28 November, rare and not so rare birds

In a week which is best forgotten from my own point of view, there have been two interesting reports today, 28 November, of decidedly scarce birds, leaving aside the Little Auk previously reported from Granada province.

At mid day today (28/11), just off-shore from the Guadalmar urbanisation, just to the west of the Guadalhorce, Pepe Rodríguez found a pair of female/immature Red-breasted Mergansers. By chance I was down there this afternoon and met him just as he turned up to try and photograph them, got the news and off we trotted,. Our luck was in and we watched and Pepe photographed the pair of them at ranges down to c.25m. A first ever record for him, ironically after just comng back from northern Spain where he failed to see any, and my first Spanish record. NOTE: Seen briefly Sunday morning also before the rains struck.

WEDNESDAY pm.: Still present in front of Guadalmar urbanisation.

There are previous records from Málaga province at least a decade since, during which occasional birds were seen off Calaburras just to the west of Fuengirola during 3 or 4 winters.

The other goody this week is the record on Thursday (26/11) of a Yellow-browed Warbler, a rarity at national record which thus requires a description for the Rarities Committee, which was seen in the Parque Tecnológico de Málaga on the road out the Campillos by Israel Lozano (in avesforum). Several years ago I had one that stayed around my garden for 4 days and was watched from the terrace by several members of SEO-Málaga, coffee and binoculars to hand - birding at its easiest!

Not so rare but still nice to see is a Short-eared Owl which has been seen in the Guadalhorce this week (Patricia Macauley) and see Bob's Arxaquia blog for what they saw on Thursday, while on 24/11 when walking the dog by the river I saw a solitary Greenshank and the Oystercatcher.

Rain is due tomorrow if the weather persons are to be believed. We shall see.