ANDALUCIA - 7 DAY TOUR - DAY 3 - 9TH MAY 2012

SAN PABLO TRACK -  SAN ENRIQUE WOODS  -  LAGUNA TORREGUADIARO  - PALMONES SALT MARSH  - GUADIARO VALLEY FROM SECADERA TO CASARES

Another really superb day out, the weather was just fantastic and the bird list contained some real quality species and included some great prolonged views of several hard to see species.

TAWNY PIPIT

A clear blue sky greeted us as we emerged from the house and set off for the coast via San Pablo and San Martin. We saw several birds along the way and we stopped to watch a Bee-eater colony near San Pablo.

At the 'track' we set off in warm sunshine and soon we were watching the first of up to a dozen Melodious Warblers, these 'lemon' coloured little gems were very obliging and they sang their hearts out to us. Many finches were present too: Gold Finches and Green Finches were joined by Serins, Linnets, Crested Larks, Little Owl, Zitting Cisticola, Sardinain Warblers and Blackcaps.

In the sky were saw very few Honey Buzzards, but enough to appreciate their presence, also Booted and Short-toed Eagles, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel and a Raven. A little further along the track we found our target bird the Rufous Bush Robin, it was singing along with all the other species and gave us a fine show. A few Tawny pipits were located int he fields and along the fenceline. It was now getting very warm so set off back to the bus, The return journey was just as friutful as the outward one with plenty to see both on the ground and in the scrub.

Next we stopped at San Enrique Woods where stayed so long we decided to eat our lunch there! Tree Sparrow was one of the first species in the bag but a superb find, a Wryneck, was even better. Then we found a pair of Green Woodpeckers in a dead tree, as you do. Inside the would we were amazed by the volumn of bird song despite the noisy council workers strimming the grass!!! Both Spotted and Pied Flycatchers were found along with Cetti;s Warbler, Bl;ackcap, Common Nightingale and lots Serins. We found Short-toed Treecreepers bringing food to a nest as well as a Great-spotted Woodpecker doing the same to its nest hole. On the river adjacent to the wood we found Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and a Kingfisher.

After alovely picnic in the woods we drove the short distance to Torreguadiaro and walked around the laguna. The water level was much higher than of late so there were no waders feeding there. Buty we did find a single Little Bittern, 2 Purple Swamphens and several Little Grebes. A pair of LesserKestrels were flying around the tower (torre) and not much else was recorded.

RUFOUS BUSH ROBIN

Palmones was the same, it seemed devoid of life, There were no gulls or terns on the sand spit and very few waders on the low-tide mud. A few Dunlin, Ringed Plover and a single Common Sandpiper were recorded. On the marsh we saw only Little Egret a few Yellow Wagtails.

We drove back towards Gaucin on the Jimena road passing through Castellar where many White Storks are breeding, there are over 40 nests on the pylons, it is a lovely spectacle. At the San Martin crossroads we stopped to watch a Lesser Kestrel colony, they nest in the railway bridge there, up to 10 pairs are present.

 NIGHTINGALE

Lastly we drove through San Martin and turned into the Guadiaro valley at Secadera and after 5km we stopped at the riverside to search for Western Olivaceous Warbler in the tamarisk scrub. No problem, we found 3 -4 birds whithin yards of where we parked, two of them were singing. We also had a treat when a Collared Pratincole landed on the shingle bank and stayed for the duration of our stay, we also found lots of Bee-eaters, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and another bonus, two Wood Sandpipers.

We arrived back at gaucin at 6pm and took an early dinner so that we could go out and afterwards to look for Red-necked Nightjars. This part of the day was a failure, not a single bird was calling despite the weather conditions being perfect, you can't them all we had had agreat day nonetheless.