IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK BIRDING IN SUNNY ANDALUCIA, SPAIN AFTER SPENDING NEARLY A MONTH IN OTHER PARTS OF SPAIN AND EASTERN EUROPE, i.e. BULGARIA AND LESVOS.
At 11:30 ish I collected David, Martin and Alan from the airport and drove them to some waste ground near Guadalmar, this is the usual plan for my home-based Andalucia tour because it is quite easy to find Hoopoe and Bee-eater there and both species give the tour a terrific kick-start.
As it was a Sunday there were hundreds of people milling about in the lovely sunshine and as a consequence we limited our visit the banks of a small river. We found several species within a few meters from the car, House Martin, Crested Lark, Jackdaws, Greenfinch, Barn Swallow and our first Bee-eaters could be heard.
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| view over a Laguna at Guadalhorce, you can see the suburbs of Malaga in the background |
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| Eurasian Spoonbill seen at Laguna Grande, Guadalhorce Natural Park |
After that rewarding episode we drove about 2km to the nature reserve at Guadalhorce, again a mass of people we walking, jogging, cycling, fishing, loafing and generally enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon. This didn't spoil our birding one little bit, we walked to the hides along the main tracks and listed a good number of species.
At the first Laguna we came to we found two pairs of White-headed Ducks, this was our main target species and great bird for the guys to see. Along the tracks we encountered Zitting Cisticola, a Gull-billed Tern and a flyover Black-winged Stilt. Our visit to the first hide we came to didn't produce much more than a couple of Common Pochard, Little Grebe, Common Coot and another pair of the White-headed Duck. A couple of butterflies caught our eye, Small Skipper, Common Blue and Clouded Yellow were seen on the reserve and earlier we noted Hummingbird Hawk Moth.
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| White-headed Duck |
The large hide that overlooks Laguna Grande produced a lot more species, it was nice to see Dunlin in summer plumage standing next to Sanderling in winter plumage. They were joined by Ringed Plovers and a single Red Knot which was in the process of changing into its lovely red summer outfit.
Other birds on this shallow Laguna were Whimbrel, Little and Whiskered Terns, Pied Avocet and several pairs of breeding Black-winged Stilts, one or two chicks were visible on the shingle banks.
On the way back to the car we heard a couple of Reed Warblers and saw Zitting Cisticola, Greenfinch and Goldfinches.
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| The Dunlin looking superb in summer plumage |
From Malaga we drove 70km along the coast towards Gibraltar, we turned off and headed inland towards Gaucin which is nestled nicely in the coastal mountains. We stopped at Sierra Crestellina to look at vultures which turned out in good numbers to greet us. Griffon Vultures have a healthy colony of about 20-30 pairs on this huge mountain and a pair of Bonelli's Eagles also breed there. After a few minutes we located two of the eagles and one dropped down onto the nest and fed the single chick which sat up nicely for us after the adult had gone. This was the first sighting of the chick this year after fears that the eagles hadn't bred.
Other species seen during our visit were Crested Lark, Stonechat, Red-billed Chough and a few more finches.
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| Sanderling and Red Knot |
Just before we arrived in the village of Gaucin we saw another eagle circling over the road, we pulled over and watched the bird for a few minutes. it was a Short-toed Eagle and it was carrying a snake which it passed from talons to mouth as we watched, a nice sighting to end our day's birding.
We had logged 49 species during our first half-day with a couple goodies head lining the list!
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