Avenida Fernando Suárez García, Paseo Ronda, Praia de Alba around A Coruña,

Picked up a couple of nice species before the rain and high winds finished the birding off for the day.

Ebird list for Avenida Fernando Suárez García, 10 Species.

Ebird List for Paseo Ronda, 4 Species.

Ebird List for Praia de Alba, 1 Species.

Praia de Riazor before light and just before the first band of rain arrived.

After hearing the heavy rain and wind over night I decided to change my plans for the day and instead of heading out to the West I stayed fairy local around the Western side of A Coruña and started by heading to Paseo Ronda on the side of Praia de Riazor where I was going to look for Purple Sandpipers (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima) which are regular on the rocks there.

The Rain arriving.

I arrived and parked and walked a few hundred meters back to a bar where I had some breakfast, I got back to the car just as it started to rain and when I say rain I mean rain, within a minute or two there was a good flow down the hill.

Purple Sandpiper (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima).

Purple Sandpiper (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima).

Purple Sandpiper (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima).

I decided to leave the Purps until later and went up the road to an Observatorio de aves but when I arrived I found it locked so I parked in a direction that allowed me to look out to sea with out the rain coming in through the window, I sat there for a while and recorded Black-headed (Gaviota Riedora / Larus ridibundus), Mediterranean (Gaviota Cabecinegra / Larus melanocephalus), Lesser Black-backed (Gaviota Sombria / Larus fuscus) and Yellow-legged Gull (Gaviota Patiamarilla / Larus Michahellis), Sandwich Tern (Charrán Patinegro / Sterna sandvicensis), 28x Northern Gannet (Alcatraz Atlántico / Morus bassanus), Great Cormorant (Cormorán Grande / Phalacrocroax carbo), Shag (Cormorán Mondudo / Phalacrocorax aristotelis), Carrion Crow (Corneja Negra / Corvus corone) and Black Redstart (Colirrojo Tizón / Phoenicurus ochruros) before heading back to the rocks in Praia de Riazor as the rain had eased off.

Purple Sandpiper (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima).

Purple Sandpiper (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima).

Purple Sandpiper (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima).

I parked and walked down past Parque merendero, Solarium-Mirador to Rotonda de Las Esclavas where I found at least 28x Ruddy Turnstone (Vuelvepiedras Común / Arenaria interpres), 2x Purple Sandpiper (Correlimos Oscuro / Calidris maritima), Yellow-legged Gull and House Sparrows (Gorrión Común / Passer domesticus).

The Rocks where I found the second lot of Purps.

Torre de Hércules off on the next headland.

I walked back up to the car again as I didn't have the camera with me and I was going to walk back but thought I would check the rocks near the parking spot and soon found more Ruddy Turnstones and at least another 5 Purps which showed very nicely.

Torre de Hércules through the rain.

After getting some shots I headed further out west to Praia de Alba where I was hoping to find some Gulls, I arrived at the car park above the beach  but there were no Gulls there, I scanned the beach and could see a roosting flock off to the left hand end of the beach so I headed down there.

Common Gull (Gaviota Cana / Larus canus).

Common Gull (Gaviota Cana / Larus canus).

Common Gull (Gaviota Cana / Larus canus).

I parked and walked out checking the smaller gulls mainly as the larger immature ones still confuse the hell out of me and amongst the Black-headed and Med's I found a single Common Gull (Gaviota Cana / Larus canus) before starting to make my way back to the hotel as the weather took a turn for the worst.

Some of the larger Gulls.