Salina's area in Malaga Province, Cantera de Ofita in Granada Province and along the A92 in Malaga Province, Spain.

Visiting some old dragonfly sites, disappointing to see how degraded they were (getting used to it unfortunately).

 

I picked Lynn and Steve up from El Puerto del Jaral where heard or saw Common Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus), Iberian Green Woodpecker (Pito ibérico / Picus sharpei) and Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor) before heading back up the motorway to Salinas area where we were going to check out a couple of sites we had not visited for a while.

 Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua).

 Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua).

Our first stop was near the Arroyo del Nieblin where we checked a small pool which was basically dry apart from a dribble of water coming in and leaking straight under ground again, here we had a very smart Little Owl (Mochuelo Europeo / Athene noctua) which was sat out on the nearby Cortijo ruin and in the dead thistle plants a few Red-veined Darters (Sympetrum fonscolombii) x10+.

Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii).

Red-veined Darters (Sympetrum fonscolombii).

In the area around the cortijo and along the nearby ditches we added Southern Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvoides) x12+, Common Woodpigeon, Iberian  (Rabilargo Ibérico / Cyanopica cooki) x50+ and Eurasian Magpie (Urraca Común / Pica pica), Spotless Starling, Iberian Green Woodpecker, Crested Lark (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata) and European Serin (Serin Verdecillo / Serinus serinus).

Southern Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvoides).

Southern Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvoides).

Southern Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvoides).

We moved to a spot nearby along the side of the railway line where we checked out a small pool formed by a leak from the mains water system, here we saw Small Fleabane (Pulicaria vulgaris), Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), Perez's Frog (Rana Común / Pelophylax perezi), Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) x2, Crimson Speckled (Utetheisa pulchella) moths, Iberian Bluetail (Ischnura graellsii) x3♂, Epaulet Skimmer (Orthetrum chrysostigma) x3♂, Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea) x1♂ and at least 10x Keeled Skimmers (Orthetrum coerulescens) but only the exuvia.

Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus).

Epaulet Skimmer (Orthetrum chrysostigma) ♂.

Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea) ♂.

Scarlet Darter (Crocothemis erythraea) ♂.

Iberian Bluetail (Ischnura graellsii).

Iberian Bluetail (Ischnura graellsii).

We circled back around to the Cortijo as it had warmed up a bit more but we only found Large (Pieris brassicae) and Small White (Pieris rapae), Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus), Willow (Mosquitero Musical / Phylloscopus trochillus) and Sardinian Warbler (Curruca Cabecinegra / Curruca melanocephala), European Greenfinch (Verderón Común / Chloris chloris) and European Goldfinch (Jilguero Europeo / Carduelis carduelis).

We returned to the car and decided to go and check out a new site on the southern side of the Motorway, we found the entrance to Cantera de Ofita, a disuse quarrying site where we had some lunch and had views of 2 Golden (Águila Real / Aquila chrysaetos) and a single Short-toed Snake Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus).

Desert Darters (Sympetrum sinaiticum).

Desert Darters (Sympetrum sinaiticum).

Red-veined Darters (Sympetrum fonscolombii).

We decided to have a look around what looked like it could be a very interesting area, whilst there we saw a Two-tailed Pasha (Charaxes jasius) x1, Desert Orange-tip (Colotis evagore) x3, Lesser (Anax parthenope) x2♂, Blue / Common (Anax imperator) x1♂ and Vagrant Emperor (Anax ephippiger) x1, Epaulet Skimmer x3♂ x1♀, Red-veined (Sympetrum fonscolombii) x2♂ x1♀, Common (Sympetrum striolatum) x5+ and Desert Darter (Sympetrum sinaiticum) x20+, Scarlet Darter x5♂, Orange-winged Dropwing (Trithemis kirbyi) x4♂, a ♀ Northern Shoveler (Cuchara Común / Spatula clypeata), Eurasian Coot (Focha Común / Fulica atra), White Wagtail (Lavandera Blanca / Montacilla alba) and the 2 Golden Eagles again, this time we could see that the immature was carrying a radio tracker of some sort.

Golden Eagle (Águila Real / Aquila chrysaetos).

Golden Eagle (Águila Real / Aquila chrysaetos).

We returned to the car and started to head back to the Camp site as I was starting to feel the heat a tad but made a short stop at a ditch on the motorway service road where we saw Red-veined  x1♀ and Common Darter x2♂ x1♀, Southern Brown Argus (Aricia cramera), Southern Blue (Polyommatus celina), False Mallow Skipper (Carcharodus tripolinus) and then on the Northern side of the motorway where the water comes out again we had Common Darter x2♂ x2♀ and Wasp Spider (Arana Tigre / Argiope bruennichi).

Southern Brown Argus (Aricia cramera).

Wasp Spider (Arana Tigre / Argiope bruennichi).