Diario de viaje por Guijo de Santa Bárbara

TO WESTERN GREDOS (5/08). Hay fever was wearing me out; this was excuse enough to suggest a day in the mountains. Peering at the map, I noticed that north of Jarandilla in the western Sierra de Gredos, there appeared an intriguing destination "Refugio de Na Sa de las Nieves" high (1,700 metres) on the flanks of Covacha (2,399 mertres).

Ellen, as usual, navigated us to this area with precision. Leaving the Monfrague area, we drove first through Oak dehesa. Here we got our first close-up views of Cork Oaks in various stages of bark regeneration. En route, on the Westside road, we stopped at an impressive stand of Pyrenean Oak and had pretty fair views of Western Bonelli's Warbler. Higher, just west of the village of Guijo de Santa Barbara, on a lark, we chose to follow the cobble path over the rushing, boulder-lined mountain stream (Grey Wagtail) up past tiny stone terraced farm plots, over another bridge across a creek in a beautiful gorge. Shortly, we met a stand of moist woodland on a north slope. Here were "North European" birds such as Robin, Blackbird, and Blackcap, and a drumming woodpecker, probably a Great Spotted.

A few hundred metres farther up the track, we rounded the slope to drier east and south-facing aspects into another stand of mature Pyrenean Oak. Here we had memorable views of Western Bonelli's Warbler, including "all field marks" for Ellen. Short-toed Treecreeper also afforded us great views here, too. An old gentleman at a tiny farm at the "end of the track" didn't seem to mind us poking around his woods but did want a picture. As we were quite certain he didn't have a computer to send him a jpg, though he might have been chattering on about a cousin whom might have had this ability, we left him without understanding his jabberings.

On our return in early evening, we found the only Black-winged Kite of our journey, a beautiful bird we saw hover over wet grassy fields, then disappear from view.