We had a short trip out to look at the Salinas and El Pinet. We parked by the big rocks and could see a Spoonbill and a Little Egret quite near to the edge of the lagoon. The Greater Flaminos were also quite close, a Grey Heron flew over the water and a Great White Egret could be seen in the distance. A quick look at the lakes on the other side of the road found us Shelduck, Black winged Stilt, Avocet and the usual Cormorants sitting on the posts. We moved on to El Pinet and checked out the lakes where we saw 1 Redshank, 1 Snipe, 1 Dunlin, 4/5 Greenshanks and several Black winged Stilts and Avocets. A Southern Grey Shrike was sitting on a wire and Crag Martins flew over the area. We met four birders here including Mark Powell and his wife who were escorting two visiting birders on a birding holiday. Mark and his son Ashley work as bird guides with Aquila Bird Tours. Mark reads this blog and recognised me from my photo! We chatted for a while and Mark told us he had seen about 30 Spoonbills on the Salinas, from the lay by. On to the beach next where a walk along the edge of the reserve gave us Crested Larks and a Stonechat. During a very brief spell of sea watching we saw Sandwich Tern, Cormorant and a single Gannet which was diving into the sea to catch fish, a great sight!