October 17th – DAY 2 COTO DONANA & EXTREMADURA TOUR

Coto Donana -El Rocio- Corredoe de Verde- Dehesa Abajo – Jose Valverde Centre

Another glorious day, bright clear sky, all day sunshine, no wind, just perfect! We set off at 8:30 from our hotel in Matalascanas stopping briefly to scan the beach for gulls, we had seen Audouin’s Gull from our rooms but couldn't relocate it. Sanderling were doing their stuff by chasing the waves out to sea and then running away from them when they broke on the shore. Several very dark and nasty-looking Lesser Black-backed Gulls looked on, not amused.

We drove the short distance to El Rocio where we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise over the Laguna. The mist rose steadily from the water as a yellow light, back lit all the horses and birds on the Laguna, photographs could not do the scene or the colours any justice.

At the Corredor de Verde we made many stops to search for various species but there was a lot of hunting and shooting going on and a bike race sped passed us several times. We logged Hoopoe, Night Heron, Red Kite, hundreds of finches and Corn Buntings, Cattle Egrets, Tree Sparrows, Common Buzzard, Gt. Spotted Woodpecker and on a Laguna we found Eurasian Teal, Northern Shoveler, Wigeon, Gadwall, Pochard and many Common Coots.

The Laguna at Dehesa de Abajo held many birds but, as usual, they were very far away. Some close up species included a single Squacco Heron, over 20 Night Heron, Black-winged Stilt and a couple of Kingfishers. After some disturbance at the far back many birds flew over us which included Eurasian Spoonbill, White Stork, Avocets, Marsh Harrier and Jackdaws. In the scrub we found Zitting Cisticola, Chiffchaff & Willow Warbler. We took lunch alongside a reed-bed where we found Common Waxbill, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Stonechats and thousands of dragonflies.

We noticed that the rice harvest was well underway and we didn’t have to drive far to find a tractor ploughing the rice fields after a harvest. The fields were jam packed with birds, in one field alone we counted 500 Glossy Ibis, 200 Little Egrets, 250 cattle Egrets and over 1,000 Black-headed Gulls. There were also Yellow Wagtail, Green Sandpiper, Lapwing, White Stork and Grey Herons, what a spectacle (see the film clip below).

We finally made our way towards the Valverde visitor’s centre, the tracks across the marshes were in excellent condition and we made good headway. Many stops produced lots of Marsh Harriers, Red Kites, Spoonbills, Black Stork, Common Shelduck (4) was a good find, many Northern Wheatears, Common Redstarts and Black Redstarts, White Wagtails & Corn Buntings.

There was still some water in the large Laguna situated 500 meters north of the centre and this was covered with birds. The highlights of which were:- Spotted Redshank, Black-tailed Godwits, Avocets, black-winged Stilts, Spoonbills (an impressive 106), Great White Egrets (3), hundreds of Shoveler, Teal, Cormorants, White Storks, Black Stork (2), Purple Heron (1) and Great Crested & Little Grebes.

After a coffee at the centre, where we watched a Wild Boar, we searched the track that led to El Rocio but only driving as far as the ‘Green Gate’, we found good numbers of Goldfinches, Wheatears, Linnets, Corn Buntings, Serins, White Wagtails and we had distant views of Calandra Larks.

On the return journey we clocked up 10 different species of raptor! Staring with Black-winged Kite, we quickly added Lesser Kestrel, Marsh & Hen Harriers, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Short-toed Eagle, Red Kite, Griffon Vulture and the icing on the cake was a superb 1st year Golden Eagle. It circling from just above the marsh to about 1,00ft along with 9 Marsh harriers and 1 Hen harrier, what a great sight and in excellent light.

Our homeward journey was brightened up with talk of the 'Golden bird' of the day.