Visited both La Janda and Barbate. Probably the only two places still accesible by vehicle after all this rain.
Between the rain showers the migrants must have been pouring across the Straits from Africa. Hundreds of Black Kites and White Storks were seen. There were also plenty of other migrants around – Short-toed Eagles, Booted Eagles and Hoopoes.
There were also lots of Serins around at La Janda today – some very bright ones in amongst them.
With all the rain all of the ditches are flooded. Bluethroats, being skulky little devils at the best of times have found a new favourite bush that I can park near, using the car as a mobile bird hide, I staked out the bush for two hours and managed to get some half-decent photos. The three birds (one which had colour rings) were active for all of those two hours – they seemed to be finding plenty to eat. Also present were White Wagtails and a lovely Black Redstart.
Plenty of other birds around too
Some images of the flooded fields complete this post (the water height at the sluice down the main channel can be see in this week’s Photo Project 365 as I took photos of that on three different days).
People often ask me what bird field guide do I use in Spain, well, I use the same one that I use for the UK, which is, in my opinion the best of all for Europe.
I usually carry the paperback version with me while out and about and have the hardback at home.
I also have this one though these days I pretty much know where to go and I have my own personal favourite spots
My equipment for bird photography: Canon 1DX Mk.II with 600mm lens and Canon 2x Extender
The compact flash card I use is this one, the Sandisk Extreme Pro, and I like it a lot, I have no problems with it buffering
Just goes to show, it doesn’t matter where you are you should always have your camera handy! The Eyebrowed Thrush – a last minute dash over to Cadiz to twitch this bird after hearing about it during lunch on the 24th February paid off nicely. The fourth record for Spain though two of those had been recorded as dead birds during Song Thrush hunting (yes, I know, I also wonder what the heck is the point of shooting Song thrushes??).
The bird was very confiding and seemingly not put off by the canoodling couple on a bench nearby (who likewise didn’t seemed put off by us birders hanging around with our bins and cameras). As there is a plentiful supply of food in the form of olives on the trees and a nice water fountain the bird might hang around a little longer…
Click here for the full Birdguides weekly review – scroll down there for the write up on the thrush in the Western Palearctic news.
It was great to meet up with old friends (and also to meet some new people!) today at La Janda for the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society (GONHS) outing. As La Janda has kind of become our local patch while we’ve been here we were asked to lead the convoy, stopping in strategic places where the birds were.
The official report on the days outing can be found on the GONHS website at: www.gonhs.org/news/101-la-janda-outing
Bird of the day for me was the Spanish Imperial Eagle that was sitting on the irrigation equipment – a distant but great view!
Mid afternoon we all headed over to Benalup for a long lunch – one of the best things about birding with the Gibraltarians 🙂
Our first full day down south here in Andalusia. Had a ride around at La Janda and then later on at Barbate.
There are still plenty of Cranes at La Janda plus a Black Stork. I’ll just let the photos tell the story…
And at Barbate
People often ask me what bird field guide do I use in Spain, well, I use the same one that I use for the UK, which is, in my opinion the best of all for Europe.
I usually carry the paperback version with me while out and about and have the hardback at home.
I also have this one though these days I pretty much know where to go and I have my own personal favourite spots
My equipment for bird photography: Canon 1DX Mk.II with 600mm lens and Canon 2x Extender
The compact flash card I use is this one, the Sandisk Extreme Pro, and I like it a lot, I have no problems with it buffering
Time to do my daily painting. I have to say here and now i’m not much of a painter but really want to improve, so here goes! I’ve signed up for the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge as run by Leslie Saeta. As inspiration I have also been reading the book Daily Painting – Paint Small and Often to Become a More Creative, Productive and Successful Artist by Carol Marine. I’m enjoying the book a lot, haven’t quite finished it yet.
I’ve decided that the first week will be devoted to experimental painting, I haven’t decided yet on themes for the following weeks.
Today’s painting is acrylic paint on 6″ x 6″ card and is really a kind of a loose sketch of something i’m working on that will be on a 20″ x 16″ canvas and in mixed media. It was me feeling my way into the work and trying different things. The final painting will no doubt be quite different but it was very useful to do a small version.
I was up early as always on the 1st January to spend the daylight hours birding, working on the year list. The weather was pretty grim, cold and windy but it has to be done. Ended the day on 53 species, the highlights being two Golden Eagles and three Snow Buntings.
Bit of a crummy phone pic – the waves looked way more impressive than this!
The crofter was busy on the beach collecting seaweed, it will be left in a big pile to rot then will be spread onto the crofter’s plot on the machair to fertilise his crops. This time of year there is always massive piles of seaweed after the winter storms – i’ve seen it 10 or more feet deep.