My early start at Atalaia revealed a substantial clearout of small migrants, after the intense activity of the last week. The Sub-alpine Warblers continued to show well in the lower bushes and as one of my favourite warblers, I watched them for a while. Although there were many fewer birds, there were two new arrivals. Firstly, an Ortolon Bunting dropped into one of the larger bushes and showed for a few seconds only, before concealing itself in the bush. The second new bird was a Western Bonelli's Warbler. Showing only occasionally in a large tamarisk, it looked extremely white, alongside several Willow Warblers. It was particularly difficult to see other diagnostic plumage and, to get a decent image. So moving on to Cabranosa later, the clearout I had found at Atalaia also applied across the entire peninsula. The trees were now quiet, where there had been many flycatchers and redstarts. Turning my attention to the raptors, two pale form Booted Eagles were already over Cabranosa and followed shortly by a third pale bird. Very soon, a juvenile Black Stork appeared and joined the Booted Eagles, trying to work out their next direction. This Stork must have returned to us on the hill at least six times, I felt sorry for it as it tried again and again in quite a fresh North wind. There were seven Sparrowhawks seen, 2 Common Buzzards, 1 Honey Buzzard, 1 Hen Harrier, 1 sub-ad Egyptian Vulture, 1 juv Peregrine and 9 Booted Eagles in the time I watched (c1230 hrs).
As I was about to leave, the bird of the day turned up! A juvenile Eleonora's Falcon flew across the watchpoint at fairly close range. This is a good record for Cabranosa and as an adult falcon appeared a few days ago, this may not be the last one. Comments are closed.
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