Trip Reports

Coto Donana & Extremadura May 2008

We had an excellent week of birding spoilt only by bouts of inclement weather, a couple of days were very windy with light showers and our visit to Monfrague Park in Extremadura was foreshortened by heavy rain. The temperature was kept in the lower 20’s by unseasonal cold winds, but all in all, we had a great time.  
We notched up 168 species seeing all the specialities of Donana which included Red- Knobbed Coot, Marbled Duck, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Black-winged Kite, Glossy Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Great Egret, Savi’s Warbler, Azure- winged Magpie and lots more. In Extremadura the weather patterns were also very unusual, experiencing lots of rain during May. This had the adverse effect of nourishing the grass which had grown very long making viewing of certain species much harder.  We saw Great Bustard very well and Little Bustard distantly, Black-bellied Sandgrouse showed well in flight only and Pin-tailed were only noted by call. Our two evening excursions for Red-necked Nightjar were abandoned because of the weather. However we saw Black Wheatear, Black-eared Wheatear, Rock Bunting, Rock Petronia, Black Vulture, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Eagle Owl, Black Stork, Crested Tit and lots of Golden Orioles.