EMBALSE SIERRA BRAVA - MADIGALEJO RICE FIELDS – FINCA SANTA MARTA
An early breakfast at 7am was
followed by a short day of birding just south of the finca. It was again, a
beautiful sunny day but it got too hot for some of the group so we returned at
3pm.
We drove south passing through Zorita
then down towards Madrigalejo. A few sightings along the way included at least
20 Lesser Kestrels, they sat along the telegraph wires and it looked as though
they were using the nest boxes provided for the Rollers. We also saw a few
Rollers and two Squacco Herons in flight was a bonus sighting.
At the Embalse Sierra Brava we had a bit of
excitement as the people in leading bus saw a Great Spotted Cuckoo flying
across the road in front of them. The cuckoo headed higher over the reservoir
and was lost from sight as it rounded a headland. We immediately turned back to
try to find but our efforts went unrewarded. At the dam we scoped this huge body of water
and found very little: about 500 Mallard sat in large rafts, we picked out one Shoveler
amongst them, both Little and Cattle Egrets were dotted along the reservoir
banks and several pairs of Great Crested Grebes floated around.
On the other side of the dam we could
see for miles, the outflow fed a large holding pond and that fed in turn, a
small stream. From the scrub and reds along this pond we could here Great Reed
Warbler, Cetti’s Warbler and a Common Nightingale, we did get fleeting glimpses
of them from time to time. We also found Grey heron and as a nice bonus a
Purple Heron put in an appearance, the two herons stood not too far apart. We
also saw a distant Marsh Harrier, a small flock of Jackdaws and lots of White
Storks.
From the dam we drove down onto the
Rice Fields, we crawled along the services roads looking for birds on the
flooded fields where the rice had just been planted. We found Zitting
Cisticola, a Melodious Warbler in full song and 3 or 4 Collared Pratincoles
that were hawking insects over the adjacent fields.
On the rice fields there lots of
Spotless Starlings, a few Azure-winged Magpies and hundreds of Spanish &
House Sparrows feeding on insects that were trying to escape from the soil as
it was being flooded.
At a small bridge over a feeder
stream that was overgrown with reeds we found Spotted Flycatcher, Blackcap,
Cetti’s Warbler, Golden Oriole, Tree Sparrow and small parties of the ‘exotic’
Common Waxbill. These waxbills are one of a number of 'escapes', species that were formerly caged birds and are now fully established wild breeding birds. On the way out of the rice fields we had prolonged views of a pair of Rollers that were perched on the telegraph wires above a nest box.
We then drove to some other rice fields a little closer to Madrigalejo where we spent some time watching another of the 'exotics' the Red Avadavat, we found a dozen of these delightful little gems along the hedgerows of the rice fields. We also had good views of Southern Grey Shrike, Stonechat, Zitting Cisticola, Reed Warbler and White Storks.
For lunch we sat on a bridge west of the village of Vegas Altas where had great views of more Common Waxbills. We were hoping for a sighting of Penduline Tit but we never got one. However we get several views of Little Bittern, Great Reed Warbler, Reed Warbler and Cetti's Warbler. Hoopoes and Golden Orioles flew around us and a female Marsh harrier took off from the reed bed.
After lunch we spent a couple of hours searching the rice fields around Vewgas Altas, most of the fields were now fully flooded and hence were devoid of life, but one or two we only partially flooded and those were the ones with birds in them. One filed held a dozen or so of Ringed Plover and as we scanned them we found Little Stint (2) and Dunlin (1). Across the road we found 4 Collared Pratincoles and several fields held Black-wiunged Stilts, the group on the second bus saw an Egyptian Mongoose run across a dry field.
It was very hot so we returned to the finca a little early so we could rest up and recharge before going out to dinner in the Plaza Major in the centre of Trujillo. Nevertheless it didn't stop some of the ventering down the tracks around the finca. A Wryneck was heard calling, Short-toed Treecreeper was added to the trip list and Marsh, Queen of Spain and Cardinal Frittileries were added to the butterfly list.
Dinner in the plaza was superb, we had agreat night out, the bird list in the square include: Common and Pallid Swifts, White Stork, Jackdaw, Black Kite, Spotless Starling, Serin and many Lesser Kestrels.
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