After breakfast we drove down to the coast and spent a hour on the heath near Manilva where we found Sardinian and Dartford Warbler, lots of Stonechats and Linnets and a distant Short-toed Eagle. We also relocated the red and black toad which I was found a couple of days ago - it was accompanied by another toad about 10 times bigger. They turned out to be Common Toads Bufo bufo.
Common Toad Bufo bufo - The very large female dwarfs the tiny maleNext we visited the laguna at Torreguadiaro where we watched a school of Dolphins off-shore, chasing a shoal of fish, they were joined by many Gannets diving in trying to capitalise on the dolphins find! In and around the laguna we found Little Owl, Lesser Kestrel, Purple Swamphen, Cattle and Little Egret, Grey Heron, Meadow Pipit, Zitting Cisticola, Shoveler, Little Grebe, Coot and a Kingfisher.
At San Enrique woods there were many Serins singing along the telegraph wires and a flick of some 20 Tree Sparrows delighted my companions.
We walked the promenade at Palmones in lovely afternoon sunshine ticking off many new species on the list. Spoonbill, White Stork, Curlew, Whimbrel, Ringe, Grey and Kentish Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling, Redshank, Greenshank and Common Sandpiper. On the sand bar we found a superb adult Mediterranean Gull, Sandwich Terns and more of the waders. From the hide on the west side of the salt marsh we had great views of Marsh Harrier, Osprey, Spoonbill, Black Winged Stilt and many of the waders named earlier.
An Osprey fishing in the Rio Palmones - taken by Penny RobinsonFinally we stopped just north of San Roque to admire the numerous White Storks on their platform nests, many of which were sitting on eggs. As we drove up the Guadiaro valley back to Gaucin we stopped to watch a flock of Lesser Kestrels at their nest site on a railway bridge, they performed wonderfully and were a fitting ending to our day's birding.
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