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Wednesday 26 December 2012

Loja, Granada Province.

Annual Boxing day walk.

Boxing day found me on my own doing the annual Boxing day walk with 6 other members of the Loja RBL walking group as Jayne and our son Alan were both down with stinking colds. We started as usual from the Alamo bar and headed up hill towards the railway station and then out on to the bottom side of the local Sierra Hacho. Along this part of the walk we saw a very nice pair of Black Wheatears (Collalba Negra / Oenanthe leucura) which showed very nicely on the ruins which line the track, in the same area we also saw Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula), Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), Thekla Lark (Cogujada Montesina / Galerida theklae), Robin (Petirrojo Europeo / Erithacus rubecula) and Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus).
We then dropped down past the fish farm where we saw lots Iberian Barbel in the very clear stream which runs down to the farm, also seen on the margins were Common Moorhen (Gallineta Común / Gallinulas chloropus), White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba), Song Thrush (Zorzal Común / Turdus philomelos) and Crested Lark (Cogujada / Galerida cristata). Our first bar stop came next at a small place in Esperanza where we took on some caffine and then continued on our way heading back towards Loja, we decided that the walk down to the waterfalls was likely to be very muddy so we cut it out.
On this stretch I picked up Common Magpie (Urraca / Pica pica), Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs), Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor) and Mistle Thrush (Zorzal Charlo / Turdus viscivorus). We then made our second stop in Bar El Cerro where we topped up the caffine before we headed back to the Alamo where I headed off home, on the way I saw a nice flock of Iberian  Magpie (Rabilargo / Cyanopica cooki) and several Bramblings (Pizón Real / Fringilla montifringilla) mixed in with large numbers of Common Chaffinches.

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Happy Christmas.

Huétor Tájar, Granada Province.

Christmas morning trip to the bakery.

Just a quick trip down to the town to grab some fresh bread to go with the cheese we had picked up earlier in the week. On the way back I returned across the fields and along the river, during this short drive I saw Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo), Common Kestrel (Cernicalo Vulgar / Falco tinnunculus), Stone Curlew (Alcaraván Común / Burhinus oedicnemus), Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), Common Stonechat (Tarabilla Común / Saxicola torquata), Brambling (Pizón Real / Fringilla montifringilla), Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs), Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus) and Goldfinch (Jilguero / Carduelis carduelis).