day 1 of this Autumn Migration tour began in central Malaga. Dawn and I had spent a yesterday and last evening in the this beautiful part of Malaga before meeting up this morning with two of our guest, Sarah and Robyn from Austrailia.
later we met up with Mike, Lorna, Diana and Jacqueline at Malaga Airport and with the whole group assembled we set off for the lovely nature reserve at Guadalhorce. It was sunny and warm with a lovely cooling breeze.
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| The group in the hide at Guadalhorce |
Our first official bird identified was a Caspian Tern which quatered the eastern arm of the river right in front of us - not a bad start at all. We walked the length of the east embankment before turning onto the rserve by crossing the 'green' bridge. Along the way we logged Common Pochard, Little Egret, Moorhen, Common Coot, Zitting Cisticola, Serin, Red-rumped Swallow, Barn Swallow, House Martin and some noisy Monk Parakeets.
A Willow Warbler posed nicely for us and we had fleeting glimpses of Spotted Flycatcher, Common Nightingale and Sardinian Warbler. Once on the reserve we found a Hoopoe (seen only by me) and a flock of Crested Larks. We sat in the hide which overlooks the Laguna Grande and spent a lovely hour watching some nice birds. Common Kingfisher, White-headed Duck, Gadwall, Teal, Shoveler, Little Grebe and a couple of Warblers in the shape of Reed and Bonelli's.
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| Laguna full of Gulls |
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| Caspian Tern was a nice find |
From the main hide we viewed hundreds of gulls, mainly Black-headed but also Lesser Black-backed, Mediterranean, Audouin's and Yellow-legged. A few waders were present but not many: Little-ringed Plover, Dunlin, Common and Green Sandpipers and Black-winged Stilts. We also saw Eurasian Spoonbill, Spotless Starling and several Grey Herons.
We walked back to the bus along the beach where many nudist sunbathers were prarding thewir wares, I didn't know where to look for the best!
Finally, just before we drove up to Gaucin we stopped at Sierra Crestellina, it was getting on for 6pm, it was still 26C but a strong breeze had developed, it was quite gusty too. We watched several Griffon Vultures drifting over the mountain and a single Stonechat sat on a fence line. As we drove up the hill to Gaucin we saw a single Bee-eater gliding over the trees, that was our final sighting of the day.
We had logged 55 species, a very good start and a sign of things to come, I hope!
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