Spring hath come!! Sunday at the Guadalhorce

Sounds nice, but it has this morning, as the birding has shown. On top of that of yesterday in the previous blog, what a good weekend I have enjoyed! So, up early, not windy, not cold, body more or less functioning and amenable to going out, so off I trotted to the Guadalhorce. ('One day you'll go and live there!' quote from the wife). And I was not in the least defrauded, quite the reverse.
The first bird to be seen was not unusual, although there do seem to be more than usual at the ponds, was a juvenile Corn Bunting, yes, a juvenile, with its mouth wide open, yellow gape visible and wing quivering at the adult birds nearby. A very early bird this one which we were to all see again later. And so to the hide at the Charco Grande, the Big Pond (we are so creative in naming!), where the Little Ringed Plovers are busily and very noisily claiming territory, while on the water a few male White-headed Ducks were getting their hormones in shape too. A couple of male Bluethroats showed, one briefly and the other halfway reasonably and by that time Antonio Miguel Pérez, Paco Rivera and Antonio Toro had arrived and as the 7 Garganey seen yesterday had gone, we trotted off to la Laguna Escondida, the Hidden Lake, and stopped to look at some sparrows.

Sparrows, I hear you scoffing, but during the week Antonio Miguel had seen a male Spanish Sparrow, an incredibly rare bird in the reserve and the first record that I can remember. The good are always rewarded and we were with not one but two males, one of which sat in the top of a bush and allowed itself to be scoped. On the way Antonio M. found a small snake (I forget which species) which was picked up and protested very vigorously at the indignity, trying to bite Antonio T. as he tried in turn tried to photograph it, my own best effort is here.

There was little of note in the Laguna Escondida and apparently not much in the Laguna de Casilla either, but once sitting comfortably in the hide and watching and listening there were two very pleasant early records, the first for the year in each case, of a single Sedge Warbler and a single Reed Warbler singing - it's amazing that so many birds, once they hit Europe, think it-s time to start singing. By that time the day was warming up nicely and it, for the first time, a case of sweater off and shirt sleeves all the way down to the seawatch mirador, there being bext to nothing in the way of waders as the water levels are still far too high, and thence homewards.

As a late post scriptum, I have just heard from Patricia that yesterday at the ponds there was a female Pintail, a pair of Red-crested Pochards and the first Woodchat Shrike of the year! The date's about right for it.