COREDOR DE VERDE – PILAS DEL REY WOODS - NORTHERN MARSHES –
EMBALSE DE DEHESA DE ABAJO – JOSE VALVERDE VISITOR’S CENTRE
Today we ventured into the real Donana taking a network of
dry dusty tracks to discover just over 90 species with some excellent sightings
of both common and hard to find species.
We left the hotel in the dark at 7am carrying our breakfast
with us, it was light by the time we reached the Coredor de Verde and birds
were appearing on wires and flitting across the track in front of us. We passed
a small White Stork colony in Villamonrique where many birds stood silhouetted
against the dawn sky and many Azure Winged Magpies were seen leaving a roost in
a nearby pine wood. Bee-eaters, Woodchat Shrikes and the ubiquitous Corn
Bunting sat on wires or the tops of bushes.
 |
| Bes-eater |
Our first walk in the open woodland of the Coredor de Verde
produced excellent views of the stunning Black-winged Kite, it hunted over the
trees before settling down on an open perch, lovely. We also had great views of
Melodious Warbler and Sardinian Warbler both of which were singing from the
tops of the bushes. Woodchat Shrikes were very numerous as were Serin and
Zitting Cisticola.
 |
| Sardinian Warbler - with a dodgey bill |
We ate our picnic breakfast looking over the small Laguna
Quema, it was quite empty with just Great Crested Grebes, Common Coot, Purple
Heron and Mallard there. So many Serin
were singing and chasing one another around, too many to count. Greenfinches,
Goldfinches joined the Serins and Cetti’s Warbler along with numerous Common
Nightingales added to the bird song.
Our path led through open fields were Yellow Wagtails sang
and Common Quail called from the grasses, Buzzards sat perched in dead trees
whilst Black Kites used the pylons, the occasional Marsh Harrier was seen in
the distance. We made a quick visit to the square eucalyptus wood called Dehesa
de Piles where thousands of Spanish Sparrows breed, they made such a din coated
to the lovely chirrup of the Bee-eater, there must have been 100 Bee-eaters in
the area.
 |
| one of the Red-knobbed Coot - a released bird |
Behind us a recently ploughed field stretched away over a
gentle rise and on the rise we found 4 Pint-tailed Sandgrouse and a single
Stone Curlew, how nice was that?
At the Embalse (reservoir) de Dehesa de Abajo there hundreds
of birds, most of them appeared as dots in the scope as they favoured the far
bank as usual. But we did see good numbers of Red-crested Pochard, Common
Pochard, Gadwall and a few Shoveler nearby and hundreds of Common Coot and
Great Crested Grebes were dotted all over the water. The reeds and tamarisk
were alive with the sound of Reed and Great Reed Warblers and Night Herons
crouched in the shadows trying to get some sleep despite the din!
At the far end of the reservoir we stopped for a second look
and found our target species the Red-knobbed Coot, we saw three of them, two
released birds wearing white collars and one without. A Little Bittern was very
showy there and Purple Swamphen came close to us.
After a small interlude during which we grabbed a quick
coffee and enjoyed tostada in a local venta, we set off for the Valerie centre
hoping to see a good number of new species for our list. We drove the dirt
tracks alongside deep ditches and marshes where we saw huge numbers of herons,
egrets, Spoonbills and ibis. One small pool held 2 Great Egrets, 9 Purple
Herons, 23 Glossy Ibis, 3 Squacco Herons, many Night Herons sat in the bushes
and Little Egret and Grey Herons sat on the fringes.
At Casa Bombas the pumping station we saw Common Kestrel,
Short-toed Eagle, Montagu’s Harrier and our first Linnets. A couple of dozen
White Storks took to an early thermal as they circled above us.
 |
| Violet Dropwing |
The final 9 kilometres to the Valerde Centre was quite
uneventful we couldn’t find a lark, the heat haze was bad and the temperature
quite high, but there was a breeze. However one piece of excitement happened
when we stopped to watch a second Montagu’s Harrier, a Black Kite was mobbing
an eagle higher up and when we scoped the bird it was quickly identified as an
Imperial Eagle, the kite looked tiny beside it, what a super find. A small
colony of Lesser Kestrels were seen nearby too.
 |
| a very obliging Zitting Cisticola |
Near the centre we
stopped to look over a large seasonal pool where we added Black-headed Gull,
Whiskered and Gull-billed Terns to the list, but generally the number of birds
were low. The track that led back to El Rocio was more productive, we drove
slowly making many short stops to look at perched birds or raptors in the sky,
the innumerable Black Kites were joined by the occasional Booted Eagle and we
saw a party Griffon Vultures circling on high. However it was the perched birds
that provided the entertainment, we saw dozens of Yellow Wagtails and Corn
Buntings and lots of Zitting Cisticola, these were joined on the list by a
single Northern Wheatear, a couple of Whinchat, two or three only of Short-toed
Lark and a single Lesser Short-toed Lark.
Our visit to the Valverde centre was very enjoyable as we
watched the huge colony of breeding egrets, ibis and herons, the noise was
unbelievable, we also saw a couple of Little Bittern and many ducks on the
water.
On the homeward journey we found a few waders on the marsh,
Grennshank, Redshank, Green, Common and Wood Sandpipers were found. A series of
pylons provided nice perches for a few Short-toed Eagles and we had great views
of a Calendar Lark in the grass near to the track.
Well our journey back to the hotel took about an hour, it
had been a long day, but the time was quickly forgotten as we enjoyed a nice
cold beer with our dinner sitting our in warm evening air on the terrace.
No comments:
Post a Comment