JUNE 10TH 2014 - DAY TOUR

GAUCIN SWEET CHESTNUT WOODS - MARCHENILLA TRACK - SAN MARTIN BRDIGE - SAN ENRIQUE WOODS - PALMONES SALT MARSH - SPTO GRANDE NATURE RESERVE - RIO MANILVA

A mixed bag of fortunes today and compared to yesterday a bit of an anti-climax. The weather was lovely and a bit cooler due to light overcast clouding.

It was the third and final day with Roly and Helen, they had seen most of their target species but a few were still missing so we tried to fill the gaps.

Our first stop was the chestnut woods just above Gaucin, it was a bright, very still, morning ideal for warbler watching. We were after the Iberian Chiffchaff but we never got a sniff of one, not a single note of song or contact call, disappointing. We got great views of Crested Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Bonelli's Warbler and we did hear European Robin and Wren.

Next we went to the track near San Pablo to seek out the rare Rufous Bush Robin, we could hardly believe when one sat out singing as we pulled up, we watched it for a while but we were driven off by clouds of flies and biting midges. Further along the track we found another target species the Tawny Pit, it showed well on the telephone wires. Other goodies included Sardinian Warbler, Melodious Warbler, lots of Bee-eaters and an odd looking Common Buzzard, it had a pure white head! Our first Short-toed Eagle sat nicely on a pylon for us to get great 'scope views, White Storks did the same and another Common Buzzard posed on a post.

Rufous Bush Robin in full song

The Lesser Kestrel colony at the railway bridge near San Martin was exciting to watch, adult birds were bringing food to the full grown chicks, mainly grasshoppers, they were soon devoured by the hungry siblings.

male adult Lesser Kestrel with a grasshopper in its talons

you can just make out the Lesser Kestrel chick in the nest hole

At San Enrique Woods we made our second attest at finding Tree Sparrow without success, we did see a Wryneck, Short-toed Treecreeper, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatcher and lots of Serins. At the river nearby we saw Little Ringed Plover, White Wagtail and Common Kingfisher, a few Booted Eagles had been noted by now too.

PALMONES was almost as bad as last time, but there were a few waders and two lovely Slender-billed Gulls to watch. Kentish and Ringedlovers joined a single Oystercatcher and a Black-headed Gull on the sand bar and a single Greater Flamingo flew into the lagoon behind them.

Slender-billed Gull - adult

you can just make out two of them in this picture

After a coffee and tapas stop we visited Soto Grande nature reserve where we added Common Coot, Common Moorhen and a Purple Swamphen to our list but there were very few gulls about. A short sea-watch produced a small number of Northern Gannets and a single Cory's Shearwater, that one was well appreciated by Roly.

Lastly we drove to the Rio Manilva to look for Cirl Bunting a bird that had escaped our attention throughout this mini-tour. It still evaded our observation, well you can't win them all, can you?



he Rio Manilva - it is fed by a natural spring which carries rich minerals giving the water a milky blue quality

We ended there having had some success and some failures, we ended up with over 120 species for the 3 days with some really good sightings on the list.

 

JUNE 9TH 2014. - DAY TOUR

ENCINAS BORRACHES TRACK - LAGUNAS DE CAMPILLOS (DULCE & SALADA) - TEBA RAPTOR OBSERVATORY - GAUCIN SWEET CHESTNUT WOOD.


My second day with My Australian guests, Roly and Helen.

This was one of the best morning's birding I have ever had in Spain! At Encinas Borraches we absolutely "CLEANED UP', it was fantastic, super, smashing and great. The weather was superb too!

How about this for a list for one small area in Spain in June:

ROCK THRUSH
BLUE ROCK THRUSH
BLACK WHEATEAR
BLACK EARED WHEATEAR
IBERIAN GREY SHRIKE
WOODCHAT SHRIKE
GOLDEN ORIOLE
SARDINIAN WARBLER
SPECTACLED WARBLER
DATFORD WARBLER
WESTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER
WESTERN BONELLI'S WARBLER
SUBALPINE WARBLER
CRESTED LARK
THEKLA LARK
WOODLARK
RED-BILLED CHOUGH
ROCK SPARROW
BLACK REDSTART
ROCK BUNTING
CORN BUNTING

We also heard Common Cuckoo and there were plenty of Greenfinches, Goldfinches, Linnets, Common Kestrel and swifts, swallows and martins. All in all we saw 30 species along the track, a  very creditable list indeed.

Roly and Helen on the track today

We moved on at midday and before we reached our next destination we stopped for coffee and tapas just outside of Ronda.

Well, the afternoon could not possibly be as good as the morning, it had to calm down and sure enough it did. We stopped at a known Bonelli's Eagles nest but the two chicks' had fledge and no one was at home.

At Campillos we drove around the back of laguna Dulce and it was very quiet indeed. No Larks, Pipit Wagtails or Buntings, none! We did see a pair of Montagu's Harriers but nothing else.

Woodchat Shrike

From the hide we enjoyed an hour watching lots of water birds, we added several new birds to the trip list. White-headed Duck, Ferruginous Duck, Red-crested Pochard, Black-necked Grebe, Gull-billed Terns, Great Reed & Reed Warbler were some of the goodies.

Plenty of Common Coot and Mallards, Little Ringed Plover, Gadwall, Common Pochard, Little and Great-crested Grebe were also seen well.

two pictures of the very obliging Dartford Warbler

From Laguna Dulce we drove through Campillos and made a visit to Laguna Salada, this was also very good with a fair number of species there. Greater Flamingos, Black-headed Gulls, Whiskered Terns and Kentish Plover were new for us. Then Roly spotted a bird of prey in a bush and through the scope we could easily see that it was a BLACK WINGED KITE, this was the first sighting I had ever had of this species in the Campillos area, fantastic. We drove around the laguna to get a better view and whilst there we saw Stone Curlew in flight, Red-rumped Swallow and lots of Gull-billed Terns. On the way back to the car we saw our first Marsh Harrier and a couple of Lesser Kestrels, then the Black-winged Kite flew over and gave us excellent views.

Rock Bunting - in a tree?

From Campillos we drove back to Gaucin making two stops along the way, the first stop was at the Teba bird of prey observatory where we saw Alpine Swift, Red-billed Chough and Griffon Vultures.
Our second stop was at the sweet chestnut woods near Gaucin, we found a Eurasian Nuthatch within a couple of minutes then we had great views of a Firecrest before we went home.

one of several Black-eared Wheatears seen today

After another delicious dinner cooked by Dawn, Roly and I drove down to the Genal Valley to look for nightjars. Before it got dark we found another warbler for Roly's list, Western Olivaceous Warbler showed well in the evening light. The Red-necked Nightjars performed well, calling and flying around, it was a great finish to a superb day's birding, it tired me out so it's goodnight from me.

 

 

Red-crested Pochard, just starting to moult into eclipse

JUNE 8TH 2014 - DAY TOUR

ESTAPONA - CASARES BEACH - SAN ENRIQUE WOODS - PINAR DEL REY - PALMONES - TARIFA PLAYA LOS LANCES - LA JANDA - VEJER - BARBATE MARSHES

After a 5 day break from birding I was raring to go, chomping at the bit! I needed a long day out and a challenge and that is exactly what I got with my clients today. Roly and Helen are with me for three days, they are Brits living in Australia and Roly is a big lister and gave me a list of species he wished to see. I really enjoy a challenge like that, so here goes......


I collected them from their accommodation near Estapona around 8am, it was sunny and warm with a bit of a breeze. We drove a very short distance and stopped at some waste land near the main A7 dual carriageway. Within minutes we found one  of Roly's target birds, the Sardinian Warbler, a whole family party of them! We also listed Hoopoe, Serin, Barn Swallow, House Martin; Blackcap and Turtle Dove were heard not seen.


A few more kilometres later and we stopped at the Casares Beach hoping for a gull roost but dog walkers had dispersed the gulls. We did see Spotless Starling, Yellow-legged Gull, Grey Heron and two Pied Avocet that flew passed us. One more stop in the area produced Monk Parakeet, another lifer for Roly and Helen.

Our first official birding stop was at San Enrique Woods which proved to be very successful, after parking the car we scanned the field adjacent to the woods  and found Serin, Zitting Cisticola and a few Barn Swallows. Once we were inside the woods we immediately found a Wryneck, this bird showed extremely well, how cool was that? Next we found a Spotted Flycatcher, a few Blue Tits and a Short-toed Treecreeper.

Little Owl hiding at the 'smelly farm'

PINAR del REY was our next venue, we saw White Storks and a Jay en-route and in the woods it didn't take long to find another of Roly's target species, the Bonelli's Warbler. A Blackcap showed well too and we saw a few more Jays and three more Treecreeper.

At Palmones we were disappointed it was a poor turn out, a few Yellow-legged Gulls, two Yellow Wagtails, a distant Spoonbill and nothing else, what a let down.

It took about 30 minutes to drive across to Tarifa, a Black Kite was seen from the car as neared the town. We parked up and walked to the hide on Los Lances Beach, the area was full of joggers, walkers and, worst of all, dog walkers. There were dogs all over the restricted area,  and so, no birds. A few Kentish Plovers, six or seven Sanderling, two Dunlin and just one Yellow-legged Gull! On the grass meadows we fared a little better with Crested, Sky and Short-toed Larks, Stonechat and Corn Bunting. Everywhere we went today we saw many Goldfinches and Linnets.

Bald Ibis colony at Vejer

La Janda was a little more rewarding, the rice fields are now mostly flooded and this had attracted many White Storks, Cattle Egrets and Glossy Ibis. Our drive along the raised central track gave us excellent views of the rice paddies, we saw a single Green Sandpiper, Mallards, Common Kestrel, lots of Zitting Cisticolas, quite a few Bee-eaters, Red-legged Partridge, Common Coot and a large number of Black-winged Stilts.

A drive up to the 'smelly  farm'  produced the usual Little Owl and we had very good views of a Booted Eagle being mobbed by Jackdaws and several Griffon Vultures.  The huge breeding colony of Cattle Egrets and Glossy Ibis was in full swing and along the same section of track we added Turtle Dove, Common Nightingale, Cetti's Warbler and another one of Roy's list, the Melodious Warbler. A Night Heron was seen as we returned along the same track back towards the main road.

Vejer provided the sightings of the Bald Ibis at the breeding colony, nearly all the chicks are fully grown and ready to fledge, I doubt of they will be there next time I visit, it has been a gold year for them.

BARBATE Marshes was our last venue and gave us tremendous views of Collared Pratincoles, they sat along the track as let us approach quite close to them, very nice too. More Short-toed Larks were seen and Kentish Plovers, we also added Greater Flamingo to the last and got much better views of Eurasian Spoonbill. Bit the best bird was another of Roy's most wanted, the Audouin's Gull, we found six of them with about 1,000 Yellow-legged Gulls.

BARBATE Marshes

Well that concluded our day out, we drove home stopping at the Mirador de Estrecho where a very clear day gave us excellent views of the north Moroccan coastline.

We arrived at Gaucin at 7pm and Dawn cooled is a delicious chicken Tajine, taken with a nice glass of Rioja, what a nice way to end the day, Roly and Helen have two more days with us.

 

 

 

JUNE 2ND 2014. - LATE NEWS FOR LAST NIGHT

SIERRA CRESTELLINA

As I travelled back from Malaga Airport with my beloved at 9:30pm we saw a Red-necked Nightjar sitting on the road . It was the first time that I have recorded one at that particular site.

Today we passed the same area and stopped to look at the Bonelli's Eagle nest and I can happily report that the chick is doing fine.

We also saw many Griffon Vultures and a couple of Short-toed Eagles, incidentally a Short-toed Eagle has appeared in Wareham Forest in Dorset, a place I used visit many times when I lived in Sherborn, Dorset.

MALAGA (GUADALHORCE) - JUNE 1ST 2014

DESEMBOCADURA DE GUADALHORCE NATURAL PARK

I took DAVE, MARTIN and ALAN back to MALAGA airport for their return flight to the UK. and as I have to collect my darling wife a little later I planned a full day's birding in the area. However, the weather decided otherwise. Some of the darkest clouds I have ever seen gathered over Malaga and I spent just 1 hour birding before the rain started, I am sure my dearest had something to do with it!

I only went to one small part of the reserve on the east bank of the old river, where I took as many pictures as I could in appalling light conditions.

I listed the following:

black-winged Stilt, Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Sanderling, Hoopoe, Whiskered Tern, Little Egret, Audouin's Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Black-headed Gull, Slender-billed Gull, Mallard, Gadwall, Redshank, Collared Dove, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Spotless Starling, Goldfinch and Linnets.

I tried to photograph most of them:

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO SEE AN ENLARGEMENT OF THEM ALL

AUDOUIN'S GULL - IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY YOU CAN SEE FISHING LINE PROTRUDING FROM THE BIRD'S BEAK, HE WAS CONSTANTLY TRYING TO REMOVE IT - NOT A HAPPY FUTURE ME THINKS

8

AUDOUIN'S GULL - 2cy

LITTLE EGRET

EURASIAN HOOPOE  - he was calling from the rocks on the shore, not long after a female arrived, pulling on the beach is easy in Spain I guess?

KENTISH PLOVER

 

RINGED PLOVER

SANDERLING  - you don't often get to see this species in summer plumage, very pretty too! What is a summer plumage Sanderling doing in Spain in June?? It should be much further north by now.

SLENDER -BILLED GULL, unfortunately this bird is oiled

our local Sturnus - Sturnus unicolor, SPOTLESS STARLING

very common in Spain now - BLACK-WINGED STILT - remember Sammy at Titchwell? He took up residence there from 1993 - 2005, he was very lonely I saw him trying to mount an Avocet, imagine the off-spring, AV-A-STILT!

WHISKERED TERN - a record shot taken in very bad light and at distance

 

 

rain clouds gathering over Malaga

 

ANDALUCIA - 7 - DAY TOUR - DAY 7 - 31ST MAY 2014

SIERRA DE LAS NIEVES

It was the last full day today for my three guest from Oxfordshire, Alan, Dave and Martin. They wanted an early start and an early finish so that could do some 'rubber-necking' in the afternoon around the village.

Several species were missing from the list so we decided to go to the wonderful natural park at Sierra de las Nieves near Ronda to see if we could add any new ones.

Black Wheatear a common sight in the rocky gorges

It was yet another fantastic morning, exquisite light, no wind, a lovely temperature and the most wonderful scenery all around us, sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind me that I haven't yet gone to heaven!

We arrived around 8:15am and parked near the entrance where open meadows dotted with scrub, fir trees  and picnic tables can be found. A Hoopoe was the first bird seen, it was feeding on the grass verge of the car park, a nice start. A short walk produced our first Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits, we also saw Linnets, Goldfinch, Corn Bunting and we had our first sighting of a Common Cuckoo.



Libelloides coccajus - this rare beautiful little flying insect - often called the 'owly-sulphur' - was seen in good numbers today

We then drove a couple of kilometres into the park and stopped in a cork oak wood, our intention was to walk for a couple hours looking for new species and then return to the car for the drive back to Gaucin.

In the woods we found European Robin, Bonelli's Warbler, Blackcap, Jay, Chaffinch, Blue Tit and we heard a Common Nightingale. As we progressed along the track the landscape changed, we moved out of the woods and into a steep-sided rugged gorge which then opened out to a flat plateau of rocky scrub.

Marsh Fritillary

As the landscape changed so did the species of birds, we were now finding Black Wheatears, Northern Wheatears, Common Stonechats, Linnets, Cirl Buntings and Red-billed Chough. A section of heathland produced Dartford Warbler, Woodlark and more Stonechats. We also found Serins and higher up we saw Lesser Kestrels and Griffon Vultures.

We then walked higher into mature pine woods where we encountered, Eurasian Nuthatch, Firecrest, Coal Tit, Crested Tit and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk.

Northern Wheatear

It was now starting to cloud over but it stayed quite warm , we spent quite a lot of time looking at butterflies, we must have seen 15-20 species with some nice ones catching our eye, we saw: three Fritillary, Queen-of-Spain, Knapweed and Marsh, plus Rock Grayling, Dusty Heath, Black-veined White, Cleopatra, Clouded Yellow, Dusky Meadow Brown, Spanish Gatekeeper, Sage Skipper and several others.

Our return journey was quite a lot quicker but we did stop to look at more birds and butterflies, we added Sardinian, Melodious and Spectacled Warblers to our list and kept a constant eye on the skyline looking for Eagles, we found only Booted Eagle and more Chough.

the final walk of the trip - back to the car

We returned to the car and drove back to the picnic site where we sat to eat our lunch, then we packed up and called it a day, well not quite because we drove out of the park to the first restaurant we came to and ordered coffee. We sat on the terrace looking back over the park still in the hope of seeing Golden Eagle but all we got was Short-toed Eagle.

After our coffee we drove back to Gaucin to finish the tour, it was 3pm when we got back and the guys wanted to visit the castle and walk around the village before dinner, the birding tourists, ha!

ANDALUCIA - 7 - DAY TOUR - DAY 6 - 30TH MAY 2014

LAGUNA DE MEDINA - LAGUNA JUNCOSA - BONANZA SALT PANS - LAGUNA TARELO - PINAR DEL LA ALGAIDA - TREBUJENA SALT MARSH

It was a long and hot day today but the guys were up for it, we drove from Gaucin at 7:30am and arrived at Laguna Medina at 9am. A long drive let's hope that at the end of the day we think its worth it!
The weather was lovely clear skies all day, it reach 30C at the salt pans but we had a nice breeze to cool us down.

Along the route we notched quite a few species which included: Eurasian Hoopoe, White Stork, Montagu's Harrier, Black Kite, Griffon Vulture, Booted Eagle and lots of Cattle Egrets.

When we arrived at Laguna Medina the air was alive with bird song as usual, Great Reed Warblers, Cetti's Warblers, Common Nightingales, Zitting Cisticola, Turtle Dove, Greenfinches, Goldfinches and Melodious Warblers were all giving some volume. We saw all of those species as we walked the track to hide, but the best was seen by just me, a male Penduline Tit, I inadvertently flushed it before anyone else got a view! Viewing from the hide the pool itself was disappointing with just a few Mallard, Common Coot, Great Crested and Little Grebes. The surrounding scrub held Night Heron, Purple Swamphen, lots of Wood Pigeon and we saw Little Tern and Purple Heron flying over.

Banded Groundling - Brachythermis leicosticta  (female)

Next we drove to Laguna Juncosa which in early spring was full of water and brimming with birds, today it was almost empty of both. A few Mallard, Common Coot swam about and on the shore we saw Little Ringed and Ringed Plovers, a single Black-tailed Godwit, Black-winged Stilts and a few Moorhen. A male Montagu's Harrier flew by just before we left.

It took about 40 minutes to reach the saltpans at Bonanza, we passed through El Portil and notched a Eurasian Magpie along the way. We then passed through the busy town of Sanlucar before reaching the pans and even they were very quiet, the hordes of migrating waders that are usually present in spring were gone and only hundreds of Greater Flamingos, Pied Avocet and Black-winged Stilts remained. We also saw Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Sanderling in summer plumage and a good number of Black Kites flew overhead. We ate lunch at a small pumping station where we watched Little Terns, Slender-billed Gulls and Spoonbills at fairly close range.

three views of the beautiful Slender-billed Gull

 

From the salt pans we drove around to Laguna Tarelo where we had a most successful hour. An island in the middle of the pool held a mixed breeding colony of Spoonbills, Little and Cattle Egret and Squacco Herons one of our target species, we saw several fledged chicks being fed by adults.

 

one of the many Night Herons partly hidden in the tamarisk scrub

 

Then we found a Little Bittern another of our most wanted species, this bird flew to a high perch and showed well for a few minutes before disappearing. As we searched through the ducks we found 8 MARBLED DUCKS, a real treat for us and a bonus bird for the trip list, we had great views of them albeit distant ones.

 

a really poor record shot of Marbled Duck - I put this in for the OXFORD RSPB member's group to prove to them that the bird really exists, you can just about see three of them

Other species seen included lots of roosting Night Herons and both Common and Red-crested Pochard, Gadwall and lots of Common Coot, none with Red-knobs on!

 

A short walk on the Algaida pines produced little, a single Spotted Flycatcher, Sardinian Warbler and many Black Kites, whilst looking  at the kites we saw a Red Kite drifting on high and a few Griffon Vultures.

 

Little Egret taken at the salt pans

 

Our drive through the salt marsh at Trebujena was enjoyable and there were many birds to see but none were new for us and we never found a Lesser Short-toed Lark, our target species. A huge flock of Black-tailed Godwits was impressive and a great many Pied Avocets joined them in the marsh. We also saw quite a few Yellow Wagtails, Crested Larks and Zitting Cisticola.

 

Time was moving on and so must we, we had a 2 drive back. We broke this up with an ice cream stop and later a caffeine boost was needed. All of us agreed that our sighting8 of over 80 species made it worth the long trek.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANDALUCIA - 7 - DAY TOUR - DAY 5 - 29TH MAY 2014

SERRANIA DE RONDA - TEBA GORGE - LAGUNA DULCE - LAGUNA FUENTE DE PIEDRA - TEBA BOP OBSERVATORY - GAUCIN SWEET CHESTNUT WOODS

The weather returned to the usual gorgeous cloudless, blue sky today, all day! So you can assume that we had a great day out.

We started at 7:30am as we left Gaucin and drove to the mountains near Ronda, we had some unfinished business with a Rock Bunting. This bird had proven somewhat elusive over the last couple of days and today was no exception, we found Rock Sparrow, Blue Rock Thrush and Black Wheatear before the little blighted turned up. When it did show, it showed very well, we had tremendous close views from the car, thank you.

We then drove up passed Ronda and onto the Campillos road where we stopped to look at a Bonelli's Eagle eyrie, two young birds sat on the nest they were big enough to fledge, very nice all the same and we never saw an adult.

Near Teba we drove passed the gorge and stopped at the bird of prey observatory where we spent an hour looking up at a huge rock face hoping for a sighting of a Peregrine Falcon. The falcon didn't show but we enjoyed views of Griffon Vulture, Red-billed Chough, Jackdaws, Common Kestrel, Black Wheatear, Crag Martin, Alpine Swift and in the olive groves we saw Hoopoe, Greenfinch, Serin, Sardinian Warbler and Goldfinch.

Bath White

Laguna Dulce was covered in birds as usual, many Common Coot were with Great-crested, Little and Black-necked Grebes, we also saw Common Pochard and Red-crested Pochard, Purple Swamphen, Gull-billed Tern, Northern Lapwing, Greater Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, Little ringed 3Plover, Common Sandpiper, Hoopoe, Cetti's Warbler, Zitting Cisticola and lots of common species.

Lulworth Skipper

We drove around to the far side of the Laguna into arable farmland where we found a number of Crested Larks, Calandra Larks, a couple of Montagu's Harriers, Yellow Wagtails, Lesser Kestrel and we had good views of the Laguna. Several butterflies were on the wing as well as numerous dragonflies.

one of the six Greater Flamingos at Laguna Dulce

At Laguna Fuente de Piedra we were disappointed to see that most of the area had dried up, all of the pools around the visitor's centre had dried up and the main Laguna had shrunk dramatically. Thousands of Greater Flamingos had bred but they were quite far out. We did see Common Shelduck, Black-tailed Godwin, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Common Redshank and hundreds of Gull-billed Terns.

 a common species but beautiful all the same, European Goldfinch

We returned via Teba and again stopped off to view the cliffs, again we were thwarted with no sign of the Peregrine Falcon.

Our last birding was done on the sweet chestnut woods near Gaucin, the sun was still hot but it was sheltered in the trees. We saw Eurasian Nuthatch a few times also Short-toed Treecreeper for the first time, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatcher and a few common species.

That was the end of another long day, I think we added about 10 species to our trip list with some excellent sightings included.

We all ate dinner sitting out i7n the local plaza, the sun was still strong and the air was very warm, summer has arrived in Spain I think.

 

 

ANDALUCIA - 7 - DAY TOUR - DAY 4 - 28TH MAY 2014

MARCHENILLA TRACK - LOS LANCES BEACH TARIFA - LA JANDA - VEJER - BARBATE MARSHES NATURAL PARK

What difference a day makes! Yesterday's weather was absolutely fabulous and today was pants! We awoke to wet and windy conditions and low cloud we couldn't see the end of the street. Fortunately it cleared a little as we drove down the mountains towards the coast at Algeciras.

Our first stop was at a secluded track near San Pablo where we spent a 'dry' hour or so looking for a couple of target species. One of the first birds we noticed was a Little Owl, this was our third of the day as we had seen two as we approached the track. Then we saw a couple of Sardinian Warblers a few Serins, Greenfinches, a Common Buzzard and lots of Goldfinches.

A sparrow caught the eye of Martin because it looked odd and sure enough on closer inspection we could see that it had the characteristics of both the House Sparrow and the Spanish Sparrow. This was indeed a hybrid and often called an Italian Sparrow, whether or not it is a distinct species is the subject of an going scientific debate.

The Italian Sparrow showing a brown head with some grey, white cheeks, white supercilious and other features of both Spanish and House Sparrow.

Next we hit a purple patch when not one but two Rufous Bush Robins were heard singing, this was our main target bird. We had excellent views of one of them, a lifer for my guests and thrilling for me.

RUFOUS BUSH ROBIN - three pictures of this rare breeding bird of Spain

in full song just five meters from us

 

The rival looking on

As we walked further along the track we added several more species to our day list; Booted Eagle, Short-toed Eagle, Bee-eater, Corn Bunting, Red-rumped Swallow, Turtle Dove and Griffon Vulture. Then our second target species appeared, the Tawny Pipit. This bird also showed well as it delivered its' song from a pylon and from the wires, it also performed its display flight a couple of times, nice one.

The only picture I got of the Tawny Pipit

From the track we drove to the coast and hit very bad weather, it poured with rain and became very misty, this continued until we reached Tarifa. A lucky break in the gloom let us walk to the hide at Los Lances beach but it didn't last long. We had time to watch a few Kentish Plovers, Dunlins, Ringed Plovers, Yellow-legged Gulls, Sandwich Terns and Short-toed Larks before the rain came down again.

We took a coffee break hoping for the rain to relent but it never did so we set off for LA JANDA and to our great surprise the weather cleared up by the time we got there.

Our visit lasted a couple of hours, it was still a little too windy so we stayed In the car a lot, from there we watched hundreds of Cattle and Little Egrets, Glossy Ibis, White Storks, Grey Herons and not a lot else. We did see a few distant Collared Pratincoles, a Marsh Harrier, Common Kestrel, but generally it was very quiet.

hiding from a rain shower at La JANDA - the Marx Borthers

A drive along an avenue of white poplar trees took us close to a huge nesting colony of egrets and ibis, the noise was deafening and the smell off-putting but the sight was tremendous. We ate our lunch close by and notched up a few Turtle Doves as we ate, also a distant Black Kite, lots of Common Pheasants and we heard both a Cetti's and a Reed Warbler.

Turtle Dove at lunch time

After lunch we drove out of LA JANDA and headed towards Benalup, we saw our fourth Little Owl of the day at the 'smelly farm' and also another six Black Kites. We then found another superb species for the area in the shape of a Spanish Imperial Eagle, not one but two drifted high over us with some Griffon Vultures, what a great discovery.

Next we drove to Vejer to the site of the breeding colony of BALD IBIS, these introduced birds are doing well and now have two colonies on the cliffs below Vejer, the one we visited had 9 almost full grown chicks on view and several of their ugly parents, if I were a Bald Ibis chick and I saw what I was going to turn out like I may have a tendency to jump out of the nest and onto the main road in front of a truck!

tap the picture to enlarge it and you might see a few BALD IBIS chicks

Our last venue was the new natural park at BARBATE, this huge area of shallow lagoons and large islands is getting better and better. It now supports a large number of Collared Pratincoles, a few pairs  of Stone Curlew, Short-toed Larks, Yellow Wagtail, Kentish Plover and provides a haven for roosting gulls and passing waders. There are also Greater Flamingos, Eurasian Spoonbills and both Skylark and Calandra Lark in the surrounding meadows. We saw all of the above with special close views of the Pratincoles.

These birds were on the track and allowed close approach

After that excitement we called it a day and drove home in nice sunshine Until we got back to the village where the rain clouds lingered.