Bird Race 2, Coto de Donana
We started this morning with seawatching off Matalascanas, again with the guys from North Wales. Flushed with their success from yesterday, we’d somehow agreed to do another birdrace. Despite the surprisingly cold dawn, the sea watch proved worthwhile. Highlights included Audouin’s Gulls, Balearic Shearwater, Common Scoter, and Whimbrel. Happy with our haul we turned our attention to the bushes behind the beach where grounded migrants were obvious. Best amongst these was a very showy Western Orphean Warbler.Moving inland we birded the area around the Acebuche visitor centre. The pools here quickly gave us Savi’s Warbler, Purple Swamphen, Squacco Heron, Red-crested Pochard, and an over-ambitious female Marsh Harrier who repeatedly attempted to take a drake Mallard! The scrubby woodland was alive with birds. We had great views of Thekla Lark, our first Tawny Pipits for Spain, Black-eared Wheatear, Sub-alpine Warbler, Dartford Warbler, and of course lots of Azure-winged Magpies. On again to an area of woodland just south of El Rocio. Here we added singing Iberian Chiffchaff, Crested Tit, Tree Pipit, and had exceptional views of a singing Nightingale in full voice.Of course we couldn’t finish the day without our daily fix of the lagoon at El Rocio, where we set up the scopes on the veranda of a bar with a panoramic view of the lagoon and ticked off a whole host of new birds for the day. Our luck was still in as we again enjoyed views of the juvenile Spanish Imperial Eagle, even seeing it perched in a tree. Unexpectedly we also added two Great Spotted Cuckoos to our day list, bringing our day’s total to 123 species. A wonderful birding day with great company in glorious sunshine, although no new birds for our year list.
Posted 3rd April, El Rocio, Spain