A tremendous last full day of this week's tour, we amassed a great list of species totally just under 100. The weather was superb once again, it started off with clear blue sky and not an iota of wind, sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure all this is real, I am living a birder's dream! However, back to reality, it got breezy in the afternoon with some cloud and the wife called to me say that the electrician hadn't turned up! C'est la vie!
We set off at 8am and headed straight for Laguna Medina, arriving around 9:20am. From the car park the bird song was almost deafening! Birds were singing everywhere, the loudest were Common Nightingale, Great Reed Warbler and Cetti's Warbler. But we also heard Reed Warbler, Sardinian Warbler, Melodious Warbler, Corn Bunting and Stonechat. It was really incredible, we had great views of all of the above after only 50 meters of our walk.
The laguna was quite devoid of birds, it was bursting its banks, too much water in fact. We did see Red-crested Pochard, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe but not much else. We had a Purple Heron fly-over and a Little Bittern skulked in the reeds, we also saw several Black Kites an Osprey and a few Jackdaws in the sky over the laguna. Hundreds of Common Swifts were joined by a few Pallid Swifts, Red-rumped and Barn Swallows.
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| FLOWERS ALONG THE BOARD-WALK AT LA MEDINA |
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| RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE |
At the Salt Pans of Santa Maria we were again disappointed with the high water levels but we managed to see Glossy Ibis and we had great Views of Collared Pratincoles. We also found a single Stone Curlew, Kentish Plover, Pied Avocet, Greater Flamingo, Grey Plover, Little Tern and many hundreds of Yellow-legged Gulls.
Before venturing onto the salt pans at Bonanza we stopped on the outskirts of Sanlucar to look at the River Guadalquiver. On the muddy shoreline there were many Curlew Sandpipers in breeding plumage with Dunlin, Sanderling and Common Ringed Plover.
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| GULL-BILLED TERNS AT BONANZA SALT PANS |
At the Bonanza pans we spent some time searching before we even found a single bird, but it did get much better. All in all there must have been a couple of thousand waders, mainly Curlew Sandpipers, Dunlin, Little Stints and Sanderling, but also Black-winged Stilts, Pied Avocet, Grey Plover and a few Whimbrel. It took a while to catch up with Slender-billed Gulls but it was worth the wait, in the meantime we logged Little and Gull-billed Terns, Common Shelduck, hundreds of Greater Flamingos and many more Glossy Ibis.
Laguna Tarelo was also full to overflowing and consequently held far fewer ducks than usual. We found Common and Red-crested Pochard, White-headed Duck and a few Mallards, but it was the herons and egrets that provided the best entertainment. A 'rookery' was situated on an island and consisted of many Night Herons, Eurasian Spoonbills, Little and Cattle Egrets and a few pairs of Squacco Herons.
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| LAGUNA TARELO WITH ITS CROWDED HERONRY |
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| EURASIAN SPOONBILLS ON THE NEST |
Lastly we spent some time on the salt marshes of Trebujena where we there were an incredible numbers of birds. At least 200 Whiskered Terns quartered the marsh and a single Black Tern fed over a small drainage ditch. We found 50+ Common Redshank and a few Spotted Redshank with hundreds of pairs of Black-winged Stilts, Pied Avocets held ground where ever they could and many Yellow Wagtails flitted about in the samphire. Black Kites soared everywhere and a single Red Kite was spotted later on, we also watched a few more Pratincoles, Grey Herons, Whimbrels and Curlew Sandpipers.
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| REED WARBLER PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK |
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