Fri 4 Sep 2015
David and I made a last minute decision to travel to Spain to do Wingspan Bird Tour’s Autumn Migration Tour. As we left Birmingham on a very early flight we were lucky enough to see a Brockenspectre of the aircraft projected onto the cloud by the low sun. On arrival at Malaga airport we were met by our guide, Bob Buckler.
After a stop for coffee, we headed for the Guadalhorce Nature Reserve on the coast not far from the airport. A couple of hours spent here in warm sunshine got the tour off to a good start with 38 species. Highlight for me was Audouin’s gull, a new tick for my life list. Waders included Kentish plover, little stint, turnstone, ringed plover, green, common and wood sandpipers. Birds of prey seen were osprey, black kite, booted and short-toed eagles. The scarce white-headed duck was also found on one of the small ponds. As we headed back to the car we found a small flock of whimbrel on the beach.
We had a long drive west to Tarifa, so before setting off we popped into a local supermarket to get some lunch. To break up the journey we stopped at Estepona Golf Club where we ate our lunch and did a little more birding. Flying south were griffon and Egyptian vultures, short-toed eagle, black kite and Montagu’s harrier. The concrete apron of an irrigation pond for the golf course had white wagtail and common sandpiper, and cattle egret and a hoopoe were making use of the well manicured lawns.
It was about 5pm when we checked into the Hotel Le Pena on the coast road just outside Tarifa. A raven flew over as we made our way to our rooms. After half an hour or so to sort out our gear we all met up again for an evening walk. We found stonechat and zitting cisticola along the hotel’s drive, and house and (possible) Spanish sparrows in the surrounding fields. Lots of cattle egrets passing over on their way to their roost.
We returned to the hotel to get ready for our evening meal, which we took at a nearby hotel/restaurant.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please add your comments about this post.