BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stephen C" data-source="post: 3528966" data-attributes="member: 16111">[PLAIN]The last day of Winter around Barcelona, 16.2.17 [Part 2][/PLAIN]The Garraf Massis and the Llobregat Delta, Barcelona, 16.02.17Again my journey, this time to the CAL TET reserve of the wetlands of the LLOBREGAT DELTA, yielded a decent crop, of Magpie, Cattle Egret, Collared Dove, Monk Parakeet and House Sparrow.Arriving a tad late at 0920, I quickly stuffed my snacks for the next three hours into my side bag, and, making no apologies for paying scant regard to squabbling Tree Sparrows, the heads of Sky Lark bobbing out of the short grass and passing Black-headed Gull and Grey Heron, I sprint-walked off excitedly to look for a really cool wintering bird.As I scanned for this large-eyed, highly crepuscular and superbly camouflaged species, I couldn’t resist wavering several times over the bright, waxy plumage of a pair of Red-legged Partridge but then, finally, two yellow dots.  The respective right eyes of two Stone-curlew (aka Eurasian Thick-knee).  There’s no rushing away from these guys.  And I even ignored a screaming, over-flying Iberian Woodpecker.  Well there was no way I was going to get on it quick enough to appreciate it anyway.Stonechat and Zitting Cisticola (aka Fan-tailed Warbler) welcomed me at the entrance to the reserve, the latter sharing a mutual moment of distraction with me as it didn’t notice me at all and I, so brilliantly close was it zitting on a weed, didn’t even notice that my new point-and-shoot was around my neck.  Oh well, next time.Greater Flamingoes are not difficult to photograph.  Especially when they’re performing Michael Jackson’s moon walk in the Riu Llobregat.  Surrounded they were, by Common Shelduck, Common Teal and Common Pochard, and Mallard, Gadwall and Great Cormorant all of which were also, erm, common.  A Cetti’s Warbler popped up for a moment, but was much better seen later, and a single Purple Swamphen - I just can’t get used to calling it a Western Swamphen (now split from its African cousin) - was feeding along the opposite shore.After photographing the lovely crisp plumage of a Great Crested Grebe, the walk through what we call Los Calaixos, a series of reed ponds that render the water ever cleaner before its eventual release into the Mediterranean, was surprisingly uneventful - with only Chiffchaff, Moorhen and Coot - until I hit the flooded meadow.  Here I found, not unexpectedly, hoards of Meadow Pipit and Water Pipit but, definitely unexpectedly, only a single Green Sandpiper.Upon entering the Sabogal hide, however, the sight and site was just magical.  Hundreds of birds, of about twenty species, formed a busy, bubbling carpet on the island in front of the window, apparently restless but, upon closer inspection, was actually found to consist mainly of roosting ducks and Northern Lapwing.The next good while was spent scanning and re-scanning.  My attention was almost immediately drawn to the long-staying vagrant Barnacle Goose and I followed it as it munched its way between the feet and bodies of Greylag Goose, Common Snipe, a lone Great Egret, Northern Shovelor and Eurasian Wigeon.Of course there were many species, especially ducks, pipits and wagtails, I’d already encountered but along one edge sat a mixed flock of Black-headed and Mediterranean Gulls (see photo), which went up every now and again - once when a Common Buzzard passed over - taking the Lapwing with them to fill the sky and sending everything else into the water to unsettle the Little Grebes.As they settled, I got a better look at the pair of Audouin’s Gulls that were originally floating some distance away.  Unfortunately the groups of Spotted Redshank and Common Greenshank, present just a couple of days ago, were nowhere to be seen.Again a retrospective total shows I’m already at 75 species and I’m only about halfway into the reserve.(photos: purple swamphen, great crested grebe, mediterranean gulls+, barnacle goose, audouin’s gull).</blockquote>

Verification