Today we planned to have a quieter day with a drive down the bottom of the Anso Valley to Berdun. We would then return up the Fago Valley. I won’t say it was a ‘non birding day’ but we didn’t have too many target species.
During a stop at the viewpoint above the river we could hear Nightingales singing and White and Grey Wagtail were seen in the river below. Further on when we entered the rocky gorge, Griffon Vultures were in the air along with an Egyptian Vulture and even a Bearded Vulture again. The second in two days!
Passing by Binies we saw a nice Red Kite, one of very few seen so far. We always used to see loads of Kites during our visit, particularly Black Kites. It’s very strange.
We arrived at Berdun where we had a coffee stop noting several House Martin nests under the eaves of houses and lots of the birds were flying around, along with Swallows and Swifts.
We continued along the main road and entered the road to Fago. At the bottom of the valley here, there is cultivated land where we soon spotted a Bee-eater. I was hoping to see one here as we had seen one in this location two years ago. This was good as we are not likely to see them anywhere else this year. What we didn’t expect, but was a nice surprise, was a Roller perched on a wire on the other side of the road from the Bee-eater! We definitely weren’t expecting to see that.
Further along this road we added Crested Lark, Skylark and Corn Bunting before heading back uphill into the Gorge. We stopped for a picnic at a fantastic viewpoint where Griffon Vultures, Crag and House Martins were in the air above us. A Peregrine flying over was a nice addition to the list.
At another brief stop further on John spotted a bird flying across in front of us and we were pretty sure it was a Blue Rock Thrush. Another great bird for the list.
We headed home for a well earned rest having had another excellent day.
