Andalucia – Day 5 North-east of Ronda

Thurs 29 May 2014

Today we headed north beyond Ronda for a day at higher altitudes. The rain of yesterday had cleared to make way for a day of perfect summer weather.

Mountain Road to Ronda (Elevation 1,000m)

At a couple of quick stops as we travelled we found Black wheatear, Rock sparrow and Blue rock thrush. We at last managed to connect with a Rock bunting that had eluded us up till now. Well worth the wait!

Road between Ronda and Campillos

Another short stop at some cliffs to look for Bonelli’s eagles. The eyrie contained two well grown nestlings, but no sign of the adults.

Teba Bird Observatory

We spent half-an-hour here looking up at the high cliff where Griffon vulture soared on the mountain thermals. We hoped to find Peregrine, but no luck. Red-billed chough, Kestrel and lots of Alpine swift and Crag martin – two more new species for our week’s list.

Arable Farmland close to Laguna Dulce, Campillos

We drove along a farm track to a point overlooking the laguna, keeping our eyes peeled for Montagu’s harrier. We spotted one which gradually made its way closer to us, eventually passing us no more than 25m away. A fine male – what a stunning bird! Why did I not have my camera ready?!

On the lake we could see Mallard, Pochard, Great crested and Black-necked grebes, and Gull-billed tern, Whiskered tern and Yellow-legged gull in the air over the lake. We could hear the raucous song of Great reed warbler and soon located a couple of birds in the top of the reeds.  Over the arable land we bagged Lesser kestrel, Calandra and Crested larks, Swift, Swallow, a distant Black kite and a solitary Little-ringed plover flew over us. A fine Yellow wagtail was on the track.

Laguna Dulce, Campillos

We retraced our route back along the farm track and drove around to Laguna Dulce itself. From the hide overlooking the lake we had closer views of most of the species we had seen from the farm track plus a few others such as Greater flamingo, Black-winged stilt, White-headed duck, Marsh harrier and Red-crested pochard. David had a close view of a Purple swamphen, but it never re-emerged for any of the rest of us to see. We spotted Northern lapwing and Black-headed gull without thinking much of them, until Bob saw them as well and pointed out that these were unusual records for this part of the world. We took a break for lunch on the picnic tables before going back for a few more minutes at the hide. A Purple swamphen was hiding in some distant reeds, but it was barely recognisable. 

Laguna de Fuente de Piedra

This huge lake holds thousands of breeding Greater flamingoes, but they were far off shore and the heat-haze made them difficult to see in ‘scopes. Other waders that we managed to see a little closer were Black-tailed godwit, Avocet, Redshank and Lapwing.
 

A nice view of a Melodious warbler singing atop a nearby shrub and lots of Gull-billed terns. We treated ourselves to an ice-cream from the visitor centre before moving on.


On the way back to Gaucin we stopped briefly at Teba Bird Observatory again. Chough, Griffon vulture and lots of Alpine swifts, but still no sign of a Peregrine.

Gaucin Sweet Chestnut Woods

In the chestnut woods we found Nuthatch and Great spotted woodpecker and heard Bonelli’s warbler and Chiffchaff. At last we managed to find a Short-toed treecreeper, a species that we had been struggling to find. Short-toed eagle and dark morph Booted eagle soared over the woods.


Before going out for dinner we watched Swift and an occasional Pallid swift from the rooftop terrace. On the roof terrace in the twilight after dinner the pair of Blue rock thrush appeared again.

See also Bob’s Wingspan blog for Day 5.

Today’s List
Shelduck	Gadwall
Mallard	Shoveler
Red-crested Pochard	Pochard
White-headed Duck	Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe	Black-necked Grebe
Greater Flamingo	Black Kite
Griffon Vulture	Short-toed Eagle
Marsh Harrier	Montagu’s Harrier
Bonelli's Eagle	Booted Eagle
Lesser Kestrel	Common Kestrel
Purple Swamphen	Moorhen
Eurasian Coot	Black-winged Stilt
Pied Avocet	Northern Lapwing
Little Ringed Plover	Black-tailed Godwit
Redshank	Black-headed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull	Gull-billed Tern
Whiskered Tern	Alpine Swift
Swift	Pallid Swift
Hoopoe	Great Spotted Woodpecker
Woodchat Shrike	Red-billed Chough
Jackdaw	Common Raven
Calandra Lark	Crested Lark
Barn Swallow	Crag Martin
Red-rumped Swallow	Cetti’s Warbler (h)
Common Chiffchaff (h)	Western Bonelli’s Warbler (h)
Great Reed Warbler	Melodious Warbler
Zitting Cisticola	Sardinian Warbler
Nuthatch	Short-toed Treecreeper
Spotless Starling	Blackbird (h)
Black Wheatear	Blue Rock Thrush
Spotted Flycatcher	House Sparrow
Rock Sparrow	Yellow Wagtail
Chaffinch	Goldfinch
Linnet	Rock Bunting
Corn Bunting
69 Species