ANDALUCIA - 7 DAY TOUR - DAY 5 - 11TH MAY 2012

PELAYO PARK - TARIFA (PLAYA DE LOS LANCES) - LA JANDA - VEJER - BARBATE MARSHES - SIERRA DE LA PLATA

Another superb day of sunshine was ruined by strong winds with gusts up to 40km/hr, it made birding difficult and kept the birds down. However we saw some good species and enjoyed our day out.

Sam and Meriel joined us for the day so we had a full bus for this trip. We set off at 8:30am as usual and headed for the coast, we noted lesser kestrel, Honey Buzzard, Jay and White Stork, in fact, we counted over 60 occupied Stork's nest between Estacion de Jimena and San Roque.

Our first stop was at the park found just above Pelaya, the eindy conditons kept our count down but we did see Common Nightingale, Blackcap, Bonelli's Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, Stonechat and a few Griffon Vultures flew over.

The strong easterly wind wasn't conducive to raptor migration so we by-passed the Observation stations and went straight to Los lances beach. If was pretty aweful trying to keep our optics still as we sat in the hide. Despite the wind there were many birds present including a superb Black Tern and a nice surprise, a Collared Pratincole. We also saw a summer plumaged Red Knot, lots of Dunlin. Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover and a magnificent Grey Plover in all its summer splendour. Amongst the Yellow-legged Gulls we found a single Audouin's Gull and four Gull-billed Terns. A single Sandwich Tern dropped in and on the grass behind the beach we found Short-toed larks, Crested larks a Zitting Cisticola. As we walked back to the car a few Honey Buzzards drifted over with a couple of Booted Eagles.

We arrived at la Janda as the wind was at its worst! Our drive along the central track gaves us Cattle and Little Egrets, White Stork and some distant Calandra Larks. We passed the huge egret colony and ate our picnic lunch in the shelter of some bushes during which time we found Common Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge, Turtle Dove, Black Kite, Honey Buzzard and several Jackdaws.

As we drove off La Janda we found Spoonbills, Black-winged Stilts, Collared Pratincoles and more Gull-billed Terns in the recently flooded rice fields. We then made a brief stop at Vejer to watch the breeding colony of Bald Ibis, we counted 10 birds and four nests.

Barbate marshes was quite good as the wind has subsided a little, we found over 25 Glossy Ibis, a single Wood Sandpiper, a couple of Yellow Wagtails, Purple Swamphen and many Common Coots, Mallards and Black-winged Stilts.

The wind was very strong as we arrived at Sierra de la Plata, we had hoped to see some swifts but all we got was a couple of Griffon Vultures, a Blue Rock Thrush and some lovely coloured Honey Buzzards drifting low over us. Before we drove back to Gaucin we stopped at Castellar to watch a nesting colony of Bee-eaters, they performed very well for us, the wind had dropped and we had our best birding of the day!! In the sand quarry we also saw Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail and Little Ringed Plover, we also saw a dark morph Booted Eagle.