5 November, Arboleas Bird Group (Almería)

The following is from Dave Elliott-Binns about the trip that the Arboleas group carried out yesterday, 5 November. Note what Dave says about the next trip date if you're interested.

This week 8 members of the group stayed local and visited the Almanzora estuary. We arrived at our usual parking place overlooking the brackish pool near the beach only to find extensive works being carried out. In the pool itself there were 3 Teal, a single Little Egret and 11 Audouin's Gulls. There were 1,000's of gulls out to sea at the Tuna farms where it was obviously feeding time. A walk along the beach produced a Cormorant and a Shag, which flew right over us. On the rocks outside Villaricos harbour were a few Sanderlings and a Turnstone, together with a few gulls and a Sandwich Tern fishing. On the rambla, there were numerous Stonechats, a few Robins and a small flock of Meadow Pipit.

We then drove back up towards Cuevas de Almanzora. The pools, where the road crosses the rambla, were non-existent as the pipework for the new desalination plant had reached that point. It was disconcerting that there was very little standing water, even though we'd had rain on and off for weeks. Did manage to see one Green Sandpiper and a few Black Winged Stilts. A bit futher I spotted one, then two Alpine Swifts with a single Barn Swallow.

There were also works going on round the "lake" at Desert Springs Golf complex. A single Pochard and Black-necked Grebe were seen. They completed the days count of 44. Good, yes, but should've been better if it hadn't been for all the works.

Gilly & I are off to the UK for four weeks, so the next official day trip will be the 17th December.