Southern Spain - Trip report and photos (1 Viewer)

Richard Ford · May 24, 2010

I spent a fantastic week in southern Spain with three other birders at the end of April, i am sure many of you will have heard of and been to some of the same areas we spent time in, and if you haven't you really should. I would recommend the Coto Doñana area particularly, to anyone just for the number of birds, many different species and thousands of individuals.

Trip report and lots of photos on my site here

I hope you enjoy it.

I've uploaded a few photographs as a taster here.

Richard

wolfbirder · May 25, 2010

Lovely report Richard. Always love reading reports from this region.

PS Rhonda has no "h" in it (sorry to sound pedantic, but otherwise they may think you are in Wales)

Hotspur · May 25, 2010

Great report. Makes me want to get back to Spain.

Stewart J. · May 25, 2010

Superb report Richard, brings back memories

ATB

Stewart

stevieb · May 25, 2010

Excellent report and superb Photo's Richard.
Just a note but you have named your photo of Little Bustard as Little Egret!

Richard Ford · May 25, 2010

stevieb said:
Excellent report and superb Photo's Richard.
Just a note but you have named your photo of Little Bustard as Little Egret!

What a pillock! 8-P Thanks Steve, and thanks for the other notes and complements. There is bound to be other typos, grammar has never been a strong point of mine. Hopefully the photos will detract attention enough that no one notices.

Glad you've enjoyed it.

Rich

John Cantelo · May 25, 2010

Thanks for this, Richard. Any trip report on Spain is meat and drink to me, but this one has distinctly above average photos - arguably, the best illustrated report on birding Spain I've seen. I'm out there later this week, but the pace of your trip is far too much for an old gaffer like me so, as usual, I'll be based in Cadiz province,

Birdingcraft · May 25, 2010

Excellent and thorough trip report! Thanks for writing and posting it- the photos are truly impressive and could grace the pages of any magazine. Although I live in Costa Rica, I would love to go birding in Spain and hope to make it happen within the next few years.

Richard Ford · May 26, 2010

John Cantelo said:
arguably, the best illustrated report on birding Spain I've seen.

Well that really is a complement, thanks very much John. Good luck with your trip.

Thanks again for the kind words from everyone.
I am already looking forward to going back one day

Richard

nick scarle · May 26, 2010

Excellent report and super photos - especially some of the "in flight" shots.
Can I ask what camera/lens you were using? I'm guessing it's not a particularly heavy set-up given the amount of travelling involved.

Cheers
Nick

MKinHK · May 26, 2010

Wonderful photos - rekindled memories and provided a great distraction from work for a few minutes today - Thanks!

Mike

PS One question: what was the bird in the other side of the tree from the Black-shouldered Kite?

Mick Sway · May 26, 2010

Southern Spain trip report

Great report lovingly put together.
The squacco and black kite pics are great, very atmospheric.
Thanks for posting.
Mick:t:

Richard Ford · May 27, 2010

nick scarle said:
Can I ask what camera/lens you were using? I'm guessing it's not a particularly heavy set-up given the amount of travelling involved.

Cheers
Nick

Hi Nick

Thanks for the complement. I use a Canon 1dMKIII, and the only lens I took with me was the Canon EF 400mm f5.6 L USM Lens. If you are not familiar with it, it’s a great sharp little lightweight lens. I have always found it great for flight shots. Its comparatively cheap since it's not stabilised, something I have never found a problem since it is so light and easy to handhold. I have no problem walking around all day with this set-up slung over my shoulder and it's perfect for travelling since it takes up very little room, and is light.

Cheers

Richard

Jon Turner · May 27, 2010

Yes, great stuff Richard, I'm just back from Southern Spain and it took me three weeks to get to 162 species!

The cave on the cliff high above Bolonia did indeed have Little Swift - I saw 2 there on the 11th May and a single White-rumped on 23rd. I've often seen Red-knobbed Coot at Medina, but the day we dropped in there, it was blowing a howling gale, and the waves were pretty impressive. The White-headed Ducks were close in so gave great views.

One of the highlights of my stay was being able to cycle out from my house in Jimena and see Rufous Bush Chat nearby. Also did some ringing with Richard Banham, and we ringed several Olivaceous Warblers. (not as good as the Booted Eagle they caught another day near Algeciras!)

Anyway - great report and photos, well done, hope you've recovered!

Jon

Richard Ford · May 28, 2010

MKinHK said:
PS One question: what was the bird in the other side of the tree from the Black-shouldered Kite?

Hi Mike

As i remember the other bird in the tree was a Spotless Starling, though we didn't give it much attention at the time obviously. I think the attached shows that it is a Starling at least. I have also attached another photo, which is a crop at distance but shows two Kites in the tree.

Cheers

Richard Ford · May 28, 2010

Apparently i can't upload files at the moment!

Richard Ford · May 29, 2010

Richard Ford said:
Apparently i can't upload files at the moment!

Not sure if there was some sort of site maintenance going on yesterday stopping me uploading files, but anyway i have managed to do it now. See above.
Cheers

Southern Spain - Trip report and photos (1 Viewer)

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