1. Arboleas bird group, Almería (2) Guadalhorce ponds this afternoon

(1) Arboleas Bird Group Last evening (4 June) the group made its annual pilgramage to the Beach area, a mile or two southwest of the Almanzora estuary in search of Red Necked Nightjar. Over the last few years the scrubland at the rear of the Repsol Garage, Palomares has been scrapped back and has been used recently for Motocross, so our expectations weren't that high! At first we saw a pair of Stone Curlew, then at about 2140 hrs two Red Necked Nightjars flew passed into the pine and eucalyptus wood behind us. A successful night considering the obstacles man places before breeding birds. Will this be their last year there? (Dave & Gilly Elliott-Binns)

(2) Guadalhorce ponds this afternoon I don't often go down to the ponds in the afternoon, too hot, too much heat haze, too lazyafter lunch! But this afternoon, I made an exception as a friend was down from Madrid and surprisingly we didn't do too badly for waders and the heat didn't kill us, thanks to a sea breeze although the shimmer was bad and made telescope use difficult. The breeding plumaged Knot (2) and Bar-tailed Godwit (2) were still present as were some 8 Dunlin and a similar number of Sanderling and Ringed Plover. Of the 8 Redshank, a tight group of 6 were very nervous and noisy and I wouldn't be in the least surprised if they are on their way north as I write this at dusk. The birds of the afternoon were undoubtedly a pair of Curlew which took off northwards bound whilst we were watching.
There were several Audouin's Gulls and 5 Slender-billed, plus about 10 Gull-billed Terns - a result these of the drying out of Fuente de Piedra? The Osprey tried to fish over the sea, unusual here but I used to see it all the time when I lived in the Bahamas, but a Yellow-legged Gull spoilt its fishing.