I am ashamed to say this but it was my first visit to Petrola and the surrounding area. And what a magical place?!?!?
Had the luxury of spending 24 hours in and around Corral-Rubio. What a lovely area it is too and I had the place completely to myself. After three hours of searching in very hot conditions and a Sahara-like heat haze, I managed to track down my target bird. In fact, I had three in the fields just north of El Bachiller. Great Bustards are very special indeed. In addition, there were a few timid Rock Sparrows on the buildings. The lagoons produced the following:
Gadwall, Shoveler, Common Pochard, Red-crested Pochard, White-headed Duck, Red-legged Partridge, Little Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Purple Heron, Glossy Ibis, hundreds of Flamingo particularly at Laguna de Petrola, a Black Kite, several Red Kite, oodles of Marsh Harrier (even had a pair sky dancing), good numbers of Buzzards and a Hobby terrorising the local Swift population right over my van.
Also seen in the general area were:- Stone-Curlew, many Black-winged Stilt, Avocet, Lapwing, Gull-billed Tern, Whiskered Tern, Little Owl, Hoopoe, Bee-eater, Calandra Lark and numerous Yellow Wagtail.
