A full-on busy day today with a larger group of day-tour clients, I had the four from yesterday, John, Jan, Nick and James plus another two from America, Kalpana and Will.
It was raining in Gaucin as we loaded into the bus at 8am, we had decided to head off to the coast because the forecast was much better there. We stopped on the way down the Guadiaro Valley to look at a Little Owl on the wires and again just outside Jimena to scan the open fields below the village. We quickly listed Lesser Kestrel, Griffon Vulture, Common Stonechats, Serine, Sardinian Warbler and Barn Swallow before finding an extremely good bird for the list, a GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO, what a lovely find, the bird showed very well on a fence line but it was quite distant.
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| nearly all of the group at Mirador El Estrecho |
We set off for the coast noting many White Storks, Common Raven and Booted Eagles along the way. At Los Lances the sky was bright with patches of blue and there was hardly any wind, just great for birding. We walked from the main road to the hide at Los Lances beach and stopped to watch Corn Bunting, Crested Larks, Common Stonechats, Goldfinches, Linnets and Spotless Starlings, all new for our American friends.
At the hide we stood on the boardwalk to scan the beach where we located many Sanderling, Grey Plover, Kentish Plover and a few Dunlin. The gull flock was small and very jumpy as a few dog walkers were on the beach. But we managed to see Audouin's, Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed Gulls as well as a single Caspian Tern in full summer garb. On the grass behind the beach we found a flock of Short-toed Larks, some Meadow Pipits, Cattle Egrets and a single Eurasian Hoopoe.
We drove round to the pines woods next to the beach where we sat down at the picnic tables to eat our picnic lunch, during lunch we found a Short-toed Tree-creeper and another Hoopoe. On the way back to the bus we saw a Zitting Cisticola, a few more Booted Eagles and Griffon Vultures.
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| Morocco seen from the Mirador - only 9 miles away |
La JANDA was brilliant as usual with lots of birds, we had lovely sunshine and a cool breeze. A Woodchat Shrike was first to be found then Marsh Harrier, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper and Common Moorhen were added. Further along the central track we stopped to look at Eurasian SPOONBILL, White Storks, Glossy Ibis, Black-winged Stilts, Greenshanks, Redshank, Northern Lapsing, Northern Shoveller, a very showy Hen Harrier and our first Short-toed Eagle.
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| Black-winged Stilt |
At Vejer the obliging Bald Ibis colony was very active, lots of birds were coming back with nesting material and some were even sitting on eggs, looks likely to be another good year for them, however, they are still very ugly!!
We stopped at the Mirador de Estrecho to look across to Morocco, the air was absolutely clear with great light in the afternoon sun. On the way home we saw two Common Cuckoos, one on a fence post and the other in flight in front of the bus.
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| Bald Ibis at the nest near Vejer |
Crestellina is the site for my local pair of Bonelli's Eagles, they were not near the nest but one drifted around very high above us, we also saw a Blue Rock Thrush, this was the 100th bird of the weekend for my UK visitors, so they went home happy!
We got back to the village at 6:30pm and I said goodbye to Jan, John, Nick and James, whilst Kalpana and Will are staying with us for another two nights. It was another great day out with 71 species on the list.76
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