Sunday morning at the Guadalhorce and other things

Actually, I'll start with the other things, these being birds seen along the Doñana (Huelva) shore on Friday and Saturday by José Sencianes and others from Doñana. There have been some very interesting recordsd as a result of huge storms out in the Atlantic. On Friday they recorded up no less than 10 Fulmars (previously Doñana only had 2 records) and another was picked up on Saturday, most dead. Leach's Storm-petrels were recorded over the tide line on the shore and there were actually Kittiwakes sheltering in the dunes, while large flocks of Oystercatchers were seen. Another part of this storm was the presence of Kittiwakes in the harbour at Gibraltar (per Ernest García).

On Friday, Antonio Miguel Pérez took Patricia, Gonzalo and the incredible Kirri to the area around the José Antonio Valverde Centre at Cerrado Garrido, Doñana, and they had a long but very profitable day. According to Patricia and Gonzalo, in spite of the very strong winds, they saw no less than 3 Bitterns (possibly 4 but let us not be greedy!), a couple of Little Gulls, an Imperial Eagle, numerous Marsh and Hen Harriers, a Red Kite and also a Black-winged Kite, big flocks of Black-tailed Godwits and a variety of other waders including Green and Wood Sandpipers, Greenshanks and Spotted Redshanks, Ruff and so on, finishing with a nearly all white Stonechat!

Therefore, this morning's visit to the Guadalhorce was with the faint promise that we might actually see something of interest on the sea or some interesting waders. So, in company with Bob Hibbett, Patricia, Paco Rivera, Antonio Tamayo (recently a father a second time around - little does he know what awaits him with two daughters!) and later we met up with Gonzalo. There was nothing which could really compete with what Gonzalo and Patricia had seen in Doñana, although an imm. male Garganey was present and also a single male Wigeon (a much scarcer species than 20 or even 10 years since).

The water levels remain high so waders are very scarce, but we did find 2 Greenshanks, one colour ringed (which info.I shall send off later) and seen also yesterday by Antonio Tamayo, and a single Common Sandpiper, a single Snipe and a pair of Stilts.

Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) walking with my highly trained spaniel who got herself lost in the very tall vegetation at one point, there was an ad.W Little Gull sitting by the bank of the Guadalhorce and not looking at all happy with the state of the universe.

The best up to this point was undoubtedly the Richard's Pipit which forgot that it was supposed to dive into the deepest grass when it saw birders and binoculars and instead stood up and let us look at through telescopes for at least a couple of minutes.

A short (30 minute) look at the sea revealed several Black-necked Grebes and Gonzalo had earlier seen 3 Common Scoters, tons of gulls as usual but mostly too far out to identify if there was anything rare, although an adult Great Black-backed Gull did plough its way west - a first down for me down here in Andalucía after over 28 years! Unusual and far too early were 3 1st winter Common Terns, although I have occasional winter records from the 1980s.