One of our members had visited
Cabo de Gata last week and said the birding was very poor, but I'd made
the decision and that was where we (the Arboleas Birding Group) were
heading. I travelled down on my own as Gilly had to go to a funeral. It
was sunny and warm if you kept out of the shade. I met up with seven
other members at our usual Pujaire cafe. A few of the commoner birds had
been logged from the motorway, the best being a Hoopoe flying across in
front of Val and Rob's car. We made our way to the first hide. Large
numbers of Greater Flamingos could be seen together with numerous Avocets.
Other waders included Black-tailed Godwits, Ringed and Kentish Plovers,
Dunlin and Redshanks. Also seen were Slender-billed Gulls, Little Egrets
and Shelducks.
 |
| Great Bustard |
I was looking towards the second hide to the right when
I saw a large flying bird being mobbed by a gull. First thought was a
bird of prey, but then I realized it was a Great Bustard. It was heading
in our general direction, passing at height and speed to our right and then over Cabo de Gata village. I had my bridging camera with me,
so photographers amongst will appreciate how difficult it was to get a
shot. I got a "record" shot which will probably fail to get through the
editor's cut! We added a Red-rumped Swallow before making our way to the
second hide.
The
sea was mirror flat so any birds on the surface would be obvious ( if
there was any there!). We did see flying Black-headed and Yellow-yegged Gulls plus fishing Sandwich Terns. On the walk over we observed
the first pair of Barn Swallow of the day. Probably we had about a dozen
during our stay. A Black-winged Stilt was seen. I spotted a pair of
Stone Curlews flying from the scrubland across the salinas. We managed to
find another one to show a couple of British birders.
We
then travelled to the public hide. There were large numbers of Black-headed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the right hand causeway. One
or two of the latter were very nearly black which may suggest a
different origin. On the wader front we added Sanderling and Grey
Plover to the list. Also seen were about 20 Black-necked Grebes, a
handful of Cormorants and a solo Grey Heron. Alan spotted 4 sleeping
Spoonbills. Having a final scan I was lucky to spot a pair of soaring
birds of prey over the distant Michelin Tyre Testing track. Getting the
scope on them confirmed them to be our first Short-toed Eagles of the
year.
As we had a
coffee in front of the beach side cafe in Cabo village, John spotted an
adult Gannet. We then convoyed up the track to the Rambla Morales. Last
visit our birding exploits were thwarted by a very large puddle. This
time there was a noisy party of 50+ school children on a day out.
Luckily they didn't hang about long but the damage had been done. A
Black-winged Stilt returned to the estuary. On the water were small
numbers of White-headed Ducks and Common Pochards. On the reed fringes
were Coots and Moorhens whilst sleeping just inside the reeds were some
Mallards. Alan spotted a House Martin which added to the now 43 species list.
A good days birding with good company. Definitely not poor birding with migration beginning at a slow pace.
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