09 August : Guadalhorce (yet again) and other bits of info..

I must admit that I forgot to write this brief report of my third visit to the Guadalhorce in the week until a few minutes since (it is now 18.30 on Sunday, 11 August) so thought I'd better put finger to keyboard before shoving off to Blighty tomorrow. I met Carlos López-Jurado at 07.40, an even earlier start in the interests of self-preservation from the lascivious rays of the sun and we went in with the intention of getting out as soon as was reasonably possible, but that would depend upon the birds, which basically means the waders so herewith a quick resumé of that group.
Ringed Plover - 3 ; Little Ringed Plover - 97 (the highest total of the week and only explicable by birds that have bred upstream congregating down at the ponds before pushing off) ; Kentish Plover - ca.10 ; Redshank - 3 ; Dunlin - 3 ; Curlew Sandpiper - 3 ; Little Stint - 3 : Common Sandpiper - 4 ... and, of course, Black-winged Stilts!
One of the Dunlins was ringed, a double red/orange under a black over a white on its right leg (I think, but it was in water most of the time and never stopped feeding) with a blue flag on the left leg. However, as I can't be sure of the combinations I can't be sure of the source, but it may have come from a Portuguese project.
It was nice to see a couple of very nice, bright yellow Iberian race Yellow Wagtails and there seemed to be a lot of Zitting Cisticolas. There was a total of 8 adult and 3 young White-headed Ducks and we had brief views of a Reed Warbler. We read 7 more Audouin's Gull rings also and admired the Mediterranean Gulls, while Lesser Black-backs had remained at around 7-8 birds.

On the subject of rings, I have to admit that I made an error checking up on the flamingo ring from the other day (see blog for 07 August), simply by checking the wrong column in haste. This morning I rechecked with rather more care because I was 99% certain that I hadn't made an error reading it. So, by checking in the Flamingo Atlas of Tour du Valat (France) where one can find all the flamingo rings used up to and including last year, I can affirm that it was ringed in Sardinia in 2005.
And continuing on the subject of flamingos, yesterday was the annual flamingo ringing at Fuente de Piedra. I had been invited but discretion is better than after-effects if you've got knees like mine on the verge of permanent self-destruction. The photos are my own from a couple of years since to lighten this blog.

driving the chicks to the corral

However, the big chief, Manolo Rendón (a very good biologist and a thoroughly nice chap) rang me last evening to give account of their morning. He also gave me the results of the photographic census of the chick numbers, done from an aircraft and then taking lots of photos, splitting them up in to sections and then counting the dots, which according to Manolo was awful this year as there were so many sub-nurseries. However, it has been a record year with a grand total of 20.276 Great Flamingo chicks and to that one must add the 2 (two) chicks from the 2 pairs (yes, two pairs) of Lessers which bred and of which the young were doing fine when last controlled.

So, that's all folks until I get back from Blighty on late 19 August, having graced the Bird Fair with my presence and spread goodwill around whilst it will undoubtedly rain, temperatures will drop like the proverbial stone, skies will be grey and lowering and there may even be the odd tsunami! But that's an English summer when I'm there. Good birding!

07 August : Guadalhorce (again)

An 08.00 start this morning when I met Carlos López-Jurado, editor of the Grupo Ornitológico Balear yearbook. It's been a few years since we last went birding together as my onw family affairs have intervened, but as a free agent now ...! The forecast was for it to be hot - very hot, and it didn't disappoint and by 9 we were starting to feel the heat but ebing brave, we went on.
Basically, we were after waders to see what had come, what had gone and what had remained static. The first waders we saw flying off to the north as we headed towards the eastern path, 12 of them, 3 Redshanks which had called and alerted me, and the remaining 9 were, I think, Dunlin but they were high and all we saw was the rear underparts. It wasn't until the second hide that we came across waders but in the interests of brevity, I shall just give the sum of totals from the following sites: wader pool (second hide), río Viejo and laguna Grande and then the total, along with a brief comment if one is warranted.
Black-winged Stilt - 70+ (including a flock of ca.60) ; Little Ringed Plover - 57 (a drop from the huge number on 05 August) ;  Kentish Plover - ca.7 ; Little Stint - 3 ; Curlew Sandpiper - 6 ; Dunlin - (9?) + 5 ; Whimbrel - 1 ; Redshank : 3 (see above) +  2 = 5 ; Common Sandpiper - 6 . 9 species of waders, not too bad.
Amongst other things of note, a constant westwards trickle of Common Swifts with only one or two Pallids mixed in; a single adult Woodchat Shrike, a few Bee-eaters, the male Little Bittern at the laguna Escondida and there also the Little Grebes with their 2 young.  On the laguna Grande there was a good selection of gulls and apart from 9 Flamingos, one of which was ringed but I couldn't read fully because of heat haze, although I believe it to be an Italian bird ringed in 2006. I also read the rings on 7 Audouin's Gulls, all I need now is the time to put them in to the Doñana web site.
One more visit to the ponds, this coming Friday morning at 07.30 with Carlos, before I go off to England next week to get wet and cold.

05 August : Guadalhorce

First, a note from the garden where I had no less than 2 Melodious Warblers (adult and juv.) on Saturday morning (3 August) and a different adult on Sunday afternoon.
An early morning start for Sandra and myself today, 05 August, meeting at 07.30 - beautifully cool! - and going in over the bridge 15 minutes later. Our prime objective was waders, although obviously everything is grist to the mill. The route was the same as always, down the east bank and check out the wader pool and río Viejo, to the seawatch mirador and then along the shore and enter in to come up beside the laguna Grande before having a look at the laguna Escondida.
There wasn't much on the laguna de la Casilla and we soon moved on to the second hide and the wader pool.There things started to look up with a count of 22 Little Ringed Plovers (so where were the rest?) and also 2 Common Sandpipers, plus a few Stilts. Moving down to the río Viejo and watching from the embankment soon revealed where the Little Ringed Plovers were with a minimum count of 55, plus 10+ later on the laguna Grande, would give a daily total of at least 87 birds! I don't think that I have ever seen so many. Numbers of Kentish Plovers were around 10, the same as previous counts but not a single Ringed Plover, with 2 more Common Sandpipers and then another later on on the laguna Grande to give a total of 5. It was nice to get good views of Curlew Sandpipers with a day total of 6, all still in varying states of red plumage, and a couple of very tired Dunlins sleeping like logs. There were 3 Little Stints there and once round the beach to go in towards the laguna Grande we flushed a Green Sandpiper.

Little Grebe, one chick in water, one on back

At the laguna Grande we had a fly-over Squacco Heron with its persil-white wings, possibly the same bird that Sandra saw briefly at the laguna Esconida (I was looking the other way!) and also a couple of Grey Herons. On the separate partially dried part of the laguna Grande just before turning right for the Escondida I found a Spotted Redshank peeping out and we spent several minutes waiting for it to overcome its shyness. We read 4 Audouin's Gull rings and one green one on a Mediterranean Gull - I must send these off!
The Escondida have a us good views of a male Little Bittern which flew the whole length of lake, a female White-headed Duck with 2 quite young ducklings, and amongst the many Little Grebes a pair with 2 very young chicks,little furry balls of nothing, probably from the nest that Juan had found the previous week and in which we could still see one egg. These 2 bits of nothing were quite happy climbing on and off Mum's back but regrettably they were rather distant and this shot is the best that I could do.
It was getting hot by them and we hied ourselves off. A good morning's birding with 38 species.

REDISCOVERING THE AUSTRALIAN NIGHT PARROT

Some of you may well have read of the rediscovery of this incredibly rare, long thought to be extinct, Australian Night Parrot Geopsittacus occidentalis. The Birdwatch web carried the news and gave some details. However, an old birding friend who lives in Brisbane (we were at university half a century since and I shall be birding with he and his wife next year when Down Under), was one of the invitees to the special press conference and was able to provide me with extra details.

The Night Parrot Geopsittacus occidentalis is known from only a few specimens in the 20th century, one being a flattened bird on a road in the bush, another which decapitated itself on a wire fence. It is a relative of the Australian Ground Parrot and the New Zealand Kakapo. The only previously accepted sight record of the species by the Birds Australia Records Committee was of two to three birds at Minga Well, Western Australia, on 12 April 2005.

Here enter stage left an Australian birder who became obsessed with finding, perhaps rediscovering might be a better expression, this incredibly rare species. John Young, the birder in question, spent 5 years on his search in the extreme conditions of the Australian Outback, and where he went it is virtually impossible to be further out! he covered some 11.000 miles and wore out two quad bikes in the process.

The press conference before an invited audience at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane on 3 July announced the rediscovery, showed 6 (six) seconds of video and a few images were released of some 600 claimed to exist by John Young. The bird is seen to be hopping like a kangaroo! My friend says that it is very convincing. 

The bird was filmed in a small area of some 38 square miles of private property in the Diamantina National Park in SW Queensland where it butts up against the Northern Territory (a lonfg way from Western Australia), which, as David said to me, is like it being in your back garden in Australian terms! It's a big country! The exact site was not released, apparently to loud applause when it was explained that it was not being given in order to dissuade twitchers and for that reason too sound recordings of its calls are not being released. Plans to set up a properly controlled search and then design conservation measures are being considered.

1 August : Guadalhorce

I was in to the Guadalhorce even earlier this morning and the House Martins that roost on the beams of the bridge (above) weren't even totally awake, allowing a count of 81 actually still in the process of waking (and that without the help of a coffee!) while around 30 more were flying around. A total of around 110 birds!
The temperature was delightful and thin layer of cloud kept it that way until gone 09.30 but after that it went upwards whilst I went outwards. But in the middle I had some quite interesting birding. Obviously, my main interest was the waders, even including the Stilts with still remarkably young ones for the date. I was also interested in getting a better count of the Little Ringed Plovers than I did the other day and paid a lot more attention to the counting, finally coming up with a total of 43 on the pool in front of the second hide, another 17+ further down on the río Viejo and around 10 on the laguna Grande - total: ca. 70 birds. There were about the same numbers of Kentish as the other day, 10+, a single Ringed Plover (probably the same bird by plumage), only 2 Little Stints but one was certainly different to the 4 seen two days since and in splendid breeding plumage, and what were certainly the same singles of Dunlin, Curlew Sandpiper and Knot (laguna Grande).
A 10 minute seawatch gave 4 Cory's Shearwaters following a fishing boat, my first of this year! Also a single adult Sandwich Tern, with another 1st summer bird (seen by Eric last week) on the laguna Grande.

Audouin's giving another hell!

Gull numbers on the laguna Grande were about the same although adult Lesser Black-backs had risen to 8, including one rather big, dark bird (probably a male) of the intermedius race. There were at least 40 Mediterranean Gulls in amongst them.
Some rather nice Audouin's gave excellent views (although against the light)  and this of 4 adults, with one of them giving another a good chew-out! I shall not make any comments about females and hen-pecked males, I promise.
As for the rest, some very high density display and fighting - real ding-dong stuff - amongst 6 Gadwalls on the laguna Escondida where there was only 1 White-headed Duck. 3 Grey Herons came in from the north-west and landed after making a couple of circuits and the same for a Purple Heron which came in from the east.
Total: 43 species. And the next visit? Perhaps tomorrow afternoon to try and get some photos of gulls in good light.

31 July : Sierra María

'Once more into the breach!' must be the war cry of the Arboleas Group, stern stuff they are indeed, as they headed for the hills again in a vain attempt to avoid the heat. I shall be going down to the Guadalhorce tomorrow early in what will probably be a vain attempt to see everything before heat stroke, heat haze and le cafard (a French expression) and trusting that I will not meet the identification sage of the Guadalhorce (no clues but it's a Brit and it's not Bob nor myself) but the wader migration season is upon us and anything could turn up early on.
I like the sound of (and I quote) 'Chaffinches and Rock Buntings taking the waters'. Sounds like a spa! Harrogate or Bath? 
You lot spend a lot of time taking coffee and refreshments. I wish we had a place for a coffee down at the Guadalhorce. Super shot of the male Crossbill, what a lovely colour he is!

Again we headed for the mountains to avoid the heat. Gilly and I, together with Ros and husband, Roger, met up with Adrian, Tony, Kas, Colin, Sandra, Rod and Linda at the garage cafe in Maria. After a coffee and chat we headed up to the chapel area. Not a lot around till we got to near the water trough. First arrivals saw a glimpse of a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying into and out of the poplar tree. There were numerous Chaffinches and Rock Buntings taking the waters. House Martins and Barn Swallows were above us or low flying over the fields. No sign of the Golden Orioles. The weather at this time was kind. Yes, it was sunny, but there was a nice cool breeze.

On the way up the advance party added a Blue Tit, whilst the rearguard spotted a juvenile Southern Grey Shrike. Once we entered the Botanical Gardens there were plenty of birds. Seeing them was a different matter! Luckily, being desperate for water, most were hanging around the small man-made pools. There were numerous Crossbills, but also Cirl Buntings, Serin and Chaffinch. Further along, on the lower walk, we had good views of Bonelli's Warbler. Some of the group saw a pair of Short-toed Treecreepers. Also seen were Coal Tit and a pair of high flying Griffon Vulture. We then made our way to the La Piza forest restaurant for refreshments. Again there were Crossbills and Chaffinches hanging around the water sources. Only added Great Tit to the list.

Driving down towards the plain, we had a brief stop at the farm buildings, seeing distant Griffon Vultures and a Crested Lark. A Swallowtail Butterfly showed well. On the plain itself, by the roadside we saw Northern Wheatear, Black-eared Wheatear and a Calandra Lark. Eventually we reached the hamlet. At first we thought all the Lesser Kestrels had gone, but I spotted a Kestrel sp., presumed Lesser, sitting atop a stack of straw bales. 
Lunchtime was upon us so we returned to La Piza. As we were leaving Colin spotted a passing Booted Eagle. Another Great Spotted Woodpecker was seen. We had good views of "Spanish" Squirrels. We saw a Red-rumped Swallow on our way past Velez Blanco.

27 species seen. It was agreed that group outings will be suspended in August, but that doesn't mean there'll be no reports. I'll be out and about on my lonesome seeing what's around.

30 July : Guadalhorce

A short one this, rather like my visit yesterday morning to the Guadalhorce, and with no photos to enliven the text. However, having gone in before 08.00 and out by 10.30 as the heat was building up nicely well before 10.00 and the heat haze had started by 09.30, it wasn't at all bad. In fact,l it was made better by meeting Juan Ramírez who I hadn't seen for months and who had been away in Fuerteventura working on the resident Egyptian Vultures there but he complained about the lack of bird variety.
The female Red-crested Pochard had been reported as missing in action with no ducklings seen since my last visit and there was no sign of her of the chicks, so one must presume that the chicks have fallen foul of somepredator - wild dogs, the foxes which are present, perhaps rats. But there they were not. There are still plenty of young Gadwall around though.
Surprisingly, there was at least one female Stilt still apparently incubating and there were some quite young birds around. But it was wader migration in which I was interested and which has definitely started with large numbers of Little Ringed Plover, with a count of 38+ on the semi-dried out area in front of the second hide down the east bank, plus at least another 20 along the río Viejo and a few more on the laguna Grande, putting the total at well over 60. It's difficult to imagine all these being home grown birds. On the other hand there was only 1 Ringed Plover and much fewer Kentish than the last time I was there on 18 July. Further down the río Viejo Juan spotted the head of Whimbrel which kept down so I never located it but we did find 4 Little Stints, 2 still in breeding plumage. We also notched up at least 3 Common Sandpipers and a single Wood Sandpiper.
The walk along the shore revealed absolutely nothing and it wasn't until we reached the hide at the laguna Grande that things perked up again as there were plenty of gulls to be looked at with some handsome Mediterranean Gulls, elegant Audouin's, the riff-raff of Black-headed and Yellow-legged and 3 adult Lesser Black-backeds. In the wader line there was another Common Sandpiper and summer-pluamged singles of Knot (very nice!) and Curlew Sandpiper (equally nice). A single adult Spoonbill flew in and an immature Night Heron did a circuit and landed.
At the laguna Escondida Juan located a Little Grebe nest with 4 egggs and then an adult came in and started incubating.  We had seen a Black-necked Grebe on the laguna Grande. We saw less than 5 White-headed Ducks, it doesn't appear to have been a good year for them. There were much fewer Bee-eaters than a fortnight since but I had the impression that there has been a good breeding season for Zitting Cisticolas/Fan-tailed Warblers.
Hot and sweaty, I headed for home whilst Juan went on - brave lad! But 41 species wasn't too bad for the morning.