PLEASE READ THE NEXT POST FIRST.The second 4 days were spent in extremadura.so as not to repeat myself i will mainly list birds we didnt see in coto donana.most of the time was spent on the Belen plain and Monfrague national park. The Belen plain gave us great bustard.We saw around 20 and some were displaying.We also saw good numbers of little bustard.Here we also saw black wheatear,black bellied sandgrouse,iberian grey shrike,little owl and great spotted cuckoo.quail heard but not seen. Monfrague national park produced griffon vultures in great numbers many observed roosting.also black and egyptian vultures.other raptors were a single golden eagle,our one and only red kite,a bonnellis eagle and the star of the show a spanish imperial eagle. Other birds observed were,black stork,great egret,blue rock thrush,garden warbler,mistle thrush,wren,short toed treecreeper and rock bunting. The hotel had some really nice walks and some drumming was heard.Then in a dead tree we saw my nemesis.A lesser spotted woodpecker.This bird has eluded me all my life.Then it was joined by another.The rest of the group were pleased for me as i had nominated top of my wish list. The next day we left for malaga and as we drove a hobby flew alongside us for a few seconds.On the last morning at some lagoons in malaga we saw white headed duck,avocets and a great egret.One puzzling thing was we saw no pipits or flycatchers.All in all though it was a fantastic trip and enhanced my love of Spain for a birding holiday.
-- Edited by fred fouracre on Wednesday 29th of April 2015 04:12:14 PM
A nine day holiday with wingspan bird tours split between coto donana and extremadura provided a brilliant birding experience for me and seven other birders in the more than capable hands of tour leader bob buckler. After being picked up at malaga we headed for the coto donana area and the small town of El Rocio.from this base we had four days birding in the coto donana area. we saw shelduck,mallard,shoveller,gadwall,pochard and red crested pochard all in good numbers plus garganey at two sites.great crested,black necked and little grebes were also plentiful.other wetland birds seen were great cormorant,night heron,cattle egret,little egret,grey heron,purple heron and white storks everywhere with nests on every available post,chimney and some in trees.Plus many sightings of glossy ibis,spoonbill and greater flamingoes with 8000 at laguna fuente de piedra.here we saw an osprey.other raptors seen were short tailed and booted eagle as well as literally hundreds of black kite,marsh and montagus harriers,common buzzard,black winged kite,common and lesser kestrel and last but not least a peregrine falcon.El rocio has a large lake at the edge of the village where we observed.moorhen,coot,red-knobbed coot,purple swamphen,black winged stilt,collared pratincole,common and little ringed plover.a trip to an estuary provided us with kentish and grey plover,sanderling,turnstone,dunlin,curlew sandpiper,little stint,wood and common sandpipers,commom redshank,common greenshank,black and bartailed godwit,curlew,whimbrel and ruff.gulls present were black headed,mediteranian,yellow legged and lesser black backed.terns seen were little tern,gull billed,and whiskered tern.steppe,scrub and woodland produced red legged partridge,crested,greater short toed and calandra larks.alsoseen were stonechat,whinchat,blackbird,blackcap with sardinian,subalpine,dartford,zitting cisticola,savis,cettis,melodious,reed and great reed warblers. Above us all the time were common and pallid swifts,barn and red rumped swallows,sand,crag and house martins. A round up of other species includes,great tit,coal tit,blue tit,woodchat shrike,eurasion and azure winged magpie,raven,jackdaw,spotless starling,golden oriole,house,spanish and tree sparrow,chaffinch,linnet,goldfinch,greenfinch,serin,cirl bunting and corn bunting.finally white and yellow wagtail,wheatear and nightingales everywhere though mostly heard not seen. exotics seen were monk parakeet,common waxbill and red avadats.
