Field meeting for June

[Bob Wright]

13 June 2010

Peter

Just trying to find your email address to send a "thought" for the AGM and saw your message about July Field meeting near La Vinuela.

We have a somewhat "dead" reservoir up here so I would suggest the old railway track on the Granada border (with good parking) at Ventas de Zafarraya.  Pretty sure that Alpine Swifts have taken over the large cave near the old railway tunnel with at least 30 present last week.  Good for most mountain birds but, unless very lucky, too low for Rock Thrush.  However, we do regularly see peregrines "seeing off" the odd immature Golden Eagle.  But what chance on an organised event?

Would suggest walking the old track, can be limited to cope with all physical abilities, and then move on to relatively nearby El Robledal woods for possibility of smaller birds including Tits, Nuthatch, Firecrest, Short-toed Tree-creeper and, almost certainly, Jay and Woodpecker, usually of the Great Spotted variety.  Meanwhile, I will have a word with friend Eric Lyon about the second part of the visit as he really knows these woods.  No problem re a Venta for a meal but much cheaper week days when we can go as high as 8 Euros!!!

Let me know what you think and I will make the necessary enquiries, etc.  (Should also point out that we can share cars between start and finish if we use two sites.)

Now to the original reason for making contact.  With so many new officers and officials who may all need to contact/reply to the membership, would the AGM agree on a standardised heading for the Society that all officers could use; I assume all will probably be using email so can be saved for regular use.

Suggest header must include at least the following:
Name of Society
ABS logo
Name title of president, Chairman and Secretary (contact details of last)
Scope for name/contact details of elected official if latter reply/forwarding directly, e.g. Recorder, Membership Secretary ,etc.
More as you think appropriate/necessary

Hope the above helps.  I am of back to UK for a week on Tuesday 15 June but will still have access to my computer from next Friday (UK home address).  Even off for some birding in North Norfolk next week-end with a newly-discovered cousin who is also a birder.

Best wishes

Bob Wright

[Franky no Hair]

Well what a day. I would like to say thanks to all that came for making it such a successful day and for all that could not come you missed a great day. When I got home I had to lie down for a bit as I had eaten so much I needed a snooze. Count for the day when I left was 80 species,  looking forward to July where I can relax a bit.
                                  Have fun Frank

[David]

Osuna in the Province of Seville - Saturday 19th June 2010

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Field Trip Report

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The group met at 10am at Venta Puenta Palos on the A451, the road between El Saucejo and Osuna, about 11km south of Osuna. It was a lovely sunny morning and the sunshine remained for the whole day.

The list for the day started at the Venta with Blue Tit, nesting in an Olive tree in the car park, Wood Pigeon, Red-rumped Swallow and Turtle Dove.

After morning coffee we drove in convoy to Osuna and followed the road from Osuna to Marchena that follows the railway track.  From this road we ventured into farmland following farm tracks and visiting several ruined farmsteads.  In this very rural area we saw lots of Crested Lark, several Calandra Lark and Short-toed Lark, a Skylark, a Stone Curlew (recent road kill), about 100 Lesser Kestrel in two large colonies, about 20 European Roller, a couple of Hoopoe, a Little Owl, several Montague Harrier, several Common Raven, about 50 Black Kite (a lot of them on the ground in stubble fields), a Black-shouldered Kite, a Booted Eagle, a Short-toed Eagle, a Common Buzzard, 3 Griffin Vulture gliding overhead, a Red-legged Partridge, several House Sparrow, several Spanish Sparrow, a couple of Collared Dove, several Turtle Dove, a flock of European Bee-Eater containing about 10 birds, a Woodchat Shrike, a Southern Grey Shrike, a Collared Pratincole feeding on insects, a Linnet, a Melodious Warbler, a Sardinian Warbler, lots of Barn Swallow, a lesser number of Red-rumped Swallow, quite a few Common Swift, several Goldfinch, a Chaffinch, a Linnet, a Blackbird, a Serin, flocks of Spotless Starling, a couple of flocks of Rock Dove and we also saw a small flock of wild Peacocks, which we decided not to include in the list.

At around 1:30pm we went for lunch in La Lantejuela, which lasted about two hours as Spanish lunches do.  This was followed by the AGM where all the officers of the society were elected without objection.
Following the AGM we went to the nearby “Reserva Natural Complejo Endorreico de la Lantejuela”, which consists of about six lagunas situated in farmland.  In this area we saw a few Corn Bunting, several Yellow Wagtail, a few immature Grey Wagtail, a Tawny Pipit, more Barn Swallow, Red-rumped Swallow and Common Swift, more Crested Lark and Calandra Lark, a Stonechat, a couple of Marsh Harrier, a juvenile Egyptian Vulture circling overhead, more Black Kite, more Lesser Kestrel, a few more Raven, 60 to 70 Collared Pratincole, several Black-headed Gull, a small number of Mediterranean Gull, a few Lesser Black-backed Gull, about 20 to 30 Whiskered Terns, a similar number of Gull-billed Terns, and a couple of Black Tern, about 30 Greater Flamingo, a White-headed Duck, a few Common and Red Crested Pochard, several Mallard with ducklings, a few Gadwall with ducklings, a Common Moorhen, a couple of Purple Gallinule with young, a lot of Common Coots with juveniles at various ages, a couple of Little and Cattle Egrets, a Little Ringed Plover, a Ringed Plover, 30 to 40 Kentish Plover, 15 to 20 Black-winged Stilts, about 20 Pied Avocet, a Great Crested Grebe, a couple of Little Grebe, a Northern Lapwing, a small group of White Stork gliding overhead, a small number of Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Common Redshank, 2 Shelduck, and a Common Sandpiper.

Driving back through Osuna to Venta Puenta Palos with also saw a number of Pallid Swift and House Martins.  We had a well earned beer at the Venta before saying our goodbyes at about 7pm.

A big thank you to Frank, our field trip leader, for a well organised day.  Also a thank you to Peter for the work he put into the AGM and for keeping the actual meeting time to about five minutes.

The full list for the day is attached.

Regards
David

[Kevin Wade]

Thanks to all for a fantastic day's birding!!  The Rollers were superb and loved the pair of Black-necked Grebes.  Special thanks to Franky for his guiding and careful driving which meant the Ocellated Lizard got to live another day!

[AndydeRonda]

Hi all,

What a fantastic day yesterday, the highlight for me getting a couple of photos of Hoopoe, and what turned out to be some nice pictures of Roller, sadly the lens won't zoom in any further, but still, beggers can't be choosers.

Really enjoyed meeting Juan, and I don't think Frankie and I will live down the huge plates of food we were assured we'd ordered.

Here's a link to my article on Ronda Today about the event, with a small gallery of photos as well.http://www.rondatoday.com/1568/andalucia-bird-society-hold-their-first-agm

[Peter]

Thanks for an excellent day Frank, with Jay and Bonelli's Eagle on our way home we ended the day with 83 species, not just numbers but a quality birding day.

Thanks also to David for posting the report for our day and the attached file - bird list.

Good to have seen you Kevin at the field meeting and guess you survived the journey home in Alexandra's car!

Andy, thanks for the link and publicity, appreciated.

Peter 

[David]

I have attached some photographs of a few birds we saw on the day.

Regards
David

[Marbella_bird]

 Franky - Just to echo Kevin's thanks for your great driving and informative commentary on the day.
Fancy a chicken sandwich  !!

Alexandra