Today was Global Birding Day, an excellent occasion to go birdwatching. It was a beautiful early autumn day and I chose Costa Ballena in Rota/Chipiona in the province of Cádiz in Spain, just as I did last year. This time I observed different 30 species, 10 more than last year.
I can only hope that we will be able to enjoy birdlife in this location for many more years. It is truly frightening to see that a lot of bushes and open areas are being filled with more hotels and buildings. Compared to five years ago, this place has undergone a massive change and lost a lot of its original vegetation. It is true that the whole area looks very green and clean, but overall it gives a bit of an artificial impression. Birds need trees and bushes, not only flat grassland.
I observed a big variety of birds during my 3.5 hours walk. A lot of Little Egrets near the lakes made for a wonderful sight. I spotted around twenty of them in and near a tree. Most of them have become very used to human presence.
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| Little Egret landing |
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| A flock of Little Egrets preening in a tree |
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| Another Little Egret landing in a tree |
The only new species I had never seen before was the endangered White-headed duck. You would not expect an endangered bird to be present in a place so frequented by people. Perhaps not the most beautiful bird, but very interesting.
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| White-headed duck |
The other species were well-known to me and gave me plenty of opportunity to test the capabilities of the new Canon 90D.
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| Male Mallard |
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| White Mallard close-up |
One of the most interesting moments this afternoon was an encounter with four Magpies. They are often quite shy, but not these ones. I even had to adjust my auto-focus settings on my camera because they had come too close to me. It is only when you see a Magpie up-close that you can appreciate their amazing green and blue coloured feathers.
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| Four Magpies on the ground |
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| Eurasian Collared Dove |
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| Spotless Starling in a somewhat artistic image |
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| Greylag Geese in flight |
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| Two Eurasian Coots |
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| Hoopoe feeding on the ground |
An incredible variety of birds on a walk of barely five kilometres. I would be delighted if I could see the same number of birds next year on the next October Big Day.
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| Spotted Flycatcher |
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| Muscovy Duck with next generation |
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| Black-headed Gull |
Henry.
More information about this birding hotspot here.
