Huetor Fields and Granada City, Granada Province.

The return of the Little Bustards (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax).

Church in the centre.

I went down town to meet Bob Wright and two people who were visiting him this week, I first had a walk along the track opposite northern end of the high street. Along here at least one male Subalpine Warbler (Curruca Carrasquena / Sylvia cantillans) was pushed up from the weeds at the sides of the fields and two Spanish (Yellow) Wagtail (Lavandera Boyera / Motacilla flava iberiae) were also seen flying over a harvested Lettuce field which contained several Stone-curlew (Alcaraván Común / Burhinus oedicnemus), Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor) and House Sparrows (Gorrión Común / Passer Domesticus). We retraced the walk once Bob had arrived and added Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus), Skylark (Alondra Común / Alauda arvensis), White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba), Zitting Cisticola (Buitrón / Cisticola juncidis), Crested Lark (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata), Barn Swallow (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica) and House Martin (Avión Común / Delichon urbica).

View of the Sierra Nevada from Plaza de San Nicolas.

We then headed around to the fields where the Little Bustards (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax) were, they disappeared for a couple of weeks while the fields were very wet but turned up again a couple of days ago. There were about 50-60 birds on the ploughed up Lucerne crop and they were being flushed a few at a time by a farmer hand spraying his field. Here we also had Corn Bunting (Triguero / Emberiza calandra), Collared Dove (Tórtola Turca / Streptopelia decaocto), Common Chiffchaff (Mosquitero Común / Phylloscopus collybita) and Meadow Pipit (Bistita Común / Anthus pratensis). One of the friends who was with Bob very kindly gave me the loan of his spare Kowa scope while mine is away for repairs at Leica, Thank You.

Fountains in the Jardine de Truinto.

I then left the trio birding while I returned home with the intention of doing some gardening but we decided to go up into the city of Granada instead, even though the shops would mostly be closed. We had a really nice wander around the Moroccan shops and something to eat in the few hours were stayed and were surprise by the large numbers of people visiting on a cold winters Spanish Holiday. On the way back to the car we passed a small park called Fuente Nueva in amongst the apartment blocks which was closed due to wind damage. In the trees around its edge a couple of

Firecrests (Reyezuelo Listado / Regulus ignicapillus) were singing along with Serin and Coal Tit (Carbonero Garrapinos / Parus ater).