Black Vultures and Griffon Vultures

On Saturday, we decided to have a break from the coast, and head inland. Our destination was the beautiful mountain region of the Sierra Norte de Sevilla, which is part of the Sierra Morena and as the name implies, is just north of Seville. Our route took us through Constantina, Cazalla and across a mountain road to Santa Ollala del Cala. This was a completely different environment to the dry coastal area.

The rolling hills rise to a modest 900m, and there are many decidous trees, which provided a wonderful display of autumn colour, red, yellow and gold. We spent the morning searching these damp woodlands for amphibians, specifically Fire Salamader which has a separate race in these mountains, but in this our efforts were in vain. They did however yeald a good selection of woodland birds, notably many Nuthatches, Short-toed Treecreepers and three species of woodpecker, Green, Great Spotted and best of all, Lesser-spotted.

We were surprised to find many Crag Martins still in the area, flying around some of the larger old buildings, and once the temperatures rose in the afternoon, the vultures took to the air, with one flock alone containing over 100 birds, mainly Griffons, but also a few Black. In the foothills we came across a couple of Black-shouldered Kites.