La Janda
September 10th Day 3 - Morning
This was another place for me that had been on the periscope for a number of years, as with Coto Donana you read about these places, but not sure what to expect.
Even though we didn’t get into the vast true Marsh of Donana the day before, the birding was still fantastic amidst a vast variety of habitats teeming with birds.
Consequently, I kept a bit of an open mind as we approached La Janda at first light, turning down a Farm track however and birds were absolutely everywhere.
From this it never stopped, greeting us as we moved down the track was a vast flock of Corn Buntings from roost, a couple of Crested Larks and a Zitting Ciscola.
A grounded Griffon Vulture was seen walking down a fence line, it appeared unharmed unless it had hit a turbine. I would presume that it was not capable of flight this time of morning.
As we moved down the track, we noted distant raptors sitting on some of the pylons, one of these on size and head shape was definitely a Short-Toed Eagle but the other was smaller. On checking with the scope, Pablo confirmed a Black Winged Kite, 2nd to a Peregrine for me and one of my favourite Raptors. Moving closer and further down the track we got great views, it was then joined by a 2nd bird, and I most definitely got the best views I have ever had of one, superb.
Other birds showed and we added in total 3 Short Toed Eagles, 2 Common Buzzards, a fly through Turtle Dove, 5 White Stork, 3 Hoopoe, 2 Marsh Harriers, Calandra and Thekla Lark all from this track.
Also caught up with Spanish Sparrow, a couple of Cattle Egrets, flyover calling Yellow Wagtails and Stonechat seemed to be numerous with 5 seen.
Black Winged Kite
Short Toed Eagle
Grounded Griffon
I really enjoyed it down here, it was the sort of place that you never know what is round the corner, I would say we likely spent around 90 minutes here and was great birding.
From here we moved onto
From here we moved onto
The fields of Tahivilla
This was basically a straight road to start, with fields either side, this turned out to be another great place, we frequently stopped and exited the vehicle, and the birding was really good.
We had made the choice of picking a 9-seat vehicle which gave lots of space for the 4 of us, we needed it for all the camera gear etc. Pablo was great as there was constantly cries of “stop” as one of us spotted something, the 9-seater gave us so much room wielding 400 – 500m lenses around inside as well.
We stopped and went on walkabout down the road also, and I have to say, another fantastic area.
Pablo picked out an Eagle and bingo, this was our first Bonelli’s, with 2 supporting Short Toed Eagles and Lesser Kestrels you could have left me here all day, I loved it. The Eagles were initially mobbed by 3 Ravens that had split from a flock of around 40, just don’t see this is in the UK.
The Bonelli’s departed for pastures new but one of the Short Toed landed on one of the roadside pylons, from this we got some decent photos and images as it posed on the pylon.
I had come to realise that Short Toed Eagles liked pylons for resting/hunting, if a distant big raptor was on a pylon, it was likely a S T Eagle.
Scanning around and we picked up a flock of around 20 Alpine Swifts, these kept the cameras warm for a while and a bugger to stay with. We also picked up our first Lesser Kestrels and a single Woodchat Shrike on a fence bringing the trip list up to 116.
A flyover flock of 11 Yellow Wagtails + a Northern Wheatear on a fenceline,2 Cattle Egrets, 3 Stonechat completed the birds seen along the road.
This was basically a straight road to start, with fields either side, this turned out to be another great place, we frequently stopped and exited the vehicle, and the birding was really good.
We had made the choice of picking a 9-seat vehicle which gave lots of space for the 4 of us, we needed it for all the camera gear etc. Pablo was great as there was constantly cries of “stop” as one of us spotted something, the 9-seater gave us so much room wielding 400 – 500m lenses around inside as well.
We stopped and went on walkabout down the road also, and I have to say, another fantastic area.
Pablo picked out an Eagle and bingo, this was our first Bonelli’s, with 2 supporting Short Toed Eagles and Lesser Kestrels you could have left me here all day, I loved it. The Eagles were initially mobbed by 3 Ravens that had split from a flock of around 40, just don’t see this is in the UK.
The Bonelli’s departed for pastures new but one of the Short Toed landed on one of the roadside pylons, from this we got some decent photos and images as it posed on the pylon.
I had come to realise that Short Toed Eagles liked pylons for resting/hunting, if a distant big raptor was on a pylon, it was likely a S T Eagle.
Scanning around and we picked up a flock of around 20 Alpine Swifts, these kept the cameras warm for a while and a bugger to stay with. We also picked up our first Lesser Kestrels and a single Woodchat Shrike on a fence bringing the trip list up to 116.
A flyover flock of 11 Yellow Wagtails + a Northern Wheatear on a fenceline,2 Cattle Egrets, 3 Stonechat completed the birds seen along the road.
Bonelli's Eagle
Short Toed Eagle
3 distant raptors eventually gave better views, and these were confirmed as Honey Buzzards.
Another excellent place.
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