Sierra de Loja, Granada Province.

A couple of hour looking for Fieldfare and Alpine Accentors with Juan Pérez Contreras.

I met Juan at the Hotel Cortijo de Tajar near the A92 and from there we drove right the way over to the far side of the Sierra where we were hoping to find the wintering Fieldfares (Zorzal Real / Turdus pilaris) that I had seen a couple of weeks before mixed in with a flock of Mistle Thrushes (Zorzal Charlo / Turdus viscivorus). We parked and soon found some of the Mistle Thrushes but just 13 of them compaired to the 40+ I had seenand no Fieldfares. In the same area we did pick up Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula), Song Thrush (Zorzal Común / Turdus philomelos) x1, Common Stonechat (Tarabilla Común / Saxicola torquata), Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba), Meadow Pipit (Bisbita Pratense / Anthus pratensis) and Red-legged Partridge (Perdiz Roja / Alectoris rufa).

Once back at the car we drove around to the far crags seeing Black Wheatear (Collalba Negra / Oenanthe leucura) x2 on the way. We parked and started to check the cliffs and bushes in the area and soon found the first 4 Alpine Accentors (Acentor Alpino / Prunella collaris) of the afternoon. We walked along the track going down into the valley nearby, on the way we saw Red-billed Chough (Chova Piquirroja / Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), Jackdaw (Grajilla / Corvus monedula), Rock Bunting (Escribano Montesino / Emberiza cia), Rock Sparrow (Gorrión Chillón / Petronia petronia) x2, Blue-rock Thrush (Roquero Solitario / Monticola solitarius) x 1male, Robin (Petirrojo Europeo / Erithacus rubecula), Linnet (Pardillo Común / Carduelis cannabina), Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs), Goldfinch (Jilguero / Carduelis carduelis), Common Chiffchaff (Mosquitero Común / Phylloscopus collybita), Blue Tit (Herrerillo Común / Parus caeruleus), Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor), Common Kestrel (Cernicalo Vulgar / Falco tinnunculus) and then right at the far point a flock of 26 more Alpine Accentors which flew over the near by crags and back up towards the car. We turned around and walked back seeing some of the Accentors again before dropping back down the hill picking up Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua), Thekla Lark (Cogujada Montesina / Galerida theklae), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops) and Iberian Magpie (Rabilargo / Cyanopica cyanus).