Vern and Trish are staying for a few extra days to see local birds so I dropped them off at the Rio Genal before carrying on to the Airport at Malaga.
It was dry, a little cloudy and a cool wind had come in, but the sun shone. I drove to Malaga to collect Stuart and David, unfortunately David's flight had been cancelled and he was delayed some 5 hours! So Stuart and I went birding near the airport.
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| Common Sandpiper |
It wasn't so windy at the coast so we had a very enjoyable time, firstly on waste ground near Guadalmar and later at the Guadalhorce nature reserve. We quickly found Bee-eater, Hoopoe, Spotless Starling, Jackdaw, Barn and Red-rumped Swallow. WE walked across some sandy banks where last week I had seen a Stone Curlew but alas the bird had flown. Along a stream we found two pairs of Little Ringed Plover, a Common Sandpiper and we got closer to the Hoopoe and Bee-eaters.
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| Dunlin |
We then drove the short distance to the Desembocadura de Guadalhorce and spent 3 hours walking the tracks and visiting the superb hides there. From the elevated hide overlooking the Laguna Grande we saw many species; White-headed Ducks were pairing off, the males were looking smashing with their bright blue bills. Black-winged Stilts dashed about making a lot of noise and a good selection of other waders were present. We saw Wood Sandpiper, Dunlin, Common Sandpiper and more Little ringed Plovers.
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| Wood Sandpiper |
Lots of Monk Parakeets were flying across the reserve as were Sand martins, House Martins and Swallows of two types. We saw Gadwall, Common Pochard and more White-headed Ducks. Passerines sightings were restricted to finches, Sardinian Warblers, Zitting Cisticolas and sparrows.
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| Moorish Gecko |
At 4:30pm we collected David and then drove to Gaucin making one stop at the Sierra Crestellina where we watched Griffon Vultures and not much else. On the climb up to Gaucin we saw both Booted and Short-toed Eagles.
We all met up at 7:30pm and enjoyed a lovely home cooked dinner made by my gorgeous wife, Dawn.
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