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Saturday 5 September 2020

Peñón de Jolúcar, Torrenueva and Charca Suarez, Granada Province, Spain.

A mornings bird with friend Juan.

Click on the link below for Ebird list for seawatch. 
Click on the link below for Ebird list for the Charca visit.

Pallid Swift  (Vencejo Pálido /Apus pallidus).
I set off from the house at just after 06.00 and on my way down to Huétor had a Iberian Brown Hare (Liebre ibérica / Lepus granatensis) run along the road in front of me for a while.
I met Juan and we made our way down to the sea watch point on Peñón de Jolúcar where we were going to carry out the RAM sea bird count, it had been well over a year since I had taken part. On the way we only had a single Western Cattle Egret (Garcilla Bueyera / Bubulcus ibis) as we drove along the coast road.
Grey Heron (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea).
We struggled to park so Juan went on up to the watch point getting a Peregrine Falcon (Halcón Peregrino / Falco peregrinus) x1 on the way and to make sure that at least one of us was there on time but I found a spot quite quickly and I was soo up there as well seeing Sardinian Warbler (Curruca Cabecinegra / Sylvia melanocephala) x3, Collared Dove (Tórtola Turca / Streptopelia decaocto) x2, Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula) x2, Goldfinch (Jilguero / Carduelis carduelis) x1, Greenfinch (Verderón Común / Carduelis chloris) x4, Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor) x10 and a Thekla Lark (Cogujada Montesina / Galerida theklae) x1.
Gadwall (Anade Friso / Anas strepera).
I got to the spot on the cliff top and set up just in time for us to get started, all around us there were good numbers of migrants feeding up including 4x Pallid Swifts  (Vencejo Pálido /Apus pallidus), 20+ House Martin (Avión Común / Delichon urbica), 5x of both Red-rumped (Golondrina Dáurica / Hirundo daurica) and Barn Swallow (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica) and a couple of fly over White Wagtails (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba).
Out to see things were quiet and we only managed to see Cory's (Pardela Cenicienta / Calonectris borealis) x27 and Balearic Shearwater (Pardela Balear / Puffinus mauretanicus) x23, Shag (Cormorán Mondudo / Phalacrocorax aristotelis) x1, Sandwich Tern (Charrán Patinegro / Sterna sandvicensis) x3, Lesser Black-backed (Gaviota Sombria / Larus fuscus) x30+, Yellow-legged (Gaviota Patiamarilla / Larus Michahellis) x200+, Audouin's (Gaviota de Audouin / Larus audouinii) x19, Black-headed (Gaviota Riedora / Larus ridibundus) x1 and Mediterranean Gull (Gaviota Cabecinegra / Larus melanocephalus) x1 and probably most surprising a single Gadwall (Anade Friso / Anas strepera) which flew passed east.
Common Shrew (Sorex araneus).
After the seawatch was over we headed just down the coast to Charca seeing more Western Cattle Egrets on the way, once in the reserve we went up to the new hide but as usual it was full of photographers who were not willing to rotate places and were still sat there two hours later when we returned. On the way to the hide we picked up Cetti's (Ruisenor Bastardo / Cettia cetti) and Reed Warbler (Carricero Común / Acrocephalus scrpaceus), Spotted Flycatcher (Papamoscas Gris / Muscicapa striata) x3, Nightingale (Ruisenor Común / Luscinia megarhynchos), Robin (Petirrojo Europeo / Erithacus rubecula), Collared Dove, Great Tit (Carbonera Común / Parus major), Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos) and several Common Waxbills (Estrilda Ondulada / Estrilda astrild).
Common Shrew (Sorex araneus).
From the door way of the hide I picked out some of the 4 White Storks (Ciguena Blanca / Ciconia ciconia), Little Egret (Garceta Común / Egreeta garzetta) and from a gap in the reeds a little further along Grey Heron (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea) and Common Moorhen (Gallineta Común / Gallinulas chloropus).
After waiting for a while it became obvious that no one was going to move so we moved on but as we were leaving Juan spotted a very nice Common Shrew (Sorex araneus) which sat for us to take some shots.
We made a stop at the hide over looking Laguna del Taraje at the top end and found Common Moorhen, the first of several Red-knobbed Coots (Focha Moruna / Fulca cristata), Western Swamp-hen (Calamon Común / Porphyrio porphyrio) and 6 Gadwall.
Little Grebe (Zampullín Común / Tachybaptus ruficollis).
The sun came out after a short while which made viewing from here difficult so we moved to the other end of the Laguna and sat there for a while waiting to see what showed but apart from one of the Gadwall which wandered down from the other end and a Kingfisher (Martin Pescador / Alcedo atthis).
We moved on around to the main Hide, on the way we had views of Sand Martin (Avión Zapador / Riparia riparia), Goldfinch, Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus) and just as we arrived at the hide a Spanish guy kindly showed us a very smart Mediterranean Chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon) in amongst some Morning Glory flowers.
Mediterranean Chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon).
We went back to the hide and found several Black-headed Gulls sat up on posts along with at least another 10 Grey Herons, 2 Little Egrets, a single Western Cattle Egret and 3 immature Night Herons (Marinete Común / Nycticorax nycticorax),  Northern Shoveler (Pato Cuchara / Anas clypeata) x3, Common Pochard (Porrón Común / Aythya ferina) x2, Ferruginous Duck (Porrón Pardo / Aythya nyroca) x1, Little Grebe (Zampullín Común / Tachybaptus ruficollis), Kingfisher (Martin Pescador / Alcedo atthis) and Water Rail (Rascón Europeo / Rallus aquaticus) calling from the reeds.
We walked around to the first of the hides over looking Laguna Trebol but the light was not too good and apart from Stripe-necked Terrapin (Mauremys leprosa), Perez's Frog (Rana Común / Pelophylax perezi) down in the water we found several more Red-knobbed Coots the only new species was a flyby female Little Bittern (Avetorillo Común / Ixobrychus minutus).
Kingfisher (Martin Pescador / Alcedo atthis).
We started to make out way back around to the new hide to see if anyone had moved, on the way we saw the Chameleon again, had a second female Little Bittern, Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Red Avadavat (Bengali Rojo / Amandava amandava), Iberian Bluetail (Ischnura graellsii) and Black Percher (Diplacodes lefebvrii).
We got to the hide and four of the original people were still sat there hogging the seats and the other two people who had managed to get in were not moving so we scanned from the door way and managed to get views of Snipe (Agachadiza Común / Gallinago gallinago), Eurasian Teal (Cerceta Común / Anas crecca), a Marsh Harrier (Aguilucho Lagunero Occidental / Circus aeruginosus) which Juan saw and a Lesser Emperor (Anax parthenope).
Kingfisher (Martin Pescador / Alcedo atthis).
We gave up in the end  and went and finished the visit off in the hide at the far end of Laguna del Taraje here Juan had two Great Cormorants (Cormorán Grande / Phalacrocroax carbo) fly over but as hard as I tried I could not see them and I added Blue / Common Emperor (Anax imperator), Long Skimmer (Orthetrum trinacria) and Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea) to the dragon list and as we walked off the site we had a Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria).

1 comment:

Andy Mountford said...

Sounds like a pretty good day Mick. Autumn is coming in now....