At last, a day without rain and lots of sunshine! It was a bit windy down at the coast but it remained dry all day.
I took Tom and Stephanie out for the day, they were eager to see some birds as they had endured several days of rain during their stay at our home in Gaucin.
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| White Stork |
We arrived at Los Lances Beach at 9am and quickly listed some good species. Four Little Ringed Plovers were sitting next to a puddle in a meadow next to the track and several Chiffchaff sp, were flitting in the hedgerow. Then we found a beautiful male Subalpine Warbler feeding in the scrub, a lovely find. We added Corn Bunting, Stonechat, Linnet and Goldfinch as we walked to the beach hide. The beach wasn't too busy but a large flock of Sanderling were joined by a few Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover and a single Avocet. After a short walk we found a nice group of Audouin's Gulls and several Crested larks on the grass meadows.
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| Sardinian Warbler |
La Janda was quite flooded and as a consequence many species were absent. Large numbers of White Storks fed in the fields and a single Black Stork flew over. many Cattle and Little Egrets were dotted over the rice fields and in the ditches we found two groups of Eurasian Spoonbills. In the main canal we saw 8 Purple Swamphens and a couple of Moorhens. Several Common Kestrels, Common Buzzards, Griffon Vultures and a Marsh Harrier was the sum total of our raptor sightings. Waders were few and far between, a couple of Green Sandpipers and a bunch of Common Snipe were all we saw. many Meadow Pipits and White Wagtails fed in the flooded fields and we also found two Yellow Wagtails.
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| Little Ringed Plover |
We left La Janda and spent a little time at Vejer where we stopped for tapas lunch, as we went back to the car a single Bald Ibis flew over us, this was one of the re-introduced birds that are now breeding at Vejer.
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| Corn Bunting |
Barbate marshes were also flooded, but we spent some time at the sewage works where we found a good number of Blackcaps in the hedgerow, at least 30 birds were present. The marshes held very little but we did see a Swallowtail butterfly and a Red Admiral.
At the mouth of the river barbate we stopped to scan the marshes and found both Redshank and Greenshank, Mediterranean Gull, SandwichTerns and a couple of Caspian Terns. Along the coast road to Zahara we stopped to watch 22 Bald Ibis feeding in a small paddock.
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| Caspian Terns |
Before we set off for home we made a visit to Bolonia where walked amongst the Roman Ruins at Baelo Claudia, the ruins were covered with Black Redstarts and a single Short-toed Eagle flew over.
Finally we stopped at the Mirador de Estrecho, the view across to Africa was stunning, the light was superb. We then found our last new bird of the visit, an Egyptian Vulture, this migrant was an early bird indeed, they usually come over during April.
The very last bird of the day was a Common Raven which flew by as we drove up the mountainside back to Gaucin.
ALL PICTURES TAKEN BY TOM GREEN
BIRD SEEN:
1. Blackbird
2. Sardinian Warbler
3. Eurasian chiffchaff
4. Blackcap
5. Common Kestrel
6. Cattle Egret
7. Little Egret
8. Grey Heron
9. Eurasian Spoonbill
10. White Stork
11. Black Stork
12. Great Cormorant
13. Common Buzzard
14. Marsh Harrier
15. Stonechat
16. Meadow Pipit
17. White Wagtail
18. Yellow Wagtail
19. Greenfinch
20. Chaffinch
21. Goldfinch
22. Serin
23. Reed Bunting
24. Corn Bunting
25. Jackdaw
26. Raven
27. Black-winged Stilt
28. Sanderling
29. Dunlin
30. Kentish Plover
31. Little Ringed Plover
32. Ringed Plover
33. Avocet
34. Black-headed Gull
35. Yellow-legged Gull
36. Lesser-blk backed Gull
37. Audouin's Gull
38. Mediterranean Gull
39. Sandwich tern
40. Caspian Tern
41. Moorhen
42. Purple Swamphen
43. Zitting Cisticola
44.Griffon Vulture
45. Black Kite
46. Egyptian Vulture
47. Short-toed Eagle
48. Spotless Starling
49. Crested Lark
50. Skylark
51. House Martin
52. Barn Swallow
53. Red-rumped Swallow
54. Common Swift
55. Pallid Swift
56. Wood Pigeon
57. Feral Pigeon
58. Red-legged Partridge
59. Hoopoe
60. Black Redstart
61. House Sparrow
62. Subalpine Warbler
63. Mallard
64. Shoveler
65. Collared Dove
66. European Robin
67. Eurasian Linnet
68. Cetti's Warbler
ADDITIONS TO MY YEAR LIST
512. Zitting Cisticola
513. Red-rumped Swallow
514. Bald Ibis
515. Pallid Swift
516. Common Swift
517. Yellow Wagtail
518. Caspian Tern
519. Sandwich Tern
520. Audouin's Gull
521. Egyptian Vulture
522. Purple Swamphen
523. Black Stork
524. Green Sandpiper
525. Kentish Plover
526. Little Ringed Plover
527. Subalpine Warbler
528. Eurasian Hoopoe
529. Sardinian Warbler
529. Sardinian Warbler
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