We awoke to a beautiful morning, clear blue sky and no wind, perfect. Our walk before breakfast produced a few new sightings but it was just a pleasure to be out there. We walked along the shoreline in the wooded scrub between the hotel-strip and the beach it was buzzing with birds. A very showy Olivaceous Warbler was very nice to see, a group of Golden Orioles showed now and then and a Common Whitethroat sang from the scrub. We tracked down a drumming Syrian Woodpecker but only got a fleeting glimpse of it as it flew off. A Blackcap showed well and a Cetti's Warbler didn't.
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| 3 views of the Olivaceous Warbler |
Our visit to the Burgos Lake was superb, it was like a mirror and was covered in birds. The most spectacular sight was a feeding frenzy by the Great cormorant flock, a couple hundred of them gathered close together swimming in unison and diving for fish. This movement attracted many gulls, terns and Pelicans. Over the hour we were there the numbers built up and eventually there were about a 1000 birds feeding, incredible.
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| Burgos Lake |
We also counted over 300 Great crested Grebes, many of which were pairing off and performing their courtship ritual. Both the White and the Dalmatian Pelicans impressed the group with their size and their flight, we also had good views of Little Bittern, Squacco Heron, Little Egret, Night Heron, Great Reed Warbler and a Penduline Tit. Many migrating White Storks were passing overhead, we counted up to a thousand in that hour.
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| Common Terns and a winter plum. Whiskered Tern |
Our second stop at Burgos lake produced more birds, Common, Whiskered, Little and Sandwich Terns were all seen well and a few Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls sat nearby.
We drove a little further south to look at the reed-fringed Mandra Lake from the roadside, it was fairly desolate but we picked out a few species. Garganey, Ferruginous Duck, Shoveler, Common Pochard, Mallard and Gadwall were dotted about around the fringes. Several Glossy Ibis flew in and began feeding in the reeds, we got good views of Purple Heron as at least 4 flew over and a single great White Egret did the same as we were about to leave. Marsh Harriers quartered the reeds and the pylons were covered in Great Cormorant nests, I have never seen this before, what a noisy, smelly, mess!
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| many pylons were covered in Great cormorant's nest like this |
We ate our picnic lunch round at the back of the Mandra Lake, it was fairly quiet bird wise but we added Honey Buzzard and a Lesser Spotted Eagle to our list.
The Poda Project is a government backed conservation effort based on the edge of the Burgos Bay and the visitor's centre was built on the southern shore. We visited the site and sat on their raised terrace watching over the small pools and vast reed beds. From there we found a perched White-tailed Eagle, it was very distant but unmistakable.
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| I can't think why this is called a Spotted Fritillery |
For the last part of the afternoon we re-visited the salt pans on the north side off the shore but found even less birds there than yesterday so we drove to the most northern section of the pans which took us a little inland. It was a good move as we found a flock of some 20 Collared Pratincoles, we had great views of them, both perched and in flight. We also found a small flock of Rosy Starlings, a Common Cuckoo and many Marsh harriers.
It was now 5pm so we decided to call it a day and set off back to hotel for any early shower.
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