Fuente de Piedra & Laguna Dulce

[Peter]

Visited Fuente de Piedra amidst warmth and sunshine! Lots of Greater Flamingo at least 7 Spotted Redshank and large flock of mostly Pallid Swift with a few Common Swift. Kentish Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin, Avocet and Black-winged Stilt all present, but Laguna Dulce produced 1 Lesser Flamingo, 15+ White-headed Duck, sev...eral Great-crested and Black-necked Grebes, Red-crested Pochard, Shoveler and 2 Teal. Good day.

Peter

[wingspanner]

Good day out Peter. I too popped into the hide at Laguna Dulce late afternoon,
14 White-headed Duck, 1 Lesser Flamingo, 11 Teal, 9 Shoveler, 2 Black-necked Grebes, 20+ Common Pochard but no Red-crested Pochard. 3 Hoopoes near the hide. We also saw 11 Little Bustards in the distance at the back of the laguna (4 males), a flock of 20+ Calandra Larks. On the way back to Ronda we stopped at the obs view point at Teba and saw a sub-adult Golden Eagle being mobbed by a Peregrine and then on the Ronda - Teba road we had a pair of Bonelli's Eagle at their nest site. Just south of Ronda on the Algeciras road we had a Black-eared Wheatear back on its territory, is this a very early bird? Certainly my first for the year.

[Peter]

We must have arrived after you as I think I saw you (and an attractive lady) in the layby near the BE nest site? I neglected to mention we had a nice male Hen Harrier behing the Laguna. I reckon there would have been more than 15 White-headed Duck, but the little blighters kept diving! I was only able to spend a short time at the site as I needed to get to Cartajima in quick time. Bugger about my missing the Little Bustards.

I had Black-eared Wheatear last week and have ringed them on breeding territories during the 1st week in March. Typically though they normally arrive here in numbers during the last week in March.

Peter