Birding Trip to Cadiz Province - February 2009Daily Log
DAY 1 - Thursday 12th FebruarySince the arrival of our flight coincided more or less with dusk we only to saw a handful of species including
Spotless Starlings,
White Storks and
Yellow-legged Gulls en route plus
Tawny and
Little Owl calling near the house. My pleas of checking Los Barrios rubbish tip for Eagle Owl being unreasonably rejected in favour of something to eat!
DAY 2 - Friday 13th FebruaryUp and out at a reasonable hour today although not before the
Lesser Kestrels were awake and chattering round the house.
Bonanza Pools This was our first stop since we hoped to get good views of
White-headed Ducks here which we did . Also present were the first of many
Common Chiffchaffs and a
Purple Gallinule. Returning to the main Bonanza – Algaida road we quickly encountered a group of 30+
Slender-billed Gulls on the saltpans beside the road.
Bonanza Saltpans Turning into the salt pans themselves it quickly became apparent that the pans were very flooded with relatively little exposed mud – which doubtless accounts for the poor numbers of waders here; c150
Black-winged Stilts, 3
Snipe, 1
Little Stint, 3
Sanderlings, 2
Dunlins, 1
Greenshank, 1
Wood Sandpiper, 6
Common Sandpipers & a
Curlew. This was by far my lowest total at Bonanza, but at least we saw the site’s No1 speciality –
Shelduck! Also of note were a single
Great White Egret, a couple of
Caspian Terns, two each of
Common Buzzard,
Red Kite and
Short-toed Eagle plus a single
Booted Eagle. Most unexpected, and seemingly entirely out-of-place, were 3
Kittiwakes – Mediterranean salt pans hardly being typical habitat for this largely marine gull (but see anon!)
Laguna de Tarelo & Pinar de Algaida A quick check of Laguna de Tarelo produced a further 49
White-headed Ducks plus a
Purple Gallinule,
Red-crested Pochards,
Common Pochards,
Gadwalls, 6
Black-necked Grebes, 48
Night Herons (but not
Squaccos which are often present even in February), 3
Little Gulls, a single
Penduline Tit and 4
Common Waxbills (the latter two being my first sightings here). Despite extensive searching the pines successfully concealed
Azure-winged Magpie although not
Crested Tits and
Short-toed Treecreepers nor a party of 26 ‘fly-over’
Gloss Ibis. Views across the marshes also produced more
Lesser Kestrels and 4
Common Cranes.
Salinas de Monte Algaida -Trebujena Marshes Heading out towards the Guadalquivir we headed south along the river towards the Salinas de Monte Algaida (i.e. the‘back’ of Bonanza saltpans). As expected we quickly picked up several
Lesser Short-toed Larks here plus another
Booted Eagle and an
Osprey. Heading back north towards Trebujena at the flooded salt pans about a kilometre beyond the sluice we found a large flock of waterbirds which included 250+
Pochards, c30
Red-crested Pochards and at least 10
Marbled Ducks. Although this was the site where I first saw this species in August 2006, this species can be very elusive so it was excellent to catch up with them in winter. More raptors followed with two Booted Eagles, a single
Griffon Vulture, a fine adult male
Hen Harrier and a good number of
Marsh Harriers. But with such high waters waders remained scarce with only
Greenshanks and
Black-winged Stilts being noted. As usual, despite careful scanning and this being a ‘known’ site’,
Pin-tailed Sandgrouse remained elusive to the point of invisibility here. However, one stop proved very worthwhile as a couple of
Bluethroats – one a fine white-spotted adult male – showed very well in a drainage ditch.
Laguna de Medina At the end of the day we called in at Laguna de Medina which harboured c50
White-headed Ducks plus 10+
Black-necked Grebes plus all the usual waterfowl. However, numbers of
Coots were well down on last autumn (and no
Red-knobbed Coot were seen in their favoured spot) which may reflect the very high water level here. A
Sedge Warbler was singing in the reeds and, as usual, the scrub held many small passerines – predominantly Blackcaps.
DAY 3 - Saturday 14th FebruaryAs usual
Lesser Kestrels were in evidence first thing - awake and chattering as we left the house. Since we left early every morning and returned after dusk, we didn’t spend enough time watching these fabulous little falcons which can be very obliging here.
Embalse de Barbate A short detour on our way to La Janda took in the Embalse de Barbate – no
Spanish Imperial Eagles showed (for which this site can be excellent), but another
Osprey flew over and 28
Common Cranes were found feeding in nearby fields.
La Janda Unfortunately, most of the wetter fields here were well out of sight of the main track so relatively few waders (particularly the smaller ones) were seen; many
Lapwings, 200+
Golden Plovers, 2
Green Sandpipers and 2
Snipe. However, larger “wading†birds – egrets (including another Great White Egret), a Black Stork,
Common Cranes (150+) and
Spoonbills (50+) - were less elusive. Raptors seen included
Griffon Vulture (7),
Black Kite (c10),
Hen Harriers (c20) and numerous
Marsh Harriers but, disappointingly, no
Black-shouldered Kites. Larks included
Woodlarks (5),
Crested Larks (of course!) and
Calandra Larks.
Pinos de Barbate A drive along the beach road near Barbate failed to produced the hoped for
Bald Ibis (again!) and none of us fancied a drive round the local golf courses (evidently a favoured retreat. However, the woods along the coastal road north of the town had a fine display of
Sawfly Orchids and a fly-over
Crossbill.
Los Naveros Our planned visit to Trafalgar was aborted as it was packed with wind surfers – we’d forgotten it was Saturday! From Vejer we drove along the Medina Sidonia road turning off left towards Los Naveros and then, after several kilometres, left along a well marked track. Here we found at least 2
Black-shouldered Kites, 20
Buzzards and 2
Short-toed Eagles. Our only
Barn Owl of the trip was fortuitously flushed from its roost here and soon thereafter we had a
Quail calling. Here too was our first
Hoopoe and only
Common Starlings of the trip (but we didn’t look too hard!).
Los Molinos Valley (Alcala) Since the valley is right next to the village this seemed to be a good place to close the day – the expected
Blue Rock Thrush finally appeared as did a meagre number of
Griffons (c20). A big bonus here came in the form of five
Egyptian Vultures drifting high over the Griffon roost.
DAY 4 - Sunday 15th FebruaryAbout 10
Lesser Kestrels were around the village at the start of the day when we headed into the Alcornocales. However, we quickly discovered that the wind had built up to near gale force and therefore abandoned our intention to spend some time in the mountains and headed elsewhere.
Lagunas de Espera By cutting across to Algar and bypassing Arcos, we quickly reached the Lagunas de Espera. Fortunately, unlike my last few visits, the three lagoons all held plenty of water. The first laguna (Laguna de Hondilla) held little (but had another singing Sedge Warbler and a
Fan-lipped Orchid). The main lake (Laguna de Zorilla) held more birds including
White-headed Duck,
Gadwall,
R-c Pochard,
Pochard,
Shoveler &
Teal). The final laguna (Laguna Dulce de Zorilla) however, came up trumps with two
Red-knobbed Coots – the first I’d seen on this particular lagoon and only the second I’d seen on Espera lagoons (although these were two necked collared birds on Laguna de Hondilla). Although not close they permitted good views with all salient features duly noted; two prominent “strawberries†above a narrow slightly Y-shaped frontal shield, a more ‘gentle’ face, a bluish bill, scrawny neck and a rear ended hump! Typically the nearest bird hugged the reedbeds, but the more distant one ventured well away from the species normal reed bound ‘comfort zone’.
Trebujena Marshes Exiting from Espera lagoons by the “back way†I found, for the first time in my experience, that the Laguna de Pilon next to the road here actually contained water! In truth it only held a few
Coots and
Black-winged Stilts, but some of the other small lakes in the area clearly need investigation this year after the winter’s rains. After a pleasant coffee break at a nearby venta watching
Crested Larks, we cut across towards Lebrija and on towards Trebujena, heading for the eponymously named marshes nearby. Turning northwards off A471 (c4 km west of the turning for Trebujena village near a small fenced off area) we first came across, rather surprisingly, a flock of 21
Kittiwakes – I later learnt that there has been something of an influx of this species this winter. Exploring the track as it headed north-westwards, we came across a superb wetland area that had 4 Wood and 15+
Green Sandpipers, a
Spotted Redshank, 3 (or more)
Ruff and a handful of
Greenshank. Also in this area were two handsome
Spanish ‘Yellow’ Wagtails. Also on view was a fine adult male
Hen Harrier (the first of 6
Hen Harriers in the area), numerous
Marsh Harriers, a couple of
Buzzards, 4
Red Kites and a
Merlin. A couple of kilometres further along the track a stately
Black Stork was quietly feeding. After running parallel to the main road (which lay hidden behind the distant low hills) the track swung back towards the A471 (and linking to the route described in Chiclana & Garzon). Here a large, very wet (paddy?) field harboured more
Greenshank, a couple of
Dunlin, 120+
Kentish Plover, c50
Little Stint, c600
Golden Plover, c220
Glossy Ibis , numerous
Cattle Egrets , fewer
Little Egrets, a single
Great White Egret and hundreds of
White Wagtails.
DAY 5 - Monday 16th FebruaryAbout 20
Lesser Kestrels around the village this morning - probably as much due to a later start than an actual increase in numbers! Our target today was an exploration of the Grazalema area. En route we had an
Ibex and a
Gennet – the former very much alive, but the latter unfortunately a long dead and very squashed! Also en route and at a regular site – at the venta above Ubrique – we found our first
Thekla Lark. Interestingly, each of us focussed on a different feature of this species to clinch the identification; one of us went for bill shape, another zeroed in on the birds ‘spiky’ crest and the third noted the more crisply marked chest pattern. We all got the ID right, but took different routes to get there!
Llanos de Libar Unfortunately, we found that the road was closed just short of Montejaque which meant an unexpected 45 minute detour via Ronda; in hindsight it would have been better to come via Ubrique. Happily, once we got there, the Llanos de Libar came up to expectations. Amongst the rocks we had at least 6
Black Wheatears, 2
Alpine Accentors, a minimum of 15
Rock Buntings, 2
Dartford Warblers and around a dozen
Blue Rock Thrush. As expected the rocky limestone ‘pass’ a third of the way along the valley was the best section holding the accentors and most of the
Black Wheatears and
Rock Buntings. From here we eventually sighted a couple of
Bonelli’s Eagles soaring over the start of the valley. Unfortunately, neither the expected
Cirl Buntings nor the
Rock Sparrows – so easy in April 2008 – were present in the area we searched.
Grazalema area Driving back via Grazalema proved to be a good move since just outside the village we had two
Southern Grey Shrike. In fact, no sooner had I said we ought to look out for the species here than the driver spotted one on a telegraph wire! This was a species our team photographer particularly wanted to see and so it was particularly pleasing to obtain such good views and note the diagnostic features; narrow white supercilium running across the forehead, restricted white wing flash and dull greyish-pink underparts contrasting with white cheeks. As we rolled to a stop to look at the shrike, an
Iberian Green Woodpecker landed on the telegraph pole next to the car! In the event we heard several more and saw at least two birds. The best view was obtained of a greyish faced black moustachioed female. Further along at the hairpin bend just before Benaocaz we had two more
Black Wheatears and another
Bonelli’s Eagle.
DAY 6 - Tuesday 17th FebruaryAfter opting out of looking at Trafalgar at the weekend we decided to head over there today for a quick seawatch.
Trafalgar The shallow tidal pool here had a small flock of
Audouin’s Gull (39), a four
Mediterranean Gulls, a small group of
Sandwich Terns,
Sanderling (c30) and a few
Kentish Plover. Seawatching here was a novel experience since amongst the passing
Gannets,
Cory’s Shearwaters (10+),
Sandwich Terns and
Great Skuas (2) were the odd raptor (
Marsh Harrier and
Lesser Kestrels) and a single
Black Stork! A careful scan of the rocks here also turned up three
Turnstone. Two
Hoopoes were flushed from the dunes here.
Los Naveros Since it was not far off the route to the next site, we decided to detour to Los Naveros again to search for bustards and
Stone Curlews. Happily after a brief search we found three
Stone Curlew which, whilst not the hoped for bustards, were an excellent addition to the list. Another
Hoopoe here allowed the other to catch up on a species they’d missed earlier that day. Instead of returning the way we’d come, we pushed on along the track which, it transpired, came out on the new main road near Conil de la Frontera passing some more excellent habitat en route.
Laguna de Taraje (Lagunas de Puerto Real) Having seen them here last February, I was hopeful about seeing
Spanish Sparrow along the rough track to the laguna. Although the first sighting of a dust bathing bird didn’t entirely convince everyone when we drove up to the farm beyond the laguna, we had excellent views of winter plumaged
Spanish Sparrows (c20). On our return along the track we had more birds at the first location. Although not as well marked as they are in mid-summer due to the dull sandy fringing to the black feathers, there were still some well marked birds here; a rich chestnut crown, white cheeks and narrow eyebrow, a large ‘bib’ (albeit obscured by that pale fringing) and obvious flank streaks. On the laguna itself there were 140+
Red-crested Pochard and 18
Shoveler. Also seen here were 2
Ospreys, 2
Little Ringed Plover, c80
Golden Plover and single
Stone Curlew (for which this is an excellent site). Driving back to the main road a very obliging
Hoopoe fed besides the track.
Sancti Petri Despite my personal distaste for the urban sprawl that surrounds Cadiz Bay, I was out voted so our next stop was Sancti Petri. The road into the old village is flanked by muddy lagoons and ends in a narrow spit overlooking the marshes. This rich habitat held numerous
Kentish Plovers,
Knots,
Grey Plovers, 30+
Bar-tailed Godwits, 10+
Whimbrel and two each of
Curlew and Oystercatcher. The lagoons beside the road held 400+
Dunlins, 50+
Little Stints and 30+
Redshanks. Returning towards the motorway we passed more interesting habitats where we had a
Great White Heron feeding in somewhat atypical habitat - a flooded pine woodland.
DAY 7 - Wednesday 18th FebruaryAs usual the
Lesser Kestrels (15+) above the village provided the first excitement of the day.
Chipiona We arrived a little later, at 10:10 or so, than intended, but within minutes we found
Little Swift - first one, then another and another until we had eleven birds weaving around above us. Yet within ten minutes all vanished with extraordinary speed; moral get here as early as possible! In the bright sunlight the birds showed extremely well; dark plumage, ‘wrap round’ white rump, prominent white chin, narrow white forehead and distinctive wingshape. Checking the small harbour for any odd gulls we had a dozen
Kittiwake, but none of the white-winged gulls we’d hoped for (there having been an unprecedented invasion of these birds in Spain this winter).
Algaida Pine Woods Hoping to pick up some more species (notably a certain elusive magpie!) we headed straight back to the Algaida area. Pausing en route by the road near Bonanza, we had 4 (or more)
Booted Eagles and c50
Slender-billed Gulls. On Laguna de Tarelo we had both pochards, more
White-headed Ducks,
Night Herons and, above the marshes beyond the lagoon, 3
Little Gull and 500+
Black-tailed Godwit.
Salinas de Monte Algaida Turning back towards the river we explored the ‘back’ of Bonanza where we had 4
Common Cranes, c100
Lesser Short-toed Larks, a handful of
Calandra Larks, 5
Spanish ‘Yellow’ Wagtails, a
Great White Egret, a fly-over flock of 150+
Red-crested Pochards and the inevitable noisy gaggles of
Flamingos.
Trebujena Marshes Instead of heading back along the river we opted for exploring the track running south to the east of Algaida. Above the woodlands we had a
Short-toed Eagle, 10+
Booted Eagles, 3
Red Kites and c20
Lesser Kestrels. Also present on the flooded ‘polders’ were c20
Glossy Ibis and another
Great White Egret. Closer to Sanlucar the rough track gave way to a new metalled road (and evidence of future building developments). Here a couple of ‘settling pans’ provided excellent feeding for a flock of
Little Gulls and
Kittiwakes. A speculative stop here revealed that there were c100 of the former and c10 of the latter, but I was surprised to find a winter plumaged
Whiskered Tern lurking amongst them. (In fact, on checking references back in the UK it transpired that
Whiskered Tern winters in small numbers on the Coto). Also present on these pools were c10
Black-necked Grebe and many
Pochards and
Coots. The flooded field adjacent to the ‘settling pans’ provided a productive feeding ground for c100
Glossy Ibis, 50
Black-winged Stilt and a lone
Greenshank. This looked a superb habitat to explore later in the year (esp. for pratincoles).
Presa de Embalse de Barbate Foregoing a second visit to Laguna de Medina, we headed for the dam at Embalse de Barbate in the hope of a
Spanish Imperial Eagle. Although this hope proved false, we did find the flock of
Common Cranes (34) we’d seen on the 14th, a distant
Bonelli’s Eagle and c30
Griffon Vultures. Amongst the latter was an individual that, although it was a typical
Griffon on plumage grounds, consistently soared with drooping wings; an instructive lesson either in the variability of birds’ habits or the fact that they don’t read the same field guides!
La Janda Before dusk fell we made a quick dash to La Janda - here we had a
Hen Harrier, numerous
Golden Plovers and
Lapwings, 43
Purple Gallinules and, as dusk finally fell, 111
Black Kite slipping into roost!
DAY 8 - Thursday 19th FebruaryNaturally the local
Lesser Kestrels serenaded our departure from the village this morning. Since we had get to Gibraltar before 10:00 for our flight we had little time for birding today. A quick investigation of the Valdeinfierno produced
Raven, but little else.
A great trip bettering the total attained in February 2007 by 22 species (135 vs 157 - although we did have two more whole days birding this year). Yet we still managed to miss ten species seen on the earlier trip - some of which we saw several times in 2007 (i.e. Squacco Heron, Peregrine, Long-tailed Tit & Cirl Bunting). The higher figure is also partly due to better weather (hence no time lost to rain!), a good winter rainfall providing excellent habitat (cf Red-knobbed Coot) and improved ‘local’ knowledge (c.f. Alpine Accentor). Had we not opted for a fairly leisurely start each morning then a target of c170 would have been quite feasible.
Birding highlights included a superb male white-spotted Bluethroat on Trebujena Marshes, an obliging Alpine Accentor at Llanos de Libar, finally nailing two un-neck collared Red-knobbed Coot at Espera and, above all, some superb views of Little Swift at Chipiona (at last!). Also very pleasing was the sense that I’m finally getting to know some of the sites. Finding an additional route into and around the Trebujena marshes and discovering the ‘settling pans’ near Sanlucar was also a big plus. It was also evident that Great White Egret has increased markedly in recent years (although the extensive flooding may have brought more birds out into the open). Glossy Ibis also seem to be doing very well. On the downside I was surprised to see no Black-shouldered Kite on La Janda although, having seen them elsewhere, we didn’t look very hard. John
NB for photos of what we saw, visit :-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonymorris/collections/72157614157792303/
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