Spain - Fuengirola

 

 

Dunnes




I stumbled on this cracking little river water course, completely by accident at Fuengirola whilst dropping Chris off to do some shopping. Chris was going to have an hour or so in the shops and the plan was for me to then do an hour sea watch a short way down the coast.

However, scanning round as you do with Chris heading for the shops at a rate of knots, I spied part of a water course and then, no less than a Glossy Ibis walked into view!

Plans went out the window and I headed over there, have to say for a river course more or less in the heart of Fuengirola, the birding was superb.

Thereafter,I then actively encouraged Chris to do more shopping at Dunnes in the days that followed, unselfishly, even though it was likely to put a dent in the bank account, in total I/we visited 3 times over the course of a week.

Visits were Sept 10th, 13th and 15th and to give the site, on Ebird as a hotspot its full name, it is called Parque Fluvial, Dunnes is a shopping venue similar to our Dunelms.

In total from roughly 3 hour or so long visits, I clocked up some good birds, best of which are below.



Glossy Ibis - 1

Little Egret – 4 (probably the sun but these all appeared taller)

Cattle Egret - 1

Squacco Heron - 1

Night Heron – 2

Kingfisher – 2

Melodious Warbler – 1

Iberian Chiffchaff – 1

Booted Eagle – 2

Red Rumped Swallow – 2

Spotted Flycatcher – 2

Green Sandpiper – 1


Probably the hardest bird to catch up with came in on the 15th, everything went up, flocks of Monk Parakeets and Feral Pigeons all flushed as a superb Purple Heron flew along the water course and over my head.

A superb end to the last visit, I only covered the Dunnes end, would suspect more species to be seen further up towards the Sea.

Battersea - August

 

A good visit on the 23rd when I again hit 30 species either seen or heard, the increased and more mature habitat is now bringing in more species.

Song Thrush was a good bird to get here; I would presume a juvenile moving through at this time of year.

The female Peregrine, now on her own at around 15 does spend a good few hours in the nest box at various times of day having a nap, age affects us all.

The Black Redstarts have again bred with 2 fledged juveniles seen in the southern area, both adults were taking food to a corner, and I could just about see 2 youngsters tucked up and hidden in the corner.

This late, I would expect 2nd brood juveniles, it has been a good year for them with young seen earlier in the summer at the Power Station.

The star bird however will go to a Kestrel, now present for over a month, he is quite approachable and very possibly came from a nest in nearby Battersea Park.

                                                    Sun bathing - always watching

                                                                    Female Black Redstart

                                                             Male Black Redstart