Our final day started with a lie-in!! We took breakfast at 9am at the hotel and set off for Malaga at 10am, we made a couple stops along the way for coffee and toilets and we listed over 30 birds during the journey, the most interesting being a couple Montagu's Harriers and several Turtle Doves perched on roadside wires.
Our lunch stop at the Laguna Dulce just outside of Campillos was excellent. The sun was shining the water level on this seasonal lake was high but so was the temperature and humidity. The lake was covered in birds as usual with many grebes of three species in good numbers. We soon located out target bird the White-headed Duck, at least two pairs were present. Then we got a surprise when we found a Red-knobbed Coot, (now referred to as Tomato Head by the group), but a great find. Many Gull-billed Terns and a few Whiskered Terns hawked over the lake and the surrounding fields.
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| fantastic wild flowers around the laguna |
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| White Headed Duck skulking in the reeds at laguna Dulce |
We ate our picnic lunch in the picnic area provided and then drove off to the bird observatory near Teba. This is usually a good place to see Bonelli's Eagle and sure enough we had good views of a pair. We also watched Red-billed Chough, Turtle Dove, Short-toed Eagle, Griffon Vulture, Common Kestrel and avery high Eurasian Hobby.
Our drive into Malaga went uneventful, we dropped off Paul and Claire at their hotel where they were spending a few more days before flying back to the UK. Vern and Trish, my American clients came back to Gaucin with me and are staying a few more days for local birding.
On the way back to Gaucin we stopped to look at the our 'local' pair of Bonelli's Eagles, one was seen standing on the nest and then both of them went off for some soaring and dispalying. Many Griffon Vultures also appeared and we did see a small flock of Lesser Kestrels near Casares.
Well that concluded the tour of EXTREMADURA and COTO DONANA , we had a great time with wall to wall sunshine and some fantastic sightings. The flowers were extraordinary, a blaze of colour where ever we went and the birding was superb. We saw just under 200 species, a great effort! This small group certainly put the work in to make it an unforgettable experience.
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