Centro Visitante Valverde

A very early start got us on our way to our next bird watching outing, heading to Huelva and El Centro Valverde. We stopped on the way for some breakfast and to discuss what birds we might see in these areas.

As you drive through the town of Villamanrique, you get to a dirt track and it is approximately 35 km to the centre.

Bird activity had picked up quite a bit in this area as we saw Squacco Herons, Night and  Purple Herons, and some Glossy Ibis, all collecting nesting material.

Below are some of the photos and a  full list of birds that we saw in the area.

Woodchat Shrike

Glossy Ibis

Birds we  saw include the following: Yellow Wagtail, Whinchat, Stonechat, Cettis Warbler, Southern Grey Shrike, Magpie, Spanish Sparrow, Great-crested Grebe, Spoonbill, Pochard, Great White Egret.

Pochard

Greater Flamingo

Whiskered Terns

Also spotted: Greater Flamingo, Gadwall, Red-crested Pochard, Common Cuckoo, Coots, Stone Curlew, Redshank, Hoopoe, Coots, Stone Curlew, Redshank, Black Kite, Montagu's Harrier.

Subalpine Warbler

Subalpine Warbler

Common Cuckoo

And: Greater Spotted Cuckoo, Little Ringed Plover, Great Reed Warbler, Black Stork,

Crested Lark, Little Grebe, Night Herons, Whiskered Terns.

Gadwall

Gadwall

Short-toed Lark

Great Reed warbler, Purple Heron, Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle, Common Buzzard, Roller, Bee-eater, Squacco Heron, Glossy Ibis

Purple Heron

Squacco Heron

Short-toed Lark

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Great Reed Warbler

From the centre, you can see the breeding Squacco, Night and Purple Herons, Glossy Ibis, Little and Cattle Egrets.

Purple Heron

Roller

Coot chick

Dunlins 

With so much bird activity in and around the area it turned out to be a very enjoyable day and it was great to just look around, seeing what type of bird you could spot next, especially amongst the smaller birds.

Azure-winged Magpie

Little Grebe

Black Necked Grebe

Until our next outing, we hope you've enjoyed our findings, and the photos taken!

Tarifa and bird migration

On Friday we drove over to Tarifa hoping that there would be some kind of movement regarding the bird migration, especially the raptors, but unfortunately there was not much happening there at the time.

We stayed in the area for a couple of hours and saw about thirty five Black Kites.

Afterwards, we decided to move down to La Janda.

Black Kite

Griffon Vulture

Griffon Vulture

After spending another couple of hours at La Janda we saw  Black Kite, Marsh Harrier,

Spoonbills, Black-winged Kites, Snipe, Reed Bunting, Booted Eagle, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Common Buzzard, Great White Egret, Cranes, Meadow Pipits, Kingfisher.

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Reed Bunting

Cranes

Griffon Vulture

We hope that there will be more bird movement in terms of migration by next week when we would like to return to Tarifa (weather and work permitting, of course) as we can't wait to see that spectacle once again.

Guadalhorce & Fuente de Piedra

On this particular birding trip we headed towards Malaga, directly to Guadalhorce. 

Upon arrival we noticed that it was a bit gusty in the area. At our first hide we had a head-on wind and as we looked out onto the Lagoon we immediately saw that there were several birds positioned at the far end. Unfortunately the wind was causing them to shelter and as you can imagine, these shelters were a little bit too far away from the hides. Armed with  our trusty scope we managed to get some good views of what was out there.

There were: White Headed Ducks, Pochard, Little Grebes, and a couple of Teal.

Teal & Shoveler

Kestrel

Southern Grey Shrike

We then decided to move onto the next hide. Once there we settled down to scan the Lagoon and found that there was more activity on the water, and in the air, as there were a couple of Booted Eagles harassing the Grey Herons, searching for easy prey. One of the Eagles settled on a tree and we were fortunate enough to be able to observe it.

Teal & Shoveler

White Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

There where a few Little Grebes, Black Necked Grebes, Little Ringed Plovers, Black-winged Stilts. Green Shanks, and Snipe.

We where thrilled when we spotted some Pintail and counted twelve of them,then some  Teal came into view (fifteen birds), and Shovelers (twenty birds). There were also Mallards to be seen everywhere across the Lagoon and as we continued to enjoy our leisurely morning we spotted some Wigeon (six birds) and several White-headed Ducks.

View from the hide

Green Shank

From Guadalhorce we drove to Fuente de Piedra.

What a sight awaited us as the Lagoon as it was full of birds! The water level was high and we had never seen it so full. There were birds every where we looked.

Red-crested Pochard

Teals

Pochard

Black-tailed Godwits

There were: Teals, Shoveler, Shelduck, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruffs, Spoonbills, Greater Flamingos, Great White Egret, Marbled Teal, Pochard, Red Crested Pochard, Lapwings, Meadow Pipits, Southern Grey Shrike and Snipe.

Once again, a wonderful outing and we headed home very happy indeed.