Birding Axarquia: Purple Sandpiper

Wednesday 21 January 2015

Purple Sandpiper

Wednesday 21 & Thursday 22 January

In Fuengirola for four days and this afternoon, in perfect sunshine following yesterday afternoon's continuous rain, off to Mijas Costa to find the wintering Purple Sandpiper. Did we find the bird? No, the wretched wader picked today to take a day trip somewhere! Maybe I will get chance to have another look tomorrow.

Turnstones Vuelvepiedras Comun Arenaria interpres and Sanderlings Correlimos Trdactilo Calidris alba

Meanwhile, we did see a total of 40+ Sanderling along with at least twenty Turnstone, a couple of Whimbrel, half-a-dozen Kentish Plover, a handful of Ringed Plover and a pair of Black Redstart. Numerous Cormorants feeding and resting off shore and a small mixed flock of (mainly) Yellow-legged and Black-headed Gulls.

Sanderling Correlimos Trdactilo Calidris alba

Turnstone Vuelvepiedras Comun Arenaria interpres

Kentish Plover Chorlitejo Patinegro Charadrius alexandrinus

Whimbrel Zarapito Trinador Numenius phaeopus

Birds:
Gannet, Cormorant, Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Turnstone, Black-headed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, White Wagtail, Black Redstart, Spotless Starling, Serin

More Turnstones Vuelvepiedras Comun Arenaria interpres and Sanderlings Correlimos Trdactilo Calidris alba

Black-headed Gull Gaviota Reidora Larus ridibundus

Check out the accompanying website at http://www.birdingaxarquia.weebly.com for the latest sightings, photographs and additional information.

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Birding Holidays

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Background Information

About Bob Wright
Occupation: Retired
Location: Mezquitilla, Axarquia (Malaga)

I retired at the end of 1998 having been a primary school headteacher for thirty years. After a couple of years undertaking some consultancy/ training work with headteachers, I moved to the Axarquia area of the Costa del Sol in Spain. After 13 years living on a mountain top near Velez Malaga overlooking Lake Vinuela to the north and the sea to the south we moved down to the coast at Mezquitilla and now have the beach within 20 metres of our rented property.

I have been a birder for over fifty years and before leaving GB I was a qualified "Ringer" for the BTO, undertaking most of my studies in Staffordshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire. All three counties being well away from the coast, it is not surprising that my main field of interest were those "Little Brown Jobs" (often referred to as LBJs), with a special emphasis on roost work in the autumns and winters and early morning visits to favoured sites, such as Charwelton on the Banbury road from Daventry where, in June and July, it was possible to catch and ring well over an hundred birds and still be home by just after nine am to take the family shopping!

Always an interest in classical music, I have also sung in operettas and one appearance in a "grand opera" (Aida). Most of the former was with the Stamford Gilbert & Sullivan Players where I had the good fortune to appear, rather than star, in all save "Utopia".

Interests
Birding
photography
music
historical and nature visits