At long last I'm back on the birding trail and back in Spain. Notice I didn't say Sunny Spain? That is because it rained for most of the day and it was pretty cold too.
Nick and James have been out birding with me a couple times in the past, today they brought their parents with them (James' grand parents), John and Jan.
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| umbrellas at the ready! Jan, John, James and Nick |
It was raining as we met up at 8am outside my house, not heavy rain but the very wet kind. So after a short drive we all had raincoats on as we slowly emerged from the bus at our first stop, the Rio Genial.
We found a few species by the riverside, Robin, Blackcap & Greenfinch. Then a short walk along the track produced Grey Wagtail, Cetti's Warbler (heard) and Chaffinch. In the open meadows we located several White Wagtails, a few Little Ringed Plovers and Goldfinches. Back at the river a Common Sandpiper flew off out of sight and little James pulled out the best bird when he located two Hawfinches sitting in the canopy, nice one James.
Back in the bus we drove up passed Sierra Crestellina which wasn't even visible in the low cloud and driving rain. So we pressed on into the Genal Valley where the rain eased off and it got a little brighter. We made several stops along the track to watch from the bus, Corn Bunting were abundant, as were Common Stonechats, Goldfinches, Northern Wheatears and Serin.
Our second stop at the riverside was also quite productive as we found both Thekla and Crested Larks, Cirl Bunting, Sardinian Warbler and lots of Barn Swallows, House Martins and Common Swifts. A Woodchat Shrike was nice to see as well as several Little Egrets and a few more Little Ringed Plovers.
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| Greenshank at Palmones |
Deeper into the valley we watched a lot more Serins, a few flocks of Spotless Starlings and a ploughed field held Yellow Wagtails (both flava & Iberiae), Meadow Pipits, Corn Bunting and Northern Wheatears. We also noted Collared Doves and a Common Kestrel as we drove out of the valley at Secadera.
A short stop in the woods at San Enrique lasted about an hour because we decided to eat lunch in the bus and as it was John's birthday a bottle of wine was cracked open too. The woods gave us Blue Tit, Cetti's Warbler, Blackcap and at the river we found a Purple Heron, nice. Along the track just outside of the woods we stopped because I saw a Wryneck on the hedgerow but before anyone else saw it the bird flew off. Extensive searching failed to relocate it, shame.
At Palmones the weather cleared up and the rain stopped, hooray! The next couple of hours were excellent for birding, we added about 20 species to the day list and saw some raptor migration too. On the salt marshes we found Eurasian Spoonbill (3), Greater Flamingo (22), Slender-billed Gull (3), Mediterranean Gull, Gull-billed Tern, Sandwich Tern, Osprey, Marsh Harrier and about a dozen species of waders. A good number of White Storks were in the area and lots of Booted Eagles passed over us, we also saw our second Purple Heron of the day.
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| record shot of Slender-billed Gull |
On the way back up to Gaucin we stopped near Jimena to look at a colony of Lesser Kestrel, about 7 or 8 were flying near the nest site, whilst there we also had great views of Red-rumped Swallows and a few Sand Martins, they were hawking over a field of crops, then we found a mixed flock of hirundines sitting on telephone wires, it was great to see Barn and Red-rumpled Swallows sitting together as well as House and Sand Martins.
Well after that little bit of excitement we ended the trip, we drove back up Gaucin where it was still raining. We all agreed that we had a good day despite the weather.
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| rusty-headed Greater Flamingo - but how many other species are shown? |
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