arly August, a first for Spain, (Red-footed Booby) passed this very spot!!!Next we stopped at laguna Camelias in Torreguadiaro, a small body of water, edged by giant reeds with areas of open (dry) marsh adjacent to the beach. The light had improved as the cloud cover began to disperse. Our first five minutes were the best as we quickly found Little Egret, Little Grebe, Purple Swamphen, Moorhen and a Cetti's Warbler called several times. We walked around the laguna using the boardwalk, a gull roost on the beach held a few Lesser Black-backed with the hundreds of Yellow-legged Gulls. We had good views of Spotless Starling, a couple of Whimbrel and a Monk Parakeet before we left the area of the beach to view some open farmland. We spent half an hour seaching the hedegrows and pasture and was rewarded with just four Cattle Egrets!
A short drive found us at San Enrique. on a track near a woodland next to the Guadiaro river. we could see over some citrus orchards and a grass meadow. We found a single Spotted Flycatcher along a fence line and then surprisingly we found a small flock of Tree Sparrows (8) and to the delight of my companions we found a Booted Eagle perched nearby in a dead tree. A walk through the wood produced very little but we enjoyed a hour at the riverside where Little Egrets, Ringed Plover, White Wagtail, Cetti's Warbler, Kingfisher constant trickle of Booted Eagles drifted over.
Our lunch stop was in the 'stone pine' woods near San Roque, the wind had picked up so the shelter of the woods was most welcomed. During our picnic we watched Spotted & Pied Flycatcher and several Chaffinches. A stroll afterwards produced Jay, Short-toed Treecreeper,
Crested Tit and more flycatchers.
For the rest of the afternoon we visited the lovely salt marsh at Palmones, this area has produced good numbers of waders, gulls and terns in the last few weeks and today was no exception. We started on the west bank of the river by walking along the new promenade on the edge of the town. Knot, Ringed Plover, Greenshank, Redshank, Sanderling, Whimbrel & Little Egret were our first sightings. Then we scanned further afield and found an Osprey, Sandwich Tern (60+), Little Tern (2), Common Tern (1), Mediterranean Gull (2), Kentish Plover, Dunlin and to our great delight a party of Greater Flamingo's circled low overhead, they spent 20 minutes making several attempts to land and finally alighted on the laguna near the beach.
Our last stop was on the far side of the marsh, we drove around to Algeciras and parked next to the nature park that is always closed! We found our way to the hide and spent a couple of hours in bright afternoon sunshine, the clouds cleared and the light was terrific. From our raised position we had super views of the marsh and quickly added several new species to our list. The Osprey was much closer now but refused to leave its perch! Oystercatcher (5) was a good find, a single Avocet was a bonus, but we also saw Black-winged stilt, Grey Plover several more Whimbrels, Greenshanks, Redshanks, Plovers & Egrets.
Booted Eagles were constantly flying over and huge flock of White Storks (150+) circled on the thermals, but our last sighting was of a perched Kingfisher which seemed to shine with beauty in the late afternoon sunlight and was a fitting end to our day out.
My bird of the day wasTree Sparrow, the little beauties, I hadn't seen one since my last visit to Donana!
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