Spain

 

Christine and myself have just arrived back from 6 days in Spain staying near La Cala at my Sister’s and Brother in Laws place just down the coast from Malaga, a trip that started in 2020 but got cancelled/rolled on 4 times mainly due to Covid cancellations and issues. The timing was spot on however, as we had a bit of a heatwave, the temperature all week hovering around 24 – 31 degrees!

I have to say it was worth it for the sunrises alone, 4 floors up, we had spectacular views overhead (Raptors) 😊 , the surrounding scenery and of course the Mediterranean. As you know I am an early bird, it comes from a lifetime of Steelfixing, early starts and Peregrine monitoring, the inbuilt time clock always sees me up usually up at 5 or earlier. It doesn’t get much better than sitting there with a cuppa, unwinding, and watching the sun come up.

As is the case, I slipped out at dawn on the 26th for a coastal jaunt along the board walk, starting at El Bombo beach and covering the rocks and sea, right up to and beyond the Oceano Beach Hotel, it was already quite warm, but it turned out to be a very productive walk.

Top billing of the birds seen, will undoubtably go to 6 Squacco Herons that dropped onto the rocks, no doubt having a rest and preen on their way to their breeding grounds. They were quite stunning and undoubtably offered the best views I have had of the species, watched these for a good while.

It turned out to be an exceptional Egret morning, as scanning the Sea in the hope of a Cory’s Shearwater, produced 3 distant Great White Egrets moving up towards Malaga and then 2 Little Egrets dropped in with the Squacco’s.

Rather bizarrely one of the Little Egrets had orange feet, instead of the standard yellow, but none the less very active feeding amongst the rocks.

Others seen were occasional distant Gannets, a large flock of Sanderling, 8 Whimbrel, 18 Turnstone, Common Kestrel and the commoner local birds like Serin, Monk Parakeet and Yellow Legged Gull. I have picked up Audouins Gull here in the past but later in the year.

A good couple of hours.