After all the travelling yesterday we had a quiet day today with very short drives to all our venues. We all met at 7:30am for the short walk to the Laguna at El Rocio, it was just getting light when saw our first birds. A Purple Swamphen was first on the list then as the light improved we could make the Greater Flamingos, Eurasian Spoonbills, Shoveler and hundreds of Common Coot.
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| El Rocio main street outside our hotel looking towards the church |
We walked to the new visitor's centre, which was closed of course, so we watched the huge egret and heron roost from the side of building. Night Herons were coming in to roost whilst Cattle & Little Egrets and Squacco Herons were leaving for the day. Purple Herons flew over and then hundreds of Glossy Ibis left the roost, it was quite spectacular in the morning light seeing all those birds in the air.
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| Purple Heron sitting in the morning sunlight |
We saw a couple of Reed Warblers and heard a Great Reed Warbler on the way back, we also saw a Cetti's Warbler and several Black Kites, it was quite a lovely morning with lots or birds to see.
Breakfast was finished by 9am and we were on the road to La Rocina which is literally a stone's throw from the town. Our visit to the wooded area and the hides which overlook the Lagunas was quite rewarding. We had great views of Purple Heron, Eurasian Spoonbills, Whiskered Tern, Purple Swamphen and lots of coots and Grebes. In the pine woods we saw Long-tailed Tit, Tree Sparrow, Serin, Sardinian Warbler and every bush seemed to have singing Nightingale inside it.
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| Eurasian Spoonbill |
Along the boardwalk we heard Blackcap, Iberian Chiffchaff and Savi's Warbler which we eventually found and had great scope views of it. Lots or Woodchat Shrikes, Hoopoe, Bee-eaters, Booted Eagles and Black Kites made up most of the rest of our sightings. A good number of Night Herons sat in a roost in the bushes along with Little & Cattle Egrets.
We then drove across the heath to the Palacio de Acebron, on the heath we found Southern Grey Shrike, Common Stonechats and a few Chaffinches. In the deciduous woodland we found our only Short-toed Tree-creeper, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and nor much else.
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| Common Whitethroat |
Acebuche visitor's centre was our next venue, we ate our picnic lunch near the car park where we watched Azure-winged Magpies at close quarters. It was now very hot so we walked into the pine woods to find shelter, we spent a couple of hours without much reward but eventually we found Sub-alpine Warbler, Common Whitethroat, Blackcap and Tree Sparrow all in the same bush!! A Dartford Warbler sighting was an excellent find and lots of Bee-eater dashed about.
From Acebuche we made our second visit to the Madre de la Marismas where we enjoyed the afternoon sunlight watching a great selection of birds, our only new species for the list was a Common Kingfisher.
We ate our dinner out on the terrace and enjoyed a nice glass of rioja with a lovely meal.
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