Short-toed Treecreeper and Blue Rock Thrush April 14th 2009

Finished work 2pm, with a Booted Eagle soaring over the hillside overhead. Like many I see locally this was the pale form...distinctive black and white plumage under the wing makes identification a bit easier. Decided to take a walk up the mountainside with Great Tits, Chaffinches and Sardinian Warblers providing the usual soundtrack. Quickly found a Lesser Kestrel hovering and swooping over its territory. Sat down a little higher up and just watched for a while.

I could hear but didn't see a Mistle Thrush somewhere above me on the slope, otherwise things seemed pretty quiet. Although the weather looked like turning I wanted to press on a bit further and soon found what I was looking for...Blue Rock Thrush. A female this time, but right where I'd found a male ten days ago, sat on a rocky perch below the track. With batteries on charge I had no camera and decided to watch and move on. Only a couple of minutes later found a Short-toed Treecreeper, animatedly working its way up the trunks of old almond trees around the track. Great views as it crossed the path back and forth in front of me...missed some great photos. Typical!

A nice sighting of a Rock Bunting and I was ready to take a slow walk back down the hill. Finally saw the Mistle Thrush and then at last the male Blue Rock Thrush...sat, I think, on the same outcrop as last time. This time it quickly joined up with its partner and the pair headed up into a tree and watched my descent down the track, with much agitated head bobbing and scolding chatter. Very good to see a pair together at the same time, even if they didn't seem that thrilled with the intrusion. Another great couple of hours...