Spain – From Mountains to Wetlands
Tour Guide: Peter Jones
Trip Report : Peter Jones
Day 1 – April 8th
A small group of us set out from Montejaque in the morning on our journey to the Doñana, amongst the finest wetlands in the Iberian Peninsula. Our visit was intended to take in scenery as much as birds, with of course food and comfort high on our agenda! Our accommodation for the 2 nights was the splendid Hotel Toruño set in the unique and bizarre pueblo of El Rocío.
Our journey, via the Sevilla circumnavigation motorway, produced the odd bird of note such as Lesser Kestrel, Black Kite, Blue Rock Thrush and of course many passerines including large numbers of Hirundines and Corn Bunting. We chose to exit the E1 A49 at Benacazón and enter the park area shortly after Aznalcázar. This is very much the scenic route into the park and soon we were immersed in Stone Pine forest with birds scarce, but those we did see included Crested Lark, Azure-winged Magpie, Black Kite, several finch species and White Stork (many pairs nesting on every available pylon close to Venta el Cruce). Time for lunch and a fine local venta at the junction for Isla Mayor (Carne con Tomate yum). After a relaxed meal we headed towards Villamanrique and stopped several times at the many lagoons along this route. We were soon adding new birds to our list including Red-crested and Common Pochard, Black-necked and Great-crested Grebe, Whiskered, Black and Gull-billed Tern, Cattle and Little Egret, Greater Flamingo, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt and many others. Turning right at the ‘T’ junction we visited a Black-crowned Night Heron roost and also sighted Cetti’s Warbler, Nightingale, several Hirundines and both Pallid and Common Swift. From here we needed to get on towards El Rocío and along our way we saw Spanish Sparrow, Bee Eater and both common Magpie as well as more Azure-winged Magpie. The day ended by checking-out the lagoon by El Rocío. Most notable here was at least 200 Collared Pranticole!
Day 2 – April 9th
Our second day started with a visit to our neighbouring lagoon and several more waders appeared overnight. Along with the Collared Pranticole, we also saw Black-winged Stilts, Avocet, Redshank, Ruff, Snipe, Curlew (only a singleton), Dunlin, Little Stint and Lapwing. I managed to locate a pair of Marbled Teal and many Shoveler with smaller numbers of Gadwall, Teal, Mallard and a single male Pintail. As with everywhere else today we saw big numbers of Hirundines and Sand Martins were obviously moving through in extremely high numbers. Great Reed Warbler as well as its smaller cousin Reed Warbler scratched away in the lagoon’s small reedbeds. Moorhen and Coot with several hundred Greater Flamingo adorned the jewel studded early morning waters and a small flock of Black Tern restricted themselves to a corner of the lagoon whilst their more numerous relatives Whiskered Tern hawked the lagoon surface for insects. We headed out towards the visitors centre José A Valverde as we were anxious to see the very large rookery there. We took the necessarily long route, due to access now being closed directly from El Rocío (if they keep closing off areas there will be less and less people visiting this park), to the centre and made a slow drive on the track alongside the Brazo de la Torre. A bonus bird before arriving at the track was Pin-tailed Sandgrouse (7) and we also saw Crested, Calandra, Lesser Short-toed and Greater Short-toed Lark. It was a strange feature of the 3 days not to see many warbler species, normally the trackside Tamarisk produces several migrant warblers at this time of year. We did manage a large flock of Spanish Sparrow before arriving at the visitors centre. The spectacle of so many Glossy Ibis, Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Night Heron, Little and Cattle Egret all nesting in such close proximity was incredible. The wonder of seeing these birds so close to the centre made the somewhat bumpy approach track seem worthwhile. Near to the centre we also managed great views of Great White Egret and had a Spanish Imperial Eagle high above a circling group of Griffon Vultures. It was late and so we headed for an afternoon lunch at Isla Major. I guess after our success in the morning we could not expect more of the same for the rest of the day and so it turned out as we drove along a chosen track to Villamanrique in the forlorn hope of finding Black-shouldered Kite and Golden Oriole! Southern Grey Shrike and Montagu’s Harrier did compensate. Back at El Rocío and the several duck species had been joined by 3 Garganey as well as 4 Greylag Goose, there were several Yellow Wagtails of the race flava.
Day 3 – April 10th
The third day started with a quick look at the lagoon and the morning was a mirror image bird wise as the previous day, but one of the acro warblers looked very much like a Savis before it disappeared and refused to show itself again! We wanted to spend some of our morning at El Acebuche visitor centre and try to locate Purple Gallinule. A quick coffee and we were off to the many hides surrounding the lake, but try as we might, we were unable to find the ‘bloody’ miserable Purple Gallinule (the first time I think I have dipped on this species), ah well, that’s birding. The centre was crowded with people, hardly surprising as we had completely forgotten this was Easter week. We drove to the coast and stopped by the beach near to the Paradore. Again too many people in the area stopped any chance dead of seeing such species as Sanderling, but I was more surprised not to see Little Tern, so common along the beach margins at this time of year. Sea watching only produced Northern Gannet, some gulls including Audouin’s, Sandwich Tern and a few Cormorants. We decided to head back to El Rocio and lunch. We stopped again by the lagoon just before you turn right into the village and were immediately rewarded with 00’s of Black-tailed Godwit a single Bar-tailed and big numbers of Ruff. Alongside the water’s edge there were several Dunlin and Little Stint, the latter far outnumbering Dunlin. After our lunch it was time to head back to the beauty of our mountains here around Ronda. The return journey produced both Booted and Short-toed Eagle with a few goodies such as Hoopoe and Alpine Swift.
Bird List
With just over 130 species it was a good trip. We particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of El Rocío and the spectacle of the rookery at José A Valverde was enough on its own to make the trip worthwhile. I am still smarting about the Purple Gallinule though!
The species list below gives all the species we have seen during our trip. We have selected them in Family-groups and given the english as well as the latin names
PODICIPEDIFORMES:Podicipedidae
Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis
Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus
Black-necked Grebe Podiceps nigricollis
PELECANIFORMES:Sulidae
Northern Gannet Morus bassanus
PELECANIFORMES:Phalacrocoracidae
Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo
CICONIIFORMES:Ardeidae
Great White Egret Ardea alba
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea
Purple Heron Ardea purpurea
Squacco Heron Ardeola ralloides
Little Egret Egretta garzetta
Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax
CICONIIFORMES:Ciconiidae
White Stork Ciconia ciconia
CICONIIFORMES: Threskiornithidae
Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus
Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea leucorodia
PHOENICOPTERIFORMES:Phoenicopteridae
Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus
ANSERIFORMES:Anatidae
Greylag Goose Anser anser
Common Shelduck Tadorna tadorna
Gadwall Anas strepera
Teal Anas crecca
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
Pintail Anas acuta
Garganey Anas querquedula
Shoveler Anas clypeata
Marbled Duck Marmaronetta angustirostris
Red-crested Pochard Netta rufina
Common Pochard Aythya ferina
FALCONIFORMES:Accipitridae
Red Kite Milvus milvus
Black Kite Milvus migrans
Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus
Short-toed Eagle Circaetus gallicus
Montagu’s Harrier Circus pygargus
Common Buzzard Buteo buteo
Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti
Booted Eagle Aquila pennata
FALCONIFORMES: Falconidae
Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni
Kestrel Falco tinnunculus
Hobby Falco subbuteo
Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus
GALLIFORMES: Phasianidae
Red-legged Partridge Alectoris rufa
Common Quail Coturnix Coturnix
GRUIFORMES: Rallidae
Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus
Common Coot Fulica atra
CHARADRIIFORMES: Haematopodidae
Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus
CHARADRIIFORMES: Recurvirostridae
Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus
Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta
CHARADRIIFORMES: Glareolidae
Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola
CHARADRIIFORMES: Charadriidae
Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius
Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula
Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus
Lapwing Vanellus vanellus
CHARADRIIFORMES: Scolopacidae
Little Stint Calidris minuta
Dunlin Calidris alpina
Ruff Philomachus pugnax
Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago
Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa
Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
Curlew Numenius arquata
Redshank Tringa totanus
Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus
Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola
Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos
CHARADRIIFORMES: Laridae
Audouin’s Gull Larus audouinii
Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus
Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis
CHARADRIIFORMES: Sternidae
Gull-billed Tern Gelochelidon nilotica
Black Tern Chlidonias niger
Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida
Common Tern Sterna hirundo
Sandwich Tern Sterna sandvicensis
PTEROCLIFORMES: Pteroclidae
Pin-tailed Sandgrouse Pterocles alchata
COLUMBIFORMES: Columbidae
Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon) Columba livia
Woodpigeon Columba palumbus
Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto
CUCULIFORMES: Cuculidae
Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus
APODIFORMES: Apodidae
Alpine Swift Tachymarptis melba
Common Swift Apus apus
Pallid Swift Apus pallidus
CORACIIFORMES: Alcedinidae
Kingfisher Alcedo atthis
CORACIIFORMES: Meropidae
Bee-eater Merops apiaster
CORACIIFORMES: Upupidae
Hoopoe Upupa epops
PASSERIFORMES: Alaudidae
Calandra Lark Melanocorypha calandra
Greater Short-toed Lark Calandrella brachydactyla
Lesser Short-toed Lark Calandrella rufescens
Crested Lark Galerida cristata
Thekla Lark Galerida theklae
PASSERIFORMES: Hirundinidae
Sand Martin Riparia riparia
Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica
Crag-Martin Ptyonoprogne rupestris
House Martin Delichon urbicum
Red-rumped Swallow Cecropis daurica
PASSERIFORMES: Motacillidae
Tawny Pipit Anthus campestris
Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis
White Wagtail Motacilla alba
Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava
PASSERIFORMES: Turdidae
Blue Rock-Thrush Monticola solitarius
Blackbird Turdus merula
PASSERIFORMES: Cisticolidae
Fan-tailed Warbler Cisticola juncidis
PASSERIFORMES: Sylviidae
Cetti’s Warbler Cettia cetti
Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus
Great Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus
Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla
Whitethroat Sylvia communis
Iberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus ibericus
PASSERIFORMES: Muscicapidae
Robin Erithacus rubecula
Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos
Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros
Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus
Stonechat Saxicola rubicola
Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe
Black-eared Wheatear Oenanthe hispanica
PASSERIFORMES: Paridae
Great Tit Parus major
Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus
PASSERIFORMES: Laniidae
Southern Grey Shrike Lanius meridionalis
Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator
PASSERIFORMES: Corvidae
Azure-winged Magpie Cyanopica cyanus
Magpie Pica pica
Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
Jackdaw Corvus monedula
Raven Corvus corax
PASSERIFORMES: Sturnidae
Spotless Starling Sturnus unicolor
PASSERIFORMES: Passeridae
House Sparrow Passer domesticus
Spanish Sparrow Passer hispaniolensis
Tree Sparrow Passer montanus
PASSERIFORMES: Fringillidae
Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs
Greenfinch Carduelis chloris
Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis
Linnet Carduelis cannabina
Serin Serinus serinus
PASSERIFORMES: Emberizidae
Cirl Bunting Emberiza cirlus
Corn Bunting Emberiza calandra
Travel together as Friends