Sierra de Andujar

Monday December 7th :- Drove down from Alicante yesterday afternoon seeing a couple of Booted Eagles en-route, not much else mind you!!!. Got to the Sierra de Andujar with about an hour's light left so headed on down to the local (to the hotel) Iberian Lynx watchpoint where I enjoyed views of Red Deer, Iberian Magpies, 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Kingfisher and loads of Cormorants. Today returned there this morning after a poor night's sleep, forgot this weekend was a 'puente' and the place is mobbed with revellers. C'est la vie. So after a lazy start I headed out there again and saw 100's of Iberian Magpies, a few Hawfinches, Sparrowhawk, several Iberian Green & Great Spotted Woodpeckers, several Nuthatches, Crested, Long tailed, Coal, Blue & Great Tits, Rock Bunting, another Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper, Grey & White Wagtails, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Spotless Starlings, Blackbird, Crag Martins, Mallard, Moorhen, Grey Heron, Woodlark, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Black Redstarts. However the highlight of the morning was getting fabulous views of an Otter as it hunted for fish in the river just below where I was. Returned to the hotel for a sandwich and a quick power nap before heading out again this time to another area, which is good for Iberian Lynx and the unthinkable happened. En-route I saw many Red Deer, a Black Vulture (my only large raptor today?), Short toed Treecreeper, Red legged Partridge, Red billed Chough, another Sparrowhawk, Blue Rock Thrush, Mistle Thrushes and lots more Iberian Magpies. However the major disappointment was learning that a group of Spanish observers were watching a Lynx while I was a little further down the hill and out of siight of it. They never even mentioned it until I went to talk to them - how gutted was I!!!.