IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE BLOG ON A PHONE PLEASE CHANGE TO WEB VIEW AT BOTTOM OF PAGE AS IT WILL LOOK BETTER, THANKS MICK.

Sunday 2 September 2012

Home near Huétor Tajar, Granada Province, Spain.

Migration through the Fig tree!

After getting past the worst of a nasty stomach bug that I have had for the last couple of days I was up and around a little earlier this morning and spent a few minutes having a look in the fig tree out side the back door. I was instantly drawn to a large warbler which dropped from view the second I got on it but I was fairly confident that the bird seen was a male Orphean (Curruca Mirlona / Sylvia hortensis). A few seconds later it popped back into view and my initial id was confirmed as the bird was an immature male a new bird for the Garden list.
I continued to make my coffee and a tea for Jayne but again I was side tracked by the scolding calls of another bird from in the tree, this time it was an easy one to pick up as it was just a couple of meters away feeding on one of the nicely ripe figs. This time it was a Reed Warbler (Carricero Común / Acrocephalus scirpaceus) which was also a new bird for the Garden.
After breakfast we got on with a few jobs which for me included clearing up the fallen figs as they attract the ants and wasps, whist I was sorting the larger of the two trees there were several Iberian  Magpies (Rabilargo / Cyanopica cooki) feeding in the upper branches and a male Golden Oriole (Oropéndola / Oriolus oriolus) which flew in right next to where I was standing, saw me and disappeared rapidly into the other tree.
In the garden there were the usual Sardinian Warblers (Curruca Cabecinegra / Sylvia melanocephala), House Sparrows (Gorrión Común / Passer Domesticus) and Serins (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus) but up in the roses near the road I picked up a couple of birds low down in the bushes, the first was a male Blackcap (Curruca Capirotada / Sylvia atricapilla) which was nice but not unusual but the second was a male Subalpine Warbler (Curruca Carrasquena / Sylvia cantillans) a much less regular visitor.
Before I knew it that was the morning gone but it had been quite a good one with two new species for the garden list. Later in the day I watched a small group of around 10 Honey Buzzards (Aberjero Europeo / Pernis apivorus) come over the house and drop down into the olives towards Huétor Tájar, a good end to the day.

No comments: