JILL & NOEL - DOING WHAT THEY DO BEST WHEN OUT BIRDING!!!!!!!
I took Jill and Noel out on my standard 'coast-run' on another lovely day out here in sunny Spain. It was a another lovely morning with a light breeze as we left Gaucin at 8am.
Our first stop was the track at San Pablo, which had produced a great variety of species all year. Today however was a diappointment and probably marks the end of my visits for this year. A few Chiffchaffs fed in the fennel along the side of the track and we saw flocks of Corn Bunting, Spotless Starlings and House Sparrows. in the sky we saw half a dozen Lesser Kestrels, Short-toed Eagle and acouple of Ravens. A Common Buzzard sat on a post and ate a rabbit but there was not a lot more to see, so we departed for the woods at San Enrique.
By the time we reached the woods the wind had picked up remarkably, we got brief views of garden Warblers in a fig tree and the Tree Sparrow flock that is normally present we sheltering shomewhere out of sight. In the woods we tracked down Short-toed Treecreeper, Jay and Blue Tit and at the river we got views of both Grey and White Wagtails, Kingfisher, Grey heron and Little Egret.
The beautiful Booted Eagle stole the show - there wasa constant stream of them drifting over, the flocks got bigger as the thermals developed, at one stage there were a hundred birds in the sky above the woods, fantastic. We even found several of them perched on a sand bank, they were after a dead fish in a nearby pool, see photos below.
BOOTED EAGLE - CAN YOU SEE THE BOOTS???After the eagle spectacle we drove round to the Pine Woods at Pinar del Rey where we sat and ate our picnic lunch. A short walk produced a number of birds including: Short-toed Treecreeper, Crested Tit, Chaffinch, Pied Flycatcher and Jay.
For the last birding of the day we drove to Palmones and sat on a bench in the afternoon sunshine to watch the waders, gulls and terns on the sandbank at the river mouth.
Birds of note were: Sandwich Tern (35), caspian Tern (1), Med Gull (5), Sanderling, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Dunlin, Kentish and Ringed Plover, Redshank, White Stork and Spoonbill (2).
There was no sign of the either of the two Ospreys that have been frequenting the marshes of late, nor of any Marsh Harriers.
We drove home and finshed the day alittle earlier than usual so that Jill and Noel could relax on our upper terrace and watch the world go by.
No comments:
Post a Comment