Bird Nerds

10 November 2011

Laguna de Medina Sidonia

We headed over early on in the morning, as it had been quite a while since we had last visited this area and we were keen to spot some ducks.

Early Morning at Laguna Medina

Unfortunately they were too far away to capture any decent photographs however, we were able to view them using a scope.

Here's a complete list of what we spotted in the area:

Shoveler
Porchard
Red-crested Porchard
Little Grebe
Great-crested Grebe
White-headed Duck
Little Bittern
Coot
Chiffchaff
Mistle Thrush
Cetti's Warbler
Sardinian Warbler
Sandwich Tern

Little Grebe

Mallard

Moorhen

We then drove from there, to Benalup and then onto La Janda. Whilst in La Janda, we spotted:

Black-shouldered Kite

Great White Egret

Common Buzzard

Meadow Pipet
White Wagtail
Black Redstart
Grey Heron
White Stork
Black Stork
Night Heron (JV)
Serin
Gold Finch
Great White Egret
Spanish Imperial Eagle
Common Buzzard
Bonelli's Eagle (JV)
Marsh Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Kestrel
Short-toed Eagle
Black-shouldered Kite
Common Crane
Griffon Vulture
Green Sandpiper
Lapwing

Montagu's Harrier

We were fortunate enough to see two large Eagles on that day, the Spanish Imperial Eagle and the Bonelli's Eagle. We were able to capture some photographs of the Spanish Imperial Eagle from a distance however, we were unable to get any of the Bonelli's as it was too far away.

Here are the photos we took, and as you can see they're not the best picture quality but its enough to appreciate the size of the Eagle:

Spanish Imperial Eagle

Gannets in Gibraltar

Here are some photographs of Gannets (both Adult & Juveniles) that were taken over the weekend, as we spotted them feeding over the Lighthouse area in Europa Point.

27 October 2011

Los Lances & La Janda

Before heading over to La Janda we decided to turn off at Los Lances to see if we'd be lucky enough to spot some Oyster Catchers.

Spanish Sparrows at La Janda

Unfortunately, we weren't able to see any on this occasion, but we did manage to see the following birds there:

Sanderlings
Little Stint
Godwit
Ringed Plover
Sandwich Tern

We then drove directly to La Janda, and despite having the car motor running we could still hear some cranes nearby. All of a sudden, there were about twenty to thirty Cranes flying over the car! We assumned that the sudden drop in temperature and the recent heavy rain had brought them over a lot earlier than previous years.

Cranes

Following that sighting, we scanned the fields but we weren't able to spot anything of genuine interest. We met up with a really nice German couple who were also birdwatching in the area and we stopped off to chat to them for a while. They told us that they had seen a Crake and some Black Storks by the canal. We had already visited that area but we hadn't managed to spot either bird, although we did see a Black Stork later on in the day.

Stone Chat

We did catch a sight of a Purple Heron that was feeding on fish and fortunately, we captured some nice photos.

Purple Heron

Later on in the day we bumped into Stephen Daly (of Andalucian Guides) and together, we spotted a Montagu's Harrier. There was another Harrier alongside and Stephen explained to us that this was a Pallid Harrier, going on to explain the different wing shapes, and why this particular bird was attracted to this kind of habitat.