Our day started at 7am as we met in the car park of the hotel, it was still dark and the town was shrouded in a thick mist. We set off to the coast in the hope that the mist would have cleared there but when we arrived it had not. We spent an hour idling around until the mist cleared enough for a bit of sea-watching, it was very disappointing as we only saw a few species: Northern Gannet, Yellow-legged and Lesser Black Backed Gulls, Common and Sandwich Terns.
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| one of the hides at Acebuche showing a profusion of flowers in the foreground |
After breakfast taken back at the hotel we drove to the Acebuche centre and spent 4 hours visiting the hides and strolling along the boardwalks. The mist completely cleared and we had a very warm clear day, from the hides we looked over the lagunas which were full of water but not too many birds. It was the trees and bushes that held the most. We found many Pied Flycatchers and Garden Warblers and up to 3 Golden Orioles. From one of the hides we saw Reed Warbler, heard a Great Reed Warbler singing and saw a Melodious Warbler also in full song.
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| Azure-winged magpies were found everywhere in the reserve |
On the lagunas we watched Red-crested and Common Pochard, Spoonbills, Purple Herons and lots of Whiskered Terns. A nice find was an Ortolan Bunting, which posed for our cameras and a couple of Tree Pipits. The sky was full of Black Kites, Booted Eagles and White Storks, the bushes and open ground held Woodchat Shrikes and Azure-winged Magpies, all in all it was a magical morning, dripping with migrants and full of bird song.
La Rocina was much of the same except that it was hotter in the afternoon, much hotter. We spent most of the time in the hides adding a few species to the day list: Tree Sparrows were common, Bee-eaters and Hoopoes popped up everywhere, Reed Warblers sang all the time and we saw Purple Swamphens, Black-crowned Night Heron and many more Whiskered Terns.
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| Melodious Warbler |
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| an obliging Ortolan Bunting |
Finally we stopped at the Laguna adjacent to El Rocio, the light was fantastic even at 6pm. No new species had arrived but we counted 5 Redshanks, 2 Common Sandpipers and a host of Black-winged Stilts, Whiskered Terns, Greater Flamingos, 3 Yellow Wagtails and lots of ducks.
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| record shots of Purple Heron and Purple Swamphen |
We ate our evening meal on the hotel terrace in a sombre mood as we had just heard of the bombings in Boston it was especially upsetting for our American group members.
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