Sad Hill, Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos Province, Spain.

Just a quick stomp around the Juniper woods amongst the Thrushes and Finches.

Fieldfare (Zorzal Real / Turdus pilaris).

A bit later in the afternoon than planned I went for a drive just up the road to Sad Hill and then did a wide loop around the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Cemetery, on the way up there were good numbers of thrushes including Fieldfare (Zorzal Real / Turdus pilaris), Mistle Thrush (Zorzal Charlo / Turdus viscivorus) and Redwing (Zorzal Alirrojo / Turdus illacus).

Fieldfare (Zorzal Real / Turdus pilaris).

I parked and the walked up in to the Junipers on the top side of the cemetrey and then down along the far side through the trees, on the way I had quite a few more Fieldfares, probably 30+, 20 odd Mistle Thrushes, Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula), Song Thrush (Zorzal Común / Turdus philomelos), Jay (Arrendajo / Garrulus glandarius), Crested Tit (Herrerillo Capuchino / Lophophanes cristatus) and overhead several Griffon Vultures (Bultre Leonado / Gyps fulvus).

Citril Finch (Verderón Serrano / Carduelis citrinella).

5x Citril Finches (Verderón Serrano / Carduelis citrinella).

23+ Citril Finches (Verderón Serrano / Carduelis citrinella).

I came out into a more open area with lower plants and some Wild Rose bushes, in this area there were quite a few Goldfinch (Jilguero / Carduelis carduelis), a pair of Common Stonechat (Tarabilla Común / Saxicola torquata), an Iberian Green Woodpecker (Pito Real / Picus sharpei) which flew up from the short grass and even more Thrushes.

Brambling (Pinzón Real / Fringilla montifringilla).

Brambling (Pinzón Real / Fringilla montifringilla).

Just as I was about to walk back towards the car I saw several more finches up on the slope above me that looked interesting so I walked up a short way and I was soon able to identify the first ones as Citril Finches (Verderón Serrano / Carduelis citrinella), as I got closer more and more birds were coming up and the suddenly the whole flock of around 40 birds went up as a stunning male Hen Harrier (Aguilucho Pálido / Circus cyaneus) came over the ridge. 

Cirl Bunting (Escribano Soteno / Emberiza cirlus).

Unfortunately it saw me straight away and turned and shot off low down the valley, I continued on back to the car picking up Short-toed Treecreeper (Agateador Común / Certhia brachydactyla), Great (Carbonera Común / Parus major) and Blue Tit (Herrerillo Común / Cyanistes caeruleus) and in a patch of rose bushes by the car a couple of Brambling (Pinzón Real / Fringilla montifringilla) and a Cirl Bunting (Escribano Soteno / Emberiza cirlus) in amongst a big group of Common Chaffinches (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs).