8 May : Guadalhorce

As noted at the end of yesterday's blog, this morning it was off to the Guadalhorce with a friend with the hope that it would be more productive than Fuente de Piedra, although I must admit my hopes weren't overly high but I was proven wrong with regard to the waders at least, which is where we shall start as it proved to be very good along the wader pool and the río Viejo.
In brief, 14 species of waders which included all three small plovers - Kentish, Little Ringed and Ringed (3+), a couple of big cousins in the form of Grey Plovers, one very smart in virtually in full breeding plumage, 3+ Little Stints, at least 5 Curlew Sandpipers with at least one still in winter plumage (are these late moulters first year birds?) as was the single Bar-tailed Godwit, while all the Dunlin were in breeding plumage. 
A surprise was the presence of 2 Sanderlings along the río Viejo, these also still full winter plumage.
There were 2 pairs of Avocets, one in the wader pool and the other, with the female sitting tightly and what I am told are 4 eggs just to the right of the hide at the laguna Grande, Dad was being very protective and saw off one of the ubiquitous Stilts. We saw 2 Ruffs, one a  female while along the río Viejo a male was coming in to breeding plumage but was far off and visibility wasn't helped by heat haze and shimmer. The  walk along the shore from the seawatch point to the entry in to the laguna Grande produced a singles of Turnstone and  Whimbrel. Not at all bad.
We were fortunate enough to see a couple of Purple Herons fly over to the sound of churring Reed Warblers and there are still 2 Grey Herons remaining, one obviously a 1st summer bird but the other looked to be adult.
Ducks were represented by the usual species with lots of male Pochards dashing around although we didn't see any Red-crested Pochards. The final good species as we went out was a pale morph Boot Eagle, an interesting species at this time of year.
So that, a dearly and best beloved (Kipling) is the lot as I didn't note down everything and neither are the photos anything to write home about as the heat haze was a definite hindrance.