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Tuesday 5 April 2011

Laguna Herrera, Antequera, Malaga Province.

On the way to work again.

Just the usual stop off at the Lagoon on the way to work, it’s a tough job some one has to do it. The first bird seen was a cracking male Little Bustard (Sisón Común / Tetrax tetrax) picked up via it’s farting like call in a fallow field of weeds and in the same area the local Lesser Kestrels (Cernicola Primilla / Falco naumanni) were making hovering look just a tad harder than normal in the still calm. A little further long the track the first of the many Corn Bunting (Triguero / Emberiza calandra) was seen singing from the top of last years Fennel stems and several Calandra Larks (Calandria / Melanocorypha calandra) zigzagged up from the verge along with the less common (at this site only) Crested Larks (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata).
The first stop was at a gate way looking out over some flooded fields; here bird numbers were down due to most of the wildfowl moving north to their breeding grounds. I did see several Gull-billed Tern (Pagaza Piconegra / Gelochelidon nilotica), a couple of late or injured Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Gaviota Somria / Larus fuscus), Northern Lapwing (Avefria Europea / Vanellus vanellus), Little Ringed (Chorlitejo Chico / Charadrius dubius) and Kentish Plovers (Chorlitejo Patinegro / Charadrius alexandrinus), Black-winged Stilt (Ciguenuela Común / Himantopus himantopus), Avocet (Avoceta Común/ Recurvirostra avosetta), Little Grebe (Zampullín Común / Tachybaptus ruficollis) and a single Little Egret (Garceta Común / Egretta garzetta) not a bird I record often at this site.
On the main lagoon there were better numbers of Greater Flamingo’s (Flamenco Común / Phoenicopterus ruber), lots of Eurasian Coot (Focha Común / Fulica atra) and Common Moorhen (Gallineta Común / Gallinula Chloropus), Little Stint (Correlimos Menudo / Calidris minuta), Common (Andarrios Chico / Actitis hypoleucos) and Green Sandpipers (Andarrios Grande / Tringa ochropus).
On the flooded fields there were no Flamingo’s and just a few ducks and Black-winged Stilts. Over the Lagoon and in the reeds I added Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor), Zitting Cisticola (Buitrón / Cisticola juncidis), Spanish (Yellow) Wagtail (Lavandera Boyera / Motacilla flava iberiae), Iberian Grey Shrike (Alcaudón Real Meridional / Lanius meridionalis), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Greenfinch (Verderón Común / Carduelis chloris), Common Buzzard (Busardo Ratonero / Buteo buteo) and Barn Swallow (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica).
I then went up to the hotel for the days walk but nothing was noted of interest.

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