At last the wind had dropped and left us with lovely sunshine all day, it got very hot in the afternoon 30C +
We set off as usual at 8:30am and drove directly to laguna Medina which is near Jerez, we arrived at 10am in a blaze of sunshine and a torrent of bird song. Several Great Reed Warblers were drowning out the Nightingales, Melodious Warblers, Blackcaps and Cetti's Warblers. As we walked the boardwalk round the south of the lagoon we also saw Reed Warbler and a superb Nightingale sitting out in the open in full song.
On the water we got to grips with Great-crested, Little and Black-necked Grebes, Common and Red-crested Pochard and lots of Common Coots. We were very lucky in finding a pair of Red-knobbed Coots near the reed bed and a Spoonbill circled above. The sky generally always had raptors in it! They were mainly Honey Buzzards, were saw one 'kettle' of over 50 birds.
GREAT REED WARBLERWe ate our picnic lunch at the Salt Pans whilst watching hundreds of birds. Little Terns were diving in the water just a few meters from us whilst Slender-billed Gulls fed a little further off. The entire area was covered in Greater Flamingos, Avocets, Spoonbills, White Storks and hundreds of Dunlin and Curlew Sandpipers both of which looked superb in their summer plumage. We also found Knot, Turnstone, Common Shelduck, Redshank, Little Stint, Sanderling and many Little Egrets.
COMMON NIGHTINGALE
Our visit to the Laguna Tarelo at the Algaida Pine Woods was as the sun was at its hottest!! But we survived to see some great birds on the water. The best was of course the Marbled Duck, only one was seen. But Little Bittern, Night Heron, Squacco Heron and some very handsome Red-crested Pochard ran in a close second.
We drove through the pine woods and made a stop to look for Azure-winged Magpies without success but we added Pied Flycatcher, some very close Black Kites and Serin to our list.
Trebujena Marshes held hundreds of birds in the flooded salt marsh adjacent to the river. Some new species added to our day list included Black-tailed Godwit, Short-toed Lark, Yellow Wagtail and a Red Kite. But there many, many waders, Sponnbills and Flamingos to look at.
ODD BEHAVIOUR OF A GREY HERON - THEY USUALLY ONLY DO THIS WHEN SHELTERING THEIR YOUNG FROM THE SUN ON THE NEST - HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THIS????
It was now approaching 5pm so we had to leave this wonderful area, it took 2 hours to get back to gaucin where we tucked into a lovely plate of Carillera (pig's Cheeks) washed down with chilled wine.
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