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!

Another short trip to Los Lances, Tarifa

After our initial visit, we decided to go back to explore the area a little bit more and it was a good decision as we managed to see a lot of the same bird species as we did on our last trip however, we also spotted:

• Sandwich Tern
• Lesser Crested Tern
• Kentish Plover
• Knot
• Bar-tailed Godwits
• Kingfisher
• Audouin's Gull
• Black-headed Gull
• Whimbrel
• Lesser Black-backed Gull
• Stonechat
• Gannet
• Starling
• Cattle Egret
• Sparrow Hawk

We actually spent quite some time admiring the Lesser Crested Tern, who was in the midst of the Sandwich Turns.

As we were concentrating on the Sanwich Terns, we spotted a Black-headed Gull who was just drifting with the tide and was just a few metres away from us.

Heading back to the car and feeling quite content with our day, we finished it off by seeing a Whimbrel feeding at the shoreline!

More to come soon!