A morning walk around the Clot proved quite successful. Firstly, a Cattle Egret met us by the gate! Our first stop was at the scrape where the usual selection of ducks were swimming around. At the main hide the Little Bittern was still in the reeds opposite the hide and a Snipe was in it’s usual place, on the ground to the right of the hide. We walked up to the mirador and then up the hill where we found the Stone Curlew that we had been told were in that area. I saw two fly into deep cover before we found two more on the ground, amongst the bushes, seen from the small viewing tower.
Shortly afterwards, Whilst sitting in the larger tower we had our first Red-rumped Swallow of the year in amongst the Crag Martins and a Booted Eagle flew overhead. Moving down the hill we visited the new hide where I had a distant view of a Great Crested Grebe, a bird we have not seen in Spain, or in the UK, for quite a while.
Finally, we headed to the dry/marsh hide which was quite busy with Spanish birders. I wonder if they were looking for the Ferruginous Ducks? They weren’t showing sadly, but there were several White-headed Ducks whereas we had only seen the odd one up to now. After watching the usual suspects on the lagoon we headed back to our apartment for lunch.
Species list – Little Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Teal, Marbled Duck, Pochard, Red-crested Pochard, White-headed Duck, Booted Eagle, Red-legged Partridge, Coot, Moorhen, Stone Curlew, Snipe, Black-headed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Crag Martin, Swallow, Red-rumped Swallow, White Wagtail, Robin, Black Redstart, Stonechat, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, Sardinian Warbler, Iberian Grey Shrike, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch.
