a better view. No luck but I flushed more Partridge and did get very good views of a Dartford Warbler, sounding angry at being disturbed. There was also plenty of evidence of wild boar digging along the side of the track.

Hoping for another chance for the woodpecker, I headed for further woodland habitat at Juanar in the Sierra Blanca parking just beyond the Refugio de Juanar and walking the tracks up to both miradors. On the way up in the rain there were Chaffinch & Robin in the woodland; Crested Lark, Song Thrush, Blackcap & further Jays in the old olive grove; & Crag Martin & Wood Pigeon from the viewpoints. On the way back down from the second mirador, after seeing plenty more signs of boar digging, I heard at least one close enough by to think that it was indeed quite close enough!

In better weather and back down in the conifer forest there was now more activity with numerous Great & Blue Tit plus a single Coal Tit, a couple of Crested Tit & a nice Firecrest alongside the other woodland species seen beforehand.

The journey back to Nerja added a couple of Cattle Egret in a reedy area to the side of the Autovia in the area of the Rio Guadalhorce and a nice 'on the move' view of a low flying Montagu's Harrier.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Tuesday 20th October:

Last evening a stunning light show of an electric storm over the Med turned in to a massive overnight thunderstorm. With cloud out to sea & to the west again in the morning I set off east again in the hope of better conditions. The usual suspects on the journey and arrived at Canada de las Norias as the drizzle stopped. But there was plenty of evidence of the effect of the previous night's storm with some small rock-falls on the hard-shoulder in a couple of places, minor roads flooded or with soil washed onto them out of fields and a good dump of snow on the Sierra Nevada (which disappeared fairly rapidly once the clouds cleared & the sun came out).

No offence intended to anyone from there but Norias is a pretty nasty place - with a shanty or frontier town type feel and set among acres and acres of plastic greenhouses growing our out of season fruit & veg. But despite the very uninspiring surroundings and all the litter everywhere, the birding was surprisingly good. Parking on the road at the eastern end there were Cattle Egret & both adult & juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron low overhead before I even got out of the car. I first looked through a gap in the reeds into the pool to the east to see a number of Black-necked Grebe, a few Great-crested Grebe & a couple of Little Grebe on the water. In the reedy edges a Grey Heron & numerous Little Egret stalked the shallows alongside both Moorhen & Coot with Night Heron & Cattle Egret in the dead snags. House Sparrow & Zitting Cisticola flew between the tops of the roadside reeds with a skulking Reed Warbler seen briefly & Cetti's Warblers calling. Turning alongside the greenhouses at the northern end I looked back to the strip of roadside vegetation to see a smart male Little Bittern in flight & then perched up on a reed stem.

On the opposite side of the road a small, wet cultivated field held a Common Sandpiper, a Meadow Pipit, a flock of Yellow Wagtail & a single White Wagtail. A Bluethroat flew into some scrub behind & a pair of Snipe flushed up & flew away. A couple of Cormorant went over and there were Yellow-legged & Black-headed Gulls overhead & on the lamp posts with a few each of Magpie & Jackdaw. The reeds on the fringe of the main lake had some presumably migrant Willow Warbler & Chiffchaff. Once the main lake could be viewed there were more of the same species plus Mallard, Gadwall, Red-crested Pochard & Shoveler all present. Perhaps the most surprising to me given the site was a fly-past Kingfisher.

A circuit of the larger lake by car & stopping to scan where possible added nothing new and I was beginning to think I was going to be unlucky with finding my main target species for this site. At the western end of the lake I pulled over to look out over the third, western-most lake which had more ducks than the others and four, though a long way off, stood out as different - setting up the scope I soon had distant views of two pairs of White-headed Duck.

I then set off with the intention of going south to the coast but the way was blocked by an impassable flood so I headed east to Roquetas de Mar. Whilst looking for the entrance to the Salinas I turned round in the car park of a large & empty 'ghost town' of a complex of holiday appartments & saw a big flock of Turnstone feeding on a lawn area. Heading into the reserve the approach road to the Salinas de Cerrillos was also blocked by floods so I had a look around the Salinas Viejas. One of the small pools had a few Mallard, Coot & a single Pochard but also another Kingfisher and a pair of White-headed Duck at 'feeding the ducks in the park' type distance. The larger pan alongside the road by the resort was full of ducks, including more than a dozen White-headed, plus a Marsh Harrier over.

Heading west I parked on the edge of the greenhouses & walked to the lighthouse at Punta del Sabinar. On the way to the sea I had a Kestrel over & Stonechat, Blackbird, Sardinian Warbler & Goldfinch in the coastal scrub. The pools either side of the path had a few Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt, noisy Redshank, Ringed & Kentish Plover & Dunlin with numerous ducks, including a dozen more White-headed and a possible Marbled Teal, but I only saw a bit of the head of the latter so it may well not have been. In the shorter scrub by the beach there were a number of Crested Lark with Crag Martin swooping overhead. On the walk back inland a couple of Iberian Grey Shrike hunting from the overhead wires added the second lifer of the day and I found a nice Redstart in a roadside bush.

A good birding day in odd surroundings.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Wednesday 21st October:

A very nice day weather-wise looked on the cards today so I headed inland to higher ground and into the upper Rio Guadiaro valley south of Ronda in search of some better scenery than yesterday & did the 7.5km wooded valley gorge walk from Benaojan to Jimera de Libar and back again.

Parking by the railway station, the town had the usual Feral Pigeon, Collared Dove, Starlings & Sparrows. The most common bird of the woodland was by far Robin (they seemed to be every 10m in suitable habitat) and there were also numerous Blackbird, Blackcap, Sardinian Warbler, Great & Blue Tit, Chaffinch & Goldfinch. A Grey Heron stalked the edge of the river, Cetti's Warblers called from the waterside vegetation & a Kingfisher flew downstream. A Cormorant struggled to gain enough height to get up and out of the valley, Wood Pigeons clattered out of the trees on the opposite bank as a sheep / goat herd moved through & a Kestrel hovered over an open area. Sitting for lunch with a view over the valley towards the Sierra del Palo I scanned the heights and picked up Crag Martins around the crags (unsurprisingly), a large flock of Red-billed Chough & a circling group of 15 Eurasian Griffon Vultures.

Shortly after turning round and heading back upstream another stop by the river gave good views of a couple of Grey Wagtails feeding along the edge. Back in the woodland the species were much the same but also added a passing flock of Long-tailed Tit & a Nuthatch flew across the path and foraged for a while in a nearby tree. The vulture flock was also still distantly circling the peaks to the west.

A nice day out in the sun and back to a good meal with my mates in the evening.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Thursday 22nd October:

Cracking weather again today so I took advantage of it and headed to the high plains east of Granada with the 'usual species' seen on the journey. I took a slow drive around the minor roads in the Hoya de Guadix area, stopping & scanning where possible and the habitat looked promising. I had Blackbird, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, White & Grey Wagtails and Cetti's Warbler where the vegetation was more lush at a couple of water-course crossings plus Crested / Thekla Lark in the drier areas. But the birding was proving difficult on the move so I was on the look out for a place to stop & set off on foot. As I drove up out of a valley south of Gorafe, thinking the ridge may be promising, I saw a car park and pulled in. It proved to be a parking area for visiting a series of Neolithic dolmens so I walked the trails seeing Sardinian Warbler, Black Wheatear, Blue Rock Thrush, Red-billed Chough & Crag Martin in the scrub & around the crags.

A quick scan of the opposite side of the valley showed a flock of 20 or so Griffon Vulture circling distantly and relatively high up. Near the end of the route I heard a noise from the top of the adjacent near-by crag and looked up to see what it was, to have 10 or so vultures fly in very low overhead and land on the ridge. They continued to float in from all around, so low over that the wind could be heard whistling through their wings, and a slight change of position let me see a pile of meat had been dumped on top of the crag and they were swooping in to feed. More and more came in and the noise and squabbling increased. After 20 minutes or so of constant action it appeared that most of the food had gone and while some latecomers were still arriving and a few were sitting on the cliff top and digesting many of the vultures were taking off and moving up the valley and then circling back overhead to gain lift. It was not easy to get an accurate count, given the constant coming and going and with birds circling in all directions, but I estimate there were 80+ in the air above me as I lay back on a rock looking directly overhead. I started looking for other raptors in the kettle and picked up 3 Golden Eagle but they unfortunately stayed high up and drifted off. Eventually the Vultures had dispersed in various directions with only a few to still be seen in the distance. So I headed up to another car park on the ridge top and walked to the feeding station area where just part of a shoulder blade and the top end of a large leg bone was all that was left; with a few Magpie, Jackdaw & Carrion Crow lurking around on the surrounding plain, hoping for some scraps. Best birding experience of the trip by far!

Driving the area further only added a small flock of 3 Lesser Kestrel catching, presumably, insects in the air over a scrubby field.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Friday 23rd October:

Due to having to vacate the apartment by 10:00 and a ridiculously late flight time there were nearly 12 hours to kill today - not usually a problem if I was alone but as my friends needed to put their bags in my car I thought it best not to abandon them in the resort so offered my services as a taxi for the day; so no real birding. After a leisurely start we just did the tourist bit: the Cueva de Nerja, visiting viewpoints around Embalse de la Vifinela and some near-by hill-top towns for the view, lunch in Colmenar, the scenic drive down towards Malaga, some shopping, and dinner on the sea-front at Rincon de la Victoria. So only the expected town and farmland species seen and it was time to return the car.

Mammals - in addition to seeing signs of & hearing the Wild Boar, I only saw: some Rabbits in the olive groves at Juanar; an Egyptian Mongoose crossed the road in front of me on the drive down from the Mirador de las Aguilas raptor watch-point; and a pod of small dolphin (Common?) just offshore at Rincon de la Victoria.

A great weeks birding and I'm already looking forward to part 2 and the return visit to the area in spring.

 

[Maffong]

Thanks a lot for your report, it's very intersting for me to read, as I'm currently for half a year in Granada and have visited various sites, that you have also visited. E.g. I was in Hoya de guadix just friday and found it to be pretty boring. I birded around Hernan Valle and eventhough I eventually found about 40 species, there was not a single of the hoped for birds. Red-billed Chough was unexpected, but nice and two Bonelli's eagles only showed shortly, but I'd hoped for Thick-knees, Little Bustards, Lesser Kestrel, Sandgrouses, Calandra Larks and others, but what I found were Common Kestrel, Crested/Thekla Lark and Woodpigeons...

Wonder if I just went to wrong places?!

Cheers Maffong

 

[foresttwitcher]

I thought the same as you - I'm hoping for more of the iconic steppe / desert type species you mentioned when I return in the spring when they will hopefully be more active, vocal and visible. But there is a lot of area to cover.

The Lesser Kestrel I saw were in the area immediately north of Hernan Valle.