Three Whimbrels in Zolina

Good morning!

Last wednesday (26/04/17)  the reservoir was quite interesting with a few wader species lingering around. The star of the visit was a group of three wimbrels in the east coast.
Is the first time since 1989 that this quantity is shown here.
The record in the reservoir is five individuals back in 1977!!
Sadly the numbers are decreasing and in the last decade in some years there has been only one visit with a single bird....

Three whimbrels - Zolina - 26/04/17

Other waders:

12 BW stilts

16 Common sandpipers

06 Dunlins

06 Little RP

04 Rplovers

01 Greenshank

03 Redshank

In the Basque coast , Zarauz.

Hello again.

This time some wader watching from the Basque coast in northern Iberian peninsula, more precisely in Zarauz village, famous for his surfing ocean and long and beautifull beach.

I stayed three days in vacation with my family and every morning quite early , I managed to make a tour to the INURRITZA reservoir, a small but very valuable intercoastal habitat.

Dates were good for bird migration  (21,22,23,24/04/17) and I managed to see nine different wader species. Personally the Kentish plover was a nice observation and also the quality of the Grey plover sighting with a prolongate viewing during his feeding actions. Wont forget also the cute sanderlings in the beach always with their funny runnings alongside the shoreline.

Sanderling.

Redshank with the rare here BWstilt.

A group of sanderlings (6 ind)

Sanderling

Common sandpipers (4 ind)

Dunlin (max 5 ind)

Dunlin feeding at hide tide.

Five birds darting in the sand.

I saw five Ringed plovers resting during their migration.

Dunlin with a little moult still to moult.

I saw them in every walk a made those very nice sping mornings.

Little ringed plver. This one breeds here. Hope it has success with his brood this season.

The redshank always present in the sandy shore of the river.

Dunlin feeding.

A whimbrel feeding in the intertidal stones with his grey plumage was very hard to detect.

A group of ten whimbrels appeared flying from the south, but unfortunatelly didn't stop because there were many golf players in the adjacent golf course.

Those two whimbrels were feeding early in the beach and a cleanning truck preparing the sand for the people scared them and the birds around ( various gulls YL, and a ringed plover..).

One of my best sights of the holidays Kentish plover, always a special bird in Zarauz.

Elegant and quick it mantained the security distance with me ( a let him alone and respècted that distance).

Those migrational waders suffer a lot from people and their dosgs in the beaches. Dogs should be carried with leads in those periods where the birds need shelter and food for their long journeys.

Common redshank.

And now a few pics of this magnificient northern traveller ,the grey plover:

Feeding quite confidently facing the sun.

Late april but still with the winter feathers.

Same period but clearly a different plumage moult sequence!!

Feline manner stalking...and a quick plunge to obtain the recompense.

Handsome bird with his almost complet nuptial plumage.

A whimbrel with a crab in the beak ready to make its morning lunch.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!!

Hudsonian Whimbrel !!

I had this post to be published for a long time but due to the lack of  it, things got delayed more than expected. Anyway I will post a few record shots of one of my best bird discoveries ever, a Hudsonian Whimbrel that I found in Marismas de Santoña reservoir in Cantabria (North Spain).

The record has been the second homologated  for Spain and first ever for the Cantabria province!!

Here I show the bests pics of the wonderfull bird (thanks also to my friend David Arranz that stayed with me and helped me with the obtention of the pictures.)

The bird has remained in the area till the second week of april!!

Hudsonian whimbrel.

Hudsonian whimbrel.

Hudsonian whimbrel.

David took this picture with his mphone handholding it to the scope (Kowa 88).

This was the area. Intercoastal mudflats.

Was nice to see my picas the main one of the week in this important Spanish web.

The bird atracted a lot of birders to the corner.

Another twitch in a different day....

Again in the south.....

Here are some of the birds I saw the 14th of april in the south of my province, Navarra.

I repeated the place of the past blog entry and things didn't go bad at all, not many birds but some "first" of the year like the common sandpiper (3ind) and a wood sandpiper.

The reservoir was has still water but the muddy fields  are going to dry if it doesn't rain soon.....

The protective eyelid of the Common sandpiper.

The bird got still in the stone quite confidently.

My first wood sandpiper of the year. You know is going to appear but when and were.....

The omnipresent Little ringed plover ( I saw two pairs and I hope the have a succesfull breeding).

There were lingerin around also six black winged stilts.

have a nice day!

A few birds in the south of Navarra

The past week (060417) a made a quick trip to the south of my province. Its a normally dry region but there are a few water places interesting enough to atrackt birds in the migration period.

The visit lasted less than one hour due to the heavy wind that was blowing that afternoon.

I saw  three of them. If the season is wet enough it breeds there.

Nice to see the upper mandible working so precise as here.

A few times I have seen the snipe so confident than this one.

The Stilts are the other birds tha breed here if there are good conditions in spring.

One of the Little ringed plovers in the shore of the biggest mudland.

I saw four Lapwings resting in their migration journey.

A solitary Redshank was feeding inside the water.

1000 Lapwings and 1 Golden plover!!

Hello!

I had those pics from the past 08/03/17 when I enjoyed a great sunny afternoon with my friend Mikelgar and my son Ander at Zolina Reservoir.

While we were talking about the three Black tailed Lapwings that were roosting in the flooded island, far in the distance we saw a very big group of lapwings feeding in the east fields. For a reason that we could't figure out, all of them started flying and I discovered a Golden plover between them (usually they are associated in migration) and that was what I had in mind when I started watching their manouvers in the air.

After this interesting observation we set off to a better place to get a closer view and once there I heard the call of Ringed plovers inside the group, there were four of them and one Dunlin!!

I don't have pictures of them due to the distance and the hard light that was present at the moment.

Three Black tailed Lapwing

About a thousand Lapwings in the shore and  nearby fields.

The lonely Golden plover........

Perfect viewing conditions...it was really too hot that day (winter season ending)



Have  nice  day!!

(*) all the pictures had been taken with a mobile phone handholded and my Kowa 88.