COTO DONANA & EXTREMADURA 8-DAY TOUR - DAY 1 - APRIL 10TH 2014

MALAGA AIRPORT - LAGUNA DULCE - LAGUNA FUENTE DE PIEDRA - EL ROCIO

The tour started at Malaga Airport at 10am when I met Nigel in the arrivals hall and then an hour later I met Peter before we drove off to meet another 4 of the group at a nearby hotel. Paul, Mike, Liz and Duncan had arrived the night before and had spent the morning birding at a local nature reserve, they had seen 26 species, the best of which were White-headed Duck, Turtle Dove and 8 Purple Herons.

After a quick shop for picnic supplies we set off for Coto Donana, it was 2pm by the time we arrived at our first birding stop - the Laguna Dulce. It was brimming with birds as usual with over 1000 Common Coot joined by Black-necked Grebes, Common & Red-crested Pochard, a single Tufted Duck, Whiskered and Gull-billed Terns, Montagu's & Marsh Harriers, Little-ringed and & Kentish Plover and lots of common ducks and Grebes.

Laguna Fuente de Piedra was covered with Greater Flamingo over 10,000 breed there, it was spectacular sight. We drove around to the visitor's centre where we birded the small, shallow lagoons around the boardwalk. It was full of waders ducks and coots. We listed a good selection of waders including: Ruff, Common Snipe, Wood & Green Sandpiper, Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt and Common Sandpiper. Most of the ducks were Northern Shoveler and Gadwall and we also found Yellow Wagtail, Crested Lark, Serin, Linnets, Common Kestrel and Cetti's Warbler.

We continued our journey passing through Seville and on to Coto Donana, we added White Stork, Black Kite, Common Buzzard, Bee-eater, Woodchat Shrike and Common Raven to our list along the way.

It was 6pm by the time we reached El Rocio, we stopped along the west side of the Laguna Madre de Marissa with a setting sun behind us. There were hundreds of birds on the water, w added Glossy Ibis, Eurasian SPOONBILL and Northern Pintail before driving round to our hotel.

At 8pm we ate a lovely meal out on the terrace washed down with a glass of wine, how nice it was to sit outside in the evening.