Wednesday morning, day off work! Decided to go for a longer walk higher up beyond the tree line. Headed off on my usual route intending to work my way up the mountain. Reached a large flat terrace where I often stop to see what’s about, around 8.30am. Watched a fox prowling the slope above me until it melted away into the scrub.
Crag Martins soared and swooped overhead, the first I’d seen on this trip. Saw a Mistle Thrush and began to follow the track up, and had a brilliant view of a Grey Wagtail. House Sparrows and Spotless Starlings around a goat farm and I was past the last of the Olive groves. passed through a thin strip of beautiful woodland with the usual Blackcap, tits and finches and went on up the mountainside. Very soon started to see Crested Lark in some numbers.
A Hoopoe flew overhead and I saw my first ever Rock Bunting soon after. A Lesser Kestrel hunted on the other side of a gully and I stopped to eat and watch quietly. Almost immediately a Wild Boar, my second in four days, trotted slowly over the brow of the slope in front of me and made its way suspiciously down the other side of the gully. I watched it with binoculars and if anything thought it was bigger than the last one! Made my way back to Lanjaron down 10km of track, no Black Redstarts which was a surprise but Stonechat in double figures.
Coal Tits in the conifers, plenty of Rock Bunting and the biggest Red Squirrel I’ve ever seen. Good views of Sardinian Warblers lower down, finished the day with a Golden Eagle 4-5km outside the village. Great day…
