Spain 4 – 7 December 2008

 

Richard Dunn, Alan Jack, Roger Forster
A long weekend off from work and a chance to go back to Donana again with the boys and I was there. As usual we fly into Faro with EasyJet

December 4 Thursday

Roger stayed over night at my house as the weather forecast was bad and he was unsure if he would be able to travel in the morning, and when we awoke in the morning it had not snowed overnight, the weather men had got it wrong again. We left a little late but arrived early as the pilot had “taken a shortcut” not sure how to do that when you fly in a straight line! Anyway we went for the car and again asked for an upgrade, more for the space that anything else, and we were given a rather new and shiny Audi A4 2.0TDI, what a car, great on roads, not so great on potholed tracks. It also had a huge insurance excess which when we picked up the car wasn’t a problem but became a worrying reality later in the trip.

The Car, Audi A4 2.0TDI
So we were all blinged up on the motor front so now we could go birding, first stop was Faro Marshes, right under the flight path of leaving planes, but fantastic birding. Birding here produced, Little & Cattle Egret, White Stork, Spoonbill, Peregrine, Kentish Plover, Whimbrel, Mediterranean Gull, Caspian & Sandwich Tern, Kingfisher, Fan-tailed Warbler (Zitting Cisticola), Sardinian Warbler and Azure-winged Magpie. Not bad for and hour at the airport.

Little Egret & Peregrine
From here we left and drove along the coast instead of going up to the motorway but this did not bring any dividends and when we ended up at Castro Marim we hadn’t done any birding. And Castro Marim was not up to its usual standards, it was very quiet, the highlight was, well there wasn’t a highlight here. So we drove further on towards Vila Real de Santo Antonio to find a lot more birds, seeing Little & Sandwich Terns, Greater Flamingo’s, a lot of Common Coot and the first of thousands of Northern Shoveler.

The bridge from Portugal into Spain & Castro Marim
We left here and took the motorway towards Donana, missing out the Huelva end of things, and it took no time at all and we were at El Rocio overlooking the marsh from beside the Church. Lots of Greater Flamingo, Common Coot, Northern Shoveler and House Martin. Smaller numbers of Cattle Egret, Glossy Ibis, Spoonbill and lesser numbers of Spotless Starling, Azure-winged Magpie, Black Redstart, Common Chiffchaff, Black-tailed Godwit and Black-winged Stilt. We birded here till it was dark then made our way to Hinojos to the Pension Pino Donana, which we have stayed at on the past two visits. This time we are in different rooms and the price has gone up as it’s a national holiday in Spain.

Birding at El Rocio & Cattle Egret

December 5 Friday

So as is now the norm we head into town early morning while it is still dark to have coffee and plan the day. And as we had different rooms last night and it as a Spanish holiday, Alan who is a light sleeper had virtually no sleep as his room was over looking the street where all the locals seem to pass along in the small hours of the night, where as Myself and Roger both woke after a very relaxing night, never heard a thing, slept like a log.
We left town and headed for the marshes, going on the way via an area of fruit trees that seems to have a lot of small passerines roosting there, also a roost of Red Kites, so I called it kite roost, only this time we didn’t see a single kite, just a Common Buzzard. Plenty of passerines in the area; Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Serin and Spotless Starling, but much quieter than past stops here.
From here to a small roadside pool that we first stopped at in 1998, seeing today our first Common Cranes of the trip. And along the fence a nice big flock of Serin.

Roadside birding & Common Crane (46 here)
Just a short drive from here on a sharp bend is a turn on to a dirt track, this track is impassable with this car, so we walk. On the way along the track Cetti’s Warbler are singing every 20 meters it seems, a very large flock of Great Cormorant fly over and land on the ditch we are walking beside and then we come to a bridge across the ditch and we see what this stop was for; a roost of Black-crowned Night Heron, only about 250 today. That’s half as many as the last visit but it still looks amazing. On the walk back a distant Black-shouldered Kite is seen on top of a tree and then a much closer bird that quickly moves on.

The Night Heron roost & Vado de Don Simon
Back to the car and a short drive and we arrive at Vado de Don Simon, this is a ford (vado is ford) over the Rio Guadiamar, which most of the time only has a small amount of water flowing through and the wheels don’t get wet. Black Stork, Great White Egret, 30 Grey Heron, a Kingfisher and two Raven are the pick of the bunch here.
We carry on to Canada de la Rianzuela, a reservoir which is attached to the Dehesa de Abajo. When I first went to the Dehesa de Abajo in 2004 it was spring and I saw the White Stork colony, apparently the largest tree nesting colony in Europe. What I don’t remember seeing was the Canada de la Rianzuela, the large lake created by a small dam. But today the attraction was the lake and the duck, a guesstimate of at least 15,000 Northern Shoveler, the lake surface was just covered with duck. Scanning around through the Shoveler produced Black-necked Grebe, White-headed Duck, Mallard, Red-crested Pochard, Tufted Duck and Common Pochard. Also here a flock of Avocet and an even larger flock of Black-winged Stilt. The major surprise of this winter trip to Donana was here, Common Swift, 50 plus birds in a flock over the lagoon and trees, which quickly gained height and vanished when the sun came out from hiding behind the clouds. Aren’t they supposed to winter way down in Africa? Is this a sign of global warming? (even though its cold today).
We carried on to the centre which was just down the road, parked up and headed for a hide. On the way two Southern Grey Shrike’s showed well but not well enough for pictures, and a Booted Eagle sat on a pylon, seemingly not too interested in us, when it flew it came quite low over head. From the hide (all the duck flew from near the hide as the path down to it is exposed), White Wagtail, Black-winged Stilt and Chiffchaff are photographed.

Canada de la Rianzuela from Dehesa de Abajo and looking south over rice paddies also Dehesa de Abajo

Chiffchaff & Black-winged Stilt
From here it’s a return trip until we come to the turn off that’s next to the roadside pool, where we turn off and head up the dirt track towards the area known as Hato Ratan. This area was fantastic in the spring so we spent some time here. In an area of fallow fields on either side of the track there were seven Black-shouldered Kite, at least six Hen Harrier, 500 plus Common Crane and a big flock of larks that were mostly Skylark. Alas we could not find any Little Bustard, they may have been there but the vegetation was too high.

Hato Ratan & Black-shouldered Kite
A little further on is an area known as Veta Hornito and this is as far in as we went. In a flat landscape any height that can be gained is a vantage point and here there is a raised bridge over a ditch and this gives a better view of the surrounding fields. From up here we can see a flock of White Stork that are following a tractor ploughing a rice paddy, at least 1500 birds. We retrace our tracks and head back to an area of woodland that we have not visited before, its called the Laguna de San Lazaro, only when we went it was dry and there was no lagoon. A short walk through the woods gave us Hoopoe, Tree Sparrow and more Azure-winged Magpie.
Back at Hinojos the car was parked outside the pension, when Alan went out to get something from the car, he noticed that a car had parked in front of us and that it looked close to our car, in fact it was so close you could not see the front of our car, Alan came back in to get me, and after telling me the tale I went with camera in hand to have a look…luckily there was no damage at all to the car (remember the “huge insurance excess”) Alan had spoke to a woman who knew who’s car it was and she went to get him, when he came he jumped into his car and pulled it forward and our car rose up as he pulled off it. The guy didn’t give a toss not even when Alan, who was pretty angry said it was “mucho euros” I looked at Alan and said “mucho euros?”

Touch parking Spanish style

December 6 Saturday

After today’s coffee we head off back towards El Rocio where we spend a brief 30 minutes or so birding at the lagoon seeing more or less the same as Thursday’s visit, we then head for Acebron and in particular the scrub by the road on the way in. A couple of random stops as we went through gave us some excellent birding. Thekla Lark, Dartford Warbler, Crested Tit, Short-toed Treecreeper and Southern Grey Shrike all being seen just by birding the roadside scrub. Roger wandered off a way and when he came back mentioned that there was plenty of Wild Boar tracks in the area, a short while later as we were walking towards some trees, there was an almighty crash in the undergrowth as some unseen creature ran off, probably a Wild Boar. Back tracking we went to El Rocio to be on site for 11 o’clock, the time that a guide we met in the spring had said was “the” time to see Spanish Imperial Eagle at El Rocio, and sure enough we saw a single bird on the far side of the lagoon, this was seen from a view point behind the Hotel Turuno. A small reed bed behind the view point had Purple Gallinule and an excellent male Penduline Tit, complete with his little bandit mask.
Its now time for lunch and we decide that we will eat at Hato Ratan, so the car gets a bit of a thrashing and we are there in no time. Same as yesterday, plus a Peregrine and Roger and I manage to catch up with Calandra Lark that we missed yesterday, and bizarrely as we drive away a small bird showing at the side of the track is a Dartford Warbler, totally wrong habitat.
While we were eating we could see Crane landing off in the distance so we went in that direction in the hope of seeing them, and not far from where the tarmac ends and the road turns into potholed track we found the flock. Approximately 1,500 Common Crane in a single field, a superb sight and an even better sound.
This is the track that heads towards the Jose Valverde Centre and this was a possible destination if the road (track) was not too bad for the car. It was bad, we got as far as Casa Bombas, a large pumping station, and the track became impassable for a low slung Audi. This spot can be productive; three Great White Egret, a big mixed flock of sparrow, Spanish and House and multiple Marsh and Hen Harrier. We head back and decide that we’ll have another look at Canada de la Rianzuela, seeing more of the same as what we saw yesterday, but no swifts today.
Back towards Vado de Don Simon and the flooded rice paddies at the side of the road. We park the car and walk towards the nearest flooded field, which has lots of birds feeding on it, on the way a large bird of prey is seen going down away in the distance and I just call Booted Eagle as its in the same area as yesterdays bird, and then its down and out of sight (but it did look big). So back at the paddy the birds on view are; 30 Grey Heron, 23 Little Egret, 7 Black Stork, 12 White Stork, 20 Spoonbill, 50 Spotted Redshank, thousands of gulls, Black-headed and Yellow-legged, 40 White Wagtails and with them 2 Yellow Wagtail. As we walk back towards the car a flock of waders is seen in flight over another paddy close by so we walk in the direction of that flushing Common Snipe as we go, and then as if by magic the large raptor is nearly overhead but heading away but its not a Booted Eagle, its much better, its an Immature Egyptian Vulture. The waders turn out to be Dunlin and some Greenshank, and then its too dark to bird anymore so its back to Hinojos

December 7 Sunday

Today we fly back so its back to Faro. On the way we’ll have a coffee before we go and call in at Niebla Castle to see Lesser Kestrel. We manage the first part ok, the coffee stop was easy, but when we got to Niebla it was still dark and some folks were letting off some extremely loud fireworks, so nothing to be seen apart from a White Stork that wasn’t phased by the loud bangs. As we left and rejoined the motorway it started to rain and by the time we reached Faro it was chucking it down, so we went for a coffee and that was it.

Species

Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Great Cormorant
Grey Heron
Great White Egret
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
Black Stork
White Stork
Glossy Ibis
Eurasian Spoonbill
Greater Flamingo
Greylag Goose
Gadwall
Common Teal
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Red-crested Pochard
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
White-headed Duck
Black-shouldered Kite
Red Kite
Egyptian Vulture
Marsh Harrier
Hen Harrier
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Common Buzzard
Spanish Imperial Eagle
Booted Eagle
Common Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Common Crane
Purple Gallinule
Common Moorhen
Common Coot
Eurasian Oystercatcher
Black-winged Stilt
Pied Avocet
Northern Lapwing
European Golden Plover
Grey Plover
Ringed Plover
Kentish Plover
Common Snipe
Black-tailed Godwit
Bar-tailed Godwit
Whimbrel
Eurasian Curlew
Common Sandpiper
Green Sandpiper
Spotted Redshank
Common Greenshank
Wood Sandpiper
Common Redshank
Ruddy Turnstone
Dunlin
Black-headed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Mediterranean Gull
Little Tern
Caspian Tern
Sandwich Tern
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Little Owl
Common Swift
Common Kingfisher
Hoopoe
Calandra Lark
Short-toed Lark
Crested Lark
Thekla Lark
Skylark
House Martin
Meadow Pipit
White Wagtail
Yellow Wagtail
Song Thrush
Common Blackbird
European Robin
Black Redstart
Common Stonechat
Fan-tailed Warbler
Cetti's Warbler
Common Chiffchaff
Blackcap
Dartford Warbler
Sardinian Warbler
Crested Tit
Great Tit
Penduline Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Short-toed Treecreeper
Southern Grey Shrike
Azure-winged Magpie
Magpie
Common Raven
Spotless Starling
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch
European Greenfinch
European Goldfinch
Common Linnet
European Serin
Corn Bunting