Birding Big Day around The Route of 100 Birds 2019.05.22
The long passage of waders that is taking place this year has made it easier to reach 114 different species in our big day!
Click here for many more pictures and the complete list of birds observed:
https://www.birdaytrip.es/blog/item/904-birding-big-day-around-the-route-of-100-birds-2019-05-22
The temperature was only 11 ºC when I arrived at Montes de Malaga. The Woodlarks were singing like crazy, and I could also hear Red-necked and European Nightjars and Scops Owl before dawn. The highlight at Montes was the presence of at least one Azure-winged Magpie there, well away from their headquarters around Archidona.
We spotted most of the regular gems at El Torcal, with very decent views of a Western Orphean Warbler singing from a hawthorn. There was a Whitethroat, which is not a very common breeding bird in this area, singing and marking his territory on the way down to Antequera. If it is a bird still on passage or it is going to breed here is something we should pay attention to in the coming weeks.
Given that the little pools at the entrance and around the wooden bridge at the Fuente de Piedra Lake Visitors Centre are already dry, I did not spent much time there, ticked the White Stork and Greater Flamingos on the list and went on towards the farmlands, where I saw all our possible larks (Crested, Calandra and Short-toad, plus the Thekla we observed at El Torcal), the Montagu’s Harrier and White-headed Duck, Red-crested Pochard, Glossy Ibis, Great Crested and Black-necked Grebes at Laguna Dulce.
WE stopped at El Chorro for some birds I had missed before, like Alpine Swift, Black Wheatear and Chough.
Our views of Bee-eaters and Little-ringed Plovers were fantastic at the Valley of the Guadalhorce, a good place to find the White Wagtails during the breeding season as well.
The visit to the Mouth of the Guadalhorce rounded off a fantastic day. There were still plenty of waders on passage at Rio Viejo, like Dunlin, Sanderling, Redshank, Black-tailed and Bar-tailed Godwits, Ringed and Grey Plovers along with the resident Kentish Plovers, Black-winged Stilts and Avocets. There were many young Audouin’s Gulls and still a lot of Slender-billed ones which might be showing some willing to breed in the area this year. There was a regular flow of Balearic Shearwaters flying east-west direction and we could spot maybe the last Gannet in the Bay of Malaga.