Another fabulous day with glorious sunshine and warm temperatures, it was very misty at first but it soon burnt off.
We set off at 7am from El Rocio and drove in the dark to Villamonrique, one very nice sighting was of a Tawny Owl as it flew up from the roadside carrying its prey, this was quickly followed by views of a Little Owl sitting on a fence post. Not long after that we turned onto dirt tracks to visit the Corredor de Verde. Because of the mist, sightings were limited to roadside birds, even the laguna at Quema was virtually devoid of birds - not a great start to the day. We did see lots of Corn Buntings, Woodchat Shrikes, Hoopoes, Azure-winged Magpies and we heard many Nightingales and Cetti's Warblers. Hundreds of finches flitted across the track with Goldfinches and Serins numbering in their hundreds.
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| Black-necked Grebes in the mist |
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| Great Reed Warbler in a typical pose |
We stopped on our way to Dehesa de Abajo to look along a feeder water channel and saw a huge colony of Black Crowned Night Herons we also found Marsh Harrier and many Black Kites, White Storks, Grey Herons, Cattle & Little Egrets were also sighted.
Once again there was very little wind, hardly a breeze, so the reservoir at Dehesa de Abajo was like a mill pond, we could right across to the far side in excellent light. We quickly located Red-knobbed Coot, in fact we found 5 of them, we saw a couple of males displaying too. Other species seen on the water were Common & Red Crested Pochard, our first Shovelers of the trip, likewise Black-necked Grebe. Gadwall, Common Coot, Moorhen, Purple Swamphen, Little & Great-crested Grebes were also seen. The water was a little too deep for waders except for Black Winged Stilts, Spoonbills and a large flock of some 200 Greater Flamingos.
Another colony of Black Crowned Night herons sat in the tamarisk and we also found Great Reed Warbler, Zitting Cisticolas were seen everywhere and a nice find was a male Orphean Warbler.
Next we drove to a venta for coffee and toast but just before we got there we stopped to look at a much smaller laguna at the side of the road. A good choice because we found 5 more Red-knobbed Coots and a pair of Marbled Ducks, the ducks were very wary of our presence and unfortunately they soon flew off.
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| Black-crowned Night herons were everywhere |
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| typical flowers |
Our journey to the Valverde Centre was punctuated with stops both short and long, the heat had increased and now we had to contend with heat-haze. We found half a dozen Great White Egrets, Purple Heron, Squacco Herons, Sand martin and many Greater Short-toed Larks.
Near the Valverde visitor's centre the whole area was awash with huge shallow lagoons, the roadside ditches were a blaze of colour with hundreds of flowering plants, the sky was dotted with raptors egrets, ibis, storks, herons, swifts, swallows, martins and our ears were bombarded with the sweet songs of the larks - I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!
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| one of the thousands of Black-winged Stilts seen |
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| Cattle Egrets can look beautiful when they make an effort! |
Our visit to the centre was enhanced with great views of the nest birds, thousands of Glossy Ibis were joined by equal numbers of Cattle Egrets and fewer Little Egrets and Night Herons, the noise was deafening at times. In the pools around the centre's buildings were found Purple Swamphen, Pied Avocet, lots of Black-winged Stilts and the usual duck species.
The next 2 hours was spent driving along the dirt tracks stopping every few meters to watch the throngs of birds out in the water meadows, it was an extraordinary sight. There were literally thousands of birds out there, Greater Flamingos must have numbered over 3000, whilst Black-winged Stilts just at the side of the road were estimated at 2000. We also found several new species for our list: Lesser Short Toed Lark sat on a post and sang to us, a flock of five Ruff were joined by a single summer plumage Spotted Redshank and a pair of Lapwings flew over the marshes. Once again the sky was full of birds, a flock of Collared Pratincoles hawked insects overhead, whilst hoards of Whiskered Terns, Black-headed Gulls and a few Gull Billed Terns did the same over the marsh. It was truly an amazing experience and a memory to treasure for ever.
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| Claire, Paul, Trish and Vern |
On the way back out of the marshes we stopped to watch Short-toed Eagles as they sat on pylons and we looked for Imperial Eagle near a known nest site without success, a flock of feeding Eurasian Spoonbills were nice to watch as they dashed through the water sweeping their bills from side to side.
Just before we left the area we made a couple of short stops, the first was at a eucalyptus wood where there must have been over a thousand pairs of Spanish Sparrows nesting, what a noise. Whilst watching the sparrows we found 3 Whinchats, one was a very nicely marked male, a single Northern Wheatear, many Bee-eaters and a couple of Woodchat Shrikes were also seen.
Our last excursion was a walk in a pine wood near Villamonrique, it was hot and quite quiet but we found Tree Sparrow, Sardinian Warbler, Chaffinches, we heard a Green Woodpecker and we flushed 3 Red-legged Partridges.
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| The pine woods near Villamonrique |
Well that concluded our fabulous visit to the 'true' Donana, we had seen nearly 100 species (95) and we all agreed that we had had one of our most enjoyable days of the trip.
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