We holidayed in Spain for two weeks – one week in Seville and a second week in Cadiz. Although we were not on a birding holiday we did manage to fit in a six hour session with a guide that we found online. The company was Doñana Wings and our guide was Vicent Esteller, the manager of the company.
He picked us up from out hotel, The One-Shot Hotel in Seville about 8am and we drove the twenty minutes or so south-west of Seville to the “eastern branch” of the Guadalquivir River which was river on one side and rice paddy fields on the other. We would never have navigated this place ourselves but our guide was familiar with all the little dusty roads and by-ways that wound through the fields. We made eight or nine stopt atr various places and found some excellent birds everywhere.
Top sightings included the numerous White Storks but we also saw a few of the rarer Black Storks. Greater Flamingoes were in fair quantities also. We got a couple of Marsh Harriers, Buzzards and Kestrels but the three Ospreys marked the high point as regards bids of prey.
We got Purple and Squacco Heron as well as the numerous Greys. There were lots of Purple Swanphens and we saw around 200 Glossy Ibis. One pool held 30 Spoonbills as well as Marbled Teal, We saw a Little Stint, Spotted and Common Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Snipe, Ruff and Green Sandpiper, lots of Black-winged Stilts and several other waders.
Birds that we di dnot expect to see included Common Waxbill, Yellow-crowned Bishop and Black-headed Weaver. We also saw a sest the Weavers had built. Other good birds were Penduline Tit, Spotless and Common Starling, Linnet and Goldfinch, Reed Warbler and lots of Cetti’s Warblers, Yellow Wagtail, Spanish and House Sparrows, Kingfisher, Fan-tailed Warblers and Crested Larks.
We also saw lots of Sand Martins and a few House Martins. We got two kinds of Tern – Whiskered and Caspian, both life-ticks.
In all we got sixty species of birds including nine life-ticks
- Squacco Heron
- Crested Lark
- Penduline Tit
- Spotless Starling
- Black Stork
- Caspian Tern
- Whiskered Tern
- Black-headed Weaver
- Yellow-crowned Bishop
The Full List was
Bird Sightings Brazo Del Estes, Spain 6th October 2019
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Northern Shoveler | 10 |
| Gadwall | 4 |
| Mallard | 20 |
| Common Teal | 1 |
| Marbled Teal | 12 |
| Greater Flamingo | 50 |
| Little Grebe | 3 |
| Great Crested Grebe | 5 |
| Eurasian Collared Dove | 8 |
| Common Coot | 15 |
| Western Swamphen | 20 |
| Black-winged Stilt | 200 |
| Pied Avocet | 20 |
| Northern Lapwing | 30 |
| Little Ringed Plover | 1 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 20 |
| Ruff | 50 |
| Little Stint | 1 |
| Common Snipe | 3 |
| Green Sandpiper | 1 |
| Spotted Redshank | 1 |
| Common Redshank | 2 |
| Black-headed Gull | 20 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 40 |
| Caspian Tern | 3 |
| Whiskered Tern | 2 |
| Black Stork | 3 |
| White Stork | 200 |
| Great Cormorant | 20 |
| Grey Heron | 70 |
| Purple Heron | 2 |
| Great Egret | 3 |
| Little Egret | 40 |
| Cattle Egret | 60 |
| Squacco Heron | 4 |
| Glossy Ibis | 200 |
| Eurasian Spoonbill | 30 |
| Osprey | 3 |
| Eurasian Marsh Harrier | 12 |
| Common Buzzard | 3 |
| Kingfisher | 1 |
| Eurasian Kestrel | 8 |
| Eurasian Penduline Tit | 2 |
| Crested Lark | 24 |
| Eurasian Reed Warbler | 2 |
| Sand Martin | 50 |
| Barn Swallow | 30 |
| Cetti’s Warbler | 12 |
| Common Starling | 2 |
| Spotless Starling | 22 |
| European Stonechat | 3 |
| Village Weaver (Black-headed) | 5 |
| Yellow-crowned Bishop | 4 |
| Common Waxbill | 2 |
| House Sparrow | 100 |
| Spanish Sparrow | 100 |
| Western Yellow Wagtail | 1 |
| Common Linnet | 8 |
| European Goldfinch | 50 |
| Fan-tailed Warbler | 8 |
