Villa Romana de Salar, Huétor Fields and Hacho, Granada Province, Spain.

A return to the Villa Romana de Salar.

Website for the Villa in English.

Website for the Villa in Spanish.

Ebird List for the Fields.

 

Pam and John talking to the very nice and knowledgeable girls who gave us the tour.

We were up and out a little earlier than we needed to be as John and I wanted to quickly check the fields for the Little Bustards (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax) which I was hoping would be roosting on the fields.

The mosaic in the Triclinio.

We arrived and found at least 9 Bustards out on the far edge but they were directly into the sun and we didn't have the time to go along the track as we needed to be in Salar by 09:00, in the same short visit we saw European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Europeo / Merops apiaster), Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor), European Turtle Dove (Tórtola Europea / Streptopelia turtur), Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus) up on one of the Pylons, Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo), Iberian (Rabilargo Ibérico / Cyanopica cooki) and Eurasian Magpie (Urraca Común / Pica pica), European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Europeo / Merops apiaster) and Spanish (Yellow) Wagtail (Lavandera Boyera / Motacilla flava iberiae).

Once we reached the Villa Romana de Salar we were soon met by the two young ladies who were taking us around the site, the one girl spoke pretty good English which made the tour much better, we had visited the place just over a year earlier but it was all in Spanish which was OK as I understand much more than I can say so we had a good time but it was better this year.

As we walked around we saw European Pied Flycatcher (Papamoscas Cerrojillo / Ficedula hypoleuca), Cetti's Warbler (Cetia Ruiseñor / Cettia cetti), Grey (Lavandera Cascadena / Motacilla cinerea) and White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba) and Red-rumped Swallow (Golondrina Dáurica / Cecropis daurica). 

We went into the three area and then back to the visitor center where we watched a video which explained even more about the Villa.

We then went for a coffee before returning to the house, later John and I went for a walk up on Cerro Hacho where once we parked we went for a walk around part of the lower loop, on the way out and back we saw Common Crossbill (Piquituerto Común / Loxia curvirostra), Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs), European Greenfinch (Verderón Común / Chloris chloris), Black Wheatear (Collalba Negra / Oenanthe leucura), Common Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus), Common Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula) and Sardinian Warbler (Curruca Cabecinegra / Curruca melanocephala).

Butterfly wise we picked up Striped Grayling (Hipparchia fidia) x6, Cardinal Fritillary (Argynnis pandora) x4, Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) x3, a female Violet Dropwing (Trithemis annulata) and as we were driving out a Vagrant Emperor (Anax ephippiger).

We returned to the house and then later in the evening we went down to El Cerron in Loja for a very nice meal and a drink.