FEB 4TH - DAY 1 OF 3 DAY TOUR

MALAGA AIRPORT - DESEMBOCADURA DE GUADALHORCE -SIERRA CRESTELLINA - GAUCIN

I collected Larry & Linda from Malaga Airport at 10:30am. It was a clear day, lots of sunshine but very,very windy.Larry and Linda are from Colorado, USA and had escaped the recent heavy snowfall out there, but they come to Spain during its coldest spell for years!

Larry and Linda, you can just see the snow capped Sierra Nevada in the background

Within half an hour we were watching our first birds at the west bank of the Rio Guadalhorce. because of the wind there not many species in view but within half an hour we had logged: Common Sandpiper, Kingfisher, Water Pipit, White Wagtail, Stonechat, Chiffchaff, Little Egret, Yellow-legged Gull, Northern Gannet and a nice find - Great Skua.

We walked along the beach and onto the reserve where we scanned the Laguna Grande from the raised hide. White headed Duck was present in good numbers, so was Northern Shoveler, we also saw Black-necked Grebe, Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Teal, Little Grebe, Great Cormorant and Mallard.

As we walked to the next laguna we watched Marsh Harrier, Booted Eagle and Eurasian Kestrel. At the second hide we added Common and Red-crested Pochard, Purple Gallinule and Common Moorhen.

From the east bank we saw a flock of Skylark, Meadow Pipit, European Robin, Black Redstart, Black-winged Stilt, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Green Sandpiper and we had very close views of Booted Eagle as it flew over and put up all the waders.

Finally we walked back to the car along the beach where we looked at gulls and terns. We also added Crested Lark,Zitting Cisticola and Glodfinch as we made it back to the car.

View along the beach looking towards Malaga - it looks lovely, but it was very cold and windy.

We drove towards Gaucin and spent a little time at Sierra Crestellina before we made the final drive up the 'hill'. At Crestellina we saw several Griffon Vulture, lots of Black Redstarts, Blackcap and more Stonechats. It was now getting dull and very cold again so we called it a day and went home for dinner. We saw 58 species, not bad for half a day.