We had a terrific day seeing nearly 100 species with superb weather throughout the day, in fact it reached 34C during mid-afternoon!
 |
| a view to the coast from Gaucin this morning with Gibraltar and Morocco in the distance |
As we set off at 8am we had a clear blue sky above us and quiet roads ahead of us, lovely. A short stop was made to admire a Little Owl that posed on a roadside wire and we passed many White Stork nests on the way to the coast. A few other interesting species were seen on the way to Jerez which included a Stone Curlew in flight and a Montagu's Harrier which was quartering a field.
 |
| male Sardinian Warbler - trying to escape Colditz? |
Laguna de Medina was alive with bird song, Cetti's Warblers competed with Common Nightingale, Reed and Great Warblers, as well as many finches, Stonechats and Zitting Cisticolas. Our visit include a walk to the raised hide along the boardwalks from where we saw White Headed Duck, all 3 grebe species, Common and Red-crested Pochard, Gadwall and two nice species for our list; Little Bitten and Purple Heron.
 |
| female Sardinian Warbler |
We drove the short distance to Laguna Juncosa which was packed full of birds, mainly Common Coot and both the Pochards but also several Purple Swamphens, Collared Pratincoles and our only Eurasian Magpie of the trip! A flock of a dozen Green Sandpipers dropped in whilst we were there.
A short stop at the river Guadalquiver just outside of Bonanza produced a few more waders species, there were many Curlew Sandpipers most of which were showing the lovely colours of summer, we also saw Kentish and Common Ringed Plover, Dunlin and a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits. Many Black Kites were in the air over the woods of Coto Donana which could be seen across the river.
 |
| view of the balance lake with Greater Flamingos in the distance |
The salt pans at Bonanza were not as prolific as they usually are but we enjoyed large numbers of Greater Flamingos, Slender-billed Gulls, Eurasian Spoonbills, Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilts, Redshank and lots more of the waders we had seen at the river with the added species of Little Stint, Sanderling, Common Sandpiper and lots of Yellow Wagtails and Short-toed Larks.
We ate lunch watching over a large balancing lake next to the salt pans where a few Gull Billed Terns flew over and a single Black Stork circled above us.
 |
| courtship at the SPOONBILL colony. |
Laguna Tarelo was also brimming with birds, pochards, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall, White-headed Ducks, Black-necked Grebes and to our great delight there were 5 Garganey present, 2 males included. But it was the herons and egrets that stole the show, the heronry was in full swing with Cattle Egrets, Eurasian Spoonbills, Night Herons and Squacco Herons all making their nests on a small island and all looking great in summer plumage. An Osprey was a nice find too.
 |
| Eurasian Spoonbills at the heronry |
Our drive through the Stone Pine Woods of Algaida was uneventful and our last stop at the salt marsh of Trebujena didn't produce the hoped for Marbled Duck. We did find good numbers of Glossy Ibis, Red-crested Pochard, Greater Flamingos and Avocet. More Black Kites flew over us and a few Griffon Vultures circled on the thermals but not much else.
It was now approaching 4:30pm so we decided to head for home, we added Northern Lapwing and another Montagu's Harrier to our day list before we reached Sierra Crestellina near Casares. We scanned the mountainside for Bonelli's Eagle but none were near the nest site, we did add Crag Martin and Blue Rock Thrush to our growing day list but nothing else.
Arriving back at Gaucin at 7:15pm made it a very long day but all agreed it was worth it as we had seen some fabulous birds and totalled 98 species!
No comments:
Post a Comment