As I noted this morning when putting in the note on the Ruddy Duck (please read if you've not seen it) , I have been very busy, still going through 2.400 photos and rejecting a lot, then eliminating a file totally in error which meant downloading and starting some of it (only about 1.200 photos) all over again - a right waste of time!) and then starting putting two lectures together as noted in a previous blog headed
ANNOUNCEMENT. So, a brief note on my stuff before another of Dave's comes in!.
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| male iberiae Yellow Wagtail |
Sunday, 9 March : Guadalhorce early, along with Paco Rivera (all the time) and Antonio Tamayo and Antonio Miguel Pérez (each for part of the time). A few raptors including the
Osprey which took off in search of breakfast, a
Kestrel and 2
Booted Eagles, one a dark morph bird, whilst the surprise of the morning (and probably bird of the day) was a
Short-eared Owl.
There was a quite decent showing of ducks but nothing outstanding, whilst there were 9 species of waders including some hormonally active
Little Ringed Plovers (but not as much as those we saw at Fuente de Piedra) as well as 3
Greenshanks (always nice) and a similar number of
Dunlin and 2
Black-tailed Godwits. It was nice to see an
iberiae race male
Yellow Wagtail at the laguna Grande where there was also an odd gulls, size-wise a
Comon but with some characteristics, including the bill, of a
Ring-billed. I personally think that it may have been a hybrid of the two spp. (they have interbred) but people ore going for the rarer. An odd bird, that's for sure.
We also had brief views of a
Bluethroat, there were plenty of
Barn Swallows and a few
Sand Martins. Not a big of even full list but I wasn't taking many notes and missed noting down an awful lot.
Wednesday, 12 March : A long morning out with Ron, starting first at the
laguna Dulce (Campillos) where we ran in to Jose Miguel Ramñirez counting ducks and searching for the aforementioned Ruddy Duck. Lots of
Barn Swallows and a few
Sand Martins, also 3
Tufted Ducks still, plus a good dozen of
Red-crested Pochards, the males very handsome. There was lot of
Black-necked Grebes, most in full breeding plumage, but rather fewer
Great Crested than we might have expected.
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| Gull-billed Tern |
From there we went on to
Fuente de Piedra with the aim of looking for waders and, hopefully, a Lesser Flamingo. Alas, no
Lessers (2 have been seen over at Osuna) but
Pallid Swift had been seen by eaarlier birders (we didn't) and also 4
Mongooses (mongeese?) and I heard but didn't see a
Woodchat Shrike at Cantarranas where there were 2
Marsh Harriers. Waders, yes there were, with at least 19
Black-tailed Godwits, some very handsome and splendid when in flight, and 5
Ruffs and singles of
Redshank,
Lapwing and
Common Sandpiper. Ron counted some 18 or 19
Little Ringed Plovers which were being very noisy and hormonal. We walked round towards La Vicaria and were rewarded with views of 3 bright yellow male
iberiae Yellow Wagtails, too bright to be true! We finished off with a pair of elegant
Gull-billed Terns, the first of the spring.
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