Spanish Birding – Round-up – 20th May 2011

So as you may have gleaned we had a very productive week in Spain. To summaries the domestics:

1. We flew by a budget airline to Sevilla (picking our way through the minefield of ticket pricing, baggage allowance, baggage size, on line check in, baggage drop off etc etc).
2. We stayed in the town of Aznalcazar, just to the west of Sevilla and north of Donana, in the Hotel Lince, reasonably priced and very friendly. 
3. Hired a car from the airport booked through “do-you-spain” which turned out to be Hertz.
4. But best of all; we booked a day with Peter who operates “Donana Bird Tours” (http://www.donanabirdtours.com).  Peter went out of his way to tailor the day to our needs, finding me two lifers, giving a valued insight into the area’s diversity of habitats and answering all those questions that had been on my mind after eight years of birding in Spain but had only books to refer to. 

Our schedule took us for a day down to the Jose Antonio Valverde (JAV) visitor’s centre, a day with Peter going out and across the river Guadalquivir right across to Paraje Natural Brazo del Este area, then a rest day in Sevilla before driving up to Monfague via Belen, then a couple more day in Donana, stretching pass Huelva on the coast to the Isla de Saltes. 

For reference we found the late John Butler's book A Bird Watching Guide to Donana, invaluable, plus several Mapa Provincial maps available from Stamfords of London.  Thank you again Peter! 

123 species in total and for the record I’ll list them: 

Little Grebe Great Crested Grebe Grey Heron Purple Heron Great Egret Little Egret Squacco Heron Cattle Egret Black-crowned Night-Heron White Stork Glossy Ibis Eurasian Spoonbill Greater Flamingo Greylag Goose Muscovy Duck Gadwall Mallard Northern Shoveler Red-crested Pochard Common Pochard Black-shouldered Kite Red Kite Black Kite Egyptian Vulture Eurasian Griffon Short-toed Eagle Western Marsh-Harrier Montagu's Harrier Eurasian Sparrowhawk Common Buzzard Golden Eagle Booted Eagle Lesser Kestrel Common Kestrel Red-legged Partridge Purple Gallinule Common Moorhen Red-knobbed Coot Eurasian Coot Great Bustard Black-winged Stilt Pied Avocet Stone-curlew Collared Pratincole Grey Plover Common Ringed Plover Little Ringed Plover Kentish Plover Black-tailed Godwit Whimbrel Eurasian Curlew Common Greenshank Common Redshank Wood Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling Temminck's Stint Curlew Sandpiper Dunlin Lesser Black-backed Gull Yellow-legged Gull Black-headed Gull

Gull-billed Tern Sandwich Tern Whiskered Tern Rock Pigeon Common Wood-Pigeon Eurasian Turtle-Dove Eurasian Collared-Dove Great Spotted Cuckoo Common Cuckoo Little Owl Common Swift Common Kingfisher European Bee-eater European Roller Hoopoe Eurasian Wryneck Calandra Lark Greater Short-toed Lark Crested Lark Thekla Lark Barn Swallow Red-rumped Swallow Common House-Martin Iberian Yellow Wagtail Eurasian Blackbird Zitting Cisticola Cetti's Warbler Eurasian Reed Warbler Great Reed Warbler Melodious Warbler Blackcap Greater Whitethroat Western Orphean Warbler Sardinian Warbler Common Nightingale European Stonechat Black-eared Wheatear Great Tit Blue Tit Eurasian Penduline-Tit Southern Grey Shrike Woodchat Shrike Azure-winged Magpie Eurasian Magpie Eurasian Jackdaw Carrion Crow Common Raven Spotless Starling Cirl Bunting Corn Bunting European Goldfinch Eurasian Linnet European Serin House Sparrow Spanish Sparrow Eurasian Tree Sparrow Golden Bishop Common Waxbill

East Anglia Year Count: 133 (April)

Life bird count: 403. Year bird count: 203. Month bird count: 153 (April)

Photos:  Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus); Great Egret (Ardea alba); Adalucian Meadow