Today we set off for a few days in Mojacar and on the way we had a drive around the Guadalentin Valley. As we approached the area near to the river we saw two Ravens, I knew they were Ravens because one of them did that thing where they fly upside down. I don’t know why they do that but it is great to see. As we passed one of the small reservoirs I spotted a pair of Garganey on the water. This would have been a highlight if we hadn’t already seen one last week. Even so it was great to see a pair and they were quite close. At one point John stopped and jumped out of the car as he thought he had seen a Bee eater but on closer inspection we found it was a Red rumped Swallow, still a nice bird but not the one we were looking for. We parked at the end of the track by the river and immediately heard a familiar call – Bee eaters. John spotted some on the other side of the river so we followed the track down over the river and back up the other side. From here we could see four birds on the wires. After a while they flew to the other side of the river and we could now see six of them. These were our first Bee eaters of the year and they are always a great sight. We drove around a bit more seeing several Corn Buntings and many Crested Larks. One Lark gave us such a good view that even we (who are not very good with Larks) were able to identify it as a Short toed Lark . We ate our lunch under a tree before continuing our journey to Mojacar.
At the hotel we watched House Martins flying past our balcony and later from the restaurant we saw Pallid Swifts screaming past the windows.
Species List – Little Grebe, Gargeney, Kestrel, Red legged Partridge, Coot, Black winged Stilt, Little Ringed Plover, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Swift, Bee eater, Hoopoe, Crested Lark, Short toed Lark, Swallow, Red rumped Swallow, Blackbird, Sardinian Warbler, Southern Grey Shrike, Spotless Starling, Magpie, Jackdaw, Raven, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Serin, Corn Bunting.