It was great to be back birding in Southern Spain for another exciting season. The weather was just beautiful and the birding as good as ever.
Today I collected Mike from Malaga Airport he is staying with us for a week, he arrived on time but his luggage was delayed somewhat. Once in the car we drove straight round to the local nature reserve at Guadalmar, called Desembocadura de Guadalhorce.
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just one of several lagoons at the Guadalhorce Reserve
We had a great two hours walking along the tracks and visiting the hides that overlook a number of lagoons, we recorded over 50 species and the first lagoon produced our top-two sightings of the day. First we located a number of White-headed Ducks swimming around with Common and Red-crested Pochard, Little Grebes, Moorhens and Eurasian Coots. But then in the reeds we found a RED-KNOBBED COOT which is a mega find for this reserve and a species I have never seen there before.
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White-headed Duck
The next lagoon had a number of Black-winged Stilts, Common Redshank and not much else, so we moved onto the third lagoon which is far more open and has more exposed muddy banks. A good number of waders were feeding there with several species present. We listed; Kentish Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Redshank, Common Greenshank, Green Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt and Pied Avocet.
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record shots of the Red-knobbed Coot, you can just see the Red-Knobs and the blue bill-tip
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On our return walk we watched a group of 12 European Bee-eaters, Zitting Cisticola, Cetti’s Warbler, Pallid Swifts, Greenfinches and a few groups of Monk Parakeets.
We visited two more hides but it was the Laguna Grande that produced the most new species. From a raised hide we watched; Greater Flamingo, Eurasian Spoonbill, Black-necked Grebes, Black-headed Gull, Great Cormorant, Little Ringed Plover, Grey Heron and lots more Stilts.
During our walked back we bumped into a Eurasian Hoopoe, some Serins, Sardinian Warbler, a distant Booted Eagle, Common Kestrel and Red-rumped Swallows.
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taken through heat-haze - Eurasian Hoopoe
After stopping to buy lunch we set off at 3pm for Gaucin, my Summer home-village in Andalucia. We stopped a couple of times near Casares, but first we watched Griffon Vultures, Black Kites, Booted Eagle and dozens of Yellow-legged Gulls over a rubbish-tip near Estapona.
In Casares we had closer views of Griffon Vultures and we watched a Blue Rock Thrush. At Sierra Crestellina we added Common (Northern) Raven, Common Stonechat and Woodchat Shrike to our list.
Several nice butterflies were on the wing during this beautiful day; we saw Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Cleopatra, Spanish Festoon, Monarch, Painted Lady and Large White.
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Swallowtail Butterfly
We eventually arrived at Gaucin around 5:30pm where we enjoyed a cold beer and a delicious home-cooked dinner, provided by my lovely wife Dawn.
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