Salinas, laguna Chica, Salinas, Malaga Province.

Four new species for Paul Winter.

Western Willow Spreadwing (Lestres viridis).

I met Paul at Archidona and from here we headed for a small pool near Salinas where we were concentrating mainly on Dragonflies and straight away we found a Western Willow Spreadwing (Lestres viridis) which was out and about early and landed up in the branches of a nearby Oak tree and gave us nice views (1st lifer). In the area we had some nice views of Iberian  Magpie (Rabilargo / Cyanopica cooki), Jackdaw (Grajilla / Corvus monedula), Crested Lark (Cogujada / Galerida cristata), Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops), Short-toed Eagle (Culebrera Europeo / Circaetus gallicus), Raven (Cuervo / Corvus corax), Turtle Dove (Tórtola Europea / Streptopelia turtur), Mistle Thrush (Zorzal Charlo / Turdus viscivorus), Red-legged Partridge (Perdiz Roja / Alectoris rufa) and Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor). We then made our way around the back of the pool on our way back to the car and found the first of quite a few Small Spreadwings (Lestes virens) which was the second new species for Paul's list.

From here we moved to another nearby site where we started checking out an area of scrub looking through the Red-veined Darters (Sympetrum fonscolombii) for a Desert Darter (Sympetrum sinaiticum) but we did not manage to find so we moved on down closer to the water, on the lake there were the usual Common Moorhen (Gallineta Común / Gallinulas chloropus), Eurasian Coot (Focha Común / Fulica atra), Mallard (Anade Azulón / Anas platyrhynchos), Common Pochard (Porrón Común / Aythya ferina), Northern Shoveler (Pato Cuchara / Anas clypeata), Great Crested (Somormujo Lavanco / Podiceps cristatus) and Little Grebes (Zampullín Común / Tachybaptus ruficollis) and in the reeds there were a few small species including Willow Warbler (Mosquitero Musical / Phylloscopus trochillus), Common Chiffchaff (Mosquitero Común / Phylloscopus collybita), Reed Warbler (Carricero Común / Acrocephalus scrpaceus), Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus) and Goldfinch (Jilguero / Carduelis carduelis).

Common Winter Damselfly (Sympecma fusca).

Along the first stretch of margin which went as far as the ruin we picked up several Broad Scarlets (Crocothemis erythraea), Small Red-eyed (Erythromma viridulum), Iberian Blue-tail (Ischnura graellsii), Blue-eye / Goblet-marked Damselfly (Erythromma lindenii), Lesser (Anax parthenope) and Blue / Common Emperors (Anax imperator). We eventually reached the |ruin and new species number three gave its self up very easily in the form of a very nice Common Winter Damselfly (Sympecma fusca) which sat nicely on a bramble branch and moved around amongst the grass stems. We continued on around the pool to the far end but only added Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathinerum), Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii), Keeled Skimmer (Orthetrum coerulescens) and better views of  Western Willow Spreadwing. Birds included a calling Iberian Green Woodpecker (Pito Real / Picus sharpei), Iberian Magpie, Blackbird (Mirlo Común / Turdus merula), Blue Tit (Herrerillo Común / Cyanistes caeruleus), Cetti's Warbler (Ruisenor Bastardo / Cettia cetti) and Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs).
From here we made our way back down to the car and back to our first site now that it had warmed up a bit and quickly found that there were more species about including Epaulet Skimmer (Orthetrum chrysostigma), Southern Skimmer (Orthetrum brunneum) and Paul's four new species Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum) which seemed to have replaced the Mercury Bluet's (Coenagrion mercuriale) which had been common just a couple of weeks earlier.
We then moved on to our last stop of the day which was along the Arroya Marin near Archidona, we started by driving right to the furthest point where the road had been washed away a couple of winters ago. In the area near the damaged bridge we saw a nice male Orange-winged Dropwing (Trithemis kirbyi) and several White Featherlegs (Platycnemis latipes) both new to the days list. We also picked up a few butterfly species here and they included Striped Grayling (Pseudotergumia fidia), Iberian Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides feisthameli), Small White (Artogeia rapae), Bath White (Pontia daplidice), Cardinal Fritillary (Argynnis Pandora) and Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus). From here we headed back up to Paul's car and went on our way home.