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Wednesday 23 October 2024

El Temple, Cacín Valley and Huétor Fields, Granada Province, Spain.

A 4 Eagle days birding with Alexandra and Agana.
 
Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus).
We started out on the edge of the El Temple area at a semi-derelict Cortijo and started the day list with Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor), Feral Pigeon (Paloma Bravía / Columba livia), Common Chiffchaff (Mosquitero Común / Phylloscopus collybita), Western Jackdaw (Grajilla occidental / Corvus monedula), Crested Lark (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata) and White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba).
We pushed on out onto the main part of El Temple and headed along the main road making several stops picking up Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo), Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros), European Stonechat (Tarabilla Europea / Saxicola rubicola), Iberian Grey Shrike (Alcaudón Real / Lanius meridionalis), Calandra Lark (Calandria Común / Melanocorypha calandra), Eurasian Skylark (Alondra Común / Alauda arvensis), European Goldfinch (Jilguero Europeo / Carduelis carduelis), European Greenfinch (Verderón Común / Chloris chloris), Common Linnet (Pardillo Común / Linaria cannabina), European Serin (Serin Verdecillo / Serinus serinus), Common Kestrel (Cernicalo Vulgar / Falco tinnunculus), Corn Bunting (Escribano Triguero / Emberiza calandra), House Sparrow (Gorrión Común / Passer domesticus) and Meadow Pipit (Bisbita Pratense / Anthus pratensis).
Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus).
We left the main road and did a couple of the tracks seeing Eurasian Magpie (Urraca Común / Pica pica), Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Gavilán Común / Accipiter nisus), Northern Wheatear (Collalba Gris / Oenanthe oenanthe), Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) x8 and Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) x4.
We returned to the main road and then crossed to the tracks on the opposite side and made our way to Ventas de Huelma, on the way we found Rabbit (Conejo / Oryctolagus cuniculus), Bath (Pontia daplidice) x4 and Small White (Pieris rapae) x15, a fast flying Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) x1, Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs), Eurasian Collared Dove (Tórtola Turca / Streptopelia decaocto), Mistle Thrush (Zorzal Charlo / Turdus viscivorus) and 2x Western Marsh Harriers (Aguilucho Lagunero Occidental / Circus aeruginosus).
We stopped for coffee and then crossed the newly constructed SOLAR DESERT, we stopped twice, firstly on the roadside where we saw an immature Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus), Sardinian Warbler (Curruca Cabecinegra / Curruca melanocephala), Thekla Lark (Cogujada Montesina / Galerida theklae) and House Sparrow (Gorrión Común / Passer domesticus), at the halfway point we spent some time scanning the sky and ridges for raptors and with the help of Alexandra's eyes which were very keen we saw 6x Red-billed Chough (Chova Piquirroja / Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), a dark morph Booted Eagle (Aguila Calzada / Aquila penntuas) and an adult Iberian Imperial Eagle (Aguila Imperial Ibérica / Aguila adalberti) but in the whole area there was a drastic drop in ground birds.
We continued on to the village of Cacín and the went south along the Valley to the Puente del rio Cacín where we parked on the far side of the gorge and quickly found several Desert Orange-tips (Colotis evagore) x7, heard Cetti's Warbler (Cetia Ruiseñor / Cettia cetti), Eurasian Blue Tit (Herrerillo Común / Cyanistes caeruleus), European Robin (Petirrojo Europeo / Erithacus rubecula) and saw Common Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula), Great Tit (Carbonera Común / Parus major) and Song Thrush (Zorzal Común / Turdus philomelos).
Further down the valley we stopped by some large rocks and we were pleased to see one of the birds Agana wanted to see a male Blue-rock Thrush (Roquero Solitario / Monticola solitarius), we continued on and parked above the gorge and scanned the cliffs finding several Eurasian Crag Martins (Avión Roquero / Ptyonoprogne rupestris) and Common Starling (Estornino Pinto / Sturnus vulgaris) x4 which were my first of the Autumn.
We headed back North along the valley, on the way we had two Rock Buntings (Escribano Montesino / Emberiza cia) fly across in front of us, an adult looking Short-toed Snake Eagle which soared above the gorge and a repeat performance by the Blue-rock Thrush.
 We drove up to the Contra-embalse de Bermejalis and with the scope we found Grey Heron (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea), Black-winged Stilt (Ciguenuela Común / Himantopus himantopus) x6, Green Sandpiper (Andarrios Grande / Tringa ochropus), Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos), Northern Shoveler (Cuchara Común / Spatula clypeata), Common Pochard (Porrón Europeo / Aythya ferina), Eurasian Teal (Cerceta Común / Anas crecca), Little Grebe (Zampullín Común / Tachybaptus ruficollis), Eurasian Coot (Focha Común / Fulica atra), Common Moorhen (Gallineta Común / Gallinulas chloropus) and just as we were about to move on I picked up a large raptor off in the distance up the valley which turned out to be a Golden Eagle (Águila Real / Aquila chrysaetos) our fourth eagle species of the day and as we watched it a second bird arrived and they had a short interaction before splitting up again.
We also saw Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) x3, Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) x2 and Stripe-necked Terrapin (Mauremys leprosa).
  We again continued up the valley and made another stop in the pine trees where we were hoping to see the filth Eagle species of the day but we didn't manage it, however we did see a pair of circling Northern Goshawks (Azor Común / Accipitor gentillis) one of which went up high and joined a passing Great Cormorant (Cormorán Grande / Phalacrocroax carbo), heard Cirl Bunting (Escribano Soteño / Emberiza cirlus), Common Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus) and whilst  Agana dropped into the Olives to see what he could find I saw a small flock of Long-tailed Tits (Mito Común / Aegithalos caudatus) which also held Common Firecrest (Reyezuelo Listado / Regulus ignicapilla), Short-toed Treecreeper (Agateador Europeo / Certhia brachydactyla) but only heard them both.
Our final stop in the Cacín Valley was at the crags below Moreleda, at the first lay-by we only saw a few Eurasian Crag Martins but further down towards the main A-402 we made a fast stop when I saw a Black Wheatear (Collalba Negra / Oenanthe leucura) drop off a large rock but we didn't relocate it again unfortunately, however we did find a second Blue-rock Thrush  and nice male Spanish Ibex (Cabra montés / Capra pyrenaica hispanica) chilling up on the cliffs.
At our first stop of the day out on the fields to the North of Huétor Tajar we managed just some distant heat haze affected views of a couple of Eurasian Stone Curlews (Alcaraván Común / Burhinus oedicnemus), they were distant due to there being quite a bit of work going on out on the Fields so we moved on fairly quickly to the Lucerne fields where we parked at my usual spot and spent a while scanning the fields before driving slowly out of the area, whilst here we added Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua), Iberian  Magpie (Rabilargo Ibérico / Cyanopica cooki), Eurasian Hoopoe (Abubilla Común / Upupa epops) which was only seen by myself unfortunately, Red-legged Partridge (Perdiz Roja / Alectoris rufa) which were only heard, Eurasian Blackcap (Curruca Capirotada / Curruca capirotada) and Grey Wagtail (Lavandera Cascadena / Motacilla cinerea).
On our way back to Granada we finished the list off with a Western Cattle Egret (Garcilla Bueyera / Bubulcus ibis) at Balsa del Regidor and a couple of Monk Parakeets (Cotorra Argentina / Myiopsitta monachus) and the motorway, it was great to catch up with Agana and Alexandra and to enjoy 70 or so species in total.

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