We went out of the Donana area today and ventured along the coast towards Portugal, the day started with an overcast sky but by 10am this had burnt off to give us a cloud free blue sky all day. Top temperature was 27C.
Before breakfast we strolled round to the Laguna and watched the herons and egrets leave the roost, the numbers of Cattle Egrets was simply amazing to see.
 |
| Curlew Sandpipers |
First of all we drove to the coast at Matalascanas where spent a short while looking put to sea hoping to see some passage. The sea was like a mill pond not ideal conditions for passing migrants. We did find an Audouin's Gull on the beach with other gulls and our one and only Northern Gannet flew by. A couple of Sandwich Terns just about wrapped up our sightings list.
It took about 30 minutes to drive to the edge of Huelva where we stopped to view the large Laguna at Los Palos which is situated adjacent to a huge oil refinery and gas-works, nice background! Yet again we a lovely little Laguna that used to be covered with ducks, coots and Moorhen, but very few birds are now present because large carp can be seen splashing about on the water. The carp eat everything and leave nothing for the birds. We did see a few Pochard of both species, Gadwall, Shoveler, also a few coot and Moorhen and a single Purple Swamphen. Nigel found a Purple Heron and we saw a single Squacco Heron flying around.
 |
| at the O'Diel lunch stop |
We spent some time at the small Laguna near the entrance to the Calatilla restaurant looking for Little Bitten in the reed-beds, after a short while one bird began giving out its' 'barking' mating call and before long we were watching a superb male at close quarters.
A second stop near the pans produced more waders, we added Grey Plover, Ringed Plover and Grennshank as well as Common Shelduck, Eurasian Spoonbill, Little Egret, Grey Heron and Black-winged Stilt.
Our journey led us through open marsh-land where we watched several Montagu's Harriers, a couple of males looked stunning in the superb light. After about 20km the land mass began to narrow as we followed a badly repaired road towards the lighthouse, we had the Atlantic to our right and the Rio O'Diel to our left and not much in between. Several areas had been widened and reclaimed and this where conservation areas had been set aside for breeding birds, both the Little Term and the Collared Pratincole benefited from these measures. They both were present in numbers especially the Pratincole where a count of 50 was conservative.
We ate lunch whilst scanning a huge flock of roasting Dunlin, Redshank, Sanderling, Ringed and Kentish Plovers, a group of gulls held over 20 Audouin's Gulls as well as Lesser Black-backed and Yellow-legged. A flock of some 30+ Whimbrel landed amid the roosting flock whilst we were watching, very nice.
On our way off the O'Diel marshes we had excellent views of Montagu's Harrier and we found our only Great Egret of the day.
A short drive found us at the superb Laguna De Portia, it was covered in birds, a few hundred Common Coots were joined by large numbers of Common and Red-crested Pochard, Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler and a single Common Teal. Good numbers of Bald-necked, Great-crested and Little Grebes were also present. Along the shoreline we saw Grennshank, Common Sandpiper, Kentish and Little-ringed Plovers.
Other wildlife interest around the Laguna included Mediterranean Chameleon and Red-faced Terrains (unwanted introduced species from the Americas.
 |
| Mediterranean Chameleon |
It was now getting quite warm, 27C registered on the bus's gauge so we stopped for am ice-cream near our last venue of the day the Marismas del Rompido next to the Rio Piedras. As we drove down the bumpy track passed the well kt golf course we noted Hoopoe, Azure-winged Magpie, Crested Lark, Spotless Starling and Sardinian Warbler.
Our walk on the heath didn't produce much, a Cole more Montagu's Harriers, Dartford Warbler, Common Whitethroat and some of the group found a skulking Common Nightingale.
It was 4pm so we decided to head back to El Rocio to have. Look at the Laguna there, it took and an hour and 30 minutes to get back. From the old disused road on west side of the Laguna we scanned the shallow water of the Laguna, the light was simply superb. A flock of some 50+ Collared Pratincoles were new additions, as were a few Wood Sandpipers, a single Black-tailed Godwits, but the number of Pintail had fallen to just two.
We ate our final dinner on the terrace of the hotel, it was lovely and warm until dark, we were all in high spirits as we discussed our forthcoming journey to Extremadura for the exciting second phase of our holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment