DAY 3 - MAR 10TH - LOS LANCES BEACH, TARIFA + LA JANDA + SAN ENRIQUE WOODS + LAGUNA TORREGUADIARO
This was a windy, blustery day, which was quite uncomfortable at times and kept many species out of sight. We set off at 8am from Gaucin and arrived at Tarifa about 80 minutes later. We parked near the main N340 road and walked to the only hide along the los lances beach. From the hide we saw about 50 Sandwich Terns with 3 Mediterranean Gulls, 2 Audouin's Gulls and 5 Black-headed Gulls. In the distance there were more Audouin's Gulls with many Lesser black-backed and Yellow-legged gulls.
A few waders were present: Sanderling, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Kentish Plover and 2 Golden Plovers that were flushed by a jogger. On the grassy fields we found many Linnets and Goldfinches along with Crested and Skylarks. In the gardens of the nearby farms we found Spanish Sparrow, Spotless Starling and Cattle Egret.
La janda was also very windy and we didn't venture out of the car much: from the central track we watched Eurasian Spoonbill, White Stork, Black Kites, Marsh Harriers and not much else. We stopped for lunch along the track that leads to Benalup, during our picnic we found a SPANISH IMPERIAL EAGLE, an Egyptain Vulture, Common Pheasant, Black-crowned Night Heron, Hoopoe, Cetti's Warbler and Common Kestrel.
THE GROUP OF TRES AMIGOS AT TORREGUADIARODriving further along the track we found Jackdaw, Wood Pigeon and had another sighting of the Spanish Imperial Eagle. We also found a perched Common Buzzard and to our great surprise we found 3 roosting Short-eared Owls. Further searching produced Glossy Ibis, Eurasian Magpie, many Song Thrushes and Blackcaps, Red-legged Partridge and yet another Spanish Imperial Eagle.
We drove back towards Gaucin and stopped at San Enrique Woods, this was after a coffee stop and an ice-cream feast. Our target bird was soon located when we saw a group of Tree Sparrows.
lastly we visited the small laguna at Torreguadiaro, this was fruitful with several species on show. There were acoupleof Common Snipe, Purple Swamphen, Green Sandpipers, Common Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe, Little Egret and Mallard.
GREEN SANDPIPERDespite the inclement weather conditions we saw 70 species, a great total and this was our last day in Spain for a while as we are heading off to Morocco ealry in the morning for the second leg of the tour.
This is a great shot, the water as much as the Sandpiper, great light
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