Coto Donana - Bonanza Saltpans

The main targets for the day were the Slender-billed Gulls at the  Bonanza Saltpans and the White-headed Ducks at the Laguna de Tarelo.  It involved a long journey back through Sevilla and down the eastern side of the Guadalquivir river.  There were a number of other sites in the area to visit if we found our targets early but, as happens, things did not go exactly to plan, although we did find both targets fairly easily.

The Slender-billed Gulls were on the saltpans and viewable from the main road just north of Bonanza. There were probably about forty in total and they were very easy to identify. The pinkish heads and long black bills showed well but their behaviour was also unusual. They stayed in tight groups and seemed to be involved in communal feeding. A rare and unusual gull and it was good to be able to get such clear views.

The White-headed Duck, probably eight to ten of them, were also where they were supposed to be on the Laguna de Tarelo but they were a long way off. You can just about identify them in the picture below.

Distant White-headed Ducks  -  Heavy crop

We checked out the route through the Algaida Pine forest without finding much other than a few distant Black Kites and Buzzards. We also checked a few of the pools up by the river but found little of interest. Running out of time we had to head for home but were left with the feeling that we could have spent a couple more days around the area.

Where did we go wrong? We decided to visit La Senuela to see the Stork Colony and then to follow the road down by the side of the Guadalquivir River to the Bonanza Saltpans. It all looked good at the start although it was a bumpy ride into La Senuela an old and seemingly abandoned church. The trouble was that we managed to flush most of the Storks and we should really have arrived in the afternoon when the lighting would have been better.

La Senuela

Moving on, the route along the river started off really well and we had good views of a few Night Herons although all were in varying levels of cover.

Night Heron

After having travelled about 20km the road started to deteriorate and we were at serious risk of grounding the car in trying to manoeuvre around some major potholes. In the end we had to give up and retrace much of the distance we had covered. We lost a lot of time and checking the maps afterwards we were probably only a kilometre short of hitting a good road. 

Mallorca - s'Albufera

I have just returned from a weeks birding in Mallorca. It was good but perhaps not quite as good as I expected. We saw around ninety five species and I ended up with fourteen life ticks so it can't all be bad. However, we lost a day to bad weather, travelling around the island was a nightmare, with thousands of racing cyclists clogging up all the roads, and despite generally good lighting conditions the picture opportunities were limited.

So much for the moans, how about the good points. The main one, in a week, I only saw one dog walker, bliss, no disturbance for me and no disturbance for all the ground nesting birds.

We stayed near Puerto Pollenca giving easy access to the Albufereta, the S'Albufera, the Boquer Valley and the mountains in the north of the island. It was also close to our first target bird the Audouin's Gull.

In the 60s this species was down to around 1000 pairs worldwide. Conservation has enabled a recovery in numbers but it is still endangered and one of the worlds rarest gulls. You wouldn't think so standing on Pollenca beach. Wave a bread roll in the air and you have plenty of volunteers to have their picture taken.

They even come in pairs although there wasn't much sharing of food between them.

Still at least it gives them something to do whilst waiting for the next bread roll.

Our first full day was at the Park Natural de s'Albufera. It is a great place but don't go there on a Sunday. The locals use it as a somewhere to go for a walk with the family and it was full of people. Weekdays it is a bit quieter. You see a lot of the birds that you would find in a wetland in the UK but there are also some unusual ones and some like the Black-winged Stilt are just a bit more common than at home.

Black-winged Stilt

The Park also gave me four life ticks in Purple Swamphen, Collared Pratincol and Squacco Heron, although none of them gave me a decent picture, and Zitting Cisticola that gave me no picture at all.

Purple Swamphen

Collared Pratincol

Squacco Heron

Not life ticks but other great birds seen included Osprey, Great Reed Warbler, Night Heron, Red-knobbed Coot, and the very common (over there) Kentish Plover.

Osprey

Great Reed Warbler

Night Heron

Kentish Plover

Red-knobbed Coot

The Red-knobbed Coot is part of a program to reintroduce the bird to the Albufera from mainland Spain, hence the neck band.



On the southern edge of the s'Albufera you will find the Depuradora, a sewage works with an observation platform giving views across the settlement pools. This and the narrow road leading to it were the must visit location for our trip and the next blog will cover this area.

Night Heron

I decided to drive down into Kent to see the juvenile Night Heron at Nicholls Quarry near Hythe. I had been thinking about it for a couple of days but had been put off by the fact that the bird was on private property and also that I do not really like twitches. I was surprised then, to arrive at about ten thirty, to find that I had it all to myself and that no one else turned up in the two hours that I watched the bird.

Mind you, they had probably thought about a little more than I had. Its called a Night Heron for a reason. It is active at night and probably best observed at dawn and dusk. During the day it roosts in a suitable low tree or bush and that is exactly what this bird did. I watched its back for nearly two hours as it roosted deep in a bush by the side of the lake.

Juvenile Night Heron

If I was only a birder I could have walked away happy that I had seen it and that I had my tick, but I am not and I needed a better photograph. The temptation is to step over all the private property signs and go and disturb the bird and if you read SOS that's probably what you expect all photographers to do. The temptation is great, there was no one around to see me but instead I stood for two hours in a pool of frozen mud and water waiting for some movement.

Was I rewarded for my efforts? Well sort of, the heron did stir and preen for a couple of minutes but still with its back to me, then before it settled down again it gave me what seemed to be a begrudging glance over its shoulder.

Before going back to sleep

By this time I was getting cold and I had left my sandwiches in the car so I decided to leave it in peace and move on. It may not be the picture I was looking for but at least I had a record shot of its face and eye or at least part of it.

Out of interest the colours shown on these shots are not what I expected. My memory of the bird is of it being a much deeper brown and of the spots having a green tinge. I am not sure if it's my memory that is letting me down, my eyesight, or my cameras ability to record the colours in the very low light levels within the bush.

Having visited Scotney and Dungeness recently I decided on a change of venue for the afternoon. I decided to drive up to Sheppey and visit Elmley Nature Reserve to view the vast numbers of wildfowl and waders that were in the area. I was not best pleased then, when I arrived at Elmley to find that it was closed. They were demolishing a barn close to the entrance and had decided to close it for the day. I was not alone in my displeasure, I met a number of birders during the afternoon that had also travelled long distances to be there.

Fortunately Sheppey has some other good sites, Capel Fleet, Harty Ferry, Swale NR, Shellness. Too many for me to cover in an afternoon and I got no further than Capel Fleet and the Raptor Point. The wildfowl were a bit distant and I did not see any unusual waders but I did manage to pick up White-fronted Geese.

White-fronted Geese in the foreground

Sadly everything was too distant to be able to pick out the Pink-footed and Snow Geese that had been reported in the area.

Raptors were plentiful. There were at least six Marsh Harriers flying at the same time. Peregrines, Merlin, Kestrel, Short-eared Owl, Barn Owl, and a probable Ring-tail. A male Hen Harrier had aslo been spotted over at Shellness. The Merlin was picked up by a couple of birders standing next to me but I failed to get onto it yet again. This is turning out to be a bit of a bogey bird for me with the only ones I have ever seen being the two we picked up dead in the road close to Scotney (see blog). 

As usual the only picture that I managed to get was that of a Kestrel

and there was Red-legged Partridge crossing the road as I headed home in the half light

The Night Heron made it a successful day but I had hoped to see a lot more and to get some better picture opportunities around Elmley.