Out with John whilst Pam had a day at the house painting (Water Colours not the walls).
Ebird List for the Contra-Embalse de Cacín.
 |
| Booted Eagle (Aguila Calzada / Aquila penntuas). |
John and I headed out along the A92 towards Granada and the out onto the area known as El Temple, as soon as we turned onto the first of the many tracks we saw two pale morph
Booted Eagles (Aguila Calzada / Aquila penntuas) sat in trees waiting for things to warm up so that they could move on again towards their wintering gounds. |
| Booted Eagle (Aguila Calzada / Aquila penntuas). |
In the first section of the drive we also saw Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo), Barn Swallow (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica),
Western Jackdaw (Grajilla occidental / Corvus monedula),
Spotted Flycatcher (Papamoscas Gris / Muscicapa striata),
Corn Bunting (Escribano Triguero / Emberiza calandra),
Eurasian Hoopoe (Abubilla Común / Upupa epops) and sat up on one of the large pylons a
Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus) was surrounded by several Lesser Kestrels (Cernicola Primilla / Falco naumanni) on the wires.
 |
| Booted Eagle (Aguila Calzada / Aquila penntuas). |
We took one of the side tracks and made a couple of stops as we crossed the fields seeing around 60 European Honey Buzzards (Aberjero Europeo / Pernis apivorus), several Black Kites (Milano Negro / Milvus migrans), a Montagu's Harrier (Aguilucho Cenizo / Circus pygargus) which unfortunately John didn't get onto before it dropped out of view behind some Almonds.
We continued on down to the road again, on the way we saw flocks of finches made up of mainly Common Linnets (Pardillo Común / Linaria cannabina) along with smaller numbers of European Goldfinch (Jilguero Europeo / Carduelis carduelis).
 |
| Sage Skipper (Muschampia proto). |
As we dropped down we added
Thekla Lark (Cogujada Montesina / Galerida theklae), a female
Western Marsh Harrier (Aguilucho Lagunero Occidental / Circus aeruginosus) and
Common Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus).
On the other side of the site we again took to the tracks and up by some oil pits we had another 30+ European Honey Buzzards fly overhead along with 3 Common Swifts (Vencejo Común / Apus apus), lower down there were several Crested Larks (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata) and the first of a few Northern Wheatears (Collalba Gris / Oenanthe oenanthe).
 |
| Sage Skipper (Muschampia proto). |
We continued on around the tracks and then off the site to Ventas de Huelma, along the tracks we picked up
Common Kestrel (Cernicalo Vulgar / Falco tinnunculus), Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua),
Great Tit (Carbonera Común / Parus major), European Pied Flycatcher (Papamoscas Cerrojillo / Ficedula hypoleuca), Spanish (Yellow) Wagtail (Lavandera Boyera / Motacilla flava iberiae), half a dozen fly over
Tawny Pipits (Bisbita Camprstre / Anthus campestris),
Bath (Pontia daplidice) and
Small White (
Pieris rapae).
 |
| Desert Orange-tip (Colotis evagore). |
At Restaurante Bernardo in Ventas de Huelma we had a drink and some food before continuing on over to the Cacín Valley through
the destruction that will be a huge solar panel farm / desert stretching for KMs along the road, as I have said before NET ZERO at ANY COST to the Environment and the local wildlife, Well done to the Granada and central Spanish government for allowing this environmental destruction to take place.
 |
| Desert Orange-tip (Colotis evagore). |
Once we had cleared the Solar desert we dropped down into the Cacín seeing several
Desert Orange-tip (Colotis evagore) butterflies around the many
Wild Caper (Capparis spinosa) plants, once we were on the far side of Cacín Village we stopped at the Rio Cacín and did a short walk adding Sage (Muschampia proto) and Southern Marbled Skipper (Muschampia baeticus),
Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus), Southern Blue (Polyommatus celina) and a
Macroglossum stellatarum (Hummingbird Hawkmoth) which was feeding around the many
Squirting Cucumber (Ecballium elaterium) plants.
 |
| Desert Orange-tip (Colotis evagore). |
We move north up the Valley to the Contra-embalse de Bermejalis where we parked and scanned the lake, out on the water we saw
Northern Shoveler (Cuchara Común / Spatula clypeata), Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos),
Eurasian Teal (Cerceta Común / Anas crecca),
Common Pochard (Porrón Europeo / Aythya ferina),
Little Grebe (Zampullín Común /
Tachybaptus ruficollis), Eurasian Coot (Focha Común / Fulica atra),
Common Moorhen (Gallineta Común / Gallinulas chloropus),
Black-winged Stilt (Ciguenuela Común / Himantopus himantopus), Common Greenshank (Archibebe Claro / Tringa nebularia),
Green Sandpiper (Andarrios Grande / Tringa ochropus),
Grey Heron (Garza Real / Ardea cinerea) and in the sky Common Kestrel, a pair of Marsh Harriers and several European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Europeo / Merops apiaster).
 |
| Desert Orange-tip (Colotis evagore). |
On the roadside weeds we saw more
Desert Orange-tips, a single
Southern Brown Argus (Aricia cramera) and several
Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii).We continued north and made our last stop in the pines where we picked up Short-toed Treecreeper (Agateador Europeo / Certhia brachydactyla) before we headed back up to the house and spent some time out on the terrace seeing
Short-toed Snake Eagle, European Serin (Serin Verdecillo / Serinus serinus),
Western House Martin (Avión Común Occidental / Delichon urbicum) and more
European Bee-eaters.
Later we had a nice meal and a good bottle of wine which we have done several time but this time the one person how enjoyed the Marqués de Cáceres the most was missing / missed.
