14 September 2024: Day 8, Ronda and Sierra Grazalema Pure Park, WINGS Spain in Autumn. Click on right here to see (typically) the place the tour is right this moment.
At the moment we depart the ocean at Tarifa and climb to the mountains of Sierra Grazalema Pure Park. Its 200 sq. miles include rivers, lakes, karst valleys, whitewashed villages and a number of other mountain ranges. The best mountain, Pinar at 5,427 ft (1,654 m), is greater than a mile excessive.
The Pure Park isn’t a wilderness for there are small villages of whitewashed buildings known as pueblos blancos — actually “white villages” — sprinkled all through. Grazalema (pictured under, inhabitants 2,053) shares its identify with the mountains and the park. The city is north of the middle of the map above.
As a result of our lodging is in Ronda, likelihood is good we shall be birding on the jap aspect of the park the place eBird signifies we will see these goal species.
Species so as of look:
- Eurasian griffon (Gyps fulvus)
- Bonelli’s eagle (Aquila fasciata)
- Iberian gray shrike (Lanius meridionalis)
- Crested tit (Lophophanes cristatus)
- Thekla’s lark (Galerida theklae)
- Sardinian warbler (Curruca melanocephala)
- Black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros)
- Blue rock thrush (Monticola solitarius)
- Black wheatear (Oenanthe leucura)
- White-throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus)
- Rock bunting (Emberiza cia)
We’d additionally see an Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica) trying down at us from excessive above. These are actually the mountain “goats” of Spain for they’re in the identical genus because the home goat.
There are a variety of birds to see in two days earlier than we head north to Osuna.
