Gibraltar - Winter Birds

We decided to pay a random visit to the Alameda Botanical Gardens one sunny afternoon in between all our Christmas and New Year luncheons, and luckily there weren't that many tourists about so we were able to capture some good shots of Chiffchaffs and a Redstart.

Redstart

Chiffchaff

In flight

We then headed to Rosia, where we spotted some Gannets feeding just 10 metres away from the pier at the rocky 'beach' known locally as El Quarry. We then followed them all the way to Europa Point and we were able to get some fantastic shots by the lighthouse.

Hope you enjoy these photos! All the best for 2011!

Flip....

And dive...!

Juvenile

In flight

Kestrel, Bonelli's & Sunrise

During recent outings, we took several photographs and we thought we'd add these now.

Here is a photo of a Kestrel, that we spotted:

 

 

Here is a shot of a Bonelli's Eagle (Juvenile). Unfortunately, its not really clear shot as it just crept up on us and we hadn't seen it from afar like we do most others, but it still proved to be perfect for identification purposes. 

And finally, here's a photo of a spectacular sunrise in La Janda... 

Sierra de las Nieves

This is our second trip to Sierra de las Nieves! The first time we'd been we hadn't started the blog yet so we've decided to include some photos of our initial trip and those that are more recent.

Nuthatch

Judging by the car thermostat, it was 1 degrees outside and we were freezing! We decided to brave it, wrapped up warm and ventured outside. In this particular location, you need to park the car and walk around or else you won't see a thing.

Great Tit

Here's a list of what we saw:

• Wood Lark
• Chaffinch
• Sparrowhawk
• Cold Tit
• Blue Tit



Coal Tit

• Great Tit
• Crested Tit
• Nuthatch
• Great Spotted Woodpecker



Choughs

• Jay
• Blackbird
• Short-toed Tree Creeper
• Southern Grey Shrike
• Chough



Crested Tit

• Raven
• Rock Bunting
• Cirl Bunting
• Wren



Nuthatch

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our followers a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2011!

Return to La Janda

As the weather had been pretty awful recently we decided to stay close to home and pay another visit to La Janda. We checked the forecast on the Internet and realised it'd be a good day to go so we set off.

Stonechat

We arrived on the scene at 7:30am and we instantly spotted Cranes flying overhead and feeding in the fields. There were also Cattle Egrets flying about in large numbers, off on their way to some feeding grounds, and we also managed to spot other bird species such as Finches, Siskins, Green Finches, Stonechats, Purple Gallinule, Serins, Chiffchaff and White Wagtails. Further down the track we stopped once again and saw great numbers of Lapwings feeding in the fields. We were searching in several locations for Blue Throats, as we hadn't seen them yet this year. Unfortunately, we were out of luck as we didn't even get a glimpse of one.

Lapwing in flight



Purple Gallinule

What we did get was a good soak, as it started pouring down with rain and we had to stay in the car for a bit! After 15 minutes the sun came out, the wind calmed down and our day brightened up quite a bit. We saw a Kestrel dive bombing at what looked like a much larger bird that was perched on top of a telephone post. We approached and discovered that it was actually a Juvenile Bonelli's Eagle!

Kestrel

We continued through the back section and we saw a flock of birds fly over us and settle in another field nearby. We got a bit closer to figure out what they were and realised they were about 400+ Golden Plovers. As we were checking out the Golden Plovers through the scope, we noticed several other birds that were larger. We used the scope and discovered that these larger birds were in fact Little Bustards. It was a great relief to see them, as they are quite difficult to locate. We took the opportunity to watch them from a distance until they decided to move on.

Flock of Golden Plovers

Tractor ploughing the field

During the last stretch we also spotted some Meadow Pippets and several Marsh Harriers.

Meadow Pipit

 

Marsh Harrier



All in all, it was a wonderful day and we came back with big smiles!

Here's the list of what we saw:

Reed Bunting

• Reed Bunting
• Goldfinch
• Cattle Egret
• Lapwing Kite
• Spanish Sparrow
• Little Owl



Reed Bunting

• Barn Owl
• Common Buzzard
• Booted Eagle
• Serin
• Greenshank
• Griffon Vulture



Grey Heron

• Golden Plovers
• Cranes
• White Wagtail
• Corn Bunting
• Chiffchaff
• Fantailed Warbler
• Purple Gallinule
• Moorhen



Fan-tailed Warbler

• Grey Heron
• Red-legged Partridge
• Marsh Harrier
• White Stork
• Bonelli's Eagle & JV
• Little Bustard
• Black Redstart
• Common Sandpiper
• Comorant



Cranes

La Janda

As we promised in our previous post, here are some photos of the Cranes that we spotted at La Janda. We also saw some Purple Gallinule so we've also included a photo of that bird for you to view.

More to come soon!

La Janda

We took a day off work to pop over to La Janda. We were expecting to see Cranes, as they tend to appear in these areas during the winter months. Luckily we were there for no longer than 10 minutes before we heard their calls across the field. We stopped off and managed to view a flock of approximately 300 that were there resting and feeding so we were able to observe them closely for some time. As they were relatively far away from us we were unable to take any decent photographs but we hope to be able to capture a good one at some point! Whilst we were stopped off observing the Cranes we glimpsed a Black-winged Kite and a couple of Hen Harriers.

Black-winged Kite

Black-winged Kite

Apologies for the short post but we simply went on a quick trip to La Janda to see if the Cranes were there. We hope to add more to the blog soon enough so please click to suscribe to the blog and you'll be notified of any new posts in the future.

El Brazo del Este

After several attempts we finally got organized and planned a trip down to the area known as the 'El Brazo del Este'. 

El Brazo del Este is located 20km south of Seville in the Guadalquivir river estuary, which is an area with one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the Iberian peninsula. This former branch (brazo) of the Guadalquivir is east (este) of the river and is now a reed-fringed lagoon and wetland area surrounded by rice plains and farmland.

To view the area properly you will definitely need a car as there's a lot of ground to cover. We decided to drive along, stop in certain areas of interest and look around with our bino's. El Brazo del Este is renowned for its bird population so we were in no doubt that we'd come across several bird species, it was just a matter of patience.

As you can see below, it was a successful outing!

Map of El Brazo del Este



Booted Eagle



Here is a list of what we saw:

• Cattle Egret
• Little Egret
• Great White Egret
• Fan-tailed Warbler

• Black Kite
• Booted Eagle
• Kestrel
• Lesser Kestrel
• Black Stork

• White Stork
• Black-winged Stilt
• Avocet
• Purple Heron
• Grey Heron
• Coot



Marsh Harrier

• Moorhen
• Purple Gallinule

• Night Heron (JV & AD)

• Squacco Heron (JV & AD)
• Goldfinch
• Waxbill
• Spanish Sparrow
• Water Pipit
• Meadow Pipit

• Spoonbill
• Marsh Harrier
• Cormorant
• Green Sandpiper
• Glossy Ibis
• White Wagtail
• Greenshank




White Stork


• Hoopoe
• Kingfisher
• Lapwings







La Laguna de Medina

After our last trip we agreed that La Laguna de Medina would be our next outing and there we were, a lovely sunny day and looking across the Laguna and surrounding reed beds, trees and fields just behind us so that we could see plenty of activity.
So eager to get going out with the scope, camera, bins and go on our way, we stopped several times on the way to the hide and scanned the area. It was a very rewarding day with a good variety  of birds and we were fortunate enough to get good clear views of most of them.

Below is a list of birds seen on this particular outing:

• Stonechat   
• Marsh Harrier
• Red Kite
• Black-winged Kite
• Common Buzzard
• Booted Eagle
• Osprey
• Black-headed Gulls
• Crested Lark
• Hoopoe
• Fan-tailed Warbler
• Cetti's Warbler
• Chiffchaff
• Green Shanks
• Little Grebe
• Black-necked Grebe
• Great Crested Grebe
• Great White Egret
• Little Egret
• Grey Heron
• Glossy Ibis
• Spoonbill
• Greylag Goose
• Shoveler
• Mallard
• Crested Pochard
• White-headed Duck
• Coots
• Moorhen

Greylag Goose

Shoveler

Cetti's Warbler

Osprey

Next post.... El Brazo del Este!

La Janda

We spent a glorious morning at La Janda and having entered the area we spotted several Common Sandpipers, flocks of Goldfinch and Siskins.  


Goldfinch



  Further down the track, we stopped to scan the rice fields where we spotted quite a good number of Glossy Ibis, White Storks and several Spoonbills.

Glossy Ibis

Spoonbill

We continued our drive until we reached another section of the rice fields. There were eight Marsh Harriers flying low over the fields searching for prey and it was a joy to watch them.

We also managed to see:

• Common Buzzards
• Black-winged Kite
• Red Kite
• Sparrowhawk
• Juvenile Bonelli's Eagle
• Griffon Vulture
• Hen Harrier
• Grey Heron
• Cattle Egret
• Little Egret

 Next post... Details on our recent trip to Laguna de Medina!