Huetor Fields, Granada Province.

A visit from Bob Wright from the Axarquia Bird group.

Little Bustards (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax).

I meet Bob down in Huetor Tajar so that we could go and have a look at the wintering flock of Little Bustards (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax) which by now numbered 215 birds. I had checked out the site earlier and found the flock on one of their regular fields just out of the town. When we arrived we counted about 180 birds, most of the flock. Bob took some shots from in the car and then tried to get a bit closer by using the cover of the adjacent Asparagus field. Unfortunately a train spooked the birds and they flew off to the fields they use in the Loja direction. We then had a look along the river picking up a single Green Sandpiper (Andarrios Grande / Tringa ochropus), Meadow Pipit (Bistita Común / Anthus pratensis), White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba), Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs), Common Chiffchaff (Mosquitero Común / Phylloscopus collybita), Greenfinch (Verderón Común / Carduelis chloris) and Crested Lark (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata).

Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor).

There were also good numbers of Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula), Blackcap (Curruca Capirotada / Sylvia atricapilla), Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Common Stonechat (Tarabilla Común / Saxicola torquata) and Tree Sparrows (Gorrión Molinero / Passer Montanus).

Bob in the Stone-curlew fields.

Later we went down to the fields where a large flock of Stone-curlew (Alcaraván Común / Burhinus oedicnemus) had been wintering, but because of a lot of activity on the nearby lettuce fields the flock had splintered and we only had about 70 birds. Also seen were House SparrowA (Gorrión Común), Skylark (Alondra Común / Alauda arvensis), Iberian  Magpie (Rabilargo / Cyanopica cooki), Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor) and Cattle Egret (Garcilla Bueyera / Bubulcus ibis).