Now that the rains have hopefully ended we can start birding agaion and Dave Elliott-Binns and his Arboleas Bird Group have been out and about at Cabo de Gata as can be seen from the following report from Dave.
After
last weeks rain in our area and the deluge in Malaga Province in which
sadly two people lost their lives, a change in the weather was
gratefully received. Today was a sunny day with a few clouds as Val and I headed down towards Cabo de Gata . Having notched up Hoopoe
(notice presenter on BBC pronounced it Hoopee), we met up with Dave,
Myrtle, Richard, Les, Colin, Alan and Kevin at the Pujaire cafe. Duly
refreshed with coffee, we made our way to the first hide. There were
numerous Black Tailed Godwit with a single Grey Plover. Les found 4
Dunlin and Kevin was first to spot some Slender Billed Gulls. The
visibility was not good down the left hand side due to the low bright
sun. So well done to Myrtle for finding a Great White Egret. Also seen
were Mallard, Avocet, Eurasian Curlew and Ringed Plover. Out over the
distant sea I spotted an adult Gannet. Richard found a Zitting
Cisticola. An Iberian Grey Shrike was seen. Alan spotted numerous
Spoonbill way in the distance. Both Spotless and Northern Starling
were in a medium-sized flock. The last bird listed was a Black Winged
Stilt.
The drive
to the beach added Stonechat and the walk to the hide added Goldfinch and Greenfinch. From the hide I found two or three more Eurasian
Curlew on the savannah. A Little Egret was seen and Kevin spotted
numerous Black Necked Grebe. The Spoonbill seen earlier were closer and obliged by taking flight so we count their number. Twenty five. I
didn't count the numerous Greater Flamingo. Colin and I found a male
Sardinian Warbler before Les spotted a female plus a Dartford Warbler in
the same bush. Also seen were some Crested Lark.
We
convoyed to the public hide, the ladies doing the walk along the track.
We had Chiffchaff whilst Kevin found a Shelduck. Dave had a Dartford
Warbler and Serin from the hide. To the right Sandwich Tern,
Sanderling, Kentish Plover, a Spotted and Common Redshank were seen.
Alan had a Little Stint whilst Kevin found a Turnstone. Just as we were
about to leave I spotted a group of flying birds. 11 soaring Common
Crane. A Kestrel was hovering below them. Colin spotted a Crag Martin.
 |
| Eight of the soaring eleven Cranes Grus grus (PHOTO: Dave Elliott-Binns) |
We
then went to the beach side cafe in Cabo village, doing a sea-watch as
we had refreshments. We had Gannets, Black Headed, Lesser Black Backed and Yellow Legged Gulls. A couple of pairs of Mallard were seen as was
a Black Tailed Godwit and a small flock of what appeared to me to be
Golden Plover.
We
ended our time at Cabo de Gata with 47 species. Normally we'd then go to
the Rambla de Morales, but today we were going on a "twitch"! On the
29th November a Steppe Grey Shrike was discovered at the mouth of the
River Andarax which is just east of Almeria. It was still there a few
days ago. So Colin, Alan, Les, Richard, Val and I headed along the coast
to see if we might be lucky. The short answer is we weren't! We had a
good look round, but as they say in twitching circles, we "dipped" out. I
was going to download a photo of one but was concerned about copyright
so you'll have to "google image" it to see what one looks like. Only
have one photo to show you.
Check out the accompanying website at http://www.birdingaxarquia.weebly.com for the latest sightings, photographs and additional information.
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