28 May 2011

Brazo del Este

As soon as we arrived in the area, we could hear the calls of the Great Reed Warblers and we began to set ourselves up to be able to observe them and take a few photographs.
Great Reed Warbler
The sun was coming up fast and there were plenty of insects flying about. Down the road we spotted about forty to fifty Pratincoles that were feeding on the abundance of insects.
Pratincole

Pratincole in flight
Pratincole
Reaching El Pinzon, we stopped off for a quick coffee and afterwards we set off again in search of more bird species.


This is what we managed to observe on our outing:
  • Great Reed Warbler
  • Pratincole
  • Black-winged Stilt
  • Purple Heron
  • Little Bittern
  • Night Heron
  • Squacco Heron
  • Cattle Egret
  • Little Egret
  • Grey Heron
  • White Stork
  • Spoonbill
  • Black Kite
  • Griffon Vulture
  • Marsh Harrier
  • Hen Harrier
  • Montagu's Harrier
  • Buzzard
  • Short-toed Eagle
  • Kestrel
  • Purple Gallinule
  • Avocet
  • Stone Curlew
  • Little-ringed Plover
  • Curlew Sandpiper
  • Green Sandpiper
  • Common Swift
  • White-rumped Swift
  • Bee-eater
  • Hoopoe
  • Crested Lark
  • Swallow
  • Meadow Pipit
  • Yellow Wagtail
  • White Wagtail
  • Fan-tailed Warbler
  • Sardinian Warbler
  • House Sparrow
  • Serin
  • Green Finch
  • Gold Finch
Swallow
Penduline Tit
Black-winged Stilt nesting

Purple Heron
Avocet
Black-winged Stilt
Curlew Sandpipers
Curlew Sandpipers
Apologies for the delay in between posts but things have been rather busy lately and we haven't had much of a chance to upload the photos in the first place. We hope to go on our next outing (and last one before summer) to observe some shore birds so we'll try to bring you details of that outing as soon as possible.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

01 May 2011

Llanos del Libar

We decided to visit Llanos del Hibar after a recommendation from a birding friend, John Castello. We'd never been to this particular area before and after driving for two hours (some of the time spent manoeuvring winding roads), we finally got to our destination!
Llanos del Hibar
Llanos del Hibar is predominantly rocky (mountain area) so we drove around, stopping off every now & then to scan the area. Being a very bright and sunny day, we thought it might be a good opportunity to spot Raptors.
Thekla Lark
Here is a complete list of what we were able to observe on that day:
  • White Stork
  • Egyptian Vulture
  • Griffon Vulture
  • Short-toed Eagle
  • Kestrel
  • Common Cuckoo
  • Alpine Swift
  • Common Swift
  • White-rumped Swift
  • Hoopoe
  • Thekla Lark
  • Swallow
  • Black Redstart
  • Redstart

Woodchat Shrike
  •  Stonechat
  • Black-eared Wheatear
  • Black Wheatear
  • Blue Rock Thrush
  • Black Bird
  • Subalpine Warbler
  • Dartford Warbler
  • Sardinian Warbler
  • Firecrest
  • Blue Tit
  • Great Tit
  • Short-toed Treecreeper
  • Woodchat Shrike
  • Rock Sparrow
Black Wheatear
  •  Linnet
  • Chaffinch
  • Serin
  • Green Finch
  • Gold Finch
  • Siskin
  • Cirl Bunting
  • Rock Bunting
Thekla Lark
Firecrest
Chaffinch
Woodchat Shrike
Chaffinch
Black Wheatear
Firecrest
We reckon that now is a good time to head over to Brazo del Este again however, we need to wait for the weather to improve before we make any definite plans. 

We'll keep you posted on both Twitter and Facebook on any new developments.