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25C Tuesday 22nd May 2018 ~ Our second day around Aiguamolls de l'Empordร and we began firstly by bypassing the busy main reserve and driving around to the adjacent campsite access road. Here you can enjoy close views of the Estanys del Mata without going through the main reserve trail. This, as you may remember, is where we terminated yesterdays visit. Here, in the quiet, we achieved great views of feeding
Glossy Ibis and were able to spend an hour or so scanning the area.
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Glossy Ibis too close to this nesting Stilt |
Lots of
House Sparrows along the fencing to confuse matters, but we did pick out two
Tree Sparrows and a single
Whinchat. Our efforts produced several nesting and protective
Black-winged Stilts, their nests literally sitting on top of the water and other waders included: A single
Black-tailed Godwit and various counts of
Avocet,
Ringed Plover,
Redshank,
Wood Sandpiper,
Ruff in breeding plumage, plus a single
Little Stint. Also noted
Iberian Yellow Wagtail,
Little Egret,
Great Egret,
Greater Flamingo,
White Stork and a distant
Collared Pratincole. Overhead
Yellow-legged Gulls,
Black-headed Gulls and
Whiskered Terns.
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Hoopoe |
From here a 15-minute drive out along the C-260 to the southeast corner of Castellรณ d'Empรบries. Here there are three bridges with reeds and open water that are well worth investigating. After parking along the roadside we took a short walk, a
Common Buzzard overhead and within the reeds
Cetti's Warbler and the grating song of
Great Reed Warbler. Unfortunately, I inadvertently flushed a
Purple Heron which rose over the reeds and headed off, can't quite nail a photo of one of these yet.
Little Egret,
Cattle Egret,
Cuckoo calling,
Hoopoe and plenty of
White Stork. A
Stonechat posed briefly and
Zitting Cisticola overhead before Dazza spotted a distant
Montagu's Harrier.
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Serin ~ Looking smart in the blue backdrop |
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Nightingale ready to deliver his find |
About a half mile further on there is an excellent circular walk, around 3kms offering some superb habitat with flower meadows, small copse, rocky areas and olive groves. Along the first half of the trail, there's plenty of shade and plenty to look out for among the Tamarisk. We picked out a
Serin through one of the gaps perched up on a dead branch and looking pretty smart against the blue sky backdrop. In the undercover, a
Nightingale was carrying food, probably to a nearby family.
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Rather odd plumaged Whiskered Tern! |
Dazza spotted a few raptors circling pretty high up and along with
Common Buzzard and
Short-toed Eagle our first
Bonelli's Eagle of the whole trip! By the time we'd reached the hide overlooking L'Estany de Vilaรผt we also noted
Bee-eater,
Woodchat Shrike and
Crested Lark. We had to be very careful while in the hide due to a nesting pair of
Swallows, so we didn't stay too long, although they were very confiding. From the hide
Greenshank,
Glossy Ibis,
Black-winged Stilt and a flyby
Whiskered Tern.
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Roller pair (heat-haze effected) |
Typically, shortly after leaving the hide, we watched six
Spoonbill fly in but by this time we'd caught up with a pair of
Roller. We knew from our previous visit in 2016 that this was a good spot to see them and were delighted we'd connected once again.
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Roller |
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Dazza's best photo of Roller on the Canon SX50 |
The above heat-effected photos do not do justice to the wonderful time we spent watching these stunning birds.