Barred Wobbler
Well-known member
A trip report that I'll have to post in stages. I hope you can be bothered to read it. |;|
Part one
Cadiz & Malaga Provinces Trip
24 February to 3 March 2007
Based at Estepona
We flew by Easyjet from Newcastle at 06.30 on Saturday 24th February. The best thing about flying at this time is that you arrive with some useful birding time at your destination. The downside is the lack of sleep the night before. I went to bed at midnight, expecting a couple of hours, but as soon as the light went out the brain went into gear and I was still awake when the alarm went off at 2.15.
I’d pre-booked a car at Malaga over the internet through all-inclusive-car-hire.com, a service agency I’ve often used. They were offering a Clio-type car with air-con for about 62 quid for the week. In the event the car I was given was a larger model Kia Cerato for the same price. It actually cost a bit more than the stated price because of the hire-company the agency used on this occasion. There are several different hire companies they use. The usual practice is that you return the car with the same amount of petrol as when you started, either a full or a part tank, but this company has a different method. They charge you for a full tank when you pick up the car and ask you to return it empty. They win in two ways with this method, firstly you always return the car with a bit of petrol sploshing about in the tank that you’ve already paid for and secondly – and more significantly – they charged 62 euros for the full tank when it only cost 41 euros at a petrol station to fill it from empty to full, so they’ve craftily added the difference of 21 euros to your quoted hire cost. Even then, it’s a cheap hire of a car in excellent condition. This one only had 17,000km on the clock and usually they have done even less than this. I’m not complaining.
Our base was a comfortable and well fitted apartment in the centre of Estepona. We’ve stayed in the general area several times in the past, but this was the first time we’d actually stayed right in the town. It was only 5 minutes walk to the shops and restaurants which was a plus, but even in February the parking situation in town was a nightmare and I had to drive around several blocks looking for a parking space whenever I returned from a day’s birding, It’s easier in the villages.
It’s a great area for birds in the south west corner of Spain, particularly during the spring and autumn migration periods and even in winter there are still representatives of several species that are normally considered migrants staying on. Sadly the amount of birding habitat on the coastal strip has been diminished, particularly in the past few years by the upsurge in building of urbanisations and their ubiquitous golf courses. Perhaps the recent goings-on with the Mayor’s department at Malaga will put the brakes on a bit.
Day 1, Saturday 24th February 2007.
Weather , Fine, clear skies, 25C, but brisk N wind.
Rio Guadalhorce Reserve, Malaga.
We were lucky with our arrival at Malaga. We landed roughly on time at 10.35 and our cases were some of the first onto the carousel, then a short walk down the ramp to the car hire office, where for once there was no queue and we collected our car in record time. Within 55 minutes of the Boeing 737 touching the runway we were at the reserve. No flight into Malaga is complete without a trip around this excellent reserve less than 3km from the airport car hire area. It’s worth building in a three hour delay in reaching your digs.
The first bird of the day was a Gannet, which I saw flying over the sea beneath the aircraft as we came in on our approach to the airport. As we arrived at the reserve and even before we’d left the car at 11.30 we saw Yellow legged gull, Crested lark, Serin and Zitting cisticola . The walk onto the reserve across the beach at the river mouth gave us Black headed gull, Sanderling, Lesser black-backed gull and Meadow pipit. On reaching the first tamarisk bushes and reed areas at the first of the pools it became clear that the wind was going to be a problem and we would struggle to see one of the target birds of the trip, bluethroat and other small stuff. A couple of what looked suspiciously like Lesser Kestrels passed by, but I was only 75% certain of the identity. A common Kestrel hovered over the scrub.
The pools held Cormorants in full breeding plumage, Shoveler, Grey heron, Mallard, White headed duck (about a dozen), Black winged stilt, Little egret, Pochard, Dabchick, Gadwall, Greenshank, Black-tailed godwit, Redshank, Little ringed plover, Coot, Green sandpiper, Kentish plover, Tufted duck, Spoonbill, a lone Shelduck and three immature Greater flamingo.
The bushes and vegetation held Chiffchaff, Stonechat, Cetti’s warbler, Sardinian warbler, Greenfinch, White wagtail, Blackbird, Hoopoe, Black redstart and Robin, but as expected no sign of the elusive bluethroat. A speculative glace through the bins at a bush on the east side of the reserve found a male Penduline tit occupying centre stage.
An Osprey carrying a fish flew in to land on its favourite perch on one of the trees in the centre of the reserve. A pale phase Booted eagle quartered the area and as we walked around the reserve a bird that occupied the same bit of sky as had the eagle revealed itself at close range as the first Black kite of the trip.
Overhead flew Spotless starling, Monk parakeet, Swallow, Sand martin, House martin and, as we’d almost completed the circuit of the area, the only Red-rumped swallow of the trip flew low over our heads and across the river.
Sandwich terns hunted along the shore-line and a scan through hundreds of gulls on the sea gave us a solitary Mediterranean Gull in breeding plumage.
The common stuff such as house sparrows, collared dove etc gave us a total of 57 species while we were still only a five minute drive from the airport. It was now time to drive to Estepona to find our apartment, but on the way we stopped off at Miraflores, an urbanisation near Fuengirola, in the hope of locating a common bulbul that had been reported as frequenting the area. A short drive into this vast area of housing with well vegetated gardens soon brought home the futility of the task, so we headed off to find our base.
Part one
Cadiz & Malaga Provinces Trip
24 February to 3 March 2007
Based at Estepona
We flew by Easyjet from Newcastle at 06.30 on Saturday 24th February. The best thing about flying at this time is that you arrive with some useful birding time at your destination. The downside is the lack of sleep the night before. I went to bed at midnight, expecting a couple of hours, but as soon as the light went out the brain went into gear and I was still awake when the alarm went off at 2.15.
I’d pre-booked a car at Malaga over the internet through all-inclusive-car-hire.com, a service agency I’ve often used. They were offering a Clio-type car with air-con for about 62 quid for the week. In the event the car I was given was a larger model Kia Cerato for the same price. It actually cost a bit more than the stated price because of the hire-company the agency used on this occasion. There are several different hire companies they use. The usual practice is that you return the car with the same amount of petrol as when you started, either a full or a part tank, but this company has a different method. They charge you for a full tank when you pick up the car and ask you to return it empty. They win in two ways with this method, firstly you always return the car with a bit of petrol sploshing about in the tank that you’ve already paid for and secondly – and more significantly – they charged 62 euros for the full tank when it only cost 41 euros at a petrol station to fill it from empty to full, so they’ve craftily added the difference of 21 euros to your quoted hire cost. Even then, it’s a cheap hire of a car in excellent condition. This one only had 17,000km on the clock and usually they have done even less than this. I’m not complaining.
Our base was a comfortable and well fitted apartment in the centre of Estepona. We’ve stayed in the general area several times in the past, but this was the first time we’d actually stayed right in the town. It was only 5 minutes walk to the shops and restaurants which was a plus, but even in February the parking situation in town was a nightmare and I had to drive around several blocks looking for a parking space whenever I returned from a day’s birding, It’s easier in the villages.
It’s a great area for birds in the south west corner of Spain, particularly during the spring and autumn migration periods and even in winter there are still representatives of several species that are normally considered migrants staying on. Sadly the amount of birding habitat on the coastal strip has been diminished, particularly in the past few years by the upsurge in building of urbanisations and their ubiquitous golf courses. Perhaps the recent goings-on with the Mayor’s department at Malaga will put the brakes on a bit.
Day 1, Saturday 24th February 2007.
Weather , Fine, clear skies, 25C, but brisk N wind.
Rio Guadalhorce Reserve, Malaga.
We were lucky with our arrival at Malaga. We landed roughly on time at 10.35 and our cases were some of the first onto the carousel, then a short walk down the ramp to the car hire office, where for once there was no queue and we collected our car in record time. Within 55 minutes of the Boeing 737 touching the runway we were at the reserve. No flight into Malaga is complete without a trip around this excellent reserve less than 3km from the airport car hire area. It’s worth building in a three hour delay in reaching your digs.
The first bird of the day was a Gannet, which I saw flying over the sea beneath the aircraft as we came in on our approach to the airport. As we arrived at the reserve and even before we’d left the car at 11.30 we saw Yellow legged gull, Crested lark, Serin and Zitting cisticola . The walk onto the reserve across the beach at the river mouth gave us Black headed gull, Sanderling, Lesser black-backed gull and Meadow pipit. On reaching the first tamarisk bushes and reed areas at the first of the pools it became clear that the wind was going to be a problem and we would struggle to see one of the target birds of the trip, bluethroat and other small stuff. A couple of what looked suspiciously like Lesser Kestrels passed by, but I was only 75% certain of the identity. A common Kestrel hovered over the scrub.
The pools held Cormorants in full breeding plumage, Shoveler, Grey heron, Mallard, White headed duck (about a dozen), Black winged stilt, Little egret, Pochard, Dabchick, Gadwall, Greenshank, Black-tailed godwit, Redshank, Little ringed plover, Coot, Green sandpiper, Kentish plover, Tufted duck, Spoonbill, a lone Shelduck and three immature Greater flamingo.
The bushes and vegetation held Chiffchaff, Stonechat, Cetti’s warbler, Sardinian warbler, Greenfinch, White wagtail, Blackbird, Hoopoe, Black redstart and Robin, but as expected no sign of the elusive bluethroat. A speculative glace through the bins at a bush on the east side of the reserve found a male Penduline tit occupying centre stage.
An Osprey carrying a fish flew in to land on its favourite perch on one of the trees in the centre of the reserve. A pale phase Booted eagle quartered the area and as we walked around the reserve a bird that occupied the same bit of sky as had the eagle revealed itself at close range as the first Black kite of the trip.
Overhead flew Spotless starling, Monk parakeet, Swallow, Sand martin, House martin and, as we’d almost completed the circuit of the area, the only Red-rumped swallow of the trip flew low over our heads and across the river.
Sandwich terns hunted along the shore-line and a scan through hundreds of gulls on the sea gave us a solitary Mediterranean Gull in breeding plumage.
The common stuff such as house sparrows, collared dove etc gave us a total of 57 species while we were still only a five minute drive from the airport. It was now time to drive to Estepona to find our apartment, but on the way we stopped off at Miraflores, an urbanisation near Fuengirola, in the hope of locating a common bulbul that had been reported as frequenting the area. A short drive into this vast area of housing with well vegetated gardens soon brought home the futility of the task, so we headed off to find our base.
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