19 December 2012

Bonanza Salt Pans

We arrived at the salt pans in Bonanza at around 10:00hrs but the morning mist was sitting low over the whole area so there wasn't much to see at the time.

We headed back into the town and breakfast whilst we waitws for the sun to break through. At about midday it had finally blown off so we headed back to the salt pans.

Once there we parked and set up the scope to scan the area and start identifing the birds. There were: Black-winged Stilts, Turnstones, Avocets, Whimbrel, Curlew, Redshank, Greenshank, Sanderlings, Snipe, Dunlin, Kentish Plover

Most of the birds were too far away for any photos, except for the ones below.

Turnstone
Kentish Plover
Turnstone and Sanderling
Kentish Plover
Redshank
Turnstone
We also saw: Shelducks, Slender-billed Gull, Osprey, Caspian Terns, Reed Bunting,
Lesser Blackbacked Gull, Squacco Heron, Great White Egret, Meadow Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Common Buzzard, Spoonbill

On another note...

We would like to wish all our followers, family and friends a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

HAPPY BIRDING 2013 :)




Gannets

We spent a few hours bird watching and took a few photos of Gannets at Europa Point.

They are amazing to watch whilst they are feeding so the time just flew by as we observed them. Here are a few of the photos that we took on the day.






The first two photos are adult Gannets, whilst the other three are immature birds.

El Rocio

On this outing we drove up to El Rocio in Huelva. On arrival we could see there was plenty of activity on the water and the mud flats to our right.

With the scope set up we started to scan and soon came across good numbers of waders and ducks.

There were Grey Plovers, Black-tailed Godwits, Lapwings, Whimbrel, Ringed Plovers, Redshank, Greenshak, Dunlins, Little Stint, Snipe and Avocets.

Black-tailed Godwit
Grey Plover
Greenshank
Black-tailed Godwit
Also seen were Black-winged Stilts, Moorhens, Spoonbills, Greater Flamingos, Greylag Geese, Great White Egret, White Storck and Sacred Ibis.

Purple Gallinule
Grey Heron
Greylag  Geese
We also spotted a good number of ducks; plenty of  Mallards, over 150 Shovelers, close to 200 Teals, Pochards and Marble Teal.

Shoveler
Pochard
Teal
A couple of Great Crested Grebe and Little Grebe were spotted.

Little Grebe
Little Grebe

Blackheaded Gull
Azure-winged Magpie
Black Redstart

We have included photos of some other general birds seen on the day such as, Stonechats, Chiffchaffs, Fantailed Warbler, Water Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Southern Grey Shrike, Cettis Warbler, White Wagtail, Hoopoe and Kingfisher,

It was a brilliant outing! Until our next trip, hope you enjoy these photos!