I collected Susan and Steve from the airport around 11am and we went straight to the Nature Reserve at the river Guadalhorce and spent 3 hours having a great birding session in the bright Spanish Sunshine.
Sue and Steve on the west embankment at the GuadalhorceWe started with Spotless Starling, Monk Parakeet, Kentish Plover, Common Sandpiper, Sardinain Warbler, Red-rumped Swallow and several Serins.
We then walked along the beach and turned into the reserve to view the laguna Grande from the raised hide. On the water we saw Black-winged Stilt, Little and Black-necked Grebe, White-headed Duck, Gadwall, Ringed and Little Ringed Plover, Redshank, Greenshank, Dunlin and a couple of Little Egrets. A Night Heron flew over us a couple of times and a lovely Collared Pratincole landed right in front of the hide, click, click.
From the next hide we found more White-headed Ducks, some of the males were looking super in their summer plummage with bright blue bills. We also found Purple Swamphen, Common Pochard and a male Shoveler. Many Zitting cisticola were zitting about, we also heard a few Cetti's Warblers and one Reed Warbler, Over head we found a couple of Bee-eaters, a male Marsh Harrier and a Common Kestrel.
We took lunch at a venta in San Julian before driving to Gaucin, along the way we drove through several showers of rain, some of them heavy. As we arrived at sierra Crestellina the sun came out and the light improved dramatically. From the roadside we saw Griffon Vultures, a Peregrine Falcon, Woodchat Shrike, Cirl Bunting, Corn Bunting, Blackcap, Stonechat and a couple of Kestrels. We then drove up the hill to Gaucin and along the way we stopped to watch a large flock of Black Kites flying up the Genal valley towards Gaucin, a Common Buzzard flew up to join them.
We gathered for dinner at 7pm and ran through the bird log, we had listed just under 60 species, not too bad for 3/4 of a day.
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