Monday 8th February :- After a week in Scotland failing miserably to do any survey work due to the continued harsh winter weather, although a recce with Andy Carroll of Ace Surveyors of a 700m mountain climb was interesting!!!. I returned to some welcome guiding around my local area with my good friends Waine & Sue, who were stopping at the guesthouse for a few days. It was an easy start as they had had a long day travelling and wanted to get a good rest and followed by a good breakfast. So at 10am we headed out and first visited Oliva beach where we were met with the sight of 100's of Balearic Shearwaters passing just off-shore and also sat on the sea in small groups. This was great as Waine & Sue particularly wanted to see this species. Also here we found Gannets, Sandwich Terns, Audouin's, Mediterranean, Yellow legged & Black headed Gulls, Cormorants, Sanderling and a Kentish Plover. So delighted we struck north to the Albufera d'Valencia and spent some time looking around the extensive rice fields that surround this huge coastal lake. Although it was fairly quiet we did find lots of Cattle & Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Lesser Black backed Gulls, Mallard, Cormorants, Water & Meadow Pipits, Chaffinches, Serins, Chiffchaffs, Black Redstarts, Spotless Starlings, Marsh Harrier, Lapwings, Common Snipe, Moorhen and Reed Buntings. Just outside El Palomar we got fantastic views of a pale phase Booted Eagle as it flew around quite low over our heads before continuing to the Raco L'Olla nature reserve. Here we spent an hour walking the tracks and visiting the hide finding lots of wildfowl including Mallard, Shoveler, Teal, Red Crested & Common Pochard plus Coot, Little Grebe, another (dark phase) Booted Eagle, Common Buzzard and Common Snipe. Lunch was taken overlooking the lake but only managed to see much the same species as before, but the sheer volume of birds was good to see. After our picnic we started back first stooping off at another good area for wildfowl but only added Shelduck and Gadwall to the list. Then back through the rice fields Waine found a Great White Egret and this was then followed by a Kingfisher, which somewhat salvaged the afternoon.
Tuesday 9th February :- A much earlier start today saw Waine, Sue & I heading inland to Castilla La Mancha and en-route we saw our first Magpies and Crested Larks of their trip. We were going to the agricultural steppe area which surrounds Petrola and our first location out towards Higueruela was excellent as we found our first 26 Great Bustards, 2 flying Black bellied Sandgrouse and a huge flock of Calandra Larks, Skylarks, Linnets and Corn Buntings plus a single Rock Sparrow, 2 Stock Doves, Red legged Partridges, Kestrel, Carrion Crows, Goldfinches, Mistle Thrush and more Crested Larks. Next we headed towards Corral Rubio and en-route was lucky to find a male Merlin sat in a field and got some excellent telescope views along with Common Buzzard and another solitary Great Bustard. At the Higuela Lagoon we found a couple of Marsh Harriers, a few Red Crested Pochards, Shoveler and Mallard but it was generally quiet. It was now nearing lunchtime so we took the road through to Petrola and stopped of at the superb Bodega San Juan for one of their mega 'bocadillos'. After lunch we made the short journey to Petrola Lagoon where we found 30+ Greater Flamingos, 2 Greenshank, Gadwall, Shelduck, Water Pipits, Reed Buntings and a Marsh Harrier. This was then followed by a look at another seasonal pool which contained much the same species plus a few Black winged Stilts and lots of Coot. It was time now to slowly start back towards the motorway home but not before driving the tracks between Petrola & Corral Rubio, which was excellent as we logged another 62 Great Bustards, with the males looking resplendant in their breeding plumage. Also we another huge flock of Calandra Larks, which must have made 1000+ seen on the day. So eventually we headed home very satisfied with what we had seen. Many thanks to Waine & Sue and very much looking forward to seeing them in Southern Morocco in March.
