Coto Donana - The Jose Valverde Visitors Centre Loop

We did the loop twice. This is a 60km round trip from El Rocio to the start of the loop then about 50 Km on pot-holed and dirt track roads. Hard work but even in heavy rain the roads were all passable and there were a lot of good birds to see.

Black Kites, Buzzards, Black Redstarts, and Iberian Grey Shrikes on the way in from El Rocio. We also saw Woodchat Shrikes but couldn't get the picture.

Black Kite

Buzzard

Black Redstart

Iberian Grey Shrike

We did the eastern route via the Bombas de Casa pumping station the first day, returning by the same route. The second day we took the western route going via the Hato Raton Farm and then coming back on the eastern route.

My advice would be to give the western route a miss. It was mostly industrial scale farming and all the ditches had recently been dredged with the soil dumped back on the canal side vegetation and reeds. There was very little to see other than one stranded motorist that we had to stop to help. It's a bit like being in the outback.

Good views of White Storks, Spoonbills, Black Stork, and Black-tailed Godwits alongside the Arroyo de la Ciguens.

Spoonbills

Black Stork

We had two or three encounters with a Black-winged Kite and on one of the occasions with a pair of them, at the start of the eastern loop. A life tick for me but he really didn't want his picture taken. I also managed to overexpose the only clear shots that I had. The best of the rest is shown below.

Black-winged Kite

Much confusion was then caused by going back to the location on the last day of the holiday and photographing the bird below, hunting on the same strip of land. Sad to say, it wasn't until I got home that I noticed the yellow eye. The old problem, too busy trying to get the photograph and not seeing the bird that is in front of me. In my defense, it does look a bit like a Black-winged Kite and it was in the right location.

Hen Harrier

Hen Harrier

Buzzard

Glossy Ibis

Corn Bunting

Common Crane

Flamingos in the rain

Flamingo at the Jose Valverde Visitors Centre

Green Sandpiper

Griffon Vulture

Squacco Heron

Hoopoe

Hoopoe

There are a group of derelict holiday homes about 5km from the Visitors Centre. They are marked as Choza de Huerta Tejada on the map. It is worth stopping here to look for the colony of Lesser Kestrels based around the buildings. Although you will need to brush up on your identification skills as there are also a couple of "common" Kestrels in the same area.

Lesser Kestrel

Lesser Kestrel

Lesser Kestrel

Lesser Kestrel

I also had a Subalpine Warbler on the fence in front of these buildings but the photograph is not worth showing.

Marsh Harrier

Purple Swamphen

We also found a couple of small flocks of Spanish Sparrows on the way back. They seemed to be mostly females but there was one good looking male present although he was difficult to photograph.

Spanish Sparrow

It was a couple of long days being shaken about in the car but you felt that there was still a lot more to see. The Black-winged Kite deserved having a day dedicated to it in order to get that definitive picture but time is all too short.

Australia (4/8) The Red Centre

We arrived in Alice early afternoon and made a visit to the Old Telegraph Station just outside the town. It shows the fascinating story of how the first telegraph line was established from Darwin down to Adelaide thus enabling direct communications to the southeast coast for the first time.

There were a good few Black and Whistling Kites around but none of the less common raptors. Plenty of birds but all ones I had seen before.

Black Kite

Whistling Kite

Crested Pigeon

Galah

The next morning we had a trip out into the Western McDonnell Ranges visiting Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm. Fortunately a late start was scheduled, the only one on the trip, to allow a few brave souls to go ballooning over the desert. Myself, I was standing outside the Olive Pink Botanical Gardens at 0630 in the half light. Major problem, there was a high fence and a locked gate with a sign saying that the gardens did not open until 0800. I hadn't planned for this.

Fortunately one of the members of staff arrived at about 0700 and was happy to let me in early. A big relief, I was expecting to see the Western Bowerbird and this was one of my two main targets on the holiday. The other being the Cassowary which I was extremely unlikely to get to see.

Yellow-throated Miner

Australian Ringneck  -  also called Port Lincoln Parrot

White Plumed Honeyeater

Grey-crowned Babbler

Possible Little Crow

 I found the corvids very difficult to identify. Given the location this is likely to be a Little Crow or a Torresian Crow. In both species the eye is dark in the juvenile bird turning to white in an adult. I have probably seen both birds at some time on the tour but I am unable to call the difference.

Spinney-cheeked Honeyeater

Wallaroo

Grey Shrike-thrush

Western Bowerbird

Western Bowerbird. I knew this bird was there, I had researched it on the web from home and I even knew where to look for it in the Botanic Gardens. I can now say that I traveled to the other side of the world to twitch a bird. Fortunately I was the only one that did and I had it all to myself.

I had a quick look around to see if he had a bower but there were two birds present and I did not want to disturb them so backed off and left them to it.

Western Bowerbird

Western Bowerbird

Western Bowerbird

Little Woodswallow

We spent the next day travelling the 450 Kilometres from Alice to Yulara the town closest to Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Uluru  (Picture by Sue)

There was little change in the birds we saw but the background colour did change in keeping with the Red Centre.

Magpie Lark

Another Grey Shrike Thrush

Juvenile Pied Butcherbird

Below the only snake that we came across during the trip. It's not a good shot and I did for an instant consider getting my gardening scissors out to tidy up the view. Then I remembered where I was. I think it's probably a Western Brown, very aggressive when threatened, very fast and highly venomous. The aboriginal name for it is Gwardar which translates to - go the long way around.

I usually stick to birds in these blogs and leave the touristy bits to others but I was saddened by Uluru. It has been a home for the Aboriginal people for a long time. Some would say 60,000 years. Two hundred years ago Europeans turned up and took ownership of the land. A concept that the Aboriginals did not understand.

I thought that the land around Uluru had been given back to the Anangu people but now I find that it has only been leased back to them without giving them control over access, tourism etc. 

35 people have died climbing Uluru and many have had to be rescued. For safety reasons and because it has spiritual significance, the traditional owners of the site, the Anangu, have asked people not to climb the rock.

There are signs around the base of the rock......

......and what happens

"Either we can't spell or they can't read" says traditional owner Vince Forrester of the thousands of tourists that climb Uluru each year.


My views - I would love to climb the rock but this place deserves the same respect as any other religious site. Stop the climbing.

and more disrespect, this time from the Zebra finches

Next stop The Top End via a flight to Alice and then another on to Darwin


Keep looking - four more blogs on Australia to follow