DAY 1 - Thursday 12th February
Since the arrival of our flight coincided more or less with dusk we only to saw a handful of species including Spotless Starlings, White Storks and Yellow-legged Gulls en route plus Tawny and Little Owl calling near the house. My pleas of checking Los Barrios rubbish tip for Eagle Owl being unreasonably rejected in favour of something to eat!
DAY 2 - Friday 13th FebruaryUp and out at a reasonable hour today although not before the Lesser Kestrels were awake and chattering round the house.
Bonanza Pools This was our first stop since we hoped to get good views of White-headed Ducks here which we did (and although the light was “wrong”, our team photographer still managed to get some excellent shots of the species). Also present were the first of many Common Chiffchaffs and a Purple Gallinule. Returning to the main Bonanza – Algaida road we quickly encountered a group of 30+ Slender-billed Gulls on the saltpans beside the road.
Bonanza Saltpans Turning into the salt pans themselves it quickly became apparent that the pans were very flooded with relatively little exposed mud – which doubtless accounts for the poor numbers of waders here; c150 Black-winged Stilts, 3 Snipe, 1 Little Stint, 3 Sanderlings, 2 Dunlins, 1 Greenshank, 1 Wood Sandpiper, 6 Common Sandpipers & a Curlew. This was by far my lowest total at Bonanza, but at least we saw the site’s No1 speciality – Shelduck! Also of note were a single Great White Egret, a couple of Caspian Terns, two each of Common Buzzard, Red Kite and Short-toed Eagle plus a single Booted Eagle. Most unexpected, and seemingly entirely out-of-place, were 3 Kittiwakes – Mediterranean salt pans hardly being typical habitat for this largely marine gull (but see anon!)
Laguna de Tarelo & Pinar de Algaida A quick check of Laguna de Tarelo produced a further 49 White-headed Ducks plus a Purple Gallinule, Red-crested Pochards, Common Pochards, Gadwalls, 6 Black-necked Grebes, 48 Night Herons (but not Squaccos which are often present even in February), 3 Little Gulls, a single Penduline Tit and 4 Common Waxbills (the latter two being my first sightings here). Despite extensive searching the pines successfully concealed Azure-winged Magpie although not Crested Tits and Short-toed Treecreepers nor a party of 26 ‘fly-over’ Gloss Ibis. Views across the marshes also produced more Lesser Kestrels and 4 Common Cranes.
Salinas de Monte Algaida -Trebujena Marshes Heading out towards the Guadalquivir we headed south along the river towards the Salinas de Monte Algaida (i.e. the‘back’ of Bonanza saltpans). As expected we quickly picked up several Lesser Short-toed Larks here plus another Booted Eagle and an Osprey. Heading back north towards Trebujena at the flooded salt pans about a kilometre beyond the sluice we found a large flock of waterbirds which included 250+ Pochards, c30 Red-crested Pochards and at least 10 Marbled Ducks. Although this was the site where I first saw this species in August 2006, this species can be very elusive so it was excellent to catch up with them in winter. More raptors followed with two Booted Eagles, a single Griffon Vulture, a fine adult male Hen Harrier and a good number of Marsh Harriers. But with such high waters waders remained scarce with only Greenshanks and Black-winged Stilts being noted. As usual, despite careful scanning and this being a ‘known’ site’, Pin-tailed Sandgrouse remained elusive to the point of invisibility here. However, one stop proved very worthwhile as a couple of Bluethroats – one a fine white-spotted adult male – showed very well in a drainage ditch.
Laguna de Medina At the end of the day we called in at Laguna de Medina which harboured c50 White-headed Ducks plus 10+ Black-necked Grebes plus all the usual waterfowl. However, numbers of Coots were well down on last autumn (and no Red-knobbed Coot were seen in their favoured spot) which may reflect the very high water level here. A Sedge Warbler was singing in the reeds and, as usual, the scrub held many small passerines – predominantly Blackcaps.
NB for photos of what we saw, see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonymo...57614157792303/ and for full details of all sites PM for my birding notes on this fabulous area!
Hi John,
Interesting to read of your exploits with Jack and Tony. Some great shots on Tony's Flickr site.