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Thursday 6 September 2012

Frigiliana, Nerja and Rincon de la Victoria, Malaga Province.

A day on the Costa.

Jayne and I set off reasonable early for the coast after getting an email from a person who was getting me some stationary from the UK to say she had my order. On the way down to Velez Malaga we went along the usual route via Salar, Venta de Zafarraya and down through the English enclave of Cruce de Don Manuel until we reached the coastal motorway.
On the way we saw several interesting species including an immature Montagu's Harrier (Aguilucho Cenizo / Circus pygargus), Lesser Kestrel (Cernicola Primilla / Falco naumanni), Iberian Grey Shrike (Alcaudón Real Meridional / Lanius meridionalis), European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Común / Merops apiaster), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Iberian  Magpie (Rabilargo / Cyanopica cooki), Turtle Dove (Tórtola Europea / Streptopelia turtur), Thekla (Cogujada Montesina / Galerida theklae), Short-toed (Terrera Común / Calandrella brachydactyla), Crested (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata) and Calandra Larks (Calandria / Melanocorypha calandra).
We drove along the coast and were soon in Frigiliana and had soon found the market but unfortunately Janet had been sent the wrong books when we opened them up so we left bookless but decided to say and have a look around this very nice white town and in some of its shops (mistake). Will I stared it off with a decorative frog for the back terrace and then Jayne joined in by finding a throw for the settee which was in just the colours we wanted, so it was not a wasted journey.
We then continued on to Nejar where we again had a nice walk around, this was followed by a brief visit to the centre at Velez Malaga and then a trundle along the coast road towards Malaga. A while ago a friend Brenda Jones had told us how nice Rincon de la Victoria was so when we reach this area we parked up and had a walk along the prom and she was quite right it was very nice. We headed west and through a large tunnel in the coastal cliffs and then took the cliff top walk down into La Cala del Moral where we had a drink at a nice beach side bar before walking back again, in total it was a nice 3 ½ hours walk.
Like a plank did not take my bins on the walk but I did see Audouin's (Gaviota de Audouin / Larus audouinii), Black-headed (Gaviota Riedora / Larus ridibundus), Lesser Black-backed (Gaviota Somria / Larus fuscus) and Yellow-legged Gulls (Gaviota Patiamarilla / Larus Michahellis), a couple of Cory's Shearwaters (Pardela Cenicienta / Calonectris diomedea) which passed incredibly close into shore and a very green Iberian Wall Lizard (Podarcis hispanica). Once back at the car we made our way home via the motorways, on the journey the only new species was a Short-toed Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus) which was taking a break on an electrical pylon.

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