It´s the first week of October, and I´m helping the Spanish Highs Mountain Guides crew with some work on their house above Lanjaron. As always, I´ve got one eye on the sky and I´m listening to the birdsong on the hillside around me. As ever, the Sardinian Warblers are clicking and churring in the olive trees, adding to the familiar white noise of the Serin and House Sparrows. Crag Martins and the last of the summer´s House Martins swooped and swirled overhead, giving Kiersten a chance to get to grips with a new camera lense…and it wasn´t long before she came up with a bit of a surprise. Barn Swallows…just one or two in amongst their hirundine cousins, their red cheeks and tail streamers just visible as they flashed by. The literature suggests a year-long presence for this species in parts of southern Spain. The population that nested in the village certainly left and went somewhere a couple of months ago, and I can´t help wondering where these stragglers arrived from….Scotland? Scandinavia? Intriguing stuff…
The appearance of a large bird of prey soaring high above us on the mountainside brought the work to a brief standstill, and I found myself straining to identify a speck on the skyline some distance away. Huge, that much was certain…with the migrant raptors on their way south I thought we could be looking at a Golden Eagle, but Kiersten managed to get the camera on it and the day took a major turn. Griffon Vulture! I couldn´t believe it…a life first for me and a bird I had been desperate to see since I arrived back in February. Absolutely fantastic! Richard and Kiersten had returned triumphantly from a mountain trek earlier this summer with these fabulous photos leaving me massively impressed and green with envy, so for me to catch up on life-list tick was a truly great moment. Outstanding camera work from my birdwatching partners, hope you enjoy the images. With these magnificent birds on the move in the mountains above the village, we´ll keep you posted with the news as the month rolls on….. Click this link to watch the video of the Griffon Vultures
