What a fantastic day!! I have never recorded so many rarities in single day before, the list is superb and littered with great sightings. the weather was delightful too, the recent levante wind had subsided and the sun shone all day. This was the last full day with Simon from Littlehampton and we had a wish list of 40 new species for his list, a tall order but all possible.
We left the house at 7am (wifey Dawn was nowhere to be seen at breakfast!) and we headed for the coast on the road to Algerciras. We turned off towards San Martin hoping for glimpse of the elusive and rare breeding BLACK WINGED KITE. We didn't find one, instead we found three, yes three! A pair with one young bird and positive proof that the birds, as suspected, have bred in the vicinity, great sighting and a great start to our day.
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| a record shot of a Black-winged Kite taken distantly by Simon |
We then drove to laguna Medina on the outskirts of Jerez, we arrived at 9am, it was a little breezy but that kept the temperature down to a nice 25C. It was reasonably quiet too, our ears were not blasted by bird song as usual. However, within 15 minutes we had seen Common Nightingale, Cetti's Warbler, Reed and Great Reed Warblers and many Zitting Cisticolas. A Marsh harrier was seen distantly and many Common and Pallid Swifts hawked above us. From the hide we noted with disappointment that not many birds were visible but after a while we amassed several good ticks. Lots of Great Crested Grebes were feeding young or carrying them on their backs, a few Little Grebes were seen in the distance as were Mallards, Common Pochard, Gadwall and Common Coot. Then we had a flurry of activity as a Little Bittern flew into the reeds just below us and showed very well at times. Then a Purple heron flew over and landed in the distant reeds where we could see 3 young birds sitting on a nest. A Great Reed Warbler sat out for us and a trio of Shoveler flew passed us.
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| yes darling you will grow up and look as beautiful as me (I hope so |
Travelling from Laguna medina to Laguna Salada near Puerto Maria we saw Red-legged Partridge and Eurasian Magpie. At this smaller laguna we had a great time and we recorded our second rare breeder of the day when we found a RED KNOBBED COOT. Another great find was a couple of male WHITE HEADED DUCKS. We also saw Greater Flamingo, Red-crested Pochard, Collared Pratincole, Montagu's Harrier, Black-winged Stilt, Glossy Ibis and lots of Cattle Egrets.
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| you just about see the 'knobs' on this one |
Moving on to Sanlucar we stopped at thew Rio Guadalquiver near the salt pans at Bonanza. many Black Kites were drifting over but on the shore we only added Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Black-headed Gulls and Yellow-legged Gulls to our day list.
The Salt Pans were a different kettle of fish, birds were everywhere: hundreds of Greater Flamingos were joined by hundreds of Pied Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Black-tailed Godwits (300+) and lots of Kentish Plover. We also saw a good number of Little Terns, Redshank (3) and more Black Kites.
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| Avocet - Simon |
Next we visited the small laguna called Tarelo found next to the pine woods of Algaida. There were a good number of birds still at the heronry on the island, many Little Egrets, Cattle Egrets and smaller numbers of Squacco Heron and Eurasian Spoonbill. Around the edge of the laguana sitting on the reeds and tamarisk bushed we saw a good number of Black-crowned Night Herons and more Squacco Herons. On the water were very few species, Common Coot, Red-crested Pochard and mallard. We did see a single Common Waxbill fly from the reeds.
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| Suacoo heron by Simon |
Our drive through the pine woods of Algaida produced lots of flies and mosquitoes so we didn't stop! But at the open salt marsh of Trebujena there was a nice breeze and even though it was now 32C it was still comforatble to stand out in the sun. At the main laguna we stopped to look at the a large number of Coots on the water and discovered a MARBLED DUCK, HOW GOOD WAS THAT. I have never recorded Red-knobbed Coot, marbled Duck and White-headed duck in the same morning in Spain before!
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| Marbled Duck - the star of the day! |
We also found a LESSER SHORT TOED LARK and a Red Kite as well as lots more of the water species seen earlier. It was late in the afternoon now and we had 'cleaned-up'; all of our target birds were in the bag! After a short coffee stop we headed off home, well pleased with our day's work. We recorded 40 new species for the trip list, exactly what we had hoped for!
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