Spanish Travels Part Three - Guadahorce

On my previous visits to this part of Spain this reserve on the edge of Malaga, Les Desembocaduras del Guadahorce if you want the fell name, provide some of the best birding and they did not disappoint his year either. In fact they were so good that I made two trips even if takes almost an hour to walk there from the nearest train station at Plaza Mayor.

White-headed Duck and Greater Flamingoes.

White-headed Ducks are a draw for many UK based birders and they performed as well as usual with a decent number on view. A feature of both visits was the numbers of waders passing through with Dunlins in particular being common. Quite a few Sanderlings and an adult Curlew Sandpiper were tagging along with them while I also found three Little Stints on my second visit. Ringed Plovers were causing the local Kentish Plovers some consternation and they spent a lot of time chasing them off. The Kentish showed much better than in previous visits and I got a few good shots of them. While I always enjoy watching Black-winged Stilts and Avocets they were both outshone by the star wader of my trip - a Collared Pratincole. Although I've seen them elsewhere in Spain this is the first time that I've seen one in this neck of the woods. A resting individual spent a few minutes in front of the hide in which I sat before being moved on by the ever squabbling stilts which also vanquished Redshanks and a Grey Plover.

Collared Pratincole and Kentish Plover.

On my first time I saw a couple of immature Greater Flamingoes but this had grown to a total of eighteen by the time of my second as the two young ones were joined by sixteen adults. Other leggy birds included Night Herons and a Squacco Heron. Overall numbers of herons on this trip were low but that represented the only real disappointment this time around.

Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlins and Sanderlings

Spanish birders were looking for an immature Bonaparte's Gull which has been in the area for a bit but they didn't appear to have any joy though other gulls were providing me with entertainment. Before last year I'd never seen Slender-billed here before but this time there were loads of them! At least forty were feeding around the reserve and joined both Black-headeds and Meds in hiding any exotic Americans that may have been with them. Several immature Whiskered Terns were seen flitting over the Laguna Grande but my favourite terns of the trip were two Little Terns that paused briefly in front of the hide before those bothersome stilts intervened again.

Little and Whiskered Terns.

Other biding entertainment was provided by a passing pale phase Booted Eagle and also by my only Woodchat Shrike, I seem to remember them being much commoner than this but perhaps most of them were migrants. A Short-toed Lark showed well if briefly from one of the hides, it was flushed by an enormous lens emerging from one of the flaps like the muzzle of a coast defence gun from a bunker. It and all the other goodies have guaranteed that I will be visiting this marvellous little reserve on any future visits to this bit of Spain.

Slender-billed Gulls and Black-winged Stilt.