Wallcreeper and Alpine Accentor both in the scope at once! Today we headed south for a mountainous area near Guadalupe to look for some late winter visitors which we hoped would still be around despite the lovely warm sunshine. The road climbed up steeply giving great views across the plains below and numerous mountain ridges. We stopped at a gorge where Wallcreeper had been seen in the winter but the rocks were bare. Higher up rock faces hung above the road, we scanned them carefully but nothing. We parked near the summit and began searching all the cliffs and rock faces. Rock Buntings showed well hopping around the boulders, loads of Black Redstarts sang and displayed, Dartford Warblers were numerous and easy to see but no Wallcreeper or Alpine Accentor despite our best efforts. A flock of ten Chough wheeled overhead, two Ravens croaked and two Peregrine gave a fantastic display stunt flying above us, for a minute we could have been back in Wales, but then five Egyptian Vultures came whizzing past involved in some sort of dispute, amazingly agile birds when they need to be. We trudged back to the car somewhat disappointed we had missed our target birds.
As we reached the car another birder was just arriving, we told our tale of dipping. The other birder introduced himself as John Muddeman, a bird guide and author of the site guide to birding in Extremadura. John was naturally a font of information and we soon had our map spread across the bonnet and a pen out marking possible sites for missing birds. We chatted for sometime then left John to bird the mountain in peace. Just before we parted we gave John our mobile number just in case. The drive down the mountain was slow as another car was in front, half way down we remembered that we had missed lunch so stopped at a view point. We had just got the sandwiches out when the mobile rang. It was John, he had found an Alpine Accentor! Now our hired BMW may not have great visibility or good ground clearance but boy can it shift! We flew back up the mountain the BMW hugging the bends and roaring along the short straights. In minutes we were back with John. We couldn’t believe what he was saying, Alpine Accentor and Wallcreeper BOTH in the scope now! In the short time it had taken us to rejoin him John had found a flock of Alpine Accentors and amongst them a Wallcreeper, totally amazing! We enjoyed great scope views of the male Wallcreeper and about nine Accentors over the next twenty minutes before they melted away into the rocks. Wow! A huge thanks to John for saving the day. Oh yes, then we had a very late lunch, but it tasted so much better.
Tomorrow we’re moving on to the Coto Donana, and it’ll be hard to tear ourselves away from here.  Martin has been extremely helpful in giving us tips on where to pick up our target birds for the area, and both he and his wife Claudia, son Patrick and Moro the dog made us so welcome at Casa Rural El Recuerdo (www.casaruralelrecuerdo.com) – so thanks very much to everyone, we’ve had a great time, and some great birds too.
Species total 1893
Posted 29th March Trujillo, Spain 8pm