A late walk around the patch and the a whizz over to El Temple.
Ebird List for Huétor Fields.
Ebird List for El Temple.
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| Corn Bunting (Triguero / Emberiza calandra). |
After having a lousy nights sleep due to a lingering cough I didn't get down to the fields until gone 11, however I did find the territorial male
Little Bustard (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax), Stone Curlew (Alcaraván Común / Burhinus oedicnemus), 2x
Black-winged Kites (Elanio Común / Elanus caeruleus), 3x Montagu's Harriers (Aguilucho Cenizo / Circus pygargus) which spent a good while hassling a rather tatty looking Black Kite (Milano Negro / Milvus migrans).
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| Corn Bunting (Triguero / Emberiza calandra). |
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| Little Bustard (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax). |
Other species seen included
Turtle Doves (Tórtola Europea / Streptopelia turtur),
Golden Oriole (Oropéndola / Oriolus oriolus),
Nightingale (Ruisenor Común / Luscinia megarhynchos), European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Común / Merops apiaster),
Common Swift (Vencejo Común / Apus apus), Woodchat Shrike (Alcaudón Común / Lanius senator),
Spanish (Yellow) Wagtail (Lavandera Boyera / Motacilla flava iberiae),
Corn Bunting (Triguero / Emberiza calandra),
Tree Sparrow (Gorrión Molinero / Passer montanus) and Greater Short-toed Lark (Terrera Común / Calandrella brachydactyla).
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| Black Kite (Milano Negro / Milvus migrans). |
I went back home and sat at the Laptop for a while trying to catch up with the blog after having so many photographs to sort through after two great days in Grazalema but later in the day I got a message from friend Juan Pérez Contreras to tell me that there was a female
Red-footed Falcon (Cernícalo patirrojo / Falco vespertinus) out on El Temple, so I decided to head out there even though the weather looked a bit dodgy.
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| Montagu's Harrier (Aguilucho Cenizo / Circus pygargus) attacking the Black Kite (Milano Negro / Milvus migrans). |
I arrived on site and spent some time searching the area but mostly from the car as the storms had arrived and it was raining quite heavily but during this search I did find lots more
Turtle Doves, 6x
Little Bustards, 8x
Stone Curlews,
Black-winged Kite, Booted Eagle (Aguililla Calzada / Hieraaetus pennatus) x1, Short-toed Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus) x3, Sparrowhawk (Gavilán Común / Accipiter nisus),
Common (Cernicalo Vulgar / Falco tinnunculus) and Lesser Kestrel (Cernicola Primilla / Falco naumanni),
Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua) and
Iberian Green Woodpecker (Pito Real / Picus sharpei).
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The storms on its way.
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The welcome rain but wish it had waited a couple of hours.
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I decided to have a drive down to the lower fields, as I went I messaged Juan for some more information and just as he sent it through I actually found the bird sat up in one of the many Almond trees, I watched this bird for a while until it dropped off and out of sight.
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Red-footed Falcon (Cernícalo patirrojo / Falco vespertinus) female.
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| Red-footed Falcon (Cernícalo patirrojo / Falco vespertinus) female. |
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| Red-footed Falcon (Cernícalo patirrojo / Falco vespertinus) female. |
A few minutes later either it or another bird came in from totally the opposite direction making me suspect that there may have been two birds involved but I never saw two at the same time, other species seen were Iberian Grey Shrike (Alcaudón Real Meridional / Lanius meridionalis), Calandra Lark (Calandria / Melanocorypha calandra) and Zitting Cisticola (Buitrón / Cisticola juncidis).
2 comments:
I had a similar looking Red-footed Falcon at Stodmarsh (Kent) earlier this month. A few years back I also had a male Red-foot on La Janda - It was a good bird but was cruelly disappointed as I was looking for Eleonora's Falcon at the time. The latter is a species I've still not seen on mainland Spain.
Hi John, Thanks for the comment. A few years ago there was a bit of an influx into Spain and I had three up in the Pyrenees on one day and a few days later a flock of seven together in Extremadura.
Had Eleonora's a couple of time in the Cacín Valley near me and plenty on the Islands.
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