This morning I went to a place in the mountains near Los Barrios, in the south of Spain. My GSP had chosen a wrong place as my destination, so I arrived twenty minutes later than expected. As temperatures are no extremely high anymore, that was not much of a problem. I began the route heavily loaded with my camera and lens, chair, tripod, binoculars and my new ghillie suit, which I wanted to try out for the first time. I had seen photos of this route with a kind of drinking basin, which seemed a good spot to hide and wait for birds to quench their thirst in this dry landscape. I had forgotten my quick release plate at home, so I wasn't able to attach my camera onto the tripod. However, the drinking basin was not in a very beautiful place, so my forgetfulness didn't cause that much frustration after all. There were a few big artificial perches, created by man for birds of prey to land on, which may yield spectacular photos, but I decided to use my ghillie suit some other day and walked back to the car to unload some my heavy equipment and continue my walk into the pine forest on the hills.
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| Great Tit |
I was a bit wary at the start of my walk, because as so often signs were not abundant. And if they are present, they can be very misleading. After fifteen minutes I got to a wooden post that showed two arrows, one left and one right. I went left, but realised soon that lead to a dead end. With my legs full of scratches I went back to the sign and climbed up a steep hill in the other direction. Good choice this time. That was when I heard and saw the first Jays. They are very easy to recognize but very difficult to capture on camera. After completing the circular trail I had more or less memorized using Google Earth the night before, I decided it was time for some more adventurous action. I followed a mountain bike trail for a few kilometres and then followed another path climbing to one of the highest points of the mountains.
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| One of the four perches along the track |
Apart from the Jays, the most abundant species I saw and heard was the Sardinian Warbler. There were also about twenty Griffon Vultures soaring in the sky. I also spotted a few other raptor species.
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| A noisy Buzzard |
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| Male Sparrowhawk |
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| Not an Osprey, but a Snake Eagle |
I was now completely in the middle of nowhere. Not easy to get completely lost, but risky to get disorientated. Fortunately, the paths were in good condition and easy to follow. I had been walking for several hours when I saw two deer, barely twenty metres away. They soon dashed off between the trees, but I managed to take a decent shot of the biggest one, as it was keeping an eye on me, before disappearing even further up the mountain. Such lovely animals!
I heard more Jays, but couldn't take any good picture of them. As soon as they heard my footsteps, they flew off with a hellish noise. I did run into some Tree Creepers and Firecrests. Also difficult birds to photograph. They made me switch to autofocus and allowed me to take a few decent shots.
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| Extremely well camouflaged Tree Creeper |
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| Tree Creeper |
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| Firecrest |
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| Extremely difficult to photograph Firecrest in the pine forest |
After more than sixteen kilometres and five hours climbing and descending, I was happy to make it back to the car. An interesting piece of nature with very little human presence, apart from a few bikers and hikers. If you ever visit one of these trails, make sure you take enough water and a mobile phone. Some insect repellent could be handy as well, as I was almost constantly harassed by horse-flies. Looking forward to using my ghillie suit soon, if I don't forget to take my full equipment.
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| Looks like the rests of a pigeon, left behind by a Hawk. |
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| Looking southward |
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| Panoramic view looking southward |
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| The route I followed: in respective order yellow - orange - red |
