LAGUNA MEDINA - BONANZA POOLS - BONANZA SALT PANS - LAGUNA TARELO - CHIPIONA MARINA
WEATHER: our hottest day yet, top temp. 32C with little or no breeze at times.
We drove inland today to escape the predicted strong winds at Tarifa, it proved to be a successful despite the high temperature. We took an early breakfast and set out for Laguna Medina, near Jerez, at 7:45am. It took us 1 1/4 hrs to get there we drove non-stop and clocked a few species along the way. The most notable sightings from the car were Turttle Dove, Short-toed Eagle, Cattle and Little Egrets, Jackdaws, Sand Martin and White Storks.
Ducks galore on Laguna Medina
Unexpectedly Laguna Medina was full of water and was covered in birds, thousands of them. We took the main track from the car park and headed towards the hide. Spotted Flycatchers, Stonechat, Cetti's Warbler (heard), Sardinian Warbler, Chiffchaff, Zitting Cisticola and Goldfinches were all seen before we reached the first viewing-point. We also picked out Red-legged Partridge in the olive groves behind us. We added a Brown Rat to our mammal list and Lesser Emperor to our dragonflies.
Broad Scarlet
Scanning the water with our scopes from the raised boardwalk we soon realised that picking out a single Red-knobbed Coot amongst 5,000 Eurasian Coots was going to be an impossible task. We enjoyed finding other species instead: Red-crested and Common Pochard, White-headed Duck, Gadwall, Mallard, three species of Grebe (Little, Great-crested and Black-necked), Greater Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, Grey Heron, Little Egret and Moorhen.
White-headed Duck
We walked to the raised hide and spent some time sitting there just enjoying the sight in front of us. We picked out half a dozen Ferruginous Ducks, a Marsh Harrier flew over the reeds and a Turtle Dove dashed across the water. Common and Pallid Swifts joined Barn Swallows and a few Sand Martins feeding over the water.
Red-crested Pochard with Common Pochard, Gadwall and a Coot
Black-necked Grebe
Ferruginous Duck with a Common Pochard in the foreground
Before we left the area we scanned the three seasonal pools to the north of the laguna, they held a lot of birds too, one pool held above 100 Glossy Ibis with White Storks, Black-winged Stilts, Green and Common Sandpipers, Ringed, Little Ringed and kentish Plovers.
seasonal pool just north of Laguna Medina - showing at least 50 Glossy Ibis
Moving on we drove across country heading for Sanlucar de Barameda, we saw lots of Storks over a rubbish tip and on nests along the way. Eurasian Magpies were an addition to the list we also saw some Jackdaws (the former of these two is quite rare in this part of Andalucia).
At the Pools of Bonanaza we were again surprised to see that the water level was very high, no muddy margins and no islands. All three pools were quite scarce of birds compared to previous years. The first pool held four Common Coots, a few Moorhens, Little Grebes and Little Egrets, there weren't any ducks. We picked out a single Common Sandpiper, a single Yellow Wagtail and a Common Shelduck.
one of the Bonanza Pools - full to the brim, no room for waders!
The second, much large pool had a few more ducks on it. White-headed Ducks, a single Common Pochard and about 200 Little Egrets were roosting in the tamarisk hedge at the far side. There we also found two Squacco Herons, a few Glossy Ibis and a lot more Little Grebes. The star bird was a Little Bittern, it was found in the reeds not too far away.
one of the three Squacco Herons seen today
The biggest Pool and the third one we visited was exactly the same, very few birds were on the water. We saw many Cattle Egrets, some still had chciks in the their nests! We finally found a juvenile Swamphen and several Night Herons in the distant bushes. A Kingfisher dashed from a post, seen only by myself, we could not find a Red-knobbed Coot on this pool which is usually a certainty. No a single marbled Duck was seen on any of the pools!
Little Bittern
Bonanza Salt Pans were dire too, a lot of work was going on in many of the pans, we saw a few Greater Flamingos, a single Common Shelduck the odd Redshank and a few Curlew Sandpipers. We parked on the bank beside the Rio Guadalquiver and scanned the river seeing only gulls and one Common Sandpiper.
We then drove around to the last Laguna in the area, Laguna Tarelo. Once again the water level was really high and hardly any exposed margins. There we saw hundreds of Shovelers and even more Little Grebes. A few other species sat on the water but nothing new for our day list. We had an encounter with a bunch of Common Waxbills and Bernie got some good pictures of them.
We walked along the edge of the fenceline around the laguna and scanned an adjacent body of water, it held over a thousand Greater Flamingos and a good sized group of Spoonbills. On a distant pole we found an Osprey just before we left and a Great Egret flew over us.
Our final port of call, was in fact a port! The small port and marina at Chipiona. There we watched Little Swifts coming and going to their nests in a building next to the water. This colony has been established for about 20 years and is one of very few in Europe, all of them are in Spain housing this African species. A few Turnstones flew over us, leaving their high-tide roost on the boardwalks of the marina.
the nesting site of the Little Swift colony at Chipiona Marina
We left the area around 4:30pm and got back to the hotel at 6pm with 77 species in the bag.