Birding Cadiz (& nearby) (2 Viewers)

I did, however, briefly visit three small lagunas - Lagunas Juncosa & de los Tercios (Lagunas de El Puerto de Santa Maria) and Laguna Jeli (Lagunas de Chiclana) and spent a couple of hours walking around a fourth, the urban Laguna de Torrox (Jerez). The first had water but was entirely birdless so, being pressed for time, I didn't look at the nearby Lagunas Chica & Salada. However, I was surprised to find that the shallow Laguna de Los Tercios (also shown on maps as the Marismas del Laguna Pozo Lozano or Laguna del Hato Carne) nearby had some water. My very quick look found a few Shovelers, Green Sandpipers, Black-winged Stilts, Flamingos and plenty of gulls. I wouldn't have looked at the (former?) Laguna de Jeli at all were it not for the fact that I wanted to show the general area to a birding friend (it's excellent for migrating raptors and has a small population of Rufous Bushchats later in the year. It was, of course, bone dry.





Perhaps significantly, the only places that seemed to have plenty of water were golf courses and landscaped urban lagunas. Since Laguna Torrox - one of the latter - was in Jerez near IKEA (which I had to visit to buy new bed linen) I managed to take the time to walk around the perimeter of this figure-of-eight laguna (c2 hours). The fact that it had one (or more) Red-knobbed Coot was, of course, entirely incidental ... It had a few pochard (both varieties), Mallard, Purple Swamphen, Great-crested Grebe, Cormorants, masses of Swallows and House Martins, a few Crag Martins, an early Sedge Warbler and, yes, a Red-knobbed Coot. Although there were few ducks and grebes, it was by far the liveliest laguna I visited in Cadiz province.

Great-spotted Cuckoo is not a species I often see in my neck of the woods in Cadiz Province since I tend not to be there when they peak on migration (although an increasing population of Magpie seems to have increased the numbers lingering in the area). Accordingly, I jumped at the chance to explore an area over in Granada Province not far from the Sierra Nevada for this attractive species. Happily, we saw several birds and, as a bonus, had two Golden Eagles displaying.

Such good birds! The first shot is a cracker, and the habitat beats a stretch of an A road near Shoreham, where I saw my one and only few decades ago!

Although it was still a little early in the year to expect much in the way of variety or numbers in migrating raptors, I was very pleased with what I saw watching from my terrace (despite being in a small town - Alcala de los Gazules - it has a 180-degree view over open country - see #70). When the Lesser Kestrels weren't cavorting across the sky chattering to one another (20+ most evenings & highest count of 41), they sat in the trees opposite giving ample opportunity to watch them. The earliness of the season meant I only had three Booted and a single Short-toed Eagles but my first adult Bonelli's here was a bonus. The occasional stream of 10-20 Black Kites served to remind me how many more raptors I'd be seeing down at Tarifa but a well-stocked fridge and couple of dozen steps and a few seconds up to the terrace usually wins over 70km and an hour in a car. Having struggled to see Spanish Imperial Eagle here in the past, it was good to see this iconic species three times - once an adult circling high with Griffons and twice a passing juvenile. Although Lesser Kestrels provided a constant context for my observations, Griffon Vultures represented an exciting leitmotif. They came over high and low with some birds trying to escape detection by slipping past in the valley below. I know enough about raptor passage here to be on the lookout for an early Egyptian Vulture (or two). I wasn't disappointed tallying three birds in all. For years Black Vulture - a scarce species in Cadiz Province - eluded me here but after finally seeing one in 2022 and I had two more in 2023 but this February in about a dozen watches I had three records of at least two individuals reflecting the species' return as a breeding bird in the province after c120 years. In one glorious moment the second bird was 'photobombed' by a flock of eight Black Storks! Unfortunately, Ruppell's Vulture continues to elude me here although one bird this spring looked promising but it slipped behind the houses behind the terrace before I could get a good look. For the first time in ages, I dipped Peregrine (although one was seen by my guest, Mick Richardson) but did see a few Sparrowhawks and the occasional Buzzard.




When I did manage to tear myself away from the terrace other sites also performed well for raptors. I had up to three Spanish Imperial Eagles a day and a single sub-adult Golden Eagle near Benalup (the latter my first in the La Janda area). I also had Short-eared Owl in the same area. The Valcargado track (north of Benalup) came up trumps within minutes of my arrival with a young Bonelli's mobbing an immature Golden Eagle as a Black Vulture drifted over (the latter two species also being my first here. Further along the track, I had more Bonelli's and a brief view of Spanish Imperial Eagle. Although I had already seen a pair of Black-winged Kite on my jaunt over to Granada Province, I was pleased to see another along the main canal on La Janda. Although I had Marsh Harriers aplenty at the latter site, I failed to catch up with the Hen x Pallid Harrier hybrid there (although I admit I only visited the main part of the area once).

No wonder birding in Kent on my return to Canterbury feels very dull!

Here's the photo of Black Storks photo-bombing a Black Vulture ...

There's no avoiding the fact that the Strait of Gibraltar is and will remain the ornithological centre of gravity for birders visiting Cadiz Province. Similarly, it would be quixotic to visit the area for the first time and not go during the spring or autumn migration period when thousands of raptors and storks cross the Strait of Gibraltar. Yet those who never visit in the winter months (November - February) and explore other areas are missing out. Although I saw some great raptors during my sojourn in February and got three Spanish ticks (more of which anon), the highlight of my visit was watching and hearing hundreds of Cranes on La Janda (and elsewhere). The bugling of a flock of Cranes circling overhead is strangely evocative and spine-tingling in a way that even a Spanish Imperial Eagle circling above them cannot match!

Back in January this year I posted a map of an exciting new development (Post 73) along the Guadalquivir between Bonanza and Trebujena which is due to be completed this year. It's so big that the consequent earthworks can clearly be seen on GoogleEarth. As my photos below indicate, it's still in a very 'raw' state with lots of bare earth, no vegetation in the pools and scarcely any birds using the area. Friends tell me that it takes 5-6 years for schemes like this to fully mature but my (limited) experience of such developments tell me that they're often best for birds in the first two or three years when insect life blooms exponentially. Hopefully it'll be finished by the autumn and should be a fantastic resource by spring 2025. With plans to give similar treatment to the upper marshes at Barbate seemingly permanently stalled and ambitious plans for La Janda in their infancy, it's good to see things actually happening 'on the ground' for once. With the Coto Donana under threat it can't come too soon.



Naturally, one of my priorities on my trip last month was to visit the area and see how this development is progressing. I soon discovered that seeing the map and the Googleearth imag did not prepare me for seeing the scale and ambition of the scheme - it's huge!


Looking east towards Trebujena from roughly halfway along the road the skirts the reserve (i.e. where the green ITI Marismas de Trebujena marker is on the GoogleEarth image).


There are two 'tower hides' with bridges over intervening arms of the scrape/pools to allow access. The extent of the pools/scrapes is indicated in this photo but the plan suggests more areas beyond and out of sight.


One of the tower hides.


This appears to be the main entrance and the area in the foreground looks like hard standing for a car park.

However, I have two linked concerns: access and long-term funding. A small reserve nearby also has several hides but there has been no general access almost since it was 'opened'. Other reserves in the province have suffered from minimal management and access for birders appears not to be a priority. The projected development on La Janda has acknowledged these problems and has a long-term funding plan. It remains to be seen whether the local authorities here have recognised and addressed these two problems. The reserve seems far too large to be simply restricted to 'educational' purposes (as seems to be the case for the smaller reserve) and appears to be dedicated to encouraging "eco-tourism". Quite what the access arrangements may be remains to be seen but at least it's better than yet another golf course!

John Cantelo said:

Unfortunately, Ruppell's Vulture continues to elude me here although one bird this spring looked promising but it slipped behind the houses behind the terrace before I could get a good look.

Click to expand...

Good news - Ruppell's Vulture is now on the list for my terrace
Bad news - it came low over the terrace when I was in the UK and was seen by two (former ) good friends who were staying there.

My home computer having been on a 'go slow' for some months finally gave up the ghost last month so I've not been able to post my final updates on BF until now.

I've never made a great effort to boost my Spanish list but when temptation presents itself I'm not entirely averse to a little dirty twitching particularly when encouraged by others! On my visit this Feb-March I had 3 Spanish ticks - a much higher tally than usual.

I confess that, left to my own devices, I probably wouldn't have bothered with looking for a Lesser Yellowlegs, a species I've seen a good few times in the UK, particularly as it was way over in Malaga. Happily, however, I stayed overnight with birding friends who live in Malaga and they twisted my arm LOL to make me go for this long-staying rarity. Naturally, rather than feeding in some attractive marsh, it was haunting a concrete-lined channel next to the municipal sewage works!


Next up was a drake Blue-winged Teal that had chosen a similarly insalubrious sewage-polluted site on the edge of Algeciras. Rare ducks aren't a great favourite of mine, not least due to the taint of being a possible "wire jumper". Another factor was my inherent dislike of driving into large Spanish towns so, despite the site being 40 minutes from my base in Alcala de los Gazules, I had zero intention of looking for it. However, I had arranged to meet Mick Richardson, a keen Hispano-twitcher, one morning near Palmones for some general birding. However, it was a Spanish tick for Mick and, since it was a mere 10 minutes drive away and a bird he'd previously dipped, a twitch was inevitable. As Mick's a far keener and more skilled birder than me, I was pleased to be the first to find the bird as it paddled around in sewage-saturated water.


I shan't pretend, though, that I was similarly indifferent about seeing some of the rare Asian buntings that were, remarkably, wintering on La Janda. For one such bird to do so in Andalucía would have been unprecedented but these records involved, astonishingly, up to 14 Little and 1-2 Rustic Buntings. So there was no 'playing it cool' about these birds, I was there looking en route to Alcala on the first afternoon I was there ... and I missed them! Unfortunately, I wasn't quite sure exactly where I should be looking and it was blowing a gale which kept most birds under cover and gifted those few that ventured aloft the speed of a small ballistic rocket. Fortunately, a few days later thanks to Mick's acute hearing and less wind, on two visits I managed to see about about a dozen Little Buntings. However, having seen a Little Bunting in Kent a few days before going out to Spain it was the Rustics that I really wanted to catch up with as I'd only seen one in the UK (1993) and a handful in Japan over a decade ago. Naturally, despite our best efforts, we couldn't find one. If I was more of a hard-core lister I would have kept going back until I did so but I was just as happy raptor watching from my terrace or visiting other interesting sites. It remains to be seen whether such extraordinary numbers here and in the UK are the harbinger of these handsome passerines becoming regular winter visitors in small numbers.

The new reserve at Trebujena continues to take shape with a new car park being constructed to serve the reserve. The noticeboard here tells me (in a Google translation) that -
"The Esparraguera marshes, in Trebujena, were transformed in the middle of the last century by means of a drainage system for cultivation, an operation that failed due to the high salinity of the substrate and its excessive clay content but which left the soil profoundly altered. hydrological and ecological functioning of the system.

In this context, the Junta de Andalucía has recovered some of the old pikes (fresh or brackish water lagoons) with the aim of conserving the biodiversity of the area, especially by recovering one of the main nesting areas for bird species. aquatic species such as Marbled Duck (Marmaronetta angustirostris), Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata) or White-heased Duck (Oxyura leucocephala).
These wetlands will also help to recover the functionality of the Guadalquivir estuary by functioning as refuge and fattening areas for fry of the numerous species of fish and crustaceans that develop in the estuary and helping to laminate the floods that occur in winter. Finally, this action also pursues the development of business initiatives linked to nature tourism and the sustainable extraction of renewable resources (shrimp, salicornia, etc.) that help diversify the current uses of the region.

Enjoy these spaces but do so with respect and caution: remember that you are in a sensitive system whose conservation depends on everyone. Do not abandon the trails and, if your dog accompanies you, remember the importance of always keeping him on a leash".

Let's hope that those Red-knobbed Coots, Marbled & White-headed Ducks don't mind sharing the place with dogs leashed or (as they so often are despite signage) unleashed. How far it will be successful in attracting this iconic trio remains to be seen but I'm more certain that these pools will prove to be very attractive to various waders, gulls and terns. To judge from their continuing scarcity Whiskered Terns need all the help they can get! Unless some hides are provided a 'scope will be a vital aid here.

My old geography teacher would have called the 'map' of reserve a 'pretty picture, but not a map' as it has no scale and doesn't indicate north (a failing that continues to grate on this student some 60 years on). More irritatingly still, as you look at it and then the reserve you'll find that the Mirador Lucio de Espinete is actually on your right, not your left and the same confusion applies to the Mirador Lucio de Gabela Honda. As a result, to make sense of what you can see you have to mentally turn the map the "wrong way up"! As can be seen from the photos, the place is still in a very raw state and does not yet appear to be open. The reserve is most easily reached from Trebujena as the track through the Pinar de la Agaida and then up to the Guadalquivir is now in a dire state.



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What's happened to Spectacled Warbler? A few years ago I managed to find Spectacled Warbler in low scrub along the Guadalquivir between Bonanza and Trebujena without too much trouble but, in recent years, I have struggled to do so finding them only at in Cadiz Bay at the Marismas de Cetina. I'd assumed that this difficulty was more to do with my failing hearing than the bird itself but a local guide I was chatting to at Bonanza told me numbers had crashed in recent years. Yet I saw them without too much difficulty in Navarre (where I took the attached photo). Worryingly, this matches my experience with other species - Black-eared and Black Wheatears for example - which appear to have declined since I started to visit Spain regularly 18 years ago.

Sad to hear about the decline of these birds Jon - I've still never seen a Spectacled Warbler. Conversely it is good to hear about habitat restoration - here's hoping some of the quality likes it and returns.

One good way to reduce dogs walking off-lead is to place signs stating that poison has been laid to control foxes ...

Cheers
Mike

I returned to the UK late last month, after several weeks of birding in Cadiz province. I'm still slowly updating my blog but I thought I'd add some less lengthy comments here.

I have posted several times here about the new reserve near Trebujena along the banks of the Guadalquivir. Last month I was v ery pleased to find that it's now open to the public. Perhaps I was over-optimistic in hoping that by this autumn the lagunas would have matured a little but it seems I'll have to wait longer. Accordingly, there were few birds present and the xerophytic vegetation in the drier areas does not seem to have recovered. The lagunas overlooked by the two miradors (Lucio de Gabela Honda & Lucio de Espinete) were almost entirely lifeless with no more than a couple of Black-winged Stilts, a handful of Spoonbills, a few Little Egrets and a few more Grey Herons). The margins of the lagunas appeared to be entirely lifeless with no vegetation of insect activity. Hopefully, things will improve by next spring ...

I parked at the main car park (see map in my earlier posting) and walked the footpath to the tower (Lucio de Gabela Honda) which afforded good views across the distant Marismas de Terebujena and the northern part of the wetland. Unfortunately, much of the laguna to the south-west remained hidden from view. Perhaps a hide could be slotted in where a track runs alongside this area. The route to Lucio de Gabela Honda (and beyond back to the main track) is rather exposed to the sun as is any observer to the birds - not ideal! Armed with a 'scope it might be worth scanning for the elusive Pin-tailed Sandgrouse from here. Where there was some vegetation several small groups of larks (totalling c50 birds) flew up but, other than two Calandra Larks, were in view so briefly and dived into cover so promptly that it was impossible to identify them to species level. Once you've reached the mirador you can either continue to the main track and walk along it back to the car park or return by the route you arrived. The former option gives you a better opportunity to see birds flying along the Guadalquivir.

The walk from the car park to the second tower (Mirador Lucio de Espinete) is a little shorter but you're obliged to return by the way you came. This laguna was also pretty lifeless although it held the bulk of the Spoonbills and, whilst I was scanning from the mirador, I had two Ospreys and a Caspian Tern passing along the river. Frustratingly, in the distance I could see that the pools to the south held good numbers of birds (c200 Flamingos, a few Glossy Ibis, unidentifiable small waders and a few ducks. If access along the track here is possible, these pools would be an excellent location for a couple of hides (if suitable screening could be arranged).

In summary, to reach this reserve's potential as a birding hotspot there needs to be better access to more distant corners of the reserve, more hides (and screening) and above all time must be allowed for it to mature.