By far and away the best birding spot in the area no trip to the area would be complete without a visit. This year it delivered big time and I had a very enjoyable wander around whilst watching some interesting stuff.
 |
| Cattle Egret with unfortunate lizard and Woodchat Shrike. |
On the walk from the train station I watched several Red-rumped Swallows hawking for insects while a Cattle Egret was seen dealing with rather a large lizard. Arriving at the reserve itself I found my only Woodchat Shrike of the trip and also the first Grey Heron of this this year's visit. Making my way round to the Laguna Grande I stopped on the way to get distant views of White-headed Ducks on their favourite pool. Avocets and Black-winged Stilts were the most obvious birds at the laguna but a scan with the scope soon turned up some other decent finds. First up was a fetching summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe, these truly are stunners, and then I bothered to check a group of four gulls which I almost passed over. Good job too as they turned out to be Slender-billed which were my first at this site, They later joined a small flock of Black-headeds and two immature Meds to provide a good comparison, all of the gulls shared their island with over thirty Sandwich Terns. Beyond the terns I found a group of waders which included a sum plum Turnstone as well as Grey Plover amongst more numerous Dunlins, Ringed Plovers and Redshanks. Rather reluctant to leave my decision was all but forced on me by the arrival of the first of three groups of school kids.
 |
| Pick from the Laguna Grande. |
Walking down towards the beach I looked out from one of the screens to find a sleeping Glossy Ibis, another first for me at this reserve. Two much closer White-headed Ducks gave some excellent views and I got several pictures. The next screen had more waders to squint at and these included four Curlew Sandpipers two of which were full sum plum. At the tidal channel I was almost overwhelmed by the numbers of waders feeding, there seemed to be loads of them! As well as those species I had already picked up there were both species of godwit, a Greenshank, Kentish Plovers and Sanderlings. I was really fairly glad that I brought my scope this time around and will probably bring it on all future trips.
 |
| Siesta time. |
As it drew closer to midday the reserve became busy with cyclists, joggers and mutt walkers so I set off, hopefully I can return again to this excellent place next year, it really can be that good.
 |
| Redshank, Ringed Plover and Curlew Sands. |
No comments:
Post a Comment