Granada and the Cacín Valley, Granada Province.

Bargins and Birds.

Little Bustards (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax).

Jayne and I set off up towards the City of Granada to visit the large Saturday market as we were hoping to do a car boot sale on the Sunday morning when the other Granada market is on. On the way up I saw a small flock Iberian  Magpie (Rabilargo / Cyanopica cooki) which were raiding the remains of next doors grape vines, a very dark Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo) which flapped low over the road by the A92 and a small flock of around 20 Little Bustards (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax) on a motorway side field.

We spent the next 2 ½ hours having a wonder around the market and both picked up a couple of bargins!

Grey Heron (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea).

On the way home we went via La Malahá and Ventas de Huelma on the way over to Cacín, on the way I added Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus), Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua), Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula) and another Common Buzzard but this time right at the other end of the colour scale as it was almost white below with just two dark brown bars.

We dropped down into the Cacín Valley and headed North stopping at the Embalse for a while, here I picked up Eurasian Teal (Cerceta Común / Anas crecca), Northern Shoveler (Cuchara Común / Anas clypeata), Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos), Common Pochard (Porrón Europeo / Aythya ferina), Common Moorhen (Gallineta Común / Gallinula Chloropus), Eurasian Coot (Focha Común / Fulica atra), Great Cormorant (Cormorán Grande / Phalacrocorax carbo) and 3 Grey Herons (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea). 

Whinchat (Tarabilla Nortena / Saxicola rubetra).

In the surrounding fields and bushes I caught up with Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), Red-legged Partridge (Perdiz Roja / Alectoris rufa), Thekla (Cogujada Montesina / Galerida theklae) and Crested Larks (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata), Long-tailed Tit (Mito / Aegithalos caudatus), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Cetti’s Warbler (Ruisenor Bastardo / Cettia cetti), Common Magpie (Urraca / Pica pica), White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba) and Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus).

Our last stop was out on the El Temple agricultural area nearby, here we only managed to pick up 3 new chat species for the day list, these were Whinchat (Tarabilla Nortena / Saxicola rubetra), Common Stonechat (Tarabilla Común / Saxicola torquata) and Northern Wheatear (Collalba Gris / Oenanthe oenanthe).