Today Chris, Penny and myself were joined by Christine and John who are staying in the campo a couple of kilometers out of the village.
John, Christine, Penny & Chris
The morning was bright and sunny, but a chilly north wind was blowing. We drove down to the bridge at the Rio Genal where we parked and walked upriver. We found the usual plethora of bird species: Blackcaps, Black Redstarts, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Serin. Both Grey and White Wagtails were found on the shingle banks of the river and we did get a few glimpses of Common Kingfisher. We had a great time watching several Hawfinches and a superb find was a Great White Egret wading in the river. After watching the Egret we then found a Goshawk which patrolled the nearest wooded hillside! Wow a super start to the day.
On the Heathland at Manilva we had good views of Common Buzzard, Short-toed Eagle, Crag Martin, Sardinian Warbler, Linnet and some excellent short views of Dartford Warbler.
At Torreguadiaro laguna we found the usual Little Owl, Lesser Kestrel, Meadow Pipit, Corn Bunting, Stonechat , Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Grey Heron, Coot, Moorhen and the male Shoveler was still there.
Hawfinch
Lesser Kestrel at Torreguadiaro
Lunch at San Enrique found us watching many Serins, Tree Sparrows, Jay, more Cattle Egrets and a Grey Wagtail in the stream.
Palmones river mouth was very windy but the warm sunshine still felt good, the tide was just turning and small mud patches became exposed as we walked along the promenade to the river mouth. The wader numbers had certainly increased, we found Dunlin (100+), Ringed Plover (200+), Sanderling (50+), Grey Plover, Kentish Plover, Redshank, Greenshank, Knot (1), Curlew, Whimbrel, Spoonbill (8), White Stork (2), Grey Heron (25) and two Black kites came upriver from Algeciras Bay struggling against the strong north wind.
Great White Egret at Rio Genal - a great local patch bird
Tree Sparrow - nesting in an old lampost at San Enrique
At the western side of the marsh we viewed the area from the raised hide at the municipal park. En-route we found a single Hoopoe and my first Red-rumped Swallow of the year! We also found two Ospreys, one carried a fish taken from the bay. Good views were had of both male and female Marsh Harrier and we added Common Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, Snipe and a lot more Curlew and Whimbrel (both of these species have increased in number over the last week).
All in all we found 79 species, a very good total for a windy day and with more and more migrants arriving this total will soon be beaten.
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