Two friends, Phillip West and Garry Armstrong, and myself decided on an autumn break for a few days to Andalucía, South-west Spain to look for a few specialities and some decent birds along the way. We flew to Malaga from Belfast on Easyjet and then hired a car from Hertz. Flights cost £ 140.00 each although we only booked three weeks before we went and car hire was £170.00.We booked one hotel in advance and then decided to look for accommodation close to were we finished bird-watching for the day
ACCOMMODATION
We stayed in the Hotel Cordorniz just outside Tarifa for the first and last night and Hotel Donana for the second and third nights. This give us an ideal base for bird-watching the Tarifa area and also the area around the south eastern edge of the Coto Donana
GUIDES USED
We used Garcia/Paterson’s Where to Watch Birds in South and Western Spain and looked at previous bird reports on the net. We also used a scaled map 1-200,000 of Andalucía.
SITES VISITED
TARIFA BEACH
A long stretch of sandy beach, this site was right outside our hotel. You have to do this site early in the morning as in the afternoon wind –surfers tend to take over and the beach becomes rather crowded .Birds of note here included Audouins Gull, Kentish and Ringed Plovers, Sanderling, Sandwich Tern, Great White Egret, Caspian Tern, Kingfisher, Marsh Harrier, Crested Lark and Fan-Tailed Warbler.
Purple Swamp-Hen
LA JANDA
A vast area of open farmland with channels criss-crossing the plains. The only downside of the Tarifa area is the hundreds of wind-farm which are a blot on the landscape. The area is teeming with birds and a full day here isn’t really enough. Birds seen here include Marsh Harrier, Montagu’s Harrier, Short-Toed Eagle, Common Buzzard, Lesser Kestrel, Southern Grey Shrike, Calandra Lark, Griffon Vulture, Black Shouldered Kite, Little Owl, Red Kite, Red-Legged Partridge, Black and Common Redstart, Spotless Starling, Fan-Tailed Warbler and hundreds of Corn Buntings, a terrific site
Corn Bunting
BOLONIA
The cliff faces of the Sierra de la Plata provide the principle site in the Tarifa area for White –Rumped Swift, although we knew it was probably a bit late in the year to see them we give it a go anyway. As we thought no White-Rumped Swifts but we did have 2 Little Swifts along with about 50 Crag Martins The cliff faces provide ledges for resting Griffon Vultures, allowing good photo opportunities. Other birds of note included Blue Rock Thrush, Sardinian Warbler, Black Redstart, Northern Wheatear, Short-Toed Eagle, Chiffchaffs and various tits amongst the pines.
Caspian Tern
LAGUNA DE MEDINA
This lake is the main site for White Headed Duck and, in fact, this was the only place that we actually saw them, about 40 pairs. Trying to find a Red Knobbed Coot amongst what seemed to be half the worlds population of Common Coot proved fruitless, as was our search for Marbled Teal and after about an hour of searching we came across the warden who confirmed that neither bird was present on the lake (now why couldn’t we have met him at the start). Supporting cast of birds included Black Necked and Little Grebes, Red Crested and Common Pochard, Shoveler, Mallard, Teal, Gadwall, Moorhen, Greater Flamingo, Black Tern, Black-Winged Stilt, Cetti’s Warbler, Blackcap, Redstart and Tree Sparrow.
Booted Eagle
LA ALGAIDA PINEWOODS
We visited the pinewoods early in the morning, around 08.30am, hoping to find Azure-Winged Magpie. Reading previous trip reports we didn’t hold out much hope of seeing them, but we got very lucky and after about 10 minutes driving along the main track through the park we discovered a flock of about a dozen of these wonderful looking birds, to me certainly one of the birds of the trip. Again, like all the sites mentioned in this report, this area is huge We only drove up the main road through the park birding along the way at different points We notched up Short Toed Tree-Creeper, Yellow Wagtail and various finches and tit flocks as they foraged through the canopy.
Griffon Vultures
SOTO GRANDE
We called into this site on our return journey to the airport which is a private estate on the Mediterranean coast east of Gibraltar. When we arrived the tide was fully in so there were no birds on the shore apart from a few Yellow Legged Gulls. So we had a quick sea watch resulting in Cory’s and Balearic Shearwaters, Gannets, Great Skua and Mediterranean Gull. At the mouth of the river, which runs into the sea at this point, were a few more Yellow Legged Gulls with Sand Martins overhead and a splash of colour provided by a flock of Rose-Ringed Parakeets
Blue Rock Thrush
SALINAS DE BONANZA AND MARISMAS DE TREBUJENA
Not far from San Lucar, these saltpans proved to be a top site, and really needed more time than we could give it. It’s a great spot for waders, gulls and terns, with a fine supporting cast of other birds. The top bird here was a Lesser Crested Tern amongst the many Caspian, Sandwich, Common and Gull-Billed Terns. Other good birds seen included Slender-Billed Gull, Yellow Legged Gull, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Spoonbill, Avocet, Black Stork, Marsh Harrier, Red Kite, Osprey, Little and Great White Egrets, Green Sandpiper, Dunlin, Greenshank and Tree Pipit. Our visit was cut short here when the local farmer asked us to move, as he was herding up fighting bulls from the safety of his pickup truck, and looking at some of the bulls we weren’t going to argue.
Southern Grey Shrike
BRAZO DEL ESTE
Another wonderful site, there were birds everywhere. We must have seen over a 100 Purple Swamp-Hens, 100’s of Cattle Egrets, over 30 Marsh Harriers, huge flocks of sparrows which included Spanish, House and Tree, hundreds of larks, large numbers of wagtails and a taste of Africa in the form of a Yellow Crowned Bishop, along with Short-Toed and Booted Eagles and Osprey, this site is a must when visiting South West Spain.
Flamingos
LOS ALCORNOCALES
We decided on the last day to have a drive through the corkwoods of Los Alcornocales National Park. We used the road from Facinas to Los Barrios. Although the Garcia Paterson book says the road is bad but improved since 2000, let me give you a word of warning, the road is in an appalling state and should, in fact, be closed. At one point there was only half the road left as the other half had fallen into the valley below. It was a nightmare journey and wasted two hours getting the car down.
GENERAL OVERVIEW
It is evident that by mid October most of the summer visitors have gone and the winter ones haven’t yet arrived. Having said that the bird watching is easy and many great birds are still around to be seen. First light isn’t until 08.00 so you can have a nice lie in each morning, the weather is pleasant, and you can do the trip quite cheaply .Food and accommodation at both hotels that we used were a very good standard (unlike all of our Spanish).Apart from the Alcornocales track and parts of La Janda the roads to the sites are in good condition and an ordinary family car is all that is required. Like all trips you try and push in as many sites as possible in the time you have. There are so many superb sites in the Andalucía area that a 7 or even a10 day trip would be better just to give some of the sites above the time they truly deserve.
Sparrowhawk A few around Tarifa
Osprey Salinas de Monte Algaida/Brazo Del Este
Lesser Kestrel A few throughout area
Kestrel Common
Moorhen Common
Purple Swamp-Hen 100+ at Brazo Del Este
Coot Abundant at Laguna de Medina
Oystercatcher Tarifa beach
Black Winged Stilt Common
Avocet Bonanza
Little Ringed Plover Two at Brazo Del Este
Ringed Plover Tarifa beach/Bonanza
Kentish Plover Common
Golden Plover Bonanza
Grey Plover Bonanza
Lapwing Seen a few around saltpans
Sanderling Tarifa beach
Little Stint Bonanza
Curlew Sandpiper Bonanza
Dunlin Bonanza
Snipe Brazo Del Este
Black Tailed Godwit Bonanza
Curlew Bonanza
Redshank Common
Greenshank Common
Green Sandpiper Bonanza/Brazo Del Este
Common Sandpiper Bonanza
Turnstone Tarifa beach
Great Skua Soto Grande
Mediterranean Gull Soto Grande
Black Headed Gull Common
Slender Billed Gull Bonanza
Audouins Gull Tarifa beach
lesser Black Backed Gull Common
Yellow Legged Gull Common
Gull Billed Tern 3 at Bonanza
Caspian Tern Bonanza
Black Tern Only one at Laguna de Medina
Sandwich Tern Tarifa beach/Bonanza
Lesser Crested Tern One at Bonanza
Common Tern A few at Bonanza
Rock Dove/Feral Pigeon Common
Woodpigeon A few birds throughout area
Collared Dove A few birds throughout area
Ring Necked Parakeet Soto Grande
Little Swift Two at Bolonia
Kingfisher Tarifa beach/Brazo Del Este
Calandra Lark La Janda
Crested Lark Abundant
Skylark La Janda
Sand Martin 3-4 birds at Soto Grande
Crag Martin Bolonia
Swallow A few birds throughout area
Tree Pipit One at Bonanza
Meadow Pipit A few birds around La Janda
Yellow Wagtail Common at Brazo Del Este
White Wagtail Common
Wren Common
Robin Common
Black Redstart Bolonia/La Janda
Redstart A few at La Janda
Stonechat Abundant
Northern Wheatear A few around area
Blue Rock Thrush Bolonia
Blackbird Common
Song Thrush Only a few seen
Cetti’s Warbler Laguna de Medina
Zitting Cisticola Very common
Blackcap A few records
Chiffchaff A few sightings
Pied Flycatcher Only one at La Janda
Blue Tit A few throughout area
Great Tit A few throughout area
Coal Tit La Algaida pinewoods
Southern Grey Shrike La Janda
Woodchat Shrike Tarifa
Azure Winged Magpie La Algaida pinewoods
Jackdaw Common
Carrion Crow Common
Raven Tarifa area
Starling Common
Spotless Starling Common
House Sparrow Common
Spanish Sparrow Common
Tree Sparrow La Janda/Brazo Del Este
Yellow Crowned Bishop Brazo Del Este
Chaffinch Common
Serin Only one at Puerto Real lakes
Greenfinch Common
Goldfinch Abundant
Linnet Common
Corn Bunting Very Common