a lovely spring morning with bright, warm, sunshine, no wind and hardly a cloud in the sky. Rory, Bernadette, Mike and Bridgette met me outside my house for a day-out birding on the coast. We drove down through the Genal Valley, passed Casares and onto the coast road at Sabinillas. We stopped just outside Torreguadiaro to watch Monk Parakeets at their nest site, their nests, a huge array of sticks, house several pairs in each clump.
The gang at Palmones
The gang at PalmonesAt the laguna in Torreguadiaro we spent a wonderful couple of hours watching many species, the laguna was like a mill pond and the sea was extremely calm. As we circumnavigated the water we notched several good species, Crested Larks, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Little Egret, Little Grebe and Meadow Pipit started us off. We then bumped into a large flock of Greenfinches, Goldfinches and a couple of Serins.
At the far side of the pool we watched a couple of pairs of Lesser Kestrels trying to evict Feral Pigeons and a Little Owl from their nest sites in the old watch-towers. It was very entertaining stuff.
The squatter - a Little Owl in the lesser kestrel's nest hole
Lesser kestrel taking a rest after evicting a Little Owl from its nest holeNext we watched a couple of Zitting Cisticolas feeding in the scrub just as a Cetti's Warbler popped out of cover and chased off one of the Zitters - not very friendly.
The sky above laguna was filled with early migrants in the shape of House Martins and Barn Swallows, they were joined by the resident Crag Martins who were probably getting a bit fed up of these invading pests that were eating all their insect food!
We then drove round to the west side of Soto grande and visited the nature reerve found there. We spent an hour looking for Purple Swamphen but came away with lots of Moorhens and Coots. One spectacle was about 20 Chiffchaffs feeding on flying insects over the water, the flew from perches high up in the reeds and caught the insects on the wing! They were joined by a couple Reed Buntings.
A brief visit to the woods at San Enrique added a flock of 20 Siskin, Short-toed Treecreeper, lots of Meadow Pipits, White Wagtails and a few Tree Sparrows. lots of Blackcaps were in song along with Robins and a Cetti's Warbler.
We spent lunchtime at Palmones looking over the salt marsh and river mouth. Although it was high tide there was still plenty to see, a group of 5 Spoonbills started us off, then Little Egret, Redshank,Whimbrel, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Sanderling soon followed. There was also a large flock of gulls and Sandwich Terns, with Cormorant and Mallard making up the numbers. On the way back to the car we found 2 ospreys amd 2 Marsh Harriers.
We ate our picnic lunch whilst soaking up the warm sunshine before setting off to the west side of the marsh. We then found 3 Common Sandpipers, a Kingfsher (that hovered over small pools in the marsh) and a beautiful male Marsh Harrier. As we watched a distant Greenshank we found a Water Pipit which fl;ew from the marsh and landed in a tree not too far away from us. We all had good views of the pipit before a Sparrowhawk came along and grabbed it!!! If only the camera was on film mode! Poor pipit - it was my bird of the day ........and the Sparrowhawks no doubt.
Water Pipit just before a Sparrowhawk took it!!!During this spell we also found Speckled Wood, Swallowtail and Spanish Festoon butterflies.
Ophrys Tenthredinifera - Sawfly Orchid
Lastly we stopped at the roadside beneath Sierra Crestellina where we watched many Griffon Vultures and a small flock of Red-billed Chough. We finished off back in the village at 5:30pm, our list held 65 species, not too bad with some good birds to boot!
From the elevated hide on this side of the marsh we had better views of the Spoonbills and we also found 8 Curlews, 5 Black-winged Stilts and another Osprey perched on a post.
We next visited the pine woods at Pinar del Rey where a Great Spotted Woodpecker entertained us for a while and Jay, Common Buzzard, Common Starling and Stonechat went on the list. On the way back to the car we found a number of Ophrys tenthredinifera Sawfly Orchid
Ophrys Tenthredinifera - Sawfly OrchidLastly we stopped at the roadside beneath Sierra Crestellina where we watched many Griffon Vultures and a small flock of Red-billed Chough. We finished off back in the village at 5:30pm, our list held 65 species, not too bad with some good birds to boot!
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