Its worth a visit


15th September.Homeward bound but not before calling at a couple of sites on the way to the airport.

06/10/2011 16:00

Having decided to take the scenic route back to the airport at Malaga we were able to make a couple of stopovers.Firstly at the Laguna Grandee and also in the village of Trujillo where we could have lunch before my flight back.

The stop over at Laguna was ac great place for the photographer as the lush vegetation was alive with both Dragonflies and mainly Swallowtail Butterflies.

Very impressive was the numbers of Broad Scarlet Dragonflies with their stunning colouration and also Lesser Emperors with their distinctive blue saddle as they fly(see photogallery)

The Laguna Grandee is not visible from the road and is accessed throgh a 10 minute walk from the car parking area through somerocky sparse wooded area.It has a good covering of vegetation around its fringe.It would appear from the footprints and the large hollows in the mud surrounding parts of the lake,a good population of Wild Boar and there was evidence of frequent hunting going on there.

There are decent numbers of waterbirds on the lake with on this occassion around 310 Coot,74 Mallard,8 Pochard,6 Little Grebes and 8 Great Crested Grebes.All these took to flight on our arrival not just because of us but also because there was a female Goshawk soaring constantly above a nearby woodland.

There was hundreds of frogs all over the place and around 8 Blackbirds were flushed on our walk around the lake.

Just before the lake was a freshwater stream surounded by smal trees and ths was attracting good numbers of small birds including 85 Goldfinch,Blackbirds and quite a few small warblers.A Goshawk was constantly diving in to this copse causing great panic among the drinkers.

After departing the area we set off for Trujillo a village set in very rural surroundings but also with very mature coniferous and deciduos trees were we could drive through and glass woodland birds.Our first stop was at a small mountain with dozens of water pipes protruding out from its vertical side all with a good running of fesh water.This was attracting lots of woodland birds especialy Black and Common Redstarts,Spotted and Pied Flycatcherand also a good number of Crag Martins and Red Rumped Swallows.

A Woodchat Shrike was on the wires overlooking the drinking tank and there was Common Kestrel hovering over the site.

There was also small passerines with 3 Chiff Chaffs,22 Chaffinces and some 40+Goldfinches all queing for their turn to drink.

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