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

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